THEN: Journal

Issue No. 1 -- Summer, 2005

Feature Articles

Co-authoring identity: Digital storytelling in an urban middle school (December 21, 2004)
Alan Davis (University of Colorado at Denver)

Working after school in the Cyber Cougars Fifth Dimension Club in a large city in the western US, African American youth age 12 to 14 produced digital stories representing episodes of change in their own lives. A close examination of how three of these stories came into being explores the dialogic process of authoring and considers some of the ways that self-narratives can serve as developmental tools for the authors. [This study was supported by Field Initiated Study Grant R305T010285, OERI, U. S. Department of Education]

From "ownership" to dialogic addressivity: Defining successful digital storytelling projects (March 03, 2005)
Renée Hayes (University of Delaware)
Eugene Matusov (University of Delaware)

This article explores the definition of successful digital storytelling projects through the examination of three projects created by children at a community center, under the guidance of adults. We propose a definition of success based on the notion of "addressivity" rather than "ownership."

Chorus, colour, and contrariness in school mathematics (July 18, 2005)
Nathalie Sinclair (Michigan State University)

Using distinctions offered by the cultural and literary critic Roland Barthes with respect to literary works, this paper considers alternative forms of mathematical texts--which are characteristically linear and monotonous--that may support and evoke narrative thinking and learning in the mathematics classroom. In particular, it explores the possibility and desirability of students using expressive technologies (both on-line and desktop software) to become producers or writers of their own mathematical texts.

Issue No. 2 -- Winter, 2006

Feature Articles

Integrating literacy, technology and disciplined inquiry in social studies: The development and application of a conceptual model (October 23, 2005)
James Damico (Indiana University, Bloomington)
Mark Baildon (Taipei American School)
Gerald Campano (Indiana University, Bloomington)

This article traces the development of a model designed to guide teachers and students as they confront the challenges of working with Web-based texts.

From Plato’s Republic to Quest Atlantis: The role of the philosopher-king (January 20, 2006)
Sasha Barab (Indiana University)
Craig Jackson (Indiana University)

In this article, we present a reflective account of our experience in developing a play space for learning that sits at the intersection of education, entertainment, and our social commitments. We use Plato's Republic as backdrop to understand the struggles and opportunities of designing and supporting a globally-distributed, multi-user virtual environment to facilitate the learning of thousands of children ages nine to thirteen. This environment allows us to better understand the tensions involved in sharing power, facilitating distributed ownership, supporting voice, insinuating norms, and the assigning of roles and responsibilities within the confines of a monitored social environment designed to support learning. We (designers, teachers, and members alike) have faced implicit and explicit opportunities to learn about and experiment with social power in a context that is relatively safe, instructive, forgiving of mistakes, and capable of fast adaptation when changes are needed. Here, we provide an account that both advocates for and problematizes play spaces for education, sharing hope and providing empirical grounding to what are all too often unsubstantiated claims or highly theoretical aspirations.

Issue No. 3 -- Summer, 2006

Feature Articles

Political blogs and participatory democracy: Evidence from Portugal and Spain (June 22, 2006)
Irene Ramos Vielba (Indiana University Bloomington)

The goal of this paper is to contribute to the debate about the possibility that blogs promote mechanisms of electronic democracy, incorporating evidence from political blogs in Portugal and Spain.

From technologia to technism: A critique on technology’s place in education (July 16, 2006)
Douglas McKnight (University of Alabama)
Cecil Robinson (University of Alabama)

The last decade has witnessed a growing discourse within educational research about the necessity of computer technology as the primary tool to educate for a democratic citizenry. Such claims incorporate assumptions about the meaning and function of "technology" unrecognized by researchers who advocate technology as an instructional tool to develop democratic "skills." A fundamental assumption is technological determinism, an uncritical posture toward computer technology—the Internet in particular—that signifies technology as the inevitable engine propelling America towards its moral imperative to be the dominant force in the world. According to principles of determinism, technology is a neutral tool for the manipulation and control of information, and as such exists outside of cultural, political or personal critique. Once control is established, a consensus of use and obeisance to its practices are assumed, making dissent or alternative viewpoints difficult and unlikely.

