Designing for Youth Engagement Across Formal and Informal Learning Networks

Growing up as part of a networked society is demanding youth’s active engagement in digital literacy practices – where their ability to find, evaluate, use, and create digital content is critical, as well as their ability to successfully participate in networks. Those with restrict access or those unable to effectively use technologies are unlikely to meaningfully contribute to a globalized world, with potential negative impact on individuals’ lives and on community prosperity. Understanding how to best design and encourage youth involvement in networked learning is therefore crucial. Drawing on the ACAD framework, this study examines the structural components of two learning networks geared at youth, within two learning scenarios: ‘in’ and ‘out’ of schools. By exploring the relationship between youth, tools, and spaces, we attempt to contribute to connect literature on formal and informal learning, digital culture and literacies. We also attempt to contribute to the call for understanding networked learning beyond the boundaries of Higher Education. Our research employs a case study methodology, conducted over consecutive weeks of a semester in two research sites: a year 10 classroom and a multiplayer online game called Potterworldmc. The asynchronous conversations of students on a social network site with learning purposes used at a school, as well as observations, interviews, and artefacts of a player were collected. The paper identifies key design elements and the emergent learning activity young people are engaging in, with a particular focus on digital literacy. We analyse the influence of social structures, tasks, tools and resources on youth activity, and discuss how previous boundaries between in-school and out-of-school, physical and digital spaces, traditional and new literacies might be rather blurred in learning networks geared at youth. We conclude by highlighting some key design elements across formal and informal networks

The Process of Creation: A Novel Methodology for Analyzing Multimodal Data

In the 21st century, meaning making is a multimodal act; we communicate what we know and how we know it using much more than printed text on a blank page. As a result, qualitative researchers need new methodologies, methods, and tools for working with the complex artifacts that our research subjects produce. In this article we describe the co-development of an analytic methodology and a tool for working with youth produced films as multimodal artifacts of youth engagement with identity. Specifically, we describe how to employ this multimodal framework in data analysis, with an emphasis on how different modes interact with one another, and how new meanings are made possible through multimodal interactions

STEAM Maker Education: Conceal/Reveal of Personal, Artistic and Computational Dimensions in High School Student Projects

Much of maker education’s expansion has focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) learning, leaving out equally promising opportunities for integrating arts learning. In this paper we share findings from a project in which high school students created electronic-textiles-based art representing features of a community important to them as a part of an elective high school computer science class. We addressed the following research questions: (1) What kinds of personal and community meanings did students convey through their maker projects? (2) How did students engage with artistic dimensions in their projects? (3) How did coding interactive features support students’ artwork? Drawing on daily observations, pre/post interviews, and documentation of students’ artifacts (photographs of in-process designs, design notebooks, and artist statements), we developed four case studies of students as they made art representing their communities using electronic-textiles as their primary medium. Our findings reveal how making became a means of personal, artistic expression with quite literal layering of coded meanings, and how maker activities can integrate art. In the discussion we consider the opportunities for authentic artistic expression in maker education by distinguishing the difference between craft and art in a maker education context. We consider the ways in which these ideas have implications for equity, pedagogy, and future research

A game-based design studio: An exploration of an interior design studio environment for implementing game-based learning

The design studio is an active, participatory, and experimental learning environment. Since the 19th century, the studio has been a place for learning through doing with a community of peers seeking knowledge, skills, and a space for unleashing creativity. The advancement in teaching and learning has shown to address a variety of instructional issues in a variety of fields using digital technology and innovative pedagogies. The design studio, despite its many affordances, has been criticized over the past decade for multiple reasons. This three-article dissertation focuses on using the game-based learning (GBL) pedagogy to address three instructional issues in interior design studios; time management and workload distribution, high dependency on the master-apprentice model, and ambiguity of assessment measures of student work. Each of the three articles stands as an independent piece of scholarly work. Yet all articles complement each other in multiple ways

Summer of Tinkering: Sociocultural Views of Children's Learning while Tinkering in Social and Material Worlds

abstract: As interest in making and STEM learning through making and tinkering continue to rise, understanding the nature, process, and benefits of learning STEM through making have become important topics for research. In addition to understanding the basics of learning through making and tinkering, we need to understand these activities, examine their potential benefits, and find out ways to facilitate such learning experiences for all learners with resources that are readily available. This dissertation is a study of children’s learning while tinkering inspired by the Educational Maker Movement. It is motivated by the projects that children playfully create with broken toys, art and craft resources, and other found objects, and the connections of such activities to learning. Adopting a sociocultural lens this dissertation examines eight to twelve-year-olds’ learning while tinkering in collaboration with friends and family, as well as on their own. Using a case study methodology and studying interactions and transactions between children, materials, tools, and designs this study involves children learning while tinkering over a week-long workshop as well as over the summer in the Southwest. The three hallmarks of this study are, first, an emphasis on sociocultural nature of the development of tinkering projects; second, an emphasis on meaning making while tinkering with materials, tools, and design, and problem-solving; and third, an examination of the continuation of tinkering using newly acquired tools and skills beyond the duration of the workshop. In doing so, this dissertation contributes to the ongoing discussion of children’s playful tinkering, how and why it counts as learning, and STEM learning associated with tinkering. Implications for future learning and the ways in which tinkering connects to children’s everyday fabric of activities are considered.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Learning, Literacies and Technologies 201

