Eliciting Scientific Funds of Knowledge Through Social Media Sharing in Formal Learning Environments

• In Event: 28.057 - Advanced Technologies for Learning Paper Session

Abstract

Increasingly, researchers and practitioners have postulated that children's use of social media (SM) presents opportunities for educators to access everyday funds of knowledge and connect them to formal scientific practices and language. Despite studies that underscore teachers' willingness to draw children's SM use into the classroom, actual implementation is rare and sharing of best practices remains limited. Our case study presents the efforts of three middle school teachers who aimed to connect their learners' use of SM to formal science practices. We apply Moje's (2004) framework of Funds of Knowledge and Discourse to suggest how teachers can use SM in classrooms to include their learners' funds of knowledge within official school Discourse in complementary and expansive ways.

Authors

• Kelly Mills, University of Maryland - College Park

• Elizabeth Bonsignore, University of Maryland - College Park

• Daniel Pauw, University of Maryland - College Park

• Caroline Pitt, University of Washington - Seattle

• Kenna Hernly, University of Maryland - College Park

• Lautaro Cabrera, University of Maryland - College Park

• Hannoori Jeong, University of Maryland - College Park

• Jason Yip, University of Washington - Seattle

• June Ahn, University of California - Irvine

• Tamara Lynnette Clegg, University of Maryland - College Park