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Category Archives: Media Studies
David Wray, #UBC MA Defence: Message Me when You Land: Tourism and Hospitality Students’ Distance Relationships with Friends, Family, and Devices
The Final Oral Examination For the Degree of
Master of Arts
(Media & Technology Studies)
David R. Wray
Exam Date & Time: Thursday April 23, 2020
Exam Location: Zoom
Message Me when You Land: Tourism and Hospitality Students’ Distance Relationships with Friends, Family, and Devices
EXAMINING COMMITTEE
Supervisory Committee:
Prof Stephen Petrina, Research Supervisor (Media & Technology Studies)
Prof E. Wayne Ross (Curriculum Studies and Social Studies)
External Examiner:
Prof Jillianne Code (Media & Technology Studies)
ABSTRACT
This qualitative study addressed the problem of maintaining relationships via creative and routine uses of Multimedia Devices (MMDs). Twelve participants were recruited from a private college in Vancouver, which specializes in tourism and hospitality education for international students. Interviews focused on their uses of MMDs in creating and maintaining relationships with family and friends. The study addressed three research questions: 1) In what ways do international students utilize MMDs to maintain relationships with family, friends, and the devices themselves? 1a) How do the students maintain relationships at home, school, and online, while fostering newer, more immediate relationships? 1b) How do the students maintain relationships with media and technology (M&T) devices and apps? For analysis and interpretation, the theoretical framework draws on Hinde’s (1976a, 1976b) research into relationality and on Goffman’s (1974) caution of the collusion of technology in changing relationships. Findings are organized around four themes: Shifting Time and Space Constraints, Necessity vs. Habit, Online Identity, and Influence and Marketing. Within each theme, one, two, or all three questions are explored. The participants post memes, photos, and videos to their social media but do not always keep up their relationships with family and friends directly, though they said most of their significant relationships had not faltered. Participants were hard pressed to say that their personal technology use was a bad thing, though they consistently expressed how it would get in the way of experiencing real life in the moment. The participants have their technologies on them and interact with them on a regular basis, but their views on MMDs extend from necessity to habit. This research has implications for the process of intercultural relationship building among students, as it takes the pervasiveness of M&T into account. Given current conditions of life, play, study, and work, implications are placed in context of Covid-19. How this sample of international students interacts and depicts themselves online suggests the strengthening of some relationships while keeping others at a comfortable distance, but still near, nonetheless. Educators of all levels should be aware of how students create, maintain, and destroy relationships via MMDs
Posted in Communication, Covid-19, Critique of M&T, HWL, HWL Team, Media, Media Studies, New Media, Social Media
Sharon Doucet #UBC MA Defence: Redistributing the Teacher: An Analysis of Technology Enabled Teaching in Medical Education #bced #UBCSTS
The Final Oral Examination For the Degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
(Science & Technology Studies)
Sharon Doucet, B.A.
REDISTRIBUTING THE TEACHER: AN ANALYSIS OF TECHNOLOGY ENABLED TEACHING IN MEDICAL EDUCATION
Tuesday, October 23, 2018, 9.00 am
BUCH D319
ABSTRACT: Educational technologies (ETs) are increasingly used in undergraduate medical education to train the next generation of doctors. However, once introduced to a learning environment, ETs can have intended and unintended consequences. Current research in medical education frequently renders these ETs as simple tools to be used by teachers, and ignores their unintended effects on the learning environment. This thesis employs actor-network theory (ANT) to chart the distribution of teaching from human to ETs to determine: 1) In what ways are the properties or roles of the teacher distributed across advanced learning technologies (ALTs) in medical education? 2) In what way is this distribution acknowledged among teachers within medical education discourses? Discourse analysis methods were used to analyze a selection of twenty-five medical education research and practice articles drawn from the PubMed database (2007-present). The distribution of teaching to ETs, specifically ALTs, in these articles is extended through time and space, teaching context, and content, and modifies human teaching. Acknowledgement of this distribution was evident in faculty members’ or teachers’ concerns of being displaced or overshadowed by ALTs. Human teachers and nonhuman ET teachers ought to be considered partners. Once introduced, the nonhuman ETs become socially embedded and their participation requires continued attention and critique. Finally, when examining the effectiveness of ETs’ role in a learning environment, scholars should consider the ways in which their inclusion was deliberate, transparent, and accepted by other actors within the network.
