Description:
Reducing complexity is often our focus when we explain new phenomena. However when we label things in simplistic ways, we may be in fact causing harm, in fact performing symbolic violence (Bourdieu 1998) by using and promoting essences of the phenomena in question. This essay gives examples of these simplistic, inappropriate categories that essentialize people into inflexible boxes, and argues that labeling is a simplistic practice, which gives us (mis)certainty. To me, there is a need for nuanced understandings of phenomena versus reductionist suppositions. We need insight rather than generalizations and essentializations. Many (mis)assumptions are based on a lack of evidence. This short essay argues against the constant complexity reduction apparent in popular (and to a certain extent academic) discourse. It highlights the ‘good’ of a society shaped by and shaping the Internet. It draws together the two labels of digital natives and Internet addiction to provide examples of how symbolic violence is being inflicted.
Description:
Little has been done globally to ethnographically (and holistically) study and understand the lives of heavy Internet users, with insufficient qualitative research (that is, exploratory, descriptive, inductive) published throughout the world. This article presents the findings from qualitative semi-structured interviews with five psychologists, who were asked about their understanding of addiction and Problematic Internet Use. The findings demonstrate the complexity of the field and the possibility of co-morbidity, suggesting that so-called “Internet abuse” or multiple derivatives of the label are inaccurate and unhelpful. In-depth qualitative research is needed to add depth and insight to this highly topical area, where a myriad of scales are being put forward, tested and validated from one hegemonic paradigm within this field. Further nuanced understandings of Internet use need to be developed to work towards constructing theories and pedagogies that help to understand and address digital pathologies successfully.
Description:
The understandings which children have of Indigenous identity provide means by which to explore the ways in which Indigenous identity is both projected and constructed in society. These understandings play a powerful part in the ways in which Indigenous peoples are positioned in the mainstream society with which they are connected. The research presented in this edited collection uses children’s drawings to illuminate and explore the images children, both mainstream and Indigenous, have of Indigenous peoples. The data generated by this process allows exploration of the ways in which Indigenous identity is understood globally, through a series of locally focussed studies connected by theme and approach. The data serves to illuminate both the space made available by mainstream groups, and aspects of modernity accommodated within the Indigenous sense of self. Our aim within this project has been to analyse and discuss the ways in which children construct identity, both their own and that of others. Children were asked to share their thoughts through drawings which were then used as the basis for conversation with the researchers. In this way the interaction between mainstream modernity and traditional Indigenous identity is made available for discussion and the connection between children’s lived experiences of identity and the wider global discussion is both immediately enacted and located within broader international understandings of Indigenous cultures and their place in the world.
Description:
The complexity of teacher's work is manifest in the divergent use of digital technologies in and out of school. This article explores the logical step of connecting students' out-of-school mediated literacy learning to the content descriptors of the Australian Curriculum. The study uses published evidence from four previous studies of young people to demonstrate the diverse ways that out-of-school practices can be linked to literacy learning in the Australian Curriculum. The authors frame this linking of informal literacy learning to the Australian Curriculum by highlighting the 'funds of knowledge' children bring through the school gate. [Author abstract]
Description:
Historically, the positioning of technology and expertise has been an antithesis to girls and women. Much literature has focused on understanding and responding to the perceived differences between boys’ and girls’ access to, use of, and understanding of various forms of technology. In a recent qualitative study I conducted, eight teenaged technological experts (three of whom were girls) were observed and interviewed about their use of home computers and understanding of technological expertise. In regard to this heterogeneous New Zealand group, the data suggested that, although the trajectories toward technological expertise were gendered, gender did not limit the teenage girls in their acquisition of expertise. This article explores and challenges dichotomous debates about technology, gender, expertise, and then focuses on the understandings of computers as a subject in schools and as a future career. Through this discussion, the article demonstrates that the participants were aware of the gendered stereotypes surrounding girls and technology, yet dismissed them.
Description:
This book is an outcome of a provocation paper prepared by Neil Selwyn (2012) for a conference concerned with critical perspectives on learning with new media.
Description:
This article highlights the practice of a group of New Zealand teenagers who are considered by their family and themselves to be technological experts. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s key concepts of habitus, field and capital, this text identifies and discusses the cyber-relations that constitute the practice in the field of home computer use for leisure. The purpose of this article is to claim that though this field is predominantly a field of leisure, these are valid sites of informal learning. As almost all of the experts in the study gained their expertise through independent means, with minimal input from their schooling, discussion focuses on what these informal trajectories to technological expertise might mean for pedagogy and formal learning within schools.
