Multimodal meaning-making: How social media shapes students’ historical understanding

The 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report showed an 'unprecedented' drop in student performance across OECD countries. Particularly problematic for History education is the performance drop in reading skills, as reading ability is generally understood to be a prerequisite for historical understanding. Although test scores in Australia did not see as steep a decline as they did in Europe, there is little optimism as Australia's rise in the score rankings is due to other countries failing, rather than Australia improving its education. It is a worrying situation for History educators, as language proficiency determines students' capabilities to understand questions, interpret textbooks and sources, and report findings. Apart from the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the identified causes for performance drops in education are digital distractions, such as social media. The effects of using digital tools such as tablets or smartphones in education highly depends on whether they are used in ways that really enhance education. Banning mobile phones in schools is an understandable response, but also a highly problematic one, as it creates a rift between school learning and everyday communication and media consumption.