Producing Sites, Exploring Identities: Youth Online Authorship

Part of the Volume on Youth, Identity, and Digital MediaThis chapter explores why young authors find value in expressing themselves on the Internet. Concentrating on the genres of personal home pages and blogs, in particular, the chapter aims to answer the following questions: What do adolescents see as the rewards of online expression? How do they make choices about the self-presentations they offer? What role do audiences play in their decision-making? How is online expression meaningful, and in what ways is it unfulfilling? Discussion is based in large part on interviews with hundreds of authors ranging in age from 12 to 21 years. The chapter notes how youth authors' sentiments about their online practices reflect their engagement with important developmental tasks associated with adolescence. The goal throughout this chapter is to broaden the terrain of discussion about online youth expression practices so that our public and popular discourse about young people is more meaningful and contextualized

Can you feel it will you tell me. Encouraging sentiment expression on the web

In a recent trend in web communication, news outlets and blog platforms allow readers to express opinions about what they have read by choosing an associated feeling, or sentiment ex- pression. This emerging trend, fitting between liking and full text comments, has not still found the popularity it should. The thesis of this paper is that this is also due to the way the sen- timent choice is presented to the user. In order to test this hy- pothesis we have devised a pilot experiment; results confirm that a simpler way of choice increases sentiment expression and yields result that are more aligned with ground truth

Domestic Violence in Lac Su’s I Love Yous Are for White People: A Sociological Criticism Approach

This article employs sociological criticism to examine domestic violence, parenting, and communication behavior in Lac Su’s Vietnamese American memoir. The book debunks the seemingly positive myth of Asian Americans as a model minority, substantiates certain negative stereotypes of Asian men, and challenges some of the classic Asian values that apparently have shaped the Asian American identity. I argue that Su’s memoir is a critique of structural inequalities, urban poverty, unemployment, inaccessibility to a support network, and the intersection between class, gender, and race in the contexts of war and its aftermath

Speak Softly but Carry a Big Can of Paint - Banksy, Wall and Piece: Street Art as Radical Political Activism

The English street artist Banksy best describes the power of street art as radical activism through his assertion in his 2003 collection, Banging Yallr Head Against a Brick Wall, that [ It] is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing. And even if you don\u27t come up with a picture to cure world poverty you can make someone smile while they\u27re having a piss ( II ). Banksy is notorious because he is a prolific street artist yet his identity has never been revealed. He plays a prominent role in the current international street art movement. Since the I 970s street art movement in New York City, street art has captured the imaginations of young people around the world as a form of protest and resistance to privatization and oppression of marginalized groups such as youth and people of color. Through the examination of three areas of the world in which street art is prevalent, I posit street art as a radical form of protest to the ageism, racism, and c1assism that Palestinian and Latino youth face today. I also offer suggestions for wider street art applications as radical political activism, as well as ways for the reader to . . . participate 111 street art

The Impact of Digital Tools on Student Writing and How Writing is Taught in Schools

In a survey of Advanced Placement and National Writing Project teachers, a majority say digital tools encourage students to be more invested in their writing by encouraging personal expression and providing a wider audience for their work. Most also say digital tools make teaching writing easier, despite an increasingly ambiguous line between formal and informal writing and students' poor understanding of issues such as plagiarism and fair use

Cell Phone Ethnography: Mixed Methods and the Brand Consumer Relationship

Overall, the goal of this study is to identify and differentiate the various motivations and cultural influences that can be used to explain consumer behavior. In doing so, this study hopes to facilitate the development of new and innovative marketing strategies, providing a new research design for the ethnographer’s toolkit. More importantly, this model can give shape to new constructs and new variables for further empirical testing in the field through quantitative and qualitative methods. By blending the two approaches, using qualitative interpretive anthropological analysis by field study with quantitative sentiment analysis adapted from market researcher Jeffery Breen’s (2012) methodology, this paper seeks to accurately interpret the complex human element of what creates brand-loyalty and sentiment while uncovering factors that influence the biggest decision of all—the actual purchase

Self-advocacy and socially just pedagogy

Discussions of 'special educational needs' (SEN), 'children with SEN' and 'inclusion' continue to portray disabled learners as problematic 'others' to be tolerated and managed (Allan 2004). The neo-liberal prioritisation of entrepreneurship and autonomy create further problems for disabled learners attempting to negotiate an increasingly market-driven education system. This paper comes about as a result of eight-weeks spent as a volunteer in an organisation offering self-advocacy based projects to young people with the label of ‘learning difficulties’, and considers such projects alongside Deleuzoguatarrian Disability Studies discussions of socially just pedagogy. By drawing on Deleuze and Guattari’s metaphor of the rhizome, and considering desire as productive, it is argued that such projects have the potential to offer an alternative, more engaged and socially-just education to the one currently offered in schools

Student-Centered Learning: Impact Academy of Arts and Technology

This case study is one of four written by SCOPE about student-centered practices in schools. The case studies address the following questions:1. What are the effects of student-centered learning approaches on student engagement, achievement of knowledge and skills, and attainment (high school graduation, college admission, and college continuation and success), in particular for underserved students?2. What specific practices, approaches, and contextual factors result in these outcomes?The cases focus on the structures, practices, and conditions in the four schools that enable students to experience positive outcomes and consider the ways in which these factors are interrelated and work to reinforce each other

where angels fear to tread : Tracing the Journey of the Female Poet in Aurora Leigh

Through Aurora Leigh, Elizabeth Barrett Browning explores the role of female poets as agents of social change in the Victorian society. During the Victorian period, the role of women was largely confined to the domestic setting. While women were allowed to write, female writers were limited to the realm of novels, which was perceived by the Victorian society to be the less distinguished genre. In writing Aurora Leigh, Barrett Browning challenged this gender stereotype by producing a novel-poem that unites the feminine voice with masculine authority and superiority. Like Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, in her fictional role as a writer, also challenges the same stereotypes. She seeks to redefine poetry, which is the domain of man. In rejecting Romney’s initial marriage proposal, Aurora Leigh also rebels against the stereotypical gender roles. At the same time, in doing so, she inadvertently rejects Romney’s plan for social change that involves only the physical aspect. Instead, in pursuing her career as a poet, Aurora Leigh finds herself in a position to bring about social change on a level that transcends the physical. By telling the story of Marian Erle, Aurora Leigh has the power to change the plight of women in the Victorian society. Finally, being women themselves, both Barrett Browning and Aurora Leigh can speak up for the Victorian women even more effectively