Description:
Today's high schools are increasingly based around the use of digital technologies. Students and teachers are encouraged to 'Bring Your Own Device', teaching takes place through 'learning management systems' and educators are rushing to implement innovations such as flipped classrooms, personalized learning, analytics and 'maker' technologies. Yet despite these developments, the core processes of school appear to have altered little over the past 50 years. As the twenty-first century progresses, concerns are growing that the basic model of 'school' is 'broken' and no longer 'fit for purpose'. This book moves beyond the hype and examines the everyday realities of digital technology use in today's high schools. Based on a major ethnographic study of three contrasting Australian schools, the authors lay bare the reasons underlying the inconsistent impact of digital technologies on day-to-day schooling. The book examines leadership and management of technology in schools, the changing nature of teachers' work in the digital age, as well as student (mis)uses of technologies in and out of classrooms. In-depth case studies are presented of the adoption of personalized learning apps, social media and 3D printers. These investigations all lead to a detailed understanding of why schools make use of digital technologies in the ways that they do. Everyday Schooling in the Digital Age: High School, High Tech? offers a revealing analysis of the realities of contemporary schools and schooling - drawing on arguments and debates from various academic literatures such as policy studies, sociology of education, social studies of technology, media and communication studies. Over the course of ten wide-ranging chapters, a range of suggestions are developed as to how the full potential of digital technology might be realized within schools. Written in a detailed but accessible manner, this book offers an ambitious critique that is essential reading for anyone interested in the fast-changing nature of contemporary education. reserved.
Description:
Academic research in the areas of educational technology and media is often portrayed to be limited in terms of its use of theory. This short paper reports on data collected from a survey of 462 ‘research active’ academic researchers working in the broad area of educational technology and educational media. The paper explores their use (and non-use) of theory
Description:
Abstract: The Story Exchange section of the Sims 2 website offers Sims 2 players a forum to read and review other players' original stories which they have written while playing The Sims 2. This article draws on interview data from Sarah, a 15-year-old female involved in reading and evaluating these online stories. Analysis of Sarah's experiences in playing The Sims 2 and using the Story Exchange website suggest that players who engage with these particular online narratives determine quality indicators of the stories, without guidance or instruction from external structures or authorities. Following this point, this Story Exchange is presented not only as an avenue of leisure, pleasure and informal learning, but one that is out of alignment with structures and institutions of formal schooling. This article argues that sites such as these should be read as legitimate learning spaces.
Description:
Abstract: The Story Exchange section of the Sims 2 website offers Sims 2 players a forum to read and review other players' original stories which they have written while playing The Sims 2. This article draws on interview data from Sarah, a 15-year-old female involved in reading and evaluating these online stories. Analysis of Sarah's experiences in playing The Sims 2 and using the Story Exchange website suggest that players who engage with these particular online narratives determine quality indicators of the stories, without guidance or instruction from external structures or authorities. Following this point, this Story Exchange is presented not only as an avenue of leisure, pleasure and informal learning, but one that is out of alignment with structures and institutions of formal schooling. This article argues that sites such as these should be read as legitimate learning spaces.
Description:
Drawing on Bourdieu's (1990, 1998, 2000) socio-cultural theories, this article explores the construction of technological expertise amongst a heterogenous group of New Zealand teenagers, specifically in regard to their home computer use, which for many of them is their primary site of leisure. The qualitative study involved observations and interviews with eight teenagers aged 13 to 17. All the participants considered themselves to be technological experts, and their peers and/or their family supported this self-description. This article examines differences between the concepts and value of learning, expertise and technology, and how they are valued differently between generations. After discussing the habitus (dispositions) prevalent in the field of out-of-school leisure of teenage experts, the notion that the participants are addicted to their computers is explored. This article highlights a tension regarding how practice in the field is conceptualised differently by digital insiders and digital newcomers, and discusses some implications for educators.
Description:
The academic study of educational technology is often characterised by critics as methodologically limited. In order to test this assumption, the present paper reports on data collected from a survey of 462 "research active" academic researchers working in the broad areas of educational technology and educational media. The paper explores their familiarity and expertise with various methods of data collection and analysis. Data from the survey highlight a preference for relatively basic forms of descriptive research, coupled with a lack of capacity in advanced quantitative data collection and analysis. The paper concludes with some directions for "methodological capacity building" to broaden the use of methods in educational technology research.