Designing Connected Learning for the English Language Arts Classroom

• In Event: Blurring the Boundaries Between Formal and Informal Learning Spaces Through Technology

Abstract

Purpose
There is a growing gap between youth’s digital media use outside the classroom and what happens in most public schools (Ito, Gutiérrez, Livingstone, Penuel, Rhodes, Salen, Schor, Sefton-Green, & Watkins, 2013). Teachers play a crucial role in supporting young people’s ability to engage in new multimodal and digital literacies (Mills, 2010). However there is little research that examines the kinds of supports and scaffolds teachers need in order to help their students' fully participate in the emerging media landscape. The purpose of this study is to analyze how 3 secondary English Language Arts teachers learned to incorporate connected learning (interest-powered; peer-supported, academically oriented, and enabled by digital technologies) into their classrooms (Ito, et al., 2013).

Theoretical framework
This study draws on sociocultural theories (Bakhtin, 1981; Vygotsky, 1978) that focus on the social nature of learning and emphasize the role tools play in mediating learning. Building from this foundation, Cultural Historical Activity Theory (Cole, 1996; Engeström & Miettinen, 1999; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wertsch, 1991) works from the
perspective that learning should be seen as activity situated within discourse communities. Grossman, Smagorinsky, and Valencia (1999) provide an activity theory framework for studying teacher education. An activity theory perspective on teacher learning provides a nuanced view of why teachers believe and act in certain ways because of the attention paid to the context and settings in which teachers work and

Methods and data sources
The case studies were drawn from a larger data set from a two year study that emerged out of a school and university-based partnership funded by a Teacher Quality grant. The professional development program included a week-long institute each summer (30 hours), and four follow-up meetings held at the schools during the school year (24 hours). Drawing on multiple data from the larger study, descriptive case studies were
created and organized chronologically, for each participant in the study. Each case was then coded used the key concepts outlined in Grossman, Smagorinsky, and Valencia’s (1999) framework to analyze what tools the teachers appropriated, to what extent they appropriated the tools, and to analyze why the teacher’s appropriated the tools to the extent that they did.

Results
Overall, all three teachers were able to accomplish the goals that they had established for themselves in the Summer Institute. All of the teachers incorporated both digital tools and conceptual tools introduced during the professional development program. The teachers’ shifts in practice created more opportunities for the teachers’ students to write about topics they were interested in, to engage in collaborative work, and to experiment with digital technologies.

Scholarly significance
While schools are often not thought of as places where students have opportunities for connected learning, this study shows that on-going professional development has the potential to support teachers in making shifts in their teaching practice with regards to digital technologies.

Author

• Lindy L. Johnson, The College of William and Mary