Guy Merchant

Unravelling the Social Network: Theory and Research.

Despite the widespread popularity of social networking sites (SNSs) amongst children and young people in compulsory education, relatively little scholarly work has explored the fundamental issues at stake. This paper makes an original contribution to the field by locating the study of this online activity within the broader terrain of social network theory in order to inform future educational debate and further research. The first section offers a way of classifying different kinds of online social networking and then places this within the context of the study of social networks. It is argued that relational networks create a sense of belonging and that online networks just as easily trace the contours of existing social divisions as they transcend or transform them. This analysis informs the second section which specifically addresses educational issues, including both the attractions and the limitations of such work. The paper concludes with an exploration of three possible approaches to using in SNSs in educational contexts.

Mobile practices in everyday life: popular digital technologies and schooling revisited

Mobile phones have rapidly been absorbed into the fabric of our day-to-day lives. They are now a key consumer item, a symbol of social capital and they connect their users to a mobile web with multiple applications. As ownership and access to smartphones has spread into the teenage years, their place in institutions of formal education has been marked by contention. The dominant view that mobiles have no place in the classroom has recently been contested by educators, such as Parry, who suggest that mobile learning, and the literacies involved, should play an important role in education. This paper argues for a more nuanced view of mobile technology, one that focuses on everyday social practices as a way of understanding the relationship between mobiles and learning. Using practice theory as a starting point, I suggest a way of mapping everyday mobile practices on to educational activity to illustrate potential areas for innovation and evaluation. I conclude by returning to the debate about mobiles in education, noting that familiar arguments about popular digital technology and schooling are once again being rehearsed. If ways of accessing, sharing and building knowledge are changing then a more principled consideration of how educational institutions relate to these changes is needed. Practitioner Notes What is already known about this topic There is growing interest in the use of mobiles in educational settings., Practitioners are beginning to look at the advantages and disadvantages of mobile learning., Increased ownership of smartphones and other mobile devices amongst the youth population is well documented., What this paper adds Social practice theory offers a useful perspective for looking at the use of mobiles in different contexts., Comparisons and contrasts between the uses of mobile technology in everyday life and in school settings can help in evaluating its potential., A consideration of ownership and access, and how this may reproduce social inequalities, are important to innovations in technology and education., Implications for practice and/or policy There is a need to move beyond debates about prohibiting or encouraging the use of mobiles to look at more specific examples of their advantages (and disadvantages)., Policy and implementation should be informed by a finer-grained analysis of mobile practices in everyday and educational settings., Mobile devices are highly desirable consumer items. Schools and other educational establishments have a responsibility to adopt a critical approach to ownership and use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The (im)materiality of literacy: the significance of subjectivity to new literacies research

This article deconstructs the online and offline experience to show its complexities and idiosyncratic nature. It proposes a theoretical framework designed to conceptualise aspects of meaning-making across on- and offline contexts. In arguing for the ‘(im)materiality’ of literacy, it makes four propositions which highlight the complex and diverse relationships between the immaterial and material associated with meaning-making. Complementing existing sociocultural perspectives on literacy, the article draws attention to the significance of relationships between space, mediation, materiality and embodiment to literacy practices. This in turn emphasises the importance of the subjective in understanding how different locations, experiences and so forth inflect literacy practice. The article concludes by drawing on the Deleuzian concept of the ‘baroque’ to suggest that this focus on articulations between the material and immaterial helps us to see literacy as multiply and flexibly situated.

Identity, Social Networks and Online Communication:

Arguments about whether or not the Internet is creating new people or simply helping us to see ourselves in new ways are threaded through the literature on digital culture. People make new technology and exploit it for their own purposes and so it is reasonable to suggest that any changes in our social identities are wider in their reach than the digital media through which they may be expressed. By taking a perspective that is informed by the social theory of Giddens, this article explores the relationship between identity performance and social network theory, and in so doing, aims to set an agenda for future research that enables us to capture how identities are played out across social networks in both online and offline interactions.

