How online affinity networks expand learning and opportunity for young
people
Boyband One Direction fanfiction writers, gamers who solve math problems
together, Harry Potter fans who knit for a cause. Across subcultures and
geographies, young fans have found each other and formed community
online, learning from one another along the way. From these and other
in-depth case studies of online affinity networks, Affinity Online
considers how young people have found new opportunities for expanded
learning in the digital age. These cases reveal the shared
characteristics and unique cultures and practices of different online
affinity networks, and how they support "connected learning"--learning
that brings together youth interests, social activity, and
accomplishment in civic, academic, and career relevant arenas. Although
involvement in online communities is an established fixture of growing
up in the networked age, participation in these spaces show how young
people are actively taking up new media for their own engaged learning
and social development.
While providing a wealth of positive examples for how the online world
provides new opportunities for learning, the book also examines the ways
in which these communities still reproduce inequalities based on gender,
race, and socioeconomic status. The book concludes with a set of
concrete suggestions for how the positive learning opportunities offered
by online communities could be made available to more young people, at
school and at home. Affinity Online explores how online practices and
networks bridge the divide between in-school and out-of-school learning,
finding that online affinity networks are creating new spaces of
opportunity for realizing the ideals of connected learning.
