Difference between revisions of "Digital Video Community of Practice"

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(Intro)
(Framework)
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* [[Communities of practice]].
 
* [[Communities of practice]].
  
Learning (connected, situated).
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* Learning (connected, situated).
  
Literacies.
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* Literacies and practices
  
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* After School Programs
  
 
== Objectives ==  
 
== Objectives ==  

Revision as of 14:16, 29 October 2013

Intro

The after school world. A setting, a field of agency for youth. A case study of the three core members of this community and its teacher/connector/broker.


After School Programs

The context/field/arena/ of an after school program. The after school setting is an important societal field/arena/context for latino/hispanic youth.

Increasingly After School Programs (ASP) are a common after-school context for children and youth. There is institutional and federal support for this programs, especially for disadvantage areas and low-performing schools, and there is growing number of ASP.


After-school programs take place out-of-school. They can run directly after school, or during evenings, weekends, summer vacations, and holidays. After-school programs are hosted usually by schools, community-based organizations, or churches.


extended learning opportunities in out-of-school time for students in need of academic assistance expanded learning opportunities

a field of more and more importance: how children and youth spend their time after school


Different purposes for after-school programs: homework-assistance


After-school programs address one or more of the following functions: increase safety and supervision, enhance cultural and community identification and appreciation, develop social skills and increased competency, and improve academic achievement and skills. (Cosden et al. 2001)



There are structured extracurricular activities. They can be academic or nonacademic activities. ASP provide opportunities for participating in several kinds of activities such as sports and recreation, academic skill-building and homework help, college and job preparation, cultural activities, exploration of especial interests (music, dance, theater, art, computers, crafts, games, etc), community service and volunteer work, unstructured play.


Activities out-of-school have become very important. After-school programs have seen as way to address social and educational problems. Several studies have found these programs are associated with positive academic achievement (Marsh, 1992; Halpern, 1992; Huang et al. 2000; Cooper et al. 1999; Cosden et al. 2001; Biever et al. 2005; Mahoney et al., 2005; Welsh et al., 2003) Researchers have also found that participation in after-school programs increases social responsibility and sense of belonging, cooperation and self-efficacy (Bergin et al. 1992; Pierce & Shields, 1998) Halpern stated that after-school programs establish a norm of participation that may generalize to other settings. (1992).


For low-income and at-risk children and youth, after-school programs have become very important. There is a growing believe that low-income children deserve the same opportunity as advantage youth to explore arts, sports, and other developmentally enriching activities. (Halpern, 1999) Greater opportunities for participation in art and sport activities.

However, the problems in their funding, staffing, and facilities limit many times the development of after-school programs for low-income children and youth. (Halpern 1999) Concern about the program quality.

Children and youth after-school hours are important part of their lives. They can engage in a variety of activities during this time.


The field of after-school programs is very diverse. In Freeway High School, this field is very rich and heterogeneous. The school provides the facilities for hosting after-school programs. Some of these programs have external funding from the U.S. Department of Education and are able to provide transportation (buses), snacks, and paying teachers for the time they spent as sponsors.


There are clubs and programs such as athletics, debate, theater, band, college preparation, math, and digital media. It is precisely the digital media after school program the one that is the focus of this section of my study.


Among the several after-school programs at FHS, there is one focused in digital media that takes place at a computer lab. The program was not very structured but opened a space for messing around with computers and digital media technology. The program had been running for four years at the time of our fieldwork and has been sponsored only the last two. The program has been the house of the Digital MEdia Club, as well as the Cinematic Arts Project, as well as other initiatives. Although the program started as the house of the DMC, the program has expanded and other projects have taken place inside its realm bringing together an interest-driven community and providing access to technology. Althouth originally the program was designed to provide access and a social space for hanging out and messing around, some programs turned out more structured and allowed more geeking out. =. In a way the digital media after school program at FHS was very malleable. What matters here is not that much the program as the CoP that created it, and the different projects that emerged from it.


A mix of structured and unstructured activities. A mix of projects. The after school focused in sociality as well as in hands-on "real world" projects. A very open space for the high school students. They could simply go to the lab and access technology.

