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theses

Research supports the claim that as adolescents grow older, they tend to read less and spend more time engaged with technology and social media. One tool that can be incorporated into the classroom to combine student learning with technology and social media is blogging. The purpose of my qualitative case study was to observe how students interacted with each other when responding to Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye through the use of a multimedia blog. My research explored the following research question and sub-questions: How do students interact with each other when responding to Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye through the use of a multimedia blog? (A) How are students interacting with each other through their online postings? (B) How do students’ postings reflect the ways in which they are/are not making sense of The Bluest Eye? (C) If students do incorporate multimedia into their postings, why are they choosing to do so? The research questions were grounded in Vygotsky’s social constructivism theory (1978) and Gavelek and Raphael’s Vygotsky Space (1998). I interviewed 13 students and collected and analyzed students’ blogs, written responses, and reflections. Using the qualitative software program Dedoose, and constant comparative methods, I analyzed data to identify common themes. Once themes were solidified, I aligned each theme with my research questions. Three findings were discussed: 1) students interacted online by creating an online community of learners where they could ask questions, engage in conversations, and challenge each other’s ideas; 2) blogs were supportive tools in helping the students make sense of the novel; and 3) the students were divided on using multimedia, but the ones who did use multimedia explained that it was for entertainment and to add a touch of humor to the assignment. Practical recommendations and suggestions for future practice and research are presented.

ETD_7134

Ed.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Susan T. Watkins

doi:10.7282/T3HT2RG5

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.