Whereas there is an enormous and even booming volume of technologically determinist research on digital media- and technology-based learning, only recently a research on the inter-psychic as well as on the interpersonal processes of viewing, commending, sharing as well as designing and editing of digital media technologies has been initiated. (Cp. Livingstone 2009) Within this field the research on the “visual cultures” (cp. Mirzoeff 1999 et al.) of children, on the virtual communication among them and on their learning via digital technologies is situated.

In my presentation I concentrate on “visual cultures” and here in special on the modes of viewing, gazing, looking etc.

The scientific research on the “visual cultures” of the acting persons in the field resembles the endeavor of ethnography counting on observations and encounters as pertinent sources of research. Ethnographic “thick” description (Geertz 1983) is deeply linked to a research on gazes; “video ethnography” (Mohn 1988) especially works on the entanglements of gazes exploring a whole claviature of possible interactional patterns, interdependencies etc. of gazes within videography.

In my empirical study I will work on this method by making use of an instrument developed by an artist. In her film project „Through the Eyes of Others“ Heike Schuppelius (2001) equipped four performers with video-glasses (a small, not visible camera, built into ordinary spectacles) and sent them out on foot. The resulting filmed sequences are determined by their field of vision and by the head movements of each participant. The scenes follow the subjective awareness of a path determined by the actions and reactions of the acting persons, by their personal customs and interests. Also unplanned events, chance encounters and the urban environment are documented. The “Seeing Glasses” (camera glasses) are supposed to record the gazes of the kids, their teachers and the researcher in the field allowing for working out their “visual cultures”. In my presentation I will lay a focus on some methodological impacts of this project for ethnography

Buckingham, D. (2003): Media Education: Literacy, Learning and Contemporary Culture. Cambridge, UK and Malden, MA: Polity Press. Christensen, P.; James, A. (eds.) (2008): Research with Children. Perspectives and Practices. New York u.a.: Routledge. Coleman, G. E. (2010): Ethnographic Approaches to Digital Media, Annual Rev. Anthropology, 39, 487-505. Geertz, C. (1973): The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. New York: Basic Books. Hackl, B. (2008): Was geschieht in der Schule? Überlegungen zur Erforschung der verborgenen Dimensionen des Unterrichts. In: Eder, F. & Hörl, G. (eds.): Gerechtigkeit und Effizienz im Bildungswesen, Unterricht, Schulentwicklung und Lehrerinnenbildung als professionelle Handlungsfelder. Wien: LIT, 73-95. Heath, C., Hindmarsch, J. & Luff, P. (2010): Video in Qualitative Research: Analysing Social Interaction in Everyday Life (Introducing Qualitative Methods). Los Angeles: Sage. Hine, C. (2000): Virtual ethnography. Modes, varieties, affordances. London, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Karaganis, J. (ed.) (2007): Structures of Participation in Digital Culture. New York: Social Science Research Council. Mohn, B. E. (2006): Permanent Work on Gazes. Video Ethnography as an Alternative Methodology. In: Knoblauch, H.; Raab, J.; Soeffner, H.G. & Schnettler, B. (eds.): Video Analysis. Methodology and Methods. Peter Lang, 173-181. Latour, B. (1996): On Actor-Network Theory. A few Clarifications. In: Soziale Welt 47, 369-382. Livingstone, S. & Bovill, M. (eds.) (2001): Children and their Changing Media Environment: a European Comparative Study (pp. 31-50), Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Livingstone, S. (2009): Children and the Internet: Great Expectations and Challenging Realities. Cambridge: Polity. Moser, H. (2006): Einführung in die Medienpädagogik. Aufwachsen im Medienzeitalter. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.