Working Papers – DML Hub

Game On! Connected Learning and Parental Support in the CyberPatriot Program

jpond — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 21:13:50 +0000

Over the course of six months in 2015, the author of this paper conducted a qualitative study of high school students who participate in Beyond the Bell’s CyberPatriot program, and their parents. CyberPatriot is an after-school program founded by the Air Force Association to inspire high school, middle school, and elementary students toward careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines. Students work in teams to compete in cybersecurity competitions at the local, regional and national level.

The aim of this study was to help identify factors that affect students’ interest-driven learning and their participation in the CyberPatriot program, especially those factors related to home life and parental influence. Students were recruited from CyberPatriot programs at six high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District as well as from three regional CyberPatriot events. A total of 12 families participated in the study. Students and their parents completed in-depth, semi-structured interviews typically taking place in their home. The families in this study represented a range of socioeconomic and educational levels and race/ethnicities. The majority reported an annual household income of under $49,000.

This report provides an analysis of the data collected from the families, as well as four case studies of particular students and their parents in order to offer a more in-depth picture of some of the emergent themes.

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Beyond Learning-As-Usual: Connected Learning Among Open Learners

jpond — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Open learning has emerged within the public imagination as a potentially disruptive force in higher education. It has attracted the attention of policy makers, venture capitalists and the technology sector, key functionaries in higher education, teachers, students, activists, progressives, futurists, and researchers. Despite the amount of attention it has received in popular media, there has been very little research on open learning from the perspective of learners. This case study was designed to provide that vantage point. Open learning pairs well with the core contexts and properties of connected learning. It is an analysis of connected learning within open learning, providing insight on how educators, designers, and technologists can continue to assess and design learning ecologies that promote the framework, designed with access and equity as foundational, of connected learning.

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Fashioning Learning: Connected Learning through Fashion Design Programs

jpond — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This analysis of Cali Design and Hive Fashion allows us to examine connected learning practices among youth in two environments that cater to an interest in fashion. It pushes us to appreciate how contexts may differently employ digital media to achieve important academically oriented outcomes, including skills with math, design, and teamwork, as well as technical skills with video and audio recording and editing technology. Both cases also illustrate how youth learn digital media literacies centered on curation and presentation to varied audiences, both in face-to-face environments and in online platforms. While Cali Design instructors did not see their work as inherently “techie,” they used digital tools such as Polyvore to augment their design lessons by providing opportunities to learn tuned to the skill level of the participants. They also used digital media to connect intergenerational audiences to the everyday learning practices of the program. Hive Fashion made explicit its goal to use and teach proficiencies with digital media technology. Participants pursued fashion-centered projects that often relied on the development of skills with video and audio recorders, image editing programs such as Adobe Illustrator, and advanced video editing applications such as Final Cut Pro. It is important that these cases show that with the right supports, connected learning environments can exist across a variety of contexts, including those that may resemble classes or programs offered in many schools. Both cases also provide examples of learning environments that have strong peer supports, a production focus, and a shared sense of purpose and community. These characteristics make them ideal connected learning environments, and they provide examples of how other programs may be similarly successful while serving a wide range of youth audiences across gender, race, and class.

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Hats for House Elves: Connected Learning and Civic Engagement in Hogwarts at Ravelry

jpond — Thu, 15 May 2014 16:00:00 +0000

This case report presents and discusses how the Hogwarts at Ravelry community functions as a connected learning environment. It lays out the background of the case by situating it in the context of the rich social history of fiber crafting, explaining the origins and design of the parent site of Ravelry.com, and explaining the history and design of the Hogwarts at Ravelry group. It explains the methods used to carry out the research. It describes and analyzes the features of the Hogwarts at Ravelry group that align with the connected learning principles of being an interest-powered, peer-supported, and academically-oriented site that has a shared purpose, emphasis on production, and is openly networked. And, it discusses how Hogwarts at Ravelry, as a connected learning environment, provides gateway opportunities for members to connect their interests with outside opportunities for community involvement and civic action.

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Crafting the Metagame: Connected Learning in the Starcraft II Community

jpond — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 16:00:00 +0000

StarCraft, a real-time strategy game developed by Blizzard Entertainment, has been labeled by many of its participants as the chess of the twenty-first century. Combining strategic problem-solving with fast reflexes has turned players into experts. The sheer pursuit of expertise drives many players to stick with the game for years and to share what they know with others.

By examining the StarCraft II community from both player and developer perspectives, we were able to deepen our understanding of the connected learning principles. The StarCraft II environment gives participants an opportunity to engage in either competition or mod-based production that is peer-supported and interest powered. StarCraft II offers participants a chance to develop soft skills that seem highly relevant to future work environments, characterized by constant competition and nonstop learning. In such environments, actors who are interest-driven and peer supported are likely to perform better. But, in order to galvanize peer support, learners have to learn to participate deeply and congenially, exercising skills, such as openness toward criticism, initiative, and civic mindedness. With participation in the community so closely linked to learning, encouraging youth to actively engage. For educators in the twenty-first century, online communities such as those that have been established around games such as StarCraft offer exciting models of peer-based learning environments. Players can move at their own pace, take advantage of a diverse set of resources created by other players, and are invited to contribute their own knowledge and expertise. How cool is that?

