Scaffolding Students’ Learning and Identities as Digital Media Producers

• In Event: Toward a Refined Understanding of Social and Material Scaffolds in STEM Education

Abstract

Objectives
In this paper we explore how mentors in an inner city middle school digital arts program created and employed scaffolds for students to learn creative production using technology. We outline how this program, the Digital Youth Network (DYN) used scaffolding that supported both student skill building with technology as well as their developing identities as digital media producers.

Theoretical framework
Our theoretical framework highlights the important roles of social support in developing and supporting their emerging interests and point to the role of the child in creating their own learning opportunities (Barron, 2006; Bronfenbrenner, 1979). We also draw on theories of interest development that conceptualize the evolution of topical interests as moving from temporary periods of fleeting attention to more sustained interests that become stable and increasingly self-sustaining (Dewey, 1913; Hidi & Renninger, 2006). Finally, we draw on socio-cultural historical theories of learning that foreground the intertwining of cultural practice, identity and the development of skills, knowledge, and expressive capacities (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998). These theories broaden the scope of what has traditionally been considered as learning to go beyond knowledge or expertise to include the ways that learners’ conceptualize themselves in relation to content and their future goals.

Methodology
We followed a cohort of 50 learners at Renaissance Academy, one of three schools that used the DYN model, across three years beginning in sixth grade. Renaissance Academy is an inner-city charter school serving approximately 140 6-8 graders from middle to low-income households, most of whom are African American. We construct technobiographies of the cases (Barron, 2006) based on accounts provided in interviews and through observations in order to chart learning activities across time and setting. We use interviews to obtain an historical account from the learner’s perspective of the emergence and evolution of projects. Field notes, video, and student projects collected by researchers and teacher/mentors offer additional data.

Findings
The paper discusses two levels of scaffolding included in the DYN program design. Initially, mentors worked on seeding creative production: creating a low barrier to entry, structuring project-based assignments that motivated students, designing competitions and connecting youth to authentic communities of practice. Second, mentors endeavored to support creator identities, positioning students as critical media producers and consumers, as well as social advocates for themselves and their communities. This type of scaffolding included regular forums for showcasing student work, initiating dialogue around important issues and illuminating pathways that might give students ideas of possible future selves. In this way, students learned skills while also building identities that would allow them to continue deepening and exploring their practice with technology.


Scholarly significance
As education shifts focus to include digital or “21st Century” literacies, research on learning environments that emphasize these new media skills shed light on paths forward. Our analysis of DYN contributes substantially to the new field of digital media and learning, as well as to researchers’ and educators’ understanding of how children learn through the active construction and design of media and technology projects.

Authors

• Amber Maria Levinson, Stanford University

• Daniel Stringer, Stanford University

• Brigid J.S. Barron, Stanford University