Dr. Michelle Cannon's research interests include the processes of media production and how these relate to literacy in the digital age. She explores film and media-making in primary and early secondary educational settings and the relationships between practical media work, moving image literacy and social approaches to learning. She is interested in creative, participative and visual methods of enquiry using mobile technologies.

She has worked on two international EU-funded research programmes in collaboration with the BFI and a network of European cultural and educational agencies. One was a scoping exercise to establish the state of film education provision in schools and other social and cultural agencies across Europe. The second study established a framework for film educators in a range of settings.

Michelle’s doctorate, now published with Palgrave (Cannon, M., 2018. Digital Media in Education: Teaching, Learning and Literacy Practices with Young Learners), took a critical, ethnographic look at young learners’ engagement in film-making. Using theories from cultural studies, visual anthropology, media education and new literacies, she devised a model to advance social and cultural understandings of creative media practice. She has presented her work in Prague, Boston, Washington, Rome, Vilnius, Madrid, Paris and Hong Kong. She is currently part of a longitudinal research study led by Dr. Eleanore Hargreaves at UCL Institute of Education, focussing on the life histories of children in lower achievement sets. Once a year over 5 years, she films 24 children in several school settings. She will be making a final short film for research purposes that documents aspects of the children's school experience.