Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the practices of two teachers who had chosen to use the social network site (SNS) Ning to create online classrooms as supplements to their physical classrooms in order to bridge the self and school-selected literacies of adolescents. The study further aimed to identify whether the ways in which the teachers were using the SNS constituted a new literacy practice and if so in what ways. It supports and adds to the new literacies theory in four ways: 1. by revisiting the notion of what constitutes literacy, 2. by identifying attributes that do and do not constitute new literacies, 3. by supporting the view that new technologies do not automatically correspond to new literacies, and 4. by showing that new technologies may end up devaluing other modes of learning.

Keywords: New literacies, social network sites, web 2.0, social software, literacy, blogging

Biographical Statement

Maryam Moayeri is a teacher and doctoral candidate at the University of British Columbia. Her research projects include exploring how teachers are incorporating internet practices into the curriculum and how youth are using the internet to learn. Her recent publications include “PhD in Pajamas: Kicking Back and Letting the Information Come to Me” to appear in Journal of Media Practice and “Collecting Online Data with Usability Testing Software”to appear in Prism.

Email: mmoayeri@shaw.ca

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