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Welcome to Sackboy Planet: Connected Learning Among LittleBigPlanet 2 Players

jpond — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 16:00:00 +0000

This case report describes one of a number of case studies from the Leveling Up project of the Connected Learning Research Network that explore the learning ecology of interest-centered youth contexts. In particular, this study and another on the online game StarCraft II are inspired by the theory of the metagame, a framework developed out of the study of role-playing and collectible card games (Salen and Zimmerman 2004). Designers of fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering first modeled an approach to game design that took into account a game’s relationship to outside elements — player attitudes, play styles, social reputations, social contexts, and so forth. Kids poring over Pokémon strategy guides or discussing the configuration of their decks are activities considered part of the metagame, a term that refers to the way a game engages with elements outside its formal space of play. StarCraft II players preparing strategies for an upcoming e-sport match are engaged in StarCraft’s metagame, as are the four DS-equipped 10-year-olds who trash-talk each other during a networked round of Mario Kart. In the case of the study at hand, players creating and sharing custom costumes for Sackboy between bouts of play represent a core piece of LBP2’s metagame.

Through analysis of the various features of the LBP2 community and its activities, including its social, technical, and cultural facets, we show how Sackboy Planet engages with the tenets of connected learning and complicates some of its assertions. In particular, we identify how player demographic differences and the prevalence of attention scarcity both enable and constrain learning opportunities.

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Youth, New Media, and the Rise of Participatory Politics

jpond — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

New media have come to play a prominent role in civic and political life. Social network sites, web sites and text increasingly serve as both a conduit for political information and a major public arena where citizens express and exchange their political ideas; raise funds; and mobilize others to vote, protest, and work on public issues. This chapter considers how the ascendency of today’s new media may be introducing fundamental changes in political expectations and practices. Specifically, we see evidence that new media are facilitating participatory politic — interactive, peer-based acts through which individuals and groups seek to exert both voice and influence on issues of public concern. While these kinds of acts have always existed, evidence suggests that new media are providing new opportunities for political voice and discussion, thus increasing the role of participatory politics in public life. In this chapter, we provide a conceptual overview of the implications of this shift for how political life is organized, emerging political practices, and pathways to political engagement. We focus our analysis on youth, who are early adopters of new media, and provide some empirical evidence to demonstrate the importance of participatory politics to their political life as well as to highlight some benefits as well as risks associated with this form of political engagement.

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Schooling the Directioners: Connected Learning and Identity-Making in the One Direction Fandom

jpond — Sat, 01 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This study presented here is one of several case studies from the Connected Learning Research Network (CLRN) that highlights interest-based digitally mediated spaces for learning and affinity formation. Like other case studies in this series, this mixed-methods research delves into a particular community, members of which are connected to each other in two ways: (1) with an online forum and other media outlets and (2) through Directioner fan art. Using content analysis, ethnographic observations, surveys, and interviews, this study explores the dynamics related to learning, literacy, and identity formation within a Directioner community on Wattpad. Tens of thousands of stories about the band have been published on Wattpad to date, and this study looks at the writers, readers, and commentators of these stories. Furthermore, attendant to the fanfiction stories were forum discussions, book covers, YouTube trailers marketing the stories, comments, profiles, and song remixes. These media objects are examined in tandem with the fanfiction stories in order to provide a more holistic picture of what connected learning looks like in this slice of a young but mighty teenage fandom.

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Learning The Ropes: Connected Learning in a WWE Fan Community

jpond — Sat, 01 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This case study reveals how complex and multifaceted the professional wrestling fandom is through the exploration of one fairly typical fan community, the Wrestling Boards. Interest in professional wrestling brings members of this community together online, often aided by a lack of local community, encouraging participants to seek out new places to explore their interest.

Community members support each other and welcome new members, with peers coming together to encourage one another. The peer support of the community fosters a learning environment that encourages exploration and skill development. Although professional wrestling often is viewed as antiacademic and lacking in intellectual rigor, this case study brings to light the level of involvement participants have and the types of skills and level of expertise required to participate.

The Wrestling Boards offers participants a safe and supportive environment to explore their interest in wrestling, as well as utilizing academic skills in support of their interest. These academically and career-relevant skills, such as writing, digital media skills (i.e., videography, website design), and communication skills are developed and strengthened through feedback given by peers in the community.

The community exists because of its members’ interest and dedication to production. The activities of the community are completely production-centered, focused on discussion, argumentation, and narrative in writing. The openly networked nature of the community allows fans to come together despite being isolated by geography. The members of the Wrestling Boards use the support of the community, which fosters respect and friendship, as a way to overcome their isolation, which is due to local social stigma surrounding their interest in professional wrestling. The members have a shared purpose of participating in and maintaining the forum, and they are dedicated to maintaining high standards and an educational mission.

As a connected learning environment, the community allows everyone to participate with low barriers to entry. Learning in the community happens through participation and engagement. The Wrestling Boards offers its members new challenges because of the changing story lines of WWE and new participation opportunities in the community. The connectedness within the community and between it and the Internet wrestling community demonstrate that the Wrestling Boards gives members many ways to be interconnected and to participate in their interest.

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Between Storytelling and Surveillance

jpond — Sun, 01 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This report offers a study of civically engaged American Muslim youth as they confront the often harsh political climate of Post-9/11 America where moderate Muslim voices have struggled to find a means of entering an increasingly polarized discussion around Islamaphobic and extremist perspectives.

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