Handout to accompany updated version of presentation delivered at HEA Social Sciences annual conference 2014. These slides form part of a blog post, which can be accessed via: http://bit.ly/1sqOwEa

1. The view from the back of the classroom
Research perspective: young people’s media cultures and relationships with screens, social media,
new technology and gaming have been extensively explored by scholars of childhood and youth, and
sociologists and cultural studies academics interested in new media. However, schools often
respond by deriding or excluding them, seeing them as hostile to educational goals and values, and
constructing both children and teachers as ‘at risk’ from their supposed reconfiguring of
professional and intimate boundaries.
What does the vignette, below, suggest about young people’s:
- literacies
- identities (gendered, sexual etc) and communities
- concepts of privacy and ethics
- visibility and participation in online world
- ideas about labour and enterprise?
Vignette: Alannis and her ‘virtual schoolbag’*
* the idea of the virtual schoolbag comes from Pat Thomson - the things that students bring to
school but that many of them never get a chance to unpack because the school isn’t interested in
them (from a SoE lecturer during discussions)
Alannis is 14 and in Year 10. She is a fan of Union J – known as a J Cat - and is interested in
youtubers such as JacksGap, Tyler Oakley, danisnotonfire and amazingphil; the latter she discovered
‘through a random link on Twitter’ before they rapidly became well-known, with a show on Radio
One. “There’s this thing on YouTube, like YouTubers, there’s loads of them and that’s their job they
just get paid to make videos, all these skits and things… some do pranks, some do advice, some do
things about their life…. They’re really lucky because they don’t have to get up and go to work ….
So now everybody wants to be a YouTuber because it’s like a super easy job, but you get like paid
really well”.
As part of her fan activities she has a Twitter account (plus several ‘fake’ ones created with a
friend), with over 500 followers, mostly people she doesn’t know. Other J Cats have ‘update
accounts’, usually in their ‘ship’ names (ship means, who you would like the band members to be in
a relationship with, so Josh and George = Gosh). These “tell you what they are up to and where
they are in the country so you can try to meet them…. Stalking them basically”. Fans pool their
knowledge of where the band members are at any point by deciphering their twitter feeds; for
instance, they might deduce that they are returning from a tour and turn up at the airport to wait
for them.
She also uses wattpad.com, a fan fiction site for posting one’s own writing and reading others’ work;
Instagram, what’s app and iMessage for talking to her friends.
She doesn’t really use Facebook – “Facebook is for school, but I don’t really go on it cos it’ really
boring now, Facebook, but usually, like, school fights happen through Facebook and stuff like that”.
She is also cautious and distinguishes herself from others who ‘tend to put themselves out there’.
She explains: “I don’t post much. I’m mainly tagged in things. There’s just… some embarrassing
photos of me that I’ve been tagged in. Nothing too bad. If it was just my wall. If it was my news feed
there would be a lot of stuff, but that’s not to do with me.”
She and a friend have a youtube channel on which they post short films. When I ask her if I can look
at it (assuming it must therefore be ‘public’ anyway), she immediately messages her friend to ask if

2. that’s ok; and in fact even when given permission, I find it’s impossible to identify amidst the
thousands of similarly named channels. She explains that she doesn’t tell anyone she knows about it,
and how a friend who posted a link to her youtube film on her Twitter account was embarrassed
when friends saw it – she’d ‘forgotten’ that she had some friends as well as strangers following her
on Twitter, and her carefully managed boundaries were breached. She presents a blunt ethical
position that to upload a video is to invite all types of audience exposure: “I think when people are
being mean on YouTube it’s kind of like, you shouldn't have uploaded the video then”. In regards to
her own channel, she describes how “no one watches it, which I don’t mind because then no one’s
being mean!”
She cannot use Twitter or iMessage at school as she does this on her iPad which she doesn't take
in.
The school bans the use of mobile phones “but everyone has them. Loads of people like text under
the table [in lesson time]… If a teacher sees someone texting they will take their phone off and tell
them to collect it at the end the week”. This rule means that she will risk using her phone more on
a Thursday or Friday because “they have to give them back on Friday anyway”. She remarks that
the photos on her friends’ phones provide insights into when teachers leave the classroom, because
then “everyone takes them out and like, starts taking photos”. Alannis claims only to text herself
for something really urgent “like if I forget something, I’ll text my mum can you bring this”. She also
however uses her phone for legitimate learning purposes: “I look up the definitions of words in
English I don’t understand cos I tend to be a bit too shy to ask”. But this would still be against the
rules and result in confiscation.
Alannis uses her on line activities as reward and inducement for doing homework: “When I come
home I try to do my homework, then spend like ages on my ipad, on youtube mostly …. we have
three pieces of homework, so I do one, then think I can spend 20 minutes on twitter and you tube,
then I do another….”.