Since the late eighties, a growing movement in the learning sciences has theorized learning as it is embedded in everyday social activity in varied settings, including but not restricted to formal educational contexts. More recently, the spread of new networked and interactive media has invigorated this line of inquiry by foregrounding the ways in which knowledge and learning opportunities are distributed across networks that cross institutional boundaries of home, school and community.
The goal of the Youth, New Media, and Public Participation Planning Grant is to investigate the ways young people’s social and political participation in online communities affects their capacity and motivation to engage in social and political issues. How, for example, does network media’s blurring of the distinction between the public and the private reshape young people’s civic and political engagement?
