Learning lives connected : digital youth across school and community spaces

Aunque la mayoría de los estudios sobre el aprendizaje hablan de las experiencias intra-institucionales, nuestro interés se centra en el seguimiento de las trayectorias de aprendizaje individuales a través de distintos dominios. Las investigaciones sobre el uso de los diferentes medios por los jóvenes en el entorno extraescolar muestran cómo las prácticas aplicadas en el uso de medios digitales difieren de las prácticas en el entorno escolar, tanto en forma como en contenido. El reto principal actualmente consiste en encontrar formas de entender las interconexiones y la creación de redes entre estos dos mundos de la vida, tal y como las experimentan los jóvenes. Aquí los elementos importantes son los conceptos adaptados como contexto, trayectorias e identidad, relacionados con las redes de actividades. Presentamos datos del «proyecto sobre vidas de aprendizaje» actualmente en curso en una comunidad multicultural de Oslo. Nos centraremos especialmente en los alumnos de educación secundaria post obligatoria que cursan estudios de Medios y Comunicación. Con un enfoque etnográfico, nos centraremos en la forma en que se construyen y se negocian las identidades del alumno en distintos tipos de relaciones de aprendizaje. Los datos incluyen datos generados por los investigadores (entrevistas, observaciones a través de vídeos, anotaciones de campo) y datos generados por los participantes (fotografías, diarios, mapas).Whereas most studies of learning explore intra-institutional experiences, our interest is to track individual learning trajectories across domains. Research on young people’s use of different media outside schools shows how practices of using digital media are different from practices in schools in both form and content. The major challenge today, however, is to find ways of understanding the interconnections and networking between these two lifeworlds as experienced by young people. Important elements here are adapted concepts like context, trajectories and identity related to activity networks. We will present data from the ongoing «learning lives project» in a multicultural community in Oslo. We will especially focus on students of Media and Communication studies at upper secondary school level. Using an ethnographic approach we will focus on how learners’ identities are constructed and negotiated across different kinds of learning relationships. The data will consist of both researcher-generated data (interviews, video-observations, field notes) and informant-generated data (photos, diaries, maps)

Maker Literacies and Maker Citizenship in the MakEY (Makerspaces in the Early Years) Project

In this paper, the potential relationship between creative citizenship and what may be termed ‘maker literacies’ is examined in the light of emergent findings from an international project on the use of makerspaces in early childhood, “MakEY” (see http://makeyproject.eu). The paper outlines the concept of creative citizenship and considers the notion of maker literacies before moving on to examine how maker literacies might be developed in early-years curricula in ways that foster civic engagement. Three vignettes are offered of makerspaces in early-years settings and a museum in Finland, Norway, and the UK. The activities outlined in the vignettes might be conceived of as ‘maker citizenship’, a concept which draws together understandings of making, digital literacies, and citizenship. The paper considers the implications of this analysis for future research and practice.Peer reviewe

From boundaries to entangled story lines: untangling young people’s material and immaterial storied practices

In this article, we consider the notion of entangled stories to account for ways that young people assemble stories in generative ways. We draw on Tim Ingold’s theorising of lines, movement, and storied knowledge to account for the visible/material and invisible/immaterial entanglements that happen when young people design multimodal storied worlds and illustrate these entanglements through three school projects in Canada, Norway, and Chile. Literacy studies and the learning sciences have made important contributions to understanding the complexities of meaning-making practices with digital technologies across formal and informal contexts. Yet, there is still work to be done to describe, extrapolate, and theorise digital-material practices and trajectories that young people engage in when they design and craft multimodal compositions

Livet på Instagram. Ungdoms digitale forlengelser av sosiale relasjoner og vennskap

I denne artikkelen ser vi nærmere på ungdommers bruk og forståelse av bildedeling på Internett. Vi analyserer data fra semistrukturerte intervjuer og beskriver hvordan tre jenter og tre gutter fra Norge håndterer problemstillinger knyttet til hvem de er og hvordan de fremstår når de deler bilder i sosiale medier. I artikkelen belyser vi også hvordan ungdom gjennom sin bildedelingspraksis framviser og utvikler en kompleks kommunikativ kompetanse, både i fremstillingen av eget uttrykk og i lesingen av andres bilder og kommentarer

Improved Well Plugging Equipment and Waste Mangement Techniques Exceed Alara Goals at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory

In 2000, Bechtel Jacobs Company LLC (BJC) contracted Tetra Tech NUS, Inc. (TtNUS) and their sub-contractor, Texas World Operations, Inc. (TWO), to plug and abandon (P&A) 111 wells located in the Melton Valley area of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). One hundred and seven of those wells were used to monitor fluid movement and subsurface containment of the low level radioactive liquid waste/grout slurry that was injected into the Pumpkin Valley Shale Formation, underlying ORNL. Four wells were used as hydrofracture injection wells to emplace the waste in the shale formation. Although the practice of hydrofracturing was and is considered by many to pose no threat to human health or the environment, the practice was halted in 1982 after the Federal Underground Injection Control regulations were enacted by United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) making it necessary to properly close the wells. The work is being performed for the United States Department of Energy Oak Ridge Operations (DOE ORO). The project team is using the philosophy of minimum waste generation and the principles of ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) as key project goals to minimize personnel and equipment exposure, waste generation, and project costs. Achievement of these goals was demonstrated by the introduction of several new pieces of custom designed well plugging and abandonment equipment that were tested and used effectively during field operations. Highlights of the work performed and the equipment used are presented

Methodological challenges for collaborative learning research

Research on collaborative learning, both face-to-face and computer-supported, has thrived in the past 10 years. The studies range from outcome-oriented (individual and group learning) to process-oriented (impact of interaction on learning processes, motivation and organisation of collaboration) to mixed studies. Collaborative learning research is multi-disciplinary. This introduces a multitude of theoretical accounts for collaborative learning, accompanied by a broad spectrum of methods to study processes and outcomes of collaboration. This special issue will provide an overview of methods that are at the core of current research effort, but also identifies opportunities and problems to sensibly combine methods into mixed method approaches

Content analysis: What are they talking about?

Quantitative content analysis is increasingly used to surpass surface level analyses in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (e.g., counting messages), but critical reflection on accepted practice has generally not been reported. A review of CSCL conference proceedings revealed a general vagueness in definitions of units of analysis. In general, arguments for choosing a unit were lacking and decisions made while developing the content analysis procedures were not made explicit. In this article, it will be illustrated that the currently accepted practices concerning the ‘unit of meaning’ are not generally applicable to quantitative content analysis of electronic communication. Such analysis is affected by ‘unit boundary overlap’ and contextual constraints having to do with the technology used. The analysis of e-mail communication required a different unit of analysis and segmentation procedure. This procedure proved to be reliable, and the subsequent coding of these units for quantitative analysis yielded satisfactory reliabilities. These findings have implications and recommendations for current content analysis practice in CSCL research