Web 2.0, new literacies, and the idea of learning through participation

MERCHANT, G. H. (2009). Web 2.0, new literacies, and the idea of learning through participation. English teaching: practice and critique, 8 (3), 8-20.

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Abstract

In this paper I identify some current elaborations on the theme of participation and digital literacy in order to open further debate on the relationship between interaction, collaboration, and learning in online environments. Motivated by an interest in using new technologies in the context of formal learning (Merchant, 2009), I draw on in-school and out-of-school work in Web 2.0 spaces. This work is inflected by the new literacies approach (Lankshear and Knobel, 2006a), and here I provide an overview of the ways in which learning through participation is characterised by those adopting this and other related perspectives. I include a critical examination of the idea of ‘participatory’ culture as articulated in the field of media studies, focusing particularly on the influential work of Jenkins (2006a; 2006b). In order to draw these threads together around conceptualizations of learning, I summarise ways in which participation is described in the literature on socially-situated cognition. This is used to generate some tentative suggestions about how learning and literacy in Web 2.0 spaces might be envisioned and how ideas about participation might inform curriculum planning and design.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: This is the author's final version of an article that appears in MERCHANT, G. H. (2009). Web 2.0, new literacies, and the idea of learning through participation. English teaching: practice and critique, 8 (3), 8-20. English teaching: practice and critique is available online at http://edlinked.soe.waikato.ac.nz/research/journal/index.php?id=1.
Uncontrolled Keywords: education, literacy, media studies, technology, learning, participation
Research Institute, Centre or Group - Does NOT include content added after October 2018: Sheffield Institute of Education
Page Range: 8-20
Depositing User: Caroline Fixter
Date Deposited: 12 Feb 2010 15:16
Last Modified: 18 Mar 2021 07:55
URI: https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/1102

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