FEMALE SECONDARY STUDENTS' USE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING AS PART OF FORMAL EDUCATION: PERSPECTIVES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Abstract

This case study seeks to understand the potential benefits of using the social networking site (SNS) Edmodo by female secondary students studying year 12 chemistry and year nine Chinese at a single sex state school in Melbourne. Discourse analysis of survey and semi-structured focus group questions were aimed at assessing how social networking is perceived to enhance learning and what it might afford to students’ identity formation as learners. Lave and Wenger’s situated learning theory, Bakhtin’s dialogic self and Foucault’s technology of the self were used to theorize students’ discourse. Although Edmodo may be regarded as the Facebook for education, the ways of being in both spaces do not..