EXAMINING COMMITTEE
Prof Stephen Petrina (Supervisor) (Curriculum & Pedagogy / STS
Prof Robert Brain (Chair) (History / STS)
Prof Barry Mason (Cellular & Physiological Sciences / Medical Education)
Yu-Ling Lee #UBC PhD Defence: Designing TechnoTheologies #bced
The Final Oral Examination For the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(Curriculum Studies)
Yu-Ling Lee
Wednesday, May 10, 2017. 12:30 pm
Room 207, Anthropology and Sociology Building,
6303 Northwest Marine Drive
DESIGNING TECHNOTHEOLOGIES: ETHICS, PEDAGOGIES, AND SPIRITUALITIES IN MAKER ACTOR-NETWORKS
ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to understand how religion and spirituality matter in the consumer use, design, and engineering of media and technology. Specifically, the research questions were: 1) What role do ethics and values perform in maker and hacker networks? 2) How are ethics and values integrated and manifested throughout the design process in maker or hacker networks? 3) What are the routines, rituals, and subjective well-being of participants in the maker or hacker design process? The research setting was the designers in the maker community in Vancouver and technologists associated with Code for the Kingdom in Seattle. All designers and technologists in Vancouver and Seattle have independent projects at various levels of collaboration. I recruited seven participants affiliated with the Vancouver maker community for in-depth analysis of their design process. In Seattle, I recruited two hackers who participated in Code for the Kingdom, a Christian organization that hosts hackathons for altruistic and religious purposes. Their focus on innovation, design methodologies, and critical making allowed me to discern their values and ethics through their design process. These participants have different perspectives on religion and spirituality, which make their technotheological networks complex. Case studies facilitated in-depth examination of makers and hackers as the main actors of our inquiry. The use of video in dialogue with ethnographic inquiry allowed for nuance, discerning complexities, and giving form to expression in designing technotheologies. Conceptually, the research is framed by actor-network theory (ANT) and value sensitive design (VSD), enabling the study to discern how participants discover, design artifacts, make meaning, develop values, and maintain a sense of the good life and well-being, emotional and spiritual. Findings indicate that among the makers and hackers, technotheological networks articulate specific values alongside technological creations, practices, and personal ways of being. In their own unique ways, these makers and hackers inquire into the materialized morality and design phases of ethically responsible decision making processes. Conversely, the non-human actors express their own values within technotheological networks. My role as a techno-theologian helped facilitate competing value claims by positing a normative focus and by temporarily opening black boxes.
EXAMINING COMMITTEE
Chair:
Prof Richard Young (Counselling Psychology)
Supervisory Committee:
Prof Stephen Petrina, Research Supervisor (Curriculum Studies)
Prof E. Wayne Ross (Curriculum Studies)
Prof Francis Feng (Curriculum Studies)
University Examiners:
Prof Kerry Renwick (Curriculum Studies)
Prof Brian Wilson (Kinesiology)
External Examiner:
Prof Matt Ratto
Posted in Case Study, Culture, Curriculum, Design, Hacker Culture, HWL, HWL Team, Maker Culture, Media, Media Studies, STS, Technology, Technology Studies, TechnoTheology
Tagged Hackers, HWL, HWL Team, Makers, research, STS, Technology Studies, Youth
Rachel Ralph’s PhD Defence: Sharing is Caring: Prosocial Behaviours, Theory of Mind, and Media and Technology in Early Childhood Education
The Final Oral Examination For the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
RACHEL RALPH
Sharing is Caring: Prosocial Behaviours, Theory of Mind, and Media and Technology in Early Childhood Education
Tuesday, March 21, 2017, 12:30pm
Room 200, Graduate Student Centre
ABSTRACT
