Wireless and Mobile: The Impact of New Technology on Literacy Practices

• In Event: Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: Literacy Practices and New Technologies in and out of School

Abstract

With mobile communications being more affordable, youth from low socio-economic households and communities have greater opportunities to engage in the digital world. But what are urban youth using, how are they using them, what do their literacy practices look like, why those particular devices, and what are the digital geographies that they inhabit? This connective ethnographic case study sought to understand the digital literacy practices of low socio-economic youth as they engaged with mobile communication technologies. Participants were youth, aged 16 -18 years of age who attended an urban high school. Mobile communication technologies included cell phones, smart phones, laptops, and tablets/iPads.

Author

• Martha Joanne Hoff, University of Rochester