within the classroom, assessed literacy level by the instructor, and hypothesized connectivity with the outside community members.

10

During the study, I maintained a constant observation of the social network site and the active involvement of the participants. I took notes on a weekly basis regarding the conversations occurring on Ning and paid close attention to two Ning users involved in the project: Yasameen and Yung T. Not only did these students remain active throughout the entire unit, often posting more than the required amounts, they also represent students who have remained socially on the peripheral of the classroom but have become more aware of their voice and the role of language through the project. These students broadened their interaction with others through the network thereby broadening their understanding of language as dialogic or shaped by interaction (Chapman, 2006). As part of the online communities, these students improved their conceptions of language due to their ability to establish contacts with social network members in online interactions. I also kept a record of all the written responses through the threaded discussions and routinely evaluated the process of the online network during classroom discussions .

“These students broadened their interaction with others through the network thereby broadening their understanding of language as dialogic or shaped by interaction.”

to specific choices in language that demonstrate his world outside of school. Yung T uses the online site as a domain to explore his ability to manipulate his language choices. In theorizing Bakhtin, Halasek (1999) suggests, “any speaker speaks a variety of languages, and in that sense he is, to some extent, polyglossic. But only when that speaker begins to understand the variety and dissonances among languages, and that each language carries its own slant on the world, can he begin to situate himself linguistically (and ideologically) in the world (p.8). Both Yung T and Yasameen were able to further their understanding of language by analyzing the choices made in regard to their identities and the implications of “publishing” their identities online.

After the introductory poetry

assignment, a prompt was posted each week to ignite conversation. The desire behind these prompts was to link the context of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to larger contemporary issues and to engage students in conversations regarding the actual role dialogue plays in society. I wanted students to begin to consider how exchanges shape understanding. As Bakhtin writes, “a single voice ends nothing and resolves nothing. Two voices is the minimum for life, the minimum for existence” (Bakhtin as cited in Farmer, 2001, p. 61).

Students recognized that their Media

In class, students identified Yasameen as a quiet, studious girl with striking green eyes beneath her headscarf. As one of the few Islamic students in the building and newly arrived to America in the last two years, Yasameen has often been treated as “different” by her peers even though they all respect her as a writer. Based on the work of Christenson (2000) students were asked to post on Ning a poem about themselves. In her poem, Yasameen displays a pride and strength for her heritage, as well as, her womanhood that had not been exhibited in class. Yasameen was able to gain courage in the online forum to share aspects of her identity that had not been divulged with her peers previously. In his poem, Yung T recognizes the boundaries that exist between himself and his peers because of his background but conveys no shame in his differences. Like Yasameen, Yung T allows the members of the social network to have access

voice in the classroom could become representative of the larger role their voice plays in society. Students were given a sense of purpose, knowing that their ideas would be heard in the online forum.

For those involved, Ning became an opportunity for students to “construct distinct socially situated identities” that further promoted their ability to define voice and extract meaning from discourse (West, 2008, p.596). The students positioned the Ning activities in a framework that allowed for an exploration of both self and literature. By grounding our activity within a literary unit, the online discourse was not perceived as an entertaining gimmick but rather an opportunity to be heard in a forum greater than the classroom. This forum helped to strengthen the students’ conceptions of identity and the feasibility of viewing their education across a technoscape rather than as a static, concrete position in an academic institution.

www.mimame.org

Spring 2010