This empirical study investigated the manifestation of prosocial sharing behaviours and how this interplayed with preschool-aged children’s Theory of Mind (ToM), described in cognitive science as one’s ability to ascribe mental states to others and how the ascribed states are used to explain and predict the actions of others, when using media and technology (M&T), i.e., iPads. The following research questions were explored: 1) In what ways do theory of mind and the prosocial behaviour of sharing manifest among preschool-aged children interacting with iPads?; 2) What are the effects of iPad use on the manifestation of theory of mind and prosocial behaviours of sharing among preschool-aged children?; 3) What are the possible connections between a child’s theory of mind and their prosocial behaviour of sharing? The study is grounded in empathy-altruism theory, social exchange theory, and social learning theories. It employed a mixed methods approach that used design-based research (DBR) strategies and video ethnography for data collection. During the study, the children wore personable cameras, which captured data from their points of view to enhance the video captured by the researcher. Phases of the DBR included: a pilot feasibility study (prototype test) with practicing teachers (n=18), field study with preschool-aged children (n=3) (four years old), and definitive test group (n=5) (three and four years old) in another early childhood education (ECE) setting. The field study and definitive test phases included four activities for data collection and analysis: 1) Reading digital story Mine, 2) ToM storybook task battery, 3) demonstration of Chatterpix Kid, and 4) five children to three iPads using Chatterpix Kid to animate pictures taken. Data were analyzed using qualitative open-thematic coding methods and statistical methods, including Chi-square and Cohen’s Kappa for agreement. The qualitative and quantitative results indicated that all participants had ToM attributes and incidents of prosocial behaviours occurred more than nonsocial or antisocial behaviours when using M&T. The study’s findings underscore the importance of exploring in situ children’s ToM, using point of view wearable cameras, and continued research to understand short and long-term implications of M&T in ECE.
EXAMINING COMMITTEE
Chair:
Dr. Lee Gunderson (Language and Literacy)
Supervisory Committee:
Dr. Stephen Petrina, Research Supervisor (Curriculum Studies)
Dr. Samson Nashon (Curriculum Studies)
Dr. Marina Milner-Bolotin (Curriculum Studies)
University Examiners:
Dr. Peter Gouzouasis (Curriculum Studies)
Dr. Marlene Asselin (Language and Literacy)
Posted in Altruism & Sharing, Children, Culture, Curriculum, Design, Design-Based Research, Gender, HWL, HWL Team, Media, Media Studies, Pedagogy
Tagged Children, Culture, Gender, HWL, HWL Team, Media Studies, technologies, Technology Studies
Lesley Liu’s Masters Thesis Defense
You are invited to the
Masters of Arts in Curriculum Studies Thesis Defense
Lesley Liu, BA
TWEENS, TEENS, AND DIGITAL TEXTS:
DESIGNING AFFINITY SPACES TO UNDERSTAND CYBERBULLYING
Thursday September 22, 2016, 3:00 pm, Scarfe 310
ABSTRACT:
This research explores how adolescents design, interpret, and navigate affinity spaces in connection to cyberbullying awareness. A class of Grade 8 students (aged 12-13, mixed gender, and a variety of digital skills) participated in the study. The participants first investigated the use of affinity spaces, collaborative physical and digital spaces (Gee, 2004), then proceeded to design their own spaces for collaborative group work. A variety of data was collected in the form of peer-to-peer pre interviews, OneNote collaborative group journals, in-class observations of class work sessions, and post interviews.
This research situates learning as a social process mediated through interactions using media and technologies of a physical (e.g., private messages, forums, profile pages, self-authored webpages) and semiotic (e.g., language) nature; thus, a socio-cultural discourse approach provides valuable insight and layers of understanding into how children appropriate or learn mannerisms that circulate through real and virtual spaces (Cole, 1985; Leont’ev, 1981; Smagorinsky, 2011; Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 1990). Actor-network theory is employed to explain how humans and technologies assume or create agency in designed spaces (Law & Callon, 1992).
