Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
I have a radio show entitled “Know it Al!” (a
psuedonym for the real title). The information for
that is on facebook. Also, if you search for “Know
it Al!”on facebook there is a fan site that you can
join and become a fan. Through that site I will be
sending people updates and everything. So there
are two things going on.... The radio show is on
Thursdays from 2:30-3:30 and you can stream
it online at [name of URL] . All you have to do
is hit listen and even if you have a slow internet
connection you can still get it. Trust me...
they seem like they're really into it because that's
what they're looking forward to, and so I think I
did it a lot more for them [posted that information
on MySpace] than for my peers here in school that
I work with. (129-133)
Mentoring younger students, something
Theresa may not have had the time, inclination
or opportunity to do face-to-face, was facilitated
through this networked information space. As
this example suggests, social digital technologies
available on the Web, such as SNSs, may prove
particularly useful in helping us address educa-
tional inequities. For instance, it is well known
that students from low-income families do not
graduate from high school, enroll in postsecondary
education, or obtain undergraduate and graduate
degrees at the same rate as their peers from more
affluent families. Often these students lack the
social and cultural capital available to students
from college-educated and affluent families. Tech-
nologies, such as online social network sites, may
help “level the playing field” by providing such
students with rich, affordable access to supportive
peers and adults from similar backgrounds who
have succeeded.
Moreover, in providing a range of creative
and communication tools without the physical
social cues that can discourage self-expression
face-to-face, SNSs offer young people an inter-
active outlet for their emotions, reflections, and
experience. For instance, when writing in her
MySpace blog, Theresa wrote about topics that
were personally meaningful and emotional, “It's
kind of me venting.” She wrote for herself as well
as for an audience, straddling the line between
confession and meditation:
Theresa also used MySpace to initiate connec-
tions for career-building and inquiry purposes. For
example, she was interested in photography as a
potential career. Through MySpace she was able
to view the work of professional photographers
and exchange comments and questions with them
about the field, including the kinds of training and
skills that are needed. MySpace allows its users to
join public forums and search within the network
for people with particular skills like “professional
photographers.” Because it is a media-rich en-
vironment that lets users post their own content
without requiring sophisticated technical exper-
tise, experienced and novice artists can scan and
upload or link to their work, asking others for
advice and feedback. Such intergenerational and
cross-disciplinary exchange might rarely happen
in the “real world” but in the virtual world of SNSs,
with its low costs to self-promotion and sharing,
such interconnections are prevalent.
Similarly, Theresa used MySpace to become a
resource for younger students, making visible her
college search and application process. Posting
personal updates where others could view them
allowed her to model the process for students
like her who were just beginning to think about
choosing and applying to schools:
I know my friends will go on and read it. For the
most part, I'm really up front with them, but then
for some things that are kind of hard to say to
people… with those things, they read it, and then
they take it in their own way and they have time
to digest it and then, react to it, like they [have]
And I would even get questions [online] from dif-
ferent organizations I work with, like students in
them, and they'll ask me like what's the process
like? and what schools are you picking from? and
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