Originally Published on Exploring the Digital Turn
I love Tumbl’r! I always find things there which make me laugh, inspire me, or challenge me to think differently. The community has fascinated me ever since I joined to follow my daughter and her friends (with their permission). It seems like such a safe place, and is so full of ideas. I love the way the members support and encourage each other–in fact, that seems to be their main goal, rather than the self-promotion or ideology prominent on other social media platforms. Granted, the difference could be somewhat as a result of the way I curate my account–it is purely personal, rather than being maintained as an extension of my professional life–but I think something about the site itself contributes to those differences, as well. Participants on the site are willingly engaged in collaborative activities reflective of authentic, real-life experiences. Does that sound familiar? Are those elements which contribute, perhaps, to meaningful learning? Jayne Lammers, Alecia Magnifico, and Jen Curwood in their article “Literate Identities in Fan-Based Online Affinity Spaces” (Mills , Stornaiuolo, Smith & Pandya, 2017) identify many ways through which students construct themselves and their understanding in online affinity spaces such as Tumbl’r . They describe theoretical perspectives which can enhance our understanding of these spaces, articulate the beneficial aspects of activity in these online affinity spaces, and identify a disconnect between what occurs in the structured classroom and how students engage to create and support each other in online affinity spaces. In EDTC 3123, Applications of Educational Technology, we spend a week intentionally investigating differentiated learning and how digital technologies might be used to facilitate differentiated learning in the classroom. For purposes of EDTC 3123, we identify content, product, process, and learning environment as elements which might be modified to facilitated differentiated learning. We emphasize that differentiation is not remediation, nor is it enrichment–it is the availability of varied avenues through which students might choose to experience and document learning opportunities. This pedagogical technique resonates with many elements of online affinity spaces as described by Lammers et al. (Mills, 2017), who identify common endeavor, socialization, distributed knowledge, a variety of access portals, and “self-directed, multifaceted, and dynamic” (p. 174) participation as central to online affinity spaces. Meaningful learning occurs when students are willingly engaged in collaborative activities reflective of authentic, real-life experiences. Online affinity spaces appear to organically support this process. Differentiated learning might be a pathway through which we can incorporate the strengths of online affinity spaces into our classroom practices in ways complementary to necessary classroom structures. Mills, K. A., Stornaiuolo, A., Smith, A., & Pandya, J. Z. (Eds.). (2017). Handbook of Writing, Literacies, and Education in Digital Cultures. Routledge.
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