Perceptions About Hands-On Art Making by Non-Art Major Online Students

As higher education moves increasingly to online and hybrid programs, more students will be taking art appreciation courses virtually. The research that exists on student perceptions related to hands-on art making suggests that active creation is valuable in fostering creativity, inspiring knowledge, and supporting and motivating students. The purpose of this case study was to explore non-art major, college-level students\u27 experiences, perceptions, and reflections of an active learning component within an online art appreciation class delivered at a public university in the southeastern United States. Three research questions were developed to explore the students\u27 experiences, perceptions, and reflections of this hands-on art making component. The conceptual framework was based on the combined work of prominent theoreticians, educators and scholars in the arts including Dewey, Piaget, Bruner, Gardner, and Eisner. To complete this case study, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 non-art major, college level students (enrolled in online art appreciation during the 2015-16 academic year) and included discussion about a specific art work that each student made. The interview data was analyzed using open-coded thematic analysis. The overall findings indicated that: there is an emotional response to hands-on art making, appropriate faculty instruction is an important factor in actively engaged learning, and students gain knowledge through the active learning component of the online art appreciation class. Findings were used to design a 3-day professional development workshop. Implications for educators include advocating for variations in art coursework for online students

Making Waves: An Exploration In Learning Through Art, Science, And Making

For nearly one hundred years, from progressive education to critical pedagogy, philosophers, researchers, and educators have advocated for listening, respecting, and providing space for the learner’s voice within education. When teaching challenging science content, it is vital to provide both a context for the knowledge and a reason for learning the content. It can be difficult to provide a learning environment that allows learners to gain an understanding of demanding content while being able to have creative self-expression—agency—without turning youth culture into a static banal concept. This study aimed to tackle the challenge of providing context, a reason for learning, and space for youth voice for a diverse group of teenagers. I explored how a multidisciplinary art and science maker workshop focused on sound encouraged a diverse set of young people to understand sound as energy and creatively express themselves. As part of outreach programming for a large, northeastern science museum in the United States, ten rising sophomores participated in a workshop where they created original sound pieces and built homemade speakers as part of an art exhibit. This mixed-methods early stage/exploratory study found youth exerting their agency through the sound pieces, homemade speakers, and artist statements. There is also evidence of youth gaining understanding of the science of sound. In the discussion, I address how these findings begin to push against two criticisms of the maker movement: what artifacts count as maker projects, and who is considered to be a maker. I go on to examine how, for some youth, learning the science of sound through a multidisciplinary workshop led to having a purpose for understanding challenging science content

THE LEARNER'S INTUITION: HARNESSING THE POWER OF INTUITIONS DURING CREATIVE AND COLLABORATIVE ACTIVITIES

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Indiana University, School of Education, 2015Intuitions have received little attention in learning and education largely due to the difficulty in defining what intuitions are and their potential benefit (or detriment) to learning. The research on intuitions has been encouraging, yet the methods employed to study these intuitions often involve learners--some with considerable background and/or prior domain knowledge--expressing their thinking, a priori, about some phenomena they have encountered. If, however, intuitions help individuals make sense of unfamiliar and new phenomena encountered in the world, then steps should be taken to encourage learners to use their intuitions as they encounter these phenomena. The findings in this dissertation suggest that even over small amounts of time, young children can think and produce materials that are beyond what was initially thought to be developmentally appropriate. Further still, engaging young learners in a discourse that values intuitions is important and activities grounded in practices that encourage children to be actively involved in making a tangible artifact helps in the construction of knowledge. Furthermore, curricular designs grounded in a constructionist theory of learning and teaching and mediated by technology may be advantageous for music educators because they encourage students to engage in what musicians do (e.g., create music)

LITERACY AND LEARNING ACROSS PHYSICAL AND DIGITAL SPACES: A CASE STUDY IN A BLENDED PRIMARY CLASSROOM

In light of technological innovations, schools are increasingly adopting digital tools and promoting online spaces for learning. Consequently, the shape of teaching and learning is shifting beyond the physical classroom. Drawing on sociocultural theory, distributed cognition and a networked learning framework, this case study explores how a blended approach shapes teachers’ practices and students’ learning and literacy processes. The study was situated in a Year Six classroom in an Australian technology-rich independent school. Data was collected during the 2013 school year and included: 1) observations; 2) 125 hours of classroom video-recordings; 3) a collection of digital artefacts designed by the students; 4) interviews with teachers and students; 5) a student survey regarding technology integration in the classroom; 6) entry logs posted by participants on the Edmodo social network site. Multiple approaches to data analysis were used in order to answer the study’s research questions, including: networked learning analysis, thematic analysis, situated discourse analysis, multimodal discourse analysis and a quantitative descriptive analysis. The findings suggest that blended learning spaces support teachers’ distributed orchestration of classroom activities across tools and resources while also leveraging students’ engagement in reciprocal teaching as well as self-driven and collaborative learning. Digital technologies open space for new ways of communication, interaction and learning in the classroom, yet such affordances are dependent upon teacher’s facilitation and expertise. In addition, an interactive pattern of literacy practices was evident in the classroom, where processes of authorship, readership, production, audience, and consumption were established between students. Finally, alignment between teachers’ beliefs and the perceived value of technology was a key factor for technology integration in the classroom