The findings of this study inform how adolescents design affinity spaces (real and virtual) and emphasize design features they recommend to serve as functioning collaborative workspaces, both in and out of the classroom, to prevent or counter cyberbullying. Student-informed or student-designed spaces provide a sense of ownership or self-regulation and give insight as to how codes of conduct inform these spaces and vice versa. Future studies should adopt an iterative process of design-based research to test and refine these affinity spaces (Collins et al., 2004; Wang, Petrina, & Feng, 2015). Recommendations also include future applications of sociocultural theory and activity theory to discern how adolescents differentiate between face-to-face and online communication and practical classroom applications of affinity spaces in secondary schools.
SUPERVISOR: Dr. Stephen Petrina
COMMITTEE MEMBER: Dr. Marlene Asselin
THESIS EXAMINER: Dr. Douglas Adler
Posted in HWL, HWL Team, Media Studies, Youth
Keeping Up with the Media
Keeping Up with the Media is a media study guide created for teachers and students, by teachers. The authors are all practicing teachers (elementary and secondary) completing a Master of Education in Digital Learning and Curriculum at UBC. This elite team produced this guide to enhance media literacy and media education across the K-12 curriculum.
Authors: #UBCDLC3
Editor: Paula MacDowell
Publication Date: August 4, 2016
Format: Interactive, multi-touch eBook
Online: http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1149612619
Posted in Culture, Curriculum, Design, Media Studies, Pedagogy, Teachers, Youth
#CreateNoHate #NoH8
Create No Hate, a powerful anti-cyberbullying video made by 13-year-old filmmaker/vlogger Luke Culhane
Posted in Media Activism, Media Studies, Youth
Computer coding added to BC’s K-12 curriculum
At the inaugural BC Tech Summit, Christy Clark,the Premier of British Columbia announced that computer coding will be added to the province’s K-12 school curriculum:
Opening Keynote
www.cbc.ca
www.vancitybuzz.com
www.techvibes.com
www.theglobeandmail.com
www.thestar.com
What are some of the difficult questions concerning BC’s new tech strategy, including: teacher training, backend support, equitable funding for classroom technologies, and the need for government accountability?
What are the complex ethical, technical, and pedagogical issues associated with the development and implementation of BC’s new ADST framework?
How is technology changing the way children think, learn, and focus in school?
How might we increase student voice and choice in the development of new curriculum? For example, consider ISTE (International Society for Technology Education): Student Feedback; Standards for Students (7 Standards; 28 Performance Indicators).
BCIC (British Columbia Innovation Council)
Scratch Coding Curriculum Guide (draft by the Scratch Ed Team)
Computational Thinking (Wing, 2006)
Big ideas on British Columbia’s redesigned curriculum
Posted in Media Studies, STEM, Technology Studies, Youth
A #History of the Critique of #Technology: A response to @LatourBot #sts
I wrote a history of the critique of technology as a response to Latour’s “Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam?” There have been few, if any, adequate responses to Latour’s ground-breaking essay. This is my second response to Latour and concurs to a degree with his thesis. My first response (“The New Critiquette“) was also a history but offered a defence of critique, or rather an analysis of the critique of critique.
This new response to Latour is the opposite of the first. I wanted to write something resourceful, something we didn’t already have. Now we have a working history of the critique of technology.
It’s big history in that it extends over an expansive historical scale (550 BCE-present) and geographic scope. I tried to be inclusive, attending to questions of gender for instance, but realize there are omissions. It’s a work in progress. I wrote nearly each paragraph as a mini-essay of sorts, meaning that it has it’s own integrity as a case study. Each of these mini-essays gives an empirical example; they demonstrate critique or criticism of media and technology at different times in different places.
The chapter sets up a series of theses, not the least of which is that the critique of media and technology has run out of steam.
If critique barely changes a thing, including youth consciousness, what is its utility? Most critiques of media and technology are instrumental by definition and intended to have an effect or make a difference. If it has been enough for criticism and critique to offer a counter to progress narratives, then how effective has this been? Has the critique of media and technology run out of steam, as Latour (2004) suggests? If out of energy drawn from the steam age, should critique be retrofit to run on light and signals? Meantime, the trend in vaping may conceivably pressurize critique enough to sputter into the future. Is the critique of media and technology over time sufficiently prejudicial or probative? Instrumental or terminal?
