Trendsetting Learning Biographies: Concepts of Navigating through Late-modern Life and Learning

What Online Networks Offer: Online Network Compositions and Online Learning Experiences of Three Ethnic Groups

“…Our results on ethno-cultural diversity in youth's participation in online networks and the subsequent differences in youth's online learning experiences showed how learning experiences can be shaped by social networks and vice versa (Diepstraten et al, 2006). While Turkish-Dutch youth's online learning stays strongly related to their own offline ethnic community, native Dutch and -especially-Moroccan-Dutch youth are more prone to engage in new online networks to exchange information and receive feedback.…”

“…From a socio-cultural perspective on learning (Vygotsky, 1978) a person's social context channels the growth of his or her mind: what is learned and how it is learned depends on the interactions with social others (Claxton, 2002). In the same line of thought, others have argued that people's social networks structure the (im)possibilities of their learning (Diepstraten et al, 2006). Network relations help a person to test his or her ideas, to reflect on choices, and to exchange information and support (Diepstraten et al, 2006).…”

“…In the same line of thought, others have argued that people's social networks structure the (im)possibilities of their learning (Diepstraten et al, 2006). Network relations help a person to test his or her ideas, to reflect on choices, and to exchange information and support (Diepstraten et al, 2006). Learning can be considered a networked phenomenon that covers the total of relationships and resources individuals have at their reach (de Haan, Leander, Ünlüsoy, & Prinsen, 2014).…”

“…As Ito et al (2008) put it: "by its immediacy and breadth of information, the digital world lowers barriers to self-directed learning" (p. 2). As a result youth become active producers of their own knowledge (Brown, 2009;Diepstraten et al, 2006;Ito, 2010;Ito et al, 2013).…”

“…Current methods of teaching and learning in schools no longer suffice to prepare students for their lives in today's interconnected and complex twenty-first century (Brown, 2005;Brown & Adler, 2008;Diepstraten, du Bois-Reymond, & Vinken, 2006;Drotner, 2008;Kumpulainen & Sefton-Green, 2014). Attention for informal, out-of-school learning is recently vastly growing (Erstad, 2012;Ito et al, 2013;Ünlüsoy, de Haan, & Leander, 2010), and youth's digital world is becoming one of the key areas for learning (Erstad, 2012;Drotner, 2008).…”