1. Royce Kimmons
April 2012

2. My Context

3. My Research Interests

4. http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wn969meTENA/TmY_FrinQgI/AAAAAAAABrQ/tHojtwKIDVo/s1600/human-technology.jpg

5. Alien Rescue 3D Environment

6. • 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.

7. Elgg

8. • 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.

9. http://iphonemedical.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/wikipedia-logo-en-big.png

11. 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].

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].

13. Courtesy of The Opte Project

14. Emergent Form(s) of Scholarship
• 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?

15. 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.

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

17. Major Findings
1. Process of establishing professional and personal
boundaries
2. Maintaining appropriate and meaningful
connections
3. Structuring participation so that others see me in
a certain light
4. 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

18. 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

19. Emergent Questions About Identity
• 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?

20. Public School Teachers, Technology,
and 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?

21. Teachers in Trouble

22. Current Discussions of SNSs in
Education
• 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.)

23. Dissertation
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

24. Methodology
Grounded Theory
1. Initial Interviews
2. Training Module on Social Media Professionalism
(+1 month)
3. Focus Groups
4. Follow-up Interviews (+1-2 months)

25. 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

26. 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

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

28. Future Research
• Explore the role of games and simulations in
identity development and social interaction for
education

29. Thank you!
Questions?
Website: http://kimmonsdesign.com