Presented at the Digital Media & Learning conference in Boston, MA. The talk focuses on a web design workshop for kids at a public library. How can web design change discourses of technology and computers and help kids develop literacies for meaningful participation?

1. Kids Teaching Kids: Web Design & Peer
Learning at a Public Library
Digital Media & Learning Conference, Boston, MA
March 8, 2014
Dr. Jacqueline Ryan Vickery, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Radio, Television, & Film
University of North Texas
jvickery.com
jacqueline.vickery@unt.edu
@JacVick

2. Access Literacies
Participation Gap

4. PARTICIPATION GAP
Access Literacies Identification

5. “One of the most urgent
challenges regarding
technology, diversity, and equity
is the need to expand digital
literacy; that is, the development
of young people‟s capacity not
only to access and use digital
media but to use digital media in
ways that create more enhanced
and more empowered
expressions of learning, creative
expression, and civic
engagement.”
- S. Craig Watkins

6. Blogging
HTML /
CSS
Geeking
out

7. Blogging
HTML /
CSS
Geeking
out

8. Blogging
HTML /
CSS
Geeking
out
Teach
others

9. Confidence
“In today‟s world, knowing how to code
is a skill that will be useful in many
fields. When a child learns to code, he
or she is learning a skill that can give
him or her the confidence to say, „I
have something to offer.‟ Becoming
more literate in technology can allow
kids to help out their

10. Free Web
Design
Workshop for
Kids at the
Public Library

11. “Learning becomes both a
personal and unique
trajectory through a complex
space of opportunities and a
social journey as one shares
aspects of that trajectory with
others (who may be very
different from oneself and
inhabit otherwise quite
different spaces).”
James Paul Gee

12. Learn
Teach
Explore
Affinity Space

20. “For interest-driven
learning to work, you need
mentors…The role of the
mentor is to get you to
discover things you might
not actually know you were
interested in, to confront
topics you may not be very
good at understanding, but
once discovered, you will.”
- John Seely Brown

23. “My youngest liked
adding images to
her website, my
eldest liked giving
commands to the
computer.”
- Mom

24. “Thank you for
offering this
opportunity to the
children; looking
forward to anything
else you would offer
through the library.
Understanding how a
computer works is a
step in the right
direction.”

27. Technology Help
Others

28. Technology
Helping
others

29. Computer & Web
Competencies
Creative &
Design Literacy
Identification Peer-to-peer
Discourse

31. References
Chaplin, H. (2012). Spotlight on Digital Media Learning: Q&A with
John Seely Brown: http://spotlight.macfound.org/featured-
stories/entry/john-seely-brown-on-interest-driven-learning-mentors-
and-play/.
Gee, J. P. (2005). Semiotic social spaces and affinity spaces. In
Barton & Tusting (Eds.) Beyond communities of practice language
power and social context, Cambridge University Press, 214-232.
Vickery, J. (2014). Youths Teaching Youths. Journal of Adolescent &
Adult Literacy, 57(5), 361-365.
Craig Watkins, S. (2011). Digital divide: Navigating the digital edge.
International Journal of Learning & Media, 3(2), 1-12.

32. Kids Teaching Kids: Web Design & Peer
Learning at a Public Library
Digital Media & Learning Conference, Boston, MA
March 8, 2014
Dr. Jacqueline Ryan Vickery, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Radio, Television, & Film
University of North Texas
jvickery.com
jacqueline.vickery@unt.edu
@JacVick