Old Communication, New Literacies: Social Network Sites as Social Learning Resources

Abstract

This study examined the role of a social network site (SNS) Recent studies (Lenhart, Arafeh, Smith, & McGill, 2008;Lenhart, Madden, & Hitlin, 2005), commentaries (Prensky, 2001), and anecdotes from U.S. national digital learning initiatives (e.g., www.macfound.org) have painted an image of today's adolescents as 'digital natives' and 'millenial learners:' young people who are constantly online, perceive themselves as Internet-savvy, and prefer technologyenhanced communication channels. Popular media accounts, however, tend to portray young people's media practices as deficient or deleterious to academic learning, often linking them to an ''overriding sense of moral panic about declining standards of literacy'' (Thurlow, 2006, para. 23) or a ''threat to societal values'' (Herring, 2007, p. 4) without acknowledging the full complexity of students' experiences (Thurlow, 2003). This discrepancy between adult perspectives on new media and youth's experiences can be explained, in part, by a ''generational divide' ' (Herring, 2007, p. 1;Lankshear & Knobel, 2006;Warschauer, 2007) In this paper, we argue that adult-driven discourses ought to consider not just 'academic' literacies (i.e., literacy practices generally emphasized and tested in schools) but also young people's 'nonacademic' communicative literacies typically practiced outside of school as part of their overall development of new literacies. To engage in an increasingly Internet-mediated and participatory culture, students need a solid understanding of traditional print-based literacies, 21 st century skills (Partnership for 21 st Century Skills, 2008) and digital literacies of online reading, writing, and communication (Coiro, Knobel, Lankshear & Leu, 2008;Greenhow, 2008; Leu, O'Byrne, Zawilinski, McVerry & Everett-Cacopardo, 2009;Thurlow, 2004). This may be especially important for low-income students who, in poorer school districts, are typically subjected to infrequent, drill and practice type instruction with the internet rather than the kinds of constructivist-oriented experiences enjoyed by their more affluent peers (Warschauer, 2007) To open up this conversation, we seek to examine what literacy and learning as a social practice look like within the context of young people's activities in social network sites. Research has shown that the meaning of social network site practices varies across sites and individuals (Donath & boyd, 2004;Lange, 2007). Building on efforts to accurately characterize social network site usage among different groups of users (Hargittai, 2007), this research explores social network site uses and perceptions among high school teenagers from low-income families in the United States. This subgroup of adolescents is rarely featured in either the scholarly or popular discourse. With over a third (35%) of children ages 13 through 17 years-7.4 million teens-living in low-income families in the U.S., the proportion of these children attending our nation's schools is significant (DouglasHall, Chau, & Koball, 2006). Understanding...

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