Offline mediators online: writing activity in two middle school classes
type: CreativeWork
description: Many look to digital technologies to promote more equitable literacy learning. Even potentially transformative technologies, however, are neither created nor used within a vacuum. Instead, a range of mediators influences their design and implementation (Kaptelinin & Nardi, 2006). Framed by cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) (Leont’ev, 1981; Vygotsky, 1978), this dissertation broadens the study of students’ literacy learning in educational settings by considering offline mediators as constitutive of students’ online literate activity. Specifically, this comparative case study situated in two English language arts classes taught by the same teacher (one with a mandated curriculum and one without a mandated curriculum) in a junior high school with a diverse, low-income population, addresses the following research questions: What was the nature of students’ online literate activity in each of the two English language arts classes? In particular, what mediators were evident and how did these mediators influence students’ online literate activity and the literate identities available to students? The study employed ethnographic methods to investigate students’ online literate activity over the course of a school year. Activity systems analysis (Engeström, 1987) and a tracing methodology (Prior, 2004) guided data collection and analysis. Findings indicated that students’ online literate activity in the two classes was unequal and inequitable. In the class with the mandated curriculum, student activity was premised on a didactic pedagogy focused on reading strategies, and students were positioned as struggling learners in need of remediation. In the class without the mandated curriculum, student activity involved composing, and students were positioned as collaborative creators; their activity, however, was also restricted. In both classes, offline mediators significantly influenced online activity, including ideologies of literacy and schooling, teachers’ initiati…
abstract: Many look to digital technologies to promote more equitable literacy learning. Even potentially transformative technologies, however, are neither created nor used within a vacuum. Instead, a range of mediators influences their design and implementation (Kaptelinin & Nardi, 2006). Framed by cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) (Leont’ev, 1981; Vygotsky, 1978), this dissertation broadens the study of students’ literacy learning in educational settings by considering offline mediators as constitutive of students’ online literate activity. Specifically, this comparative case study situated in two English language arts classes taught by the same teacher (one with a mandated curriculum and one without a mandated curriculum) in a junior high school with a diverse, low-income population, addresses the following research questions: What was the nature of students’ online literate activity in each of the two English language arts classes? In particular, what mediators were evident and how did these mediators influence students’ online literate activity and the literate identities available to students? The study employed ethnographic methods to investigate students’ online literate activity over the course of a school year. Activity systems analysis (Engeström, 1987) and a tracing methodology (Prior, 2004) guided data collection and analysis. Findings indicated that students’ online literate activity in the two classes was unequal and inequitable. In the class with the mandated curriculum, student activity was premised on a didactic pedagogy focused on reading strategies, and students were positioned as struggling learners in need of remediation. In the class without the mandated curriculum, student activity involved composing, and students were positioned as collaborative creators; their activity, however, was also restricted. In both classes, offline mediators significantly influenced online activity, including ideologies of literacy and schooling, teachers’ initiati…
author: Kline, Sonia
language: en
keywords: Accountability, Activity Systems Analysis, Adolescents, Case Study, Computer technologies, Cultural Historical Activity Theory, Digital technologies, Education, Ethnography, Equity, Identities, Ideologies, Language Arts, Literacy, Literacies, Multiliteracies, Online technologies, Schooling, Students, Sociocultural, Tracing methodology, Remediation
date published: 2014-09-16T17:23:13Z
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:25:40Z
provider: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/50509