This paper presents an episode of digital literacy practices of a Finnish classroom community. The episode illustrates more broadly, how digital media is embedded in everyday life of schools. The European Commission, for instance, has recently emphasized the need for school´s to educate media literate citizens (Current trends and approaches to media literacy in Europe 2007). The research on media education has focused on short-term case studies or technology-driven experiments in order to develop pedagogical applications with new media technologies (c.f. Buckingham 2005). In practice, schools have struggled with digital media in terms of access, teacher competencies or structures of school culture. Digital media is, however, already a part of schooling at least as multiple forms of experiences, knowledge and new literacies children practice and learn in their everyday life (e.g. Lankshear & Knobel 2006). The paper relates to my ongoing doctoral thesis. Drawing on cultural studies oriented media education (e.g. Buckingham 2003) and sociocultural theories of new literacies (e.g. Lankshear & Knobel 2006) I approach digital literacies as social practices embedded in cultural, economical and political structures of schooling. I am implementing an ethnographic case study during one school year (2007-08) with a class of sixth graders (from twelve to thirteen years old youngsters) and their teacher. This specific class community is chosen as the object of the study, firstly, because it is a class in a comprehensive school with an excellent technological equipment and support systems, and secondly, it is a class which spends more time with digital media than an average school class. The research questions addressed are: what happens in this classroom community with digital media and what kinds of digital literacies the community practice. The main method of data collection is participant observation. In addition, interviews, questionnaires and curriculum documents are used as a secondary data. The episode described in this paper includes two lessons in the computer classroom during which the class dealt with the shooting in Jokela in November 2007. In this episode the pupils are supervised to search for “safety buttons” from the websites they tend to visit and translate the safety information retrieved from the sites from English to Finnish. This episode is chosen as an example of digital literacy practices of the classroom community, because the Jokela tragedy caused at least in the Finnish context discussions on the means and approaches to media education, and more closely, the need to protect the children from the harmful content of the net. This episode describes a way to deal with the internet safety issues, not with a protective manner, but rather with a sociocultural approach which connects these issues to children's real life experiences and web spaces they act. In addition, the episode characterizes the experimental and holistic practices which integrate digital media to the everyday life of the studied classroom community. Thus, the study challenges the notion of continually struggling schools with digital media. Instead, it seems that classroom communities could make media education as a part of their everyday schooling by exploring and creating their own digital literacy practices.

School ethnography: participant observation, interviews, questionnaires and curriculum documents.

The paper presents a holistic description of an episode of digital literacy practices of a classroom community. The study argues for sociocultural approach to media education which is based on pupil´s own knowledge and experiences related to digital media. By conclusion, it is argued that digital media could be integrated to the everyday practices of schooling in an experimental and holistic way.