Identity profiles and metaphors for understanding the educational potentialities of social networks
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Published
Apr 30, 2012
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Abstract
Analysis of Social Networks (SNs) can help us to understand their potentialities for learning. Accordingly, this research study aims at defining user profiles in order to exploit the educational possibilities of SNs. In doing so, it adopts a general socioconstructivist theoretical framework and uses specific concepts concerning cultural artifacts, I-position, and metaphors. A purposely-made questionnaire comprising 28 questions inquiring into four thematic areas (personal information, tendencies and preferences, modes of use, metaphors) has been devised and administered to 327 participants, mostly aged between 16 and 27 years old. The three profiles that emerged from the data analysis (Interdependency/Sociality, Dependence, Individuality) make it possible to go beyond the three levels found by Wartofsky. A fourth level is proposed, characterized by artifacts allowing construction of personal worlds within collective abstract and symbolic ones. Finally, three guidelines are proposed for designing educational activities supported by fourth level artifacts.
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Articles - Special Issue
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Cole M. (1996). Cultural Psychology: A Once and Future discipline. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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Gergen K., Davis K.E. (1985). The Social Construction of the Person. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Harré R., Van Langenhove L. (1991). Varieties of Positioning. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 21 (4), pp. 393-407.
Hermans H.J.M. (2003). The Construction and Reconstruction of a Dialogical Self. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 16 (2), pp. 89-130.
Hevern V.W. (2004). Threaded Identity in Cyberspace: Weblogs and Positioning in the Dialogical Self. Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 4 (4), pp. 321-335.
Joinson A.N. (2008). “Looking at”, “Looking up” or “Keeping up with” People? Motives and Uses of Facebook. In Proceeding of CHI 2008 (Firenze, Italia, 5-10 April 2008), http://people.bath.ac.uk/aj266/pubs_pdf/1149-joinson.pdf (ultima consultazione 09.12. 2011).
Krumm J., Davies N., Narayanaswami C. (2008). User- Generated Content. Pervasive Computing. IEEE, 7 (4), pp. 10-11.
Lakoff G., Johnson M. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Lampe C., Ellison N., Steinfield C. (2008). Changes in Use and Perception of Facebook. In Proceedings of the ACM 2008 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (San Diego, CA, 8-12 November 2008). New York: ACM, pp. 721-730.
Lampe C., Wohn D.Y., Vitak J., Ellison N.B., Wash R. (2011). Student Use of Facebook for Organizing Collaborative Classroom Activities. International Journal of Computer- Supported Collaborative Learning, 6 (3), pp. 329-347.
Ligorio M.B. (2010). Dialogical Relationship between Identity and Learning. Culture & Psychology, 16 (1), pp. 93-107.
Ligorio M.B., Hermans H. (2005). Identità dialogiche nell’era digitale. Trento: Erickson.
Markus H., Nurius P. (1986). Possible Selves. American Psychologist, 41 (9), pp. 954-969.
Mazer J.P., Murphy R.E., Simonds C.J. (2007). I’ll See You On ‘‘Facebook’’: The Effects of Computer-Mediated Teacher Self-Disclosure on Student Motivation, Affective Learning, and Classroom Climate. Communication Education, 56 (1), pp. 1-17.
McGrath J.E., Tschan F. (2004). Temporal Matters in Social Psychology: Examining the Role of Time in the Lives of Groups and Individuals. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Ortony A., Fainsilber L. (1989). The Role of Metaphors in Descriptions of Emotions. In Y. Wilks (ed.). Theoretical Issues in Natural Language Processing. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 178-182.
Perret-Clermont A.-N. (ed.). (2006). Thinking Time. Seattle, WA: Hogrefe Publishers.
Sefton-Green J. (2003). Informal Learning: Substance or Style?. Teaching Education, 4 (1), pp. 37-51.
Turkle S. (1995). Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Vygotskij L.S. (1962). Thought and Language. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Wartofsky M.W. (1973). Models. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.