"Struggling With It? I'm an I.T. Teacher": Doing Online Category Work About an Educational Issue

• In Event: 60.083 - Roundtable Session 19
  In Roundtable Session: 60.083-5 - Technology as an Agent of Change in Teaching and Learning SIG Roundtable 4: Technology as a Tool to Support Literacy

Abstract

Research that examines the uptake of digital technologies in classrooms provides a body of literature on the issue from the perspectives of education stakeholders such as teachers and students. This study employs the sociological perspective of Membership Categorization Analysis to examine the ways that numerous perspectives on the issue are drawn together in response to a news website article about the use of digital devices in classrooms. The analysis examines the ways categories, and category related activities, were used to inform and justify what a range of people said and inferred about the perspectives of others on the issue. Categories are shown to be important for in situ “sense making” that underpins and enables the doing of social life online.

Authors

• Christina R. Davidson, Charles Sturt University

• Gillian Busch