The Teacher as a Mediator of Students' Online Literate Activity

• In Event: Poster Session 9
  In Poster Session: Technology-Based Learning Environments for Teachers, Parents, and Communities

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate the mediating factors that influenced students’ online literate activity in two tracked language arts classes taught by the same teacher - one with and one without a mandated curriculum. The study focused on the following research question: How does the teacher mediate students’ online literate activity in each of the two classes? The research was framed within sociocultural understandings of literacy and learning and employed ethnographic methods (Heath & Street, 2008) and activity system analysis (Engeström, 1987). Findings indicated that the same teacher mediated students’ online activity in dramatically different ways in each of the classes and that many mediating factors dramatically curtailed the teachers’ influence in online spaces.

Author

• Sonia Melanie Kline, Illinois State University