Young People, Mobile Phones and Creative Media Practices at School

Abstract

Digital media has notably changed the lives of young people who use digital devices such as mobile phones as part of their everyday life, communication, social relations, identity build-ing, and creative media production. Mobile phones are used everywhere, even in school where their use is usually banned during lessons. This article concentrates on mobile phone use of students in a secondary school in Finland. Students bring their mobile phone practices to school and break the normal social order of the school in order to create their own space and a sphere of autonomous practices. Students try to find new ways to use mobile phones in the school’s learning settings and use it as a creative tool for different media productions, such as photographing, video making and fan fiction writing. Some teachers try to utilise students’ media practices and give them room for alternative learning methods.