I had great fun writing this and have an idea of what to do next with it. It’s most immediate setting is as a chapter in Critique in Design and Technology Education, edited by P. John Williams and Kay Stables. Thank you to Kay and John, who invited me to write this. I also thank Belinda von Mergenson, David Barlex and Marc de Vries, who gave superb feedback along with other colleagues at a conference in Marseille and workshop in Sausset les Pin. The conference and workshop were hosted by Jacques Ginestiè, his wife Marjolaine, and team from Marseille University.
That was tremendous fun as well. And yes, despite the beauty of the tranquil setting on the coast, we did work! Merci.
Posted in Critique of M&T, Culture, Google, Media, Media Studies, STS, Technology, Technology Studies, Theology
Tagged Culture, Digital Humanities, HWL, HWL Team, Media Studies, STS, Technology Studies
Critique of Media & Technology Workshop #yreubc #hwl #ices
CRITIQUE OF MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY WORKSHOP
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
10:20-12:00 Scarfe 1209
Year of Research in Education event #yreubc
CRITIQUE OF MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY
Stephen Petrina
University of British Columbia
This workshop focuses on the Critique of Media & Technology. The first part of the workshop includes a presentation and discussion on a forthcoming chapter. The second part of the workshop focuses on the process of researching and writing with special attention to philosophical and historical research 2.0 and narrative. How can we or ought we write a (big) history of the critique of media and technology?
The chapter begins with the spiritual critique of media and technology and proceeds historically through cultural criticism and social, psychic, ontic, and identic critiques. Differentiated from the spiritual critique that precedes, cultural criticism of media and technology emerges in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as a mode of describing and depicting the mechanical arts. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, spiritual critique is displaced through a rejection of religion and theology as sources of modern authority. With spiritual ground undermined, social, psychic, ontic, and identic critics of media and technology compete for defensible ground for leverage. The history of critique is a search for ground. This chapter historicizes the critique of media and technology as well as critique as a practice that has run out of steam. “Critical distance” from or “free relation” to media and technology— a seductive orientation since the 1940s— has been instrumental in critique’s gradual decline. The critique of critique has quickened the decline. The conclusion questions the short-term future of machinic critique and long-term renewal of spiritual critique.
Download the Critique of Media & Technology chapter
Posted in Critique of M&T, Culture, Design, HWL, HWL Forums, HWL Team, Interdisciplinary, Media, Media Studies, Technology, Technology Studies, Theology
Tagged Critique, Culture, HWL, HWL Team, Media Studies, STS, Technology Studies
Empowering Girls as Change Makers in Maker Culture: Stories from a Summer Camp for Girls in Design, Media & Technology
Congratulations Paula (PJ) MacDowell’s, who successfully defended her PhD dissertation, “ Empowering Girls as Change Makers in Maker Culture: Stories from a Summer Camp for Girls in Design, Media & Technology”.” PJ is now Dr. MacDowell! Congratulations!

Posted in HWL, HWL Team, Media Studies, STEM, STS, Technology Studies
Paula (PJ) MacDowell’s PhD final oral exam @ Empowering Girls as Change Makers in Maker Culture: Stories from a Summer Camp for Girls in Design, Media & Technology
You are invited to
The Final Oral Examination
For the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(Curriculum Studies)
PAULA (PJ) MACDOWELL
B.Ed, The University of Regina, 1995 MET,
The University of British Columbia, 2007
Monday, March 16, 2015, 12:30 pm
Room 200, Graduate Student Centre
Latecomers will not be admitted
Empowering Girls as Change Makers in Maker Culture: Stories from a Summer Camp for Girls in Design, Media & Technology
