Pedagogy and Media Literacy in Marshall McLuhan’s Electronic Age

This book examines Marshall McLuhan’s work within the evolution of late-1960s progressive education and reappraises his role in the development of cutting-edge pedagogy.

By tracing the trajectory of McLuhan’s emerging educational and media ecology philosophy from the 1950s to the late 1970s, this work locates and discusses the roots of an experimental, experiential, collaborative, integrated learning paradigm, achieved through what McLuhan called “the training of [students’] perception.” In other words, the book demonstrates that much of what passes today for cutting-edge pedagogy—including experiential learning, blended learning, inquiry-based learning, discovery learning and other alternative educational methodologies—was anticipated, predicted, and often defined by McLuhan’s education theory.

A fresh examination of one of education and media theory’s key thinkers, this monograph will appeal to students and researchers working in educational technology, media studies, and progressive education.