The Potentials of Student Initiated Netspeak in a Middle Primary Science-inspired Multiliteracies Project
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Author(s)
Ridgewell, Jay
Exley, Beryl
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2011
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There is no denying that the information technology revolution of the late twentieth century has arrived. Whilst not equitably accessible for many, others hold high expectations for the contributions online activity will make to student learning outcomes. Concurrently, and not necessarily consequentially, the number of science and technology secondary school and university graduates throughout the world has declined substantially, as has their motivation and engagement with school science (OECD 2006). The aim of this research paper is to explore one aspect of online activity, that of forum-based netspeak (Crystal 2006), in ...
View more >There is no denying that the information technology revolution of the late twentieth century has arrived. Whilst not equitably accessible for many, others hold high expectations for the contributions online activity will make to student learning outcomes. Concurrently, and not necessarily consequentially, the number of science and technology secondary school and university graduates throughout the world has declined substantially, as has their motivation and engagement with school science (OECD 2006). The aim of this research paper is to explore one aspect of online activity, that of forum-based netspeak (Crystal 2006), in relation to the possibilities and challenges it provides for forms of scientific learning. This paper reports findings from a study investigating student initiated netspeak in a science inspired multiliteracies (New London Group 2000) project in one middle primary (aged 7–10 years) multi-age Australian classroom. Drawing on the theoretical description of the five phases of enquiry proposed by Bybee (1997), an analytic framework is proffered that allows identification of student engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration and evaluation of scientific enquiry. The findings provide insight into online forums for advancing learning in, and motivation for, science in the middle primary years.
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View more >There is no denying that the information technology revolution of the late twentieth century has arrived. Whilst not equitably accessible for many, others hold high expectations for the contributions online activity will make to student learning outcomes. Concurrently, and not necessarily consequentially, the number of science and technology secondary school and university graduates throughout the world has declined substantially, as has their motivation and engagement with school science (OECD 2006). The aim of this research paper is to explore one aspect of online activity, that of forum-based netspeak (Crystal 2006), in relation to the possibilities and challenges it provides for forms of scientific learning. This paper reports findings from a study investigating student initiated netspeak in a science inspired multiliteracies (New London Group 2000) project in one middle primary (aged 7–10 years) multi-age Australian classroom. Drawing on the theoretical description of the five phases of enquiry proposed by Bybee (1997), an analytic framework is proffered that allows identification of student engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration and evaluation of scientific enquiry. The findings provide insight into online forums for advancing learning in, and motivation for, science in the middle primary years.
View less >
Journal Title
Research in Science Education
Volume
41
Issue
5
Copyright Statement
© 2011 Springer Netherlands. This is an electronic version of an article published in Research in Science Education, Volume 41, Issue 5, pp 635–649, 2011. Research in Science Education is available online at: http://link.springer.com/ with the open URL of your article.
Subject
Curriculum and pedagogy
Science, technology and engineering curriculum and pedagogy
Specialist studies in education