Social network sites with learning purposes: Exploring new spaces for literacy and learning in the primary classroom

This paper seeks to understand how primary school teachers and students in Year 6 have been using a social network site with learning purposes called Edmodo in their everyday school practices, and whether or not its use supports learning and new literacies. Drawing on a social learning approach, this paper attempts to connect literature on social learning and digital tools in the school classroom. The researcher collected entry logs on this learning technology over four months as well as field observations, interviews, and a survey. The results of this research suggest that the use of a social network site opens spaces where teaching and learning repertoires can be expanded, allowing students' to engage in digital multimodal literacy practices with an awareness of audience and authorship, as well as to engage in self-directed learning and peer-teaching practices. Such practices seemed to be qualitatively different than teaching and learning practices observed in the physical space of the classroom. Implications related to the benefits of combining both physical and online spaces and tools for learning are discussed.