This deterministic impulse serves an old cultural metanarrative of American exceptionalism operating in both religious and secular language. We examine historical precedents for this emphasis and reliance on technology by tracing some of technological determinism's roots within the US educational system, beginning specifically with the New England Puritans first Harvard curriculum, called "technologia," analyze how these notions became embedded within current perceptions of technology, and discuss the implications for education and democracy—particularly how, by ignoring the historical precedent, researchers may actually be reproducing past structures and limiting democratic promise of technology.

Commentary

Building bridges: Connecting virtual teams using narrative and technology, (January 02, 2006)
Stephen M. Fiore (University of Central Florida)
Rudy McDaniel (University of Central Florida)

Editor's note: The following piece kicks off a forum of ideas about current or potential roles of narrative in the activity of distributed teams. Over the coming months, we will be publishing commentary from several different contributors. If you are interested in submitting a response to one or more of the questions and issues raised in this piece, please contact the editors.

Responding to “Building bridges: Connecting virtual teams using narrative and technology”, (April 22, 2006)
Loel Kim (University of Memphis)

Stories in training: Why and when. A response to Fiore and McDaniel, (June 11, 2006)
Jared Freeman (Aptima)

Issue No. 4 -- Spring, 2007

Feature Articles

Technologized democracy: A critique on technology's place in social studies education (January 09, 2007)
Cecil Robinson (University of Alabama)
Douglas McKnight (University of Alabama)

Building on the discussion of historical deterministic impulses driving research of technology in education, which we outlined our previous article (McKnight & Robinson, 2006), this paper provides a more concrete demonstration of the effects of reducing technology to a rational, neutral object -- one that functions to manipulate, store and access bits of information, which are then represented as knowledge. To accomplish this task we focus on a particular discipline -- social studies -- because of significant claims that it is the discipline to create democratic citizens by fostering diversity of thought, action and peoples.

We argue, however, the discourse of technology embraced by the field of social studies actually serves to reduce diversity of thought and action. In effect, the principles of technological determinism dictate that technology is a neutral tool for the manipulation and control of information, and as such exists outside of cultural, political or personal critique. Once such control is established, a consensus of use and obeisance to its practices are assumed, making dissent or alternative viewpoints difficult and unlikely. This runs counter to NCSS claims of a diverse society being necessary for the survival of American democracy.

Commentary

Analytic and synthetic depictions of human activity, (August 29, 2006)
John M. Carroll (Pennsylvania State University)

Creating stories over distance, (September 12, 2006)
Saul Greenberg (University of Calgary)

Living in Narrative: Commentary on Fiore and McDaniel, (November 07, 2006)
Joyce Yukawa (University of Hawai`i at Manoa)
Dan Suthers (University of Hawai`i at Manoa)

Issue No. 5 -- Spring, 2008

Feature Articles

Reading across the digital divide: A sociolinguistic analysis of networked literature discussion between urban and suburban 5th graders (March 20, 2008)
Andrew Ratner (City College of New York)

The article reports on a six-month literature-based, computer network collaboration between 5th grade classrooms in Harlem and a suburban town in the Florida panhandle. As the classes conducted book discussions in response to two novels they read together, conflicts arose between participants concerning expectations for the content and use of language in the electronic messages exchanged between students. Halliday and Hasan's (1989) social linguistic concepts of field, tenor and mode are used to analyze the email texts and explore what led to these conflicts. The findings reveal how as a relatively new mode of discourse in classroom settings, computer-mediated communication invites misunderstandings and potentially unsettling shifts in traditional teacher and student roles. Rather than seeking to avoid or overly regulate conflict and confusion in networked literature discussions however, the author encourages teachers to regard these potential outcomes as opportunities for reading and writing instruction grounded in authentic communication contexts.

