Bidirectional Artifact Analysis: A Method for Analyzing Creative Processes in Formal Learning Settings

• In Event: Roundtable Session 82
  In Roundtable Session: Identification and Meaningful Participation

Abstract

In this paper, we describe bidirectional artifact analysis, a framework for analyzing young peoples’ creative production processes through ethnographic observations of participants, the artifacts they create, and interviews with participants as they describe their activities over time. While typical descriptive analyses of process move forwards, we have found that moving bi-directionally — from final product backwards and from initial idea forwards — better help us to understand participants’ learning and the role of social and collaborative audiences in that learning. In order to understand and design learning environments that support new literacies practices, we must develop methods that specifically help researchers to describe the processes of creative production and how they lead to the creation of successful literacy artifacts.

Authors

• Alecia Marie Magnifico, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Erica Rosenfeld Halverson, University of Wisconsin - Madison