New Media, New Literacies and the Adolescent Learner

ABSTRACT The goal of this research study was to develop a conceptualization of the relationship between new digital media and adolescent students ’ writing of poetry while immersed in using new media. More specifically, the research focused on the performative affordances of new media and how these interacted with the students ’ creative processes as they created digital poems. The article examines eight themes that emerged during the study, including the multimodal, multilinear and collaborative nature of the poems, the role of audience and identity in the creative process, and the shifting views of poetry the students experienced. It would be an understatement to say that adolescence is a period of complex human development. Adolescents face a number of challenges during these years of rapid personal change marked by physical, emotional, social, moral and cognitive development. The challenge for English language arts educators is to ensure that adolescents have avenues to explore their identities and to express themselves in purposeful ways in safe, non-threatening environments: places free of judgment where they can explore issues of relevance to themselves. They also require acknowledgement and incorporation of their social worlds in the classroom, and these social worlds include digital spaces such as Facebook, MSN, MySpace, YouTube and various other Web 2.0 technologies