Erica Rosenfeld Halverson

Do social networking technologies have a place in formal learning environments

Purpose – This viewpoint essay seeks to discuss the promise and perils of integrating social networking technologies into formal learning environments.Design/methodology/approach – The work is grounded in a new literacies perspective and brings insights from learning in participatory cultures to bear in the discussion of social networking sites in formal settings.Findings – The paper describes three major design trade‐offs in the use of social networking sites: privacy versus redundancy when participating in an SNS; whether goals for participation are endogenous or exogenous learning goals; and conception of identity in SNSs as holistic versus identity in formal learning environments as uniquely constructed in the learning setting.Practical implications – These design trade‐offs arise as a result of importing technologies for learners into environments that are better suited to technologies for learning. Therefore, the paper suggests that the goals for learning are more important than the use of any indiv...

The Dramaturgical Process as a Mechanism for Identity Development of LGBTQ Youth and Its Relationship to Detypification

This article describes the dramaturgical process—the telling, adapting, and performing of personal stories—as a method for accessing how youth who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) construct and present complex identities. Using data collected during an extended case study with the About Face Youth Theatre, an organization that works with LGBTQ youth on the dramaturgical process, this article focuses on the ways in which youth engage with complex issues of identity by telling their personal stories in community contexts and adapting others’ stories for performance. Through a narrative analysis of the stories as they were originally told, and a conversational discourse analysis of an adaptation session among a small group of youth, supplemented with reflections from participating youth, this article highlights the ways these practices can support identity development. The author finds that the evolving relationship between master and individual narratives provides great leverage for understanding how LGBTQ youth construct identities. This narrative process demonstrates that detypification is the mechanism by which LGBTQ youth work toward buildingThis article describes the dramaturgical process—the telling, adapting, and performing of personal stories—as a method for accessing how youth who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) construct and present complex identities. Using data collected during an extended case study with the About Face Youth Theatre, an organization that works with LGBTQ youth on the dramaturgical process, this article focuses on the ways in which youth engage with complex issues of identity by telling their personal stories in community contexts and adapting others’ stories for performance.Through a narrative analysis of the stories as they were originally told, and a conversational discourse analysis of an adaptation session among a small group of youth, supplemented with reflections from participating youth, this article highlights the ways these practices can support identity development. The author finds that the evolving relationship between master and individual narratives provides great leverage for understanding how LGBTQ youth construct identities. This narrative process demonstrates that detypification is the mechanism by which LGBTQ youth work toward building a viable social identity. This study concludes by reflecting on the similarities between detypification and the developmental processes of other groups of marginalized youth.

Key Moments as Pedagogical Windows into the Video Production Process

Abstract In this article, we trace learning across the digital video production process through case studies with four youth media arts organizations (YMAOs) across the United States. We hypothesize that what these organizations share is a series of key moments throughout the production process in which youth must articulate the relationship between the idea they intend to represent in their video and the tools of the digital video medium that afford representation. By highlighting these key moments, we can both describe the core features of the YMAO organizational process and offer a mechanism for tracing participant learning over time. We conclude with implications for teachers and leaders who may be interested in how to support the inclusion of digital production processes into formal instructional spaces.

Representation radio: digital art-making as transformative pedagogical practice in the college classroom

In this article, the authors unpack a first-year college seminar where students explored digital representations of self-afforded pedagogies of possibility for traditionally marginalized student populations, specifically students of colour and first-generation college goers. An artefact analysis model is used to trace the relationship between the design decisions we made about the course and what these decisions afforded students in terms of their understanding of the relationship between identity, narrative and digital media production. The authors found that certain key pedagogical choices – from individual assignments to the presence of an authentic audience for their radio pieces – empowered students to make informed decisions, explore personal identities and represent themselves using the digital audio medium.

Education as Design for Learning: A Model for Integrating Education Inquiry across Research Traditions

Recently we were asked to coteach a seminar at the University of Wisconsin–Madison as part of the School of Educations Doctoral Research Program (DRP). The purpose of the DRP is to provide an interdisciplinary experience for students from across the School of Education including historians, policy analysts, curriculum designers, learning scientists, and critical theorists. The idea behind it was to create a common background for motivated students to be able to understand the breadth of education as a field of study and to broaden their horizons beyond their disciplinary training and their advisors program of research. Toward that end, the course is taught by two faculty members from different departments in the school in order to represent diverse perspectives and to create opportunities for broad-ranging pedagogical discussions. Past DRP curricula highlighted the structural similarities of education research—