As for the evidence, it does seem that we are witnessing the reconfiguration of preexisting
learning activities and opportunities for the majority of children and young
people. Where once children went to the library to get a book for their homework,
now they also search online. Where once they asked for advice from a parent, now
they also ‘ask an expert’. Where once they painted with paint and paper, now they do
so also with a paint programme, posting their pictures online to share with others. By
and large, they welcome this and relish their new-found expertise and status in the
digital world. It also seems that we are witnessing some genuinely new learning
opportunities, centring on possibilities of child-oriented digital creativity and on
collaborative communication with those who share similarly specialist or niche forms
of interest and expertise. At present, this is only evident among a minority of young
people – for new opportunities, especially if they rely on out of school resources,
generate new inequalities. Only publicly funded institutions – schools especially but
also youth and community centres – can work to make this fairer. Yet it is the
successful embedding of these and related opportunities within the formal structures
of the school and the traditional curriculum, for the benefit of all children, that
remains uncertain.