EXAM DETAILS
1. Exam Time: 12:30 PM on Monday, March 16, 2015 (Please arrive 5 minutes early, so the exam can begin promptly).
2. Exam Location: Room 200 of the Graduate Student Centre (Koerner Building, 6371 Crescent Road).
EXAMINING COMMITTEE
Chair:
Dr. Sandra Mathison (Measurement, Evaluation, and Research Methodology)
Supervisory Committee:
Dr. Stephen Petrina, Research Supervisor (Curriculum Studies)
Dr. Franc Feng (Curriculum Studies)
Dr. Sandra Scott (Curriculum Studies)
University Examiners:
Dr. E. Wayne Ross (Curriculum Studies)
Dr. Laurie Ford (School Psychology)
External Examiner:
Dr. Ann Marie Hill
Faculty of Education
Queen’s University
Kingston, Ontario
ABSTRACT
This study investigates how girls develop new affinities towards and capabilities in media and technology. Thirty co-researchers, girls aged 10-13, were recruited into 101 Technology Fun, a series of summer camps with learning labs in animation, game design, movie production, and robotics programming. The design studio setting, created by the How We Learn (Media & Technology Across the Lifespan) collective, offered girls their own makerspace to explore media and technology. A novel methodology was developed, the Tween Empowerment & Advocacy Methodology (TEAM), which emphasizes relational ethics through artifact production, storymaking, mind scripting, invention, and imagination. Highlighting the importance for youth voices to be recognized and given influence in the academic research concerning their lives and learning circumstances, the findings focus on the catalytic or generative artifacts and “little stories” (e.g., Lyotard’s petits récits) revealing the co-researchers’ experiences and expressions of girlhood-in-interaction-with-technology (the key unit of analysis).
This research addresses artifacts as they relate to stories made or examined by the team members, including our concerns, needs, talents, inspiration, literacy, and volition. The artifacts, such as music videos, robotic amusement park, and the momME alternate reality game, are catalytic for storymaking and, symmetrically, the stories are catalytic to artifact production and sharing. Four distinct yet interrelated elements characterize our fieldwork and designworks:
(1) agency (girls having influence and power)
(2) ingenuity (girls being clever and inventive)
(3) self-interpretation (girls making sense and significance)
(4) self-efficacy (girls judging their technological capabilities).
Findings underscore the statement that it is not really a question of whether girls like to design (most do), as much a matter concerning how, when, and why they learn to become innovators, leaders, and producers of media and technology (thereby overturning traditional gender and generational stereotypes). Indeed, how a group of female youth story changes in their sense of technological self-efficacy, self-interpretation, ingenuity, and agency is one of the most important contributions of this study. Questions, both guiding and emergent, are articulated in artifact and text to motivate further scholarly inquiry, action, and advocacy, thereby generating more opportunities for girls to participate in, design, make, and transform technology culture.
Posted in Culture, Design, Design-Based Research, Gaming, Gender, HWL, HWL Team, Interdisciplinary, Literacies, Media, Media Studies, New Media, Robots, STEM, Technology, Technology Studies, Youth
Tagged Culture, Gaming, Gender, HWL, HWL Team, STEM, Technology Studies, Youth
Research stories: A graduate forum #hwl #yreUBC #UBC #bced
RESEARCH STORIES: A GRADUATE FORUM
How We Learn Media and Technology (across the lifespan)
Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy
University of British Columbia
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
10:00-11:30 Scarfe 1209
Year of Research in Education event
GIRLS DESIGNING GAMES, MEDIA, ROBOTS, SELVES, AND CULTURE
Paula (PJ) MacDowell
University of British Columbia
This research involved 30 co-researchers, girls aged 10–13, who were recruited into 101 Technology Fun, a series of intensive research camps offering learning labs in game design, video production, and robotics. Utilizing design-based and participatory techniques, including artifact production, mind scripting, and storymaking, this research examines how girls, through their artifact making and designerly practices, story themselves and express their understandings of technology. Highlighting the importance for girls’ voices to be recognized and given influence in research concerning their lives and learning circumstances, findings focus on the catalytic or generative artifacts and “little stories” that reveal how a team of girls analyze their experiences of girlhood-in-interaction-with technology.
