Platformization as a Driver of "New" Narratives of Learning Across Formal and Informal Learning Spaces

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This session demonstrates how the boundaries between commercial platforms for entertainment, such as YouTube or Discord, and formal educational platforms, such as Education Perfect, are blurring. Commercial platforms make use of pedagogic practices, such as reward systems, to ‘teach’ their users desired behavior. Learning platforms, on the other hand, are increasingly colonized by social media and game elements. The session departs from a socio-cultural perspective of learning and combines digital ethnography, critical discourse analysis, tracking software and surveys. It aims to explore how ‘new’ narratives of learning and engagement might emerge both from how ‘platform logics’ enter educational spaces, and from how social media platforms borrow the logics of pedagogy to engage young people.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Cultural-Historical Research

Chair

• Mariette Haan De, Utrecht University

Papers

• Problematizing Platform Boundary Objects: Assessment Norm Negotiations on Formal and Informal Learning Platforms - Svea Kiesewetter, Gothenburg University; Alena Seredko, University of Gothenburg; Thomas Hillman, University of Gothenburg

• Kahoot! and Education Perfect: A Critical Analysis of the "Engaged Student" in Gamified Learning Platforms - Chris Zomer, Deakin University

• Discipline and Entertain Us: Youth Raised by YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok - Zowi Vermeire, Utrecht University; Mariette Haan De, Utrecht University; Sanne Akkerman, Utrecht University

• Beyond Code: Online Platforms and Learning Affordances in Computer Sciences Undergraduate Education - Andres Araos, University of Oslo; Crina Damsa, University of Oslo

Discussants

• T. Philip Nichols, Baylor University

• Eve Mayes