In this section, I focus on a particular after-school setting or space, where the activities of a digital video CoP took place. I observed this space and the activities of the CoP for the course of an academic year. Although the setting is the after-school program space, my analysis focuses on the activities of the CoP that meet in this space and used its resources. The activities of this CoP expanded beyond the space of the high school. This CoP was able to engage in shared practice during out-of-school time. And even sometimes during in-school-time.

My intention is not to assess the ASP but to describe the shared practice of the CoP in the space that the after-school program provided.

An important space in the learning ecology of latino/hispanic youth. Not the only ASP, but one of several that conformed a vibrant and divers after-school ecology at FHS. Many youth participated not only in one ASP but in many.

Framework

  • Learning (connected, situated).
  • Literacies and practices
  • After School Programs

Objectives

Describe the CoP that we encounter at FHS. Its characteristics and the kind of participatory process it facilitates. How it provided opportunities for solving different kinds of access. As well as its limitations.


Questions

  • CoP


What are the characteristics of the community? its shared identity? and its practice?

What are the structured social practices (activities, tasks, habits) of the community?

How does the framework of CoP allow us to understand the agency of Latino/Hispanic youth in the afterschool field/context/setting/space?

How does the CoP kept itself alive? What kind of resources was able to mobilize?

Can the concept of CoP be applied to the after school program? to the activities developed in the after school space/field/context of FHS?


  • Participation

How does participation in the media and through the media happens in the context/setting/field of the after school space? and specifically while participating in the digital video CoP?

How does access to digital media, to material and technology resources support the participation in this CoP?

  • Identity

What are the characteristics of the identity developed by the members of the CoP?

What kind of identity is supported by the CoP? How does the CoP transforms Latino/Hispanic youth identities?

  • Creativity

How does digital media, and in particular, digital video software and hardware support creative agency? creative autonomy?

What kind of media texts or content were created? What are the characteristics of the the media content that was created?

  • Connector and broker.

What is the role of connector in the mobilization of resources? What are the bridges that are extended? How does Mr. Lopez assume this role? What are the characteristics of his practice?


  • Skills

What skills are developed? Which literacies are supported? What did members learn while participating? What is the shared expertise?

How do they understand their learning in this context?

  • Digital inequalities

How does the participation in this CoP solved issues of access to technology? enrichment opportunities?

Which resources were cultivated and gained? Which were still lacking? Where did the inequalities remain?

What kind of accesses did the after school space facilitate? What kind of accesses were supported and how do they fostered the development of a CoP?

References

Cooper CR, Denner J, Lopez EM. Cultural brokers: helping Latino children on pathways toward success. The Future of Children When School is Out; v9, n2, p51-57

Gardner, Margo, Jodie L. Roth, and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn. (2009). “Can after-school programs help level the playing field for disadvantaged youth?” Equity Matters Research Review, Vol. 4. Online.


Gee, James Paul. 1990. Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourses. London:Taylor & Francis (2nd edition 1996).

Gee, James Paul. (2005) "Meaning making, communities of practice, and analytical toolkits" Journal of Sociolinguistics 9/4. 590-594

Hall, Georgia, Laura Israel, and Joyce Shortt. 2004. “It’s about Time! A Look at Out-of-School Time for Urban Teens.” Wellesley, MA: National Institute on Out-of-School Time. Available at < http://www.niost.org/ pdf/AOLTW.pdf >


Herr-Stephenson, B. et al. (2011) Digital Media and Technology in Afterschool Programs, Libraries, and Museums. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.


Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Lave, J. (1993). Situating learning in communities of practice. In L. B. Resnick, J. M. Levine, and S. D. Teasley (Eds.), Perspectives on socially shared cognition (pp. 17–36). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Lave, J. (1997). The culture of acquisition and the practice of understanding. In D. Kirshner and J. A. Whitson (Eds.) Situated cognition: Social, semiotic, and psychological perspectives (pp. 63–82). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Lave, J., and Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Sefton-Green, J. (2012) Learning at Not-School. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.


Wenger, Etienne. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Wenger, Etienne., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Wenger, E. (2006). Communities of Practice: A brief introduction. Retrieved from http://www.ewenger.com/theory

Wenger, Etienne. (2010) Communities of practice and social learning systems: the career of a concept. In Blackmore, C. (Editor) Social Learning Systems and communities of practice. Springer Verlag and the Open University.