Engaging student voice and fulfilling curriculum goals with digital stories (April 23, 2008)
Therese Kulla-Abbott (University of Missouri-St. Louis)
Joseph L. Polman (University of Missouri-St. Louis)

Digital storytelling is a recent achievement that utilizes the latest developments in digital video cameras, scanners, personal computers and software. In digital storytelling projects, learners collaboratively videotape, edit, and create digital stories, which incorporate multiple media, and deal with issues of point-of-view, context, and communication of ideas. Such projects implemented in out-of-school time have generally been successful at fostering literacy skills while positively influencing youth identity development (Atchley, 2000; Davis, 2004; Hull & Greeno, 2006; Lambert, 2002). Unlike many of the other implementations of digital storytelling, this study was conducted within a formal school, in a context where digital storytelling was used in part to fulfill curriculum goals. This research project was integrated into the classroom curriculum and took place throughout the 2005-2006 school year. Students created a series of three digital stories over the course of several months implementing creative, narrative and persuasive writing. These digital stories utilized the grade level curriculum, integrating communication arts, social studies, science, and technology. The purpose of this paper is to better understand the tensions between students developing and engaging their personal voice in digital storytelling, and achieving school-based curricular goals.

Issue No. 6: Summer, 2009

Feature Articles

Classroom blogging in the service of student-centered pedagogy: Two high school teachers’ use of blogs (September 23, 2008)
April Luehmann (University of Rochester)
Robyn MacBride (Greece Arcadia High School)

Classroom blogs (chronologically-organized series of web-based entries orchestrated by a teacher for his/her classroom) provide a unique vehicle to elicit and hear student voices, yet we know little about how teachers and students actually use this new tool. In this study, two classroom blogs were systematically examined to identify specific ways in which the teacher used it to support, strengthen and transform classroom instruction, and the learning affordances associated with each of these uses. The two classroom blogs examined were set up and maintained by 1) a first-year high school science teacher and 2) a veteran high school mathematics teacher, who chose to use their classroom blog in quite different ways. Six distinct "classroom blogging practices" are identified: (a) sharing resources; (b) responding to teacher prompts; (c) recording lessons' highlights; (c) posting learning challenges; (e) reflecting on what was learned; and (f) engaging in on-line conversations. Based on a content analysis of the two classroom blogs and interviews with the two teachers, considerations are offered about how each of these six complementary uses can offer different sets of learning opportunities for students, and furthermore how realizing these learning opportunities depends on how the blog is structured. These findings suggest that the manner and extent to which blogs can contribute to more engaged and in-depth student participation depends greatly on how a classroom blog is structured and used.

Laptops and PowerPoint: Teacher education for the senses or sensibilities? (April 09, 2009)
Jason M.C. Price (University of Victoria)
Carlo Ricci (Nipissing University)

In this article the authors explore the findings of their qualitative case study of a laptop focused teacher education program from a critical perspective. While examining student criticisms and concerns regarding their use of the technology in their classrooms and official curriculum as expressed in surveys, individual and focus group interviews, the authors argue for the benefits of unrestricted use of laptops with internet access in classrooms in aid of open source learning and substantive resistance to official curriculum.

The brain injured student and emotional curriculum (June 05, 2009)
Roy J. Thurston (University of Saskatchewan)

For all children, the learning process has highs and lows, but for individuals who have suffered from a traumatic brain injury (TBI), the return to the classroom can mean that even subjects that were once easily understood and quickly learned can be difficult to comprehend and retain. New information has surfaced on how memory can be improved by using curriculum enhanced with the link between visual imagery (film) and emotion, to help these students rebuild their educational strategies and their lives. This article discusses perspectives at the intersection of memory, learning, artistic media, and emotion, and relates a narrative of a successful use of film to engage students with TBIs.

Reviews

Book review: Here comes everybody, (January 22, 2009)
Kim Walter (CU-Denver and Jefferson County School District)

Issue No. 7 (open for submissions)

Reviews

Book review: Teaching the New Writing: Technology, change, and assessment in the 21st-century classroom, (June 15, 2009)
Jenna McWilliams (Indiana University)

Essays

Essay: Games, gods and grades, (November 18, 2009)
Fred Goodman (University of Michigan)