Royce KimmonsApril 2012

My Context

My Research Interests

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Alien Rescue 3D Environment

• Major Findings– Significant difference between girls and boys in gain

scores (pre- to post-test), favoring girls• Implications– Certain types of game-like technologies may help in

addressing STEM disparities– STEM disparities grow out of how we see ourselves as

learners; important role of identity and social interaction in games and simulations for learning

Kimmons, R., Liu, M., Kang, J., & Santana L. (in press). Attitude, achievement, and gender in a middle school science-based ludic simulation for learning. Journal of Educational Technology Systems.

Elgg

• Major Findings– Disconnect between SNS and learning environments

• Implications– Be more critical of social technologies and ask hard

questions of the data– Before implementing SNS for learning, we need to

understand and carefully consider their inherent assumptions and embedded values

Veletsianos, G., French, K., & Kimmons, R. (under review). Instructor experiences with social networking sites in a formal education setting: Expectations, frustrations, appropriation, and compartmentalization.

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Findings• Perhaps not as “collaborative” as we imagine• Articles generally do not reflect wisdom of the

community, but of a select few within it

Kimmons, R. (2011). Understanding collaboration in Wikipedia. First Monday, 16[12].

Implications• Social technologies may replicate hegemonic

structures, depending on who participates and how they do it and upon embedded values

• Easy to lose sight of individuals when we focus on networks

Kimmons, R. (2011). Understanding collaboration in Wikipedia. First Monday, 16[12].

Courtesy of The Opte Project

• Scholarship as Changing Construct• Digital Scholarship?– Amplification vs. Transformation

• Social Scholarship or Open Scholarship?– Prescription vs. Understanding

• How is scholarship changing as a result of (or in line with) advancements in social media technologies?

Emergent Form(s) of Scholarship

Networked Participatory Scholarship“Scholars’ participation in online social networks to share, reflect upon, critique, improve, validate, and otherwise develop their scholarship.”Scholarship, culture, and technology are co-evolutionary artifacts

Veletsianos, G. & Kimmons, R. (2012). Networked participatory scholarship: Emergent techno-cultural pressures toward open and digital scholarship in online networks. Computers & Education, 58(2), 766-774.

What is the lived experience of being a scholar in the Web 2.0 era?

Major Findings1. Process of establishing professional and personal

boundaries2. Maintaining appropriate and meaningful

connections3. Structuring participation so that others see me in

a certain light4. Using my time efficiently

Veletsianos, G. & Kimmons, R. (2012). Faculty members' lived experiences in online social networking systems. The Internet and Higher Education. Doi: 10.1016/j.iheduc.2012.01.004

Implications• SNS have embedded values that can conflict

with scholars’ multi-faceted lives (personal, professional, etc.)

• Prescription regarding social technologies need to consider social implications of such practice, not just professional efficiency

Veletsianos, G. & Kimmons, R. (2012). Faculty members' lived experiences in online social networking systems. The Internet and Higher Education. Doi: 10.1016/j.iheduc.2012.01.004

• What is the scholar’s or teacher’s place in society? Is this changing?

• Do I have an authentic identity, socio-evolutionary identity, or multiple identities?

• How do the inherent assumptions of a technology shape my participation (and identity construction) through it?

Emergent Questions About Identity

• Reflect many of the tensions of scholars, but with some important differences– less freedom– more social accountability– less social capital

• How do teachers participate in SNSs?• What is the relationship between personal use

of SNSs and professional identity?

Public School Teachers, Technology, and Identity

Teachers in Trouble

• Tend to focus on implementation and “best practices” (e.g. sharing openly)

• Typically do not critically engage inherent assumptions of the medium that shape participation (e.g. “friends”, sharing, openness, authentic identity, etc.)

Current Discussions of SNSs in Education

Major Research Question:• How does exposure to professional

expectations impact pre-service teachers’ senses of online social identity?

Participants:• Twenty (20) first-semester pre-service teachers

in a teacher education cohort

Dissertation

Grounded Theory1. Initial Interviews2. Training Module on Social Media Professionalism

(+1 month)3. Focus Groups4. Follow-up Interviews (+1-2 months)

Methodology

• Data Analysis– Line-by-line (In Vivo) coding– Thematic coding– Theoretical coding– Memoing– Constant comparative analysis

• ~150 pages of single-spaced transcripts• ~4000 coded lines

Methodology

Emergent Findings• The Myth of Authentic Identity• Participation by Modality• Privacy and Maturation• Digital Persistence• Mixed Signals of Sharing and Punishment• Connection and Disconnection

Dissertation: Pre-service Teachers and Social Networking Sites

• Understand issues of identity and participation at multiple levels of educational and professional spectrum– Students– Student-teachers– Early-career teachers– Late-career teachers

Future Research

• Explore the role of games and simulations in identity development and social interaction for education

Future Research

Questions?Website: http://kimmonsdesign.com

Thank you!