This paper presents research on parent support of the development of new media skills and technological fluency. Parents' roles in their children's learning were identified based on interviews with eight middle school students and their parents. All eight students were highly experienced with technology activities. Seven distinct parental roles that supported learning were identified and defined: Teacher, Collaborator, Learning Broker, Resource Provider, Nontechnical Consultant, Employer, and Learner. The parents in this sample varied in their level of technological knowledge, though in every
In this study our goal is to conduct a "connective ethnography" that focuses on how gaming expertise spreads across a network of youth at an after-school club that simultaneously participates in a multi-player virtual environment (MUVE). We draw on multiple sources of information: observations, interviews, video recordings, online tracking and chat data, and hundreds of hours of play in the virtual environment of Whyville ourselves. By focusing on one particular type of insider knowledge, called teleporting, we traced youth learning in a variety of online and offlien social contexts, both from
Design-based research is a collection of innovative methodological approaches that involve the building of theoretically-inspired designs to systematically generate and test theory in naturalistic settings. Design-based research is especially powerful with respect to supporting and systematically examining innovation. In part, this is due to the fact that conducting design-based research involves more than examining what is. It also involves designing possibilities and then evolving theories within real-world contexts. In this article we share the historical development of three outcomes of
The author reviews the empirical literature testing that there is an association between instruction in music (usually school-based) and performance in reading (as measured by reading test scores or by general tests of verbal aptitude).
The contemporary approach to art education focuses on content that is derived from a broad range of the visual arts with an emphasis on what can be learned from works of art. This is a significant departure from earlier aesthetic approaches which led to purely formalist criticism in the classroom. Based on the work of Arthur Danto, the author proposes that teachers develop student abilities to go beyond the visual level of artworks and enable them to gain access to the complexity of meanings that works of art possess. To exemplify this practice, an analysis of Adrian Piper's work entitled I
This case study reveals how one community-based youth development organization in the northeastern United States advocated for social and educational equity for the low-income families it served by challenging the local school district’s practice of referring low-income children of color to special education in disproportionate numbers. Because this community-based organization (CBO) is typical of many such youth-serving organizations, the case study shows how the assets CBOs bring to their communities can help them negotiate with schools to achieve greater social and educational equity for
A vivid portrait of a little girl, her mother, and their experience at a neighborhood agency demonstrates how stories taken from the field can illustrate the power of peer education and motivate staff toward more inspired educational after school programming.
Community technology centers (CTCs) help bridge the digital divide for immigrant youth in disadvantaged neighborhoods. A study of six CTCs in California shows that these centers also promote positive youth development for young people who are challenged to straddle two cultures.
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Rebecca LondonManuel PastorRachel Rosner
A unique afterschool class in making comic strips and comic books, taught by a professional comic artist, encourages both literacy development and identity development in adolescent participants.
Pairing age-appropriate novels with thematic units on the civil rights movement and the presidential election allows one afterschool practitioner to bring democracy to life for inner-city middle school students.