Janette Hughes

Adolescents and “Autographics”: Reading and Writing Coming‐of‐Age Graphic Novels

Students at two different sites (a 12th-grade English class focused on workplace preparation and an alternative program for students who had been expelled from school) read graphic novels and, using ComicLife software, created their own graphic sequences called “autographics” based on their personal experiences. The authors explore how image, text, and sound converged to make meaning for these adolescents as they read and wrote graphic novels and describe the literacy skills the learners developed.

Wiki-Ed Poetry: Transforming Preservice Teachers' Preconceptions about Poetry and Poetry Teaching

This article focuses specifically on teacher candidates’ preconceptions about poetry and poetry teaching and how these preconceptions shift as they work through various tasks on a wiki. Through an analysis of their definitions of poetry and ideas about poetry pedagogy captured in online discussion, survey, and interview responses, the authors explore ways in which beginning teachers can develop confidence in teaching poetry.

A boy who would rather write poetry than throw rocks at cats is also considered to be wanting in masculinity: poetry, masculinity, and baiting boys

This paper draws on research on masculinities to examine poetry as a socially and culturally gendered genre. Situated in the context of the current ‘crisis’ around boys’ underachievement in school, attention is drawn to the problematic understanding of poetry as an unsuitable genre for boys. Attention is further drawn to the way in which poetry, when offered up to boys, is often imbued with traditional and outdated definitions of masculinity. We illustrate the extent to which hegemonic versions of masculinity are implicated in discourses about poetry as an unsuitable genre for boys. This is accomplished by undertaking a critical analysis of various sources such as Odeans (1998) Great Book for Boys, and Scieszkas (2005) Guys Write for Guys Read, as well as Iggulden and Igguldens (2006) The Dangerous Book for Boys. Historical perspectives which highlight the role of sexologists in forging an association between poetry and effeminacy are also used to illuminate the legacy associated with the treatment of poetry somehow discordant with dominant understandings about boys’ developing masculinity. In this way, we provide a richer understanding of poetry and its discursive relationship to masculinity.

Using Facebook to explore adolescent identities

This study examines the construction, deconstruction and reconstruction of adolescent identities through an exploration of their social practices within a digital landscape using mobile devices and Facebook for learning in the classroom and in their lives. Using a mixed methods research approach of qualitative case study analysis and quantitative surveying, the research investigates the relationship between a multiliteracies pedagogy and the development of adolescent digital literacies and identity. More specifically, it answers the following research questions: 1) How are adolescents’ identities shaped and performed, as they use new media tools and social media in the classroom? 2) How does the use of mobile devices and Facebook in the classroom potentially transform teaching and learning literacy practices? The researchers found that using social networking sites such as Facebook can motivate students to engage with the content and explore how they perform their identities to others, but privacy issues are still a concern to some students.

Thanks for the Assignment!: Digital Stories as a Form of Reflective Practice

In this article we examine pre-service teachers’ digital literacy stories and post-assignment reflections for evidence of transformative pedagogy. The language arts course design employs both a new literacies approach (Lankshear & Knobel, 2006) and a multiliteracies pedagogical framework (New London Group, 1996). These frameworks are also applied to help us examine the pre-service teachers’ digital stories and reflections. The data consist of approximately 150 digital stories and written student reflections collected over three years. We are encouraged by the finding that the multimedia nature of the assignment appears to help pre-service teachers construct new understandings of literacies, particularly when the digital stories are shared as part of the adult classroom experience. We conclude that digital stories hold potential to encourage pre-service teachers to think critically about how they were taught relative to the teachers they wish to become.

Engaging students through new literacies: The good, bad and curriculum of visual essays

Abstract In this article, we share our experiences working with students to read and/or write visual essays, texts that rely more heavily on images with minimal print text. We explore how students consider elements of design as they create a visual essay, which entails new forms of semiotic processing of the combinations of the visual, audio, textual, gestural and spatial. In particular, we share a case study of how one adolescent engages with an alternative to the standard essay format when he is not restricted by the use of words alone, but is encouraged to tap into the affordances of digital media, expressing himself multimodally by using words, images and sound.

'Maker' within Constraints: Exploratory Study of Young Learners using Arduino at a High School in India

Do-it-yourself (DIY) inspired activities have gained popularity as a means of creative expression and self-directed learning. However, DIY culture is difficult to implement in places with limited technology infrastructure and traditional learning cultures. Our goal is to understand how learners in such a setting react to DIY activities. We present observations from a physical computing workshop with 12 students (13-15 years old) conducted at a high school in India. We observed unique challenges for these students when tackling DIY activities: a high monetary and psychological cost to exploration, limited independent learning resources, difficulties with finding intellectual courage and assumed technical language proficiency. Our participants, however, overcome some of these challenges by adopting their own local strategies: resilience, nonverbal and verbal learning techniques, and creating documentation and fallback circuit versions. Based on our findings, we discuss a set of lessons learned about makerspaces in a context with socio-technical challenges.

Teachers as Moral Compasses: Exploring Critical Literacy through Digital Social Justice Book Talks

A classroom-based study aimed to scaffold preservice teachers’ critical literacy through an exploration of trade picture books. The paper discusses preservice teachers’ shifting views of critical literacy and the place of critical literacy in the language arts classroom. It also assesses the usefulness of digital book talks for engaging preservice teachers with social justice issues. The book talks provided novice teachers with opportunities to question and challenge assumptions, evaluate their own actions and attitudes toward accepted moral standards, and to engage in positive social action. The preservice teachers’ responses to the assignment suggest a number of ways in which teachers can effectively use new media to explore social justice and equity issues with young students.

A shifting landscape: using tablets to support learning in students with diverse abilities

Abstract As technology becomes a larger part of people’s everyday lives, it is logical to think that it should also become a part of the learning process. The use of tablets in classrooms is becoming an area of interest as researchers are trying to understand what the benefits are – if any – to using these devices. This article gives an overview of some of the recent literature related to the benefits and challenges associated with the use of tablets with students in middle schools. Prevalent themes include the benefits of using tablets with students who have learning disabilities, and the challenges that can arise in the classroom, specifically issues of safety and security, access to apps and disruptive behaviours when using these devices. The authors share qualitative case studies of two teachers who have used tablets extensively with their students and discuss how their experiences resonate with the literature. The authors conclude with a summary of the affordances and constraints of using tablets with students who have special needs and offer workable solutions for some of the challenges educators face when using these devices.

Crossing Cultural Borders Through Ning

Abstract The aim of this mixed methods research study was to examine the construction of adolescents’ bi-cultural identities through an exploration of their social practices on the social networking site, Ning. More specifically, we ask: (1) how are new Canadian and first-generation adolescents’ bi-cultural identities shaped and performed as they use multimedia and social networking tools in their classroom; and (2) how can social networking tools help students cross cultural barriers and build strong communities of practice. In this paper, we share the findings of this research that examines how seventy-seven 11-12 year old students explored, negotiated and presented their bi-cultural identities while using a social networking site with their peers and teachers, and how this process contributed to the creation of a strong community of practice.