MIGRANT MEXICAN YOUTH IN THE PACIFIC NORTWEST
Mike D. Boyer
Boise State University
What are the stories of migrant, undocumented Mexican youth, as they struggle with language and acculturation in the English-speaking rural Northwest? As Michael Boyer describes, his own study of a set of such stories takes as its starting point narratives written and illustrated by students in his grade 7-12 ESL classroom some 10 years ago. Of course, these stories subsequently diverge as they continue to the present, and as these former students, now adults, connect back to their earlier experiences and reflect on the relation of these experiences to the present. The collection and investigation of these stories, new and old, and their relationship to past realities and future possibilities offers startling insights into the experiences of those othered and marginalized as “immigrant Hispanic children” in America. At the same time, it also entails the creative combination or a range of narratological, political and cultural categories and modes of analysis.
DESIGNING THINGS, PRACTICES AND CONCERN FOR THE GOOD LIFE
Yu-Ling Lee
University of British Columbia
This research examines the complex relationship between design, the sacred and online learning, framed by matters of concern. It is the culmination of a yearlong ethnographic research project in the lives of Christian undergraduate students in Vancouver. Focal concerns in the form of things and practices have disclosive power if they are designed for the good life. The task of the designer, then, is to purposefully move away from matters of fact towards matters of concern. The interviews were open-ended and based on a loosely structured set of questions about faith background, Internet usage, online spiritual experiences, and other factors. Conversations and participant observations were then analyzed as matters of concern.
Posted in Design, Gender, HWL Team, Media Studies, New Media, Technology, Theology
Tagged Culture, Gaming, Gender, HWL, Media Studies, Technology Studies, Youth
Research stories: A graduate forum #hwl #yreUBC #UBC #bced
Research Stories: A Graduate Forum
How We Learn Media and Technology (across the lifespan)
Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy
University of British Columbia
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
10:00-11:30 Scarfe 1209
Year of Research in Education event
GIRLS DESIGNING GAMES, MEDIA, ROBOTS, SELVES, AND CULTURE
Paula (PJ) MacDowell
University of British Columbia
This research involved 30 co-researchers, girls aged 10–13, who were recruited into 101 Technology Fun, a series of intensive research camps offering learning labs in game design, video production, and robotics. Utilizing design-based and participatory techniques, including artifact production, mindscripting, and storymaking, this research examines how girls, through their artifact making and designerly practices, story themselves and express their understandings of technology. Highlighting the importance for girls’ voices to be recognized and given influence in research concerning their lives and learning circumstances, findings focus on the catalytic or generative artifacts and “little stories” that reveal how a team of girls analyze their experiences of girlhood-in-interaction-with technology.
MIGRANT MEXICAN YOUTH IN THE PACIFIC NORTWEST
Mike D. Boyer
Boise State University
What are the stories of migrant, undocumented Mexican youth, as they struggle with language and acculturation in the English-speaking rural Northwest? As Michael Boyer describes, his own study of a set of such stories takes as its starting point narratives written and illustrated by students in his grade 7-12 ESL classroom some 10 years ago. Of course, these stories subsequently diverge as they continue to the present, and as these former students, now adults, connect back to their earlier experiences and reflect on the relation of these experiences to the present. The collection and investigation of these stories, new and old, and their relationship to past realities and future possibilities offers startling insights into the experiences of those othered and marginalized as “immigrant Hispanic children” in America. At the same time, it also entails the creative combination or a range of narratological, political and cultural categories and modes of analysis.
DESIGNING THINGS, PRACTICES AND CONCERN FOR THE GOOD LIFE
Yu-Ling Lee
University of British Columbia
This research examines the complex relationship between design, the sacred and online learning, framed by matters of concern. It is the culmination of a yearlong ethnographic research project in the lives of Christian undergraduate students in Vancouver. Focal concerns in the form of things and practices have disclosive power if they are designed for the good life. The task of the designer, then, is to purposefully move away from matters of fact towards matters of concern. The interviews were open-ended and based on a loosely structured set of questions about faith background, Internet usage, online spiritual experiences, and other factors. Conversations and participant observations were then analyzed as matters of concern.
Posted in Culture, Gaming, Gender, HWL, HWL Forums, HWL Team, Media Studies, Technology, Technology Studies
Tagged Culture, HWL, HWL Team, Media Studies, Technology Studies, Youth