Electric Involvement: Identity Performance in Children's Informal Digital Writing

We inhabit a social world in which identity is complex, no longer closely tied to place or territory, delineated by nationhood, nor simply created, as psychology suggests, through acts of identification. Instead, it is argued, identity is produced through action and performance. Popular digital culture provides a rich context for identity play and performance, but the implications of this for education have only recently been identified. This paper is an exploration of childrens identity in computer-mediated communication and draws selectively from texts generated through a series of school-based projects to develop tentative principles for the analysis of identity and impression formation in childrens digital writing. I show how children co-construct anchored and transient identities in informal peer-to-peer communication, going on to suggest that this is a valid use of new technology in the classroom and one that can be used to counterbalance a preoccupation with the technical and informational content of ICT.

Digital connections: transforming literacy in the primary school

Much has been written about the transformative influence of new technology on the school curriculum, but only a small number of studies have focused on the practical implications for primary literacy. The dominant paradigm seems less concerned with transformation, instead favouring a view of ‘technology as enrichment’. This case study examines the possibilities of transformation through an electronically mediated partnership between two primary schools in the North of England. Childrens digital texts are analysed alongside interview and observational data in order to document what transformation might look like in practice. The study illustrates how technology can be used to promote new literacy practices in the classroom, through the production of new kinds of texts. It also documents the emergence of peer‐based learning relationships and changing perceptions of the teachers role.

Mind the Gap(s): Discourses and Discontinuity in Digital Literacies

Meaning making in new media is rapidly presenting new opportunities and new challenges for those working in formal and informal educational contexts. This article provides an overview of current theory, thinking and commentary in order to map the field of digital literacy and to identify key questions for research and policy development. It identifies some of the discontinuities or gaps that exist between teachers, their students, and what technology can now deliver. Through two case studies the author tells the story of social practices that illustrate everyday digital lives and show how interactions involve a constellation of literacy events. This approach allows him to raise questions about the transfer of such practices into educational contexts and to explore the gaps between informal uses of digital literacy and current classroom literacy routines.

Digikids: Cool Dudes and the New Writing.

Research into the uses of digital literacy in the classroom is still in its infancy. Despite the proliferation of theoretical literature on ‘new literacies’, ‘multiliteracies’, and ‘technoliteracies’ and their impact on education there are fewer studies based on a systematic analysis of the new literacy practices that are beginning to emerge. The work of Werry, Shortis and Merchant has begun to investigate the new, hybridized language of digital texts seen in synchronous online communication, emails and text messages. These digital texts have been described by Ferrara as Interactive Written Discourse (IWD). This article builds on this work, drawing on an analysis of the on-screen writing of 9 and 10 year-old children involved in an interactive writing project. It shows how these young writers use and share their existing knowledge of popular electronic communication, developing sophisticated insights into the characteristics and possibilities of digital writing.

The Trashmaster: Literacy and New Media.

In large parts of the developed world, increased connectivity has led to changes in the communicational landscape. Meaning-making associated with new media disturbs established ways of describing and defining literacy, leading some academics and educators to identify ‘new literacies’ as a distinct break from traditional and predominantly print-based practices. At the same time, neo-liberal education policy is contributing to a narrowing of schooled literacy, focusing on what is easy to assess and measure. This paper looks at key themes in new media discourse and, using the idea of a ‘constellation of literacy practices’, examines the meaning-making practices that surround the popular machinima movie The Trashmaster as a way of testing assumptions about the changing landscape of communication. It concludes by showing how these practices are at odds with current schooled literacy practices and suggests that this leads to inconsistencies in the ways in which we conceive of success and failure in literacy.

From Recreation to Reflection: Digital conversations in Educational Contexts

The Teacher Training Agencysrecent drive to increase flexibility in InitialTeacher Training provision in the UK hasprompted a growing interest in distancelearning. A number of Higher Educationproviders are now using new technology and newforms of communication in their coursedelivery. Among the various forms available,synchronous online chat, usually associatedwith social or recreational interaction, hasattracted little attention in the researchliterature. This medium requires new approachesand skills as participants struggle to makemeaning in multi-stranded conversations.Building on previous studies that have exploredthe innovative use of language in recreationalchat, this study focuses on student discussionsin the context of educational chat. It exploreshow student teachers can use this electronicenvironment to discuss educational issues, andin so doing, gain experience of thecommunicative potential of new media. Analysisof the ways in which these students uselanguage in this environment is followed bysome initial thoughts about the potential ofsynchronous chat as a medium for learningwithin an educational context. This paperidentifies key elements in the organisation ofeducational chat and provides insight into thestrategies used by participants.