Digital SenseMaking Narrating the Transition to College Philip

Digital Sense-Making: Narrating the Transition to College Philip Kreniske The Graduate Center & Hunter College City University of New York (CUNY) Kreniske, P. (2014, May). Digital Sense-Making: How SEEK Students Narrate their Transition to College. In C. Daiute (Chair), Multiexpressive Genres for Development conducted at the Annual meeting of the Jean Piaget Society, San Francisco, CA.

Writing as a Social and Cognitive Tool Writing as an explicitly social process (Bazerman, 2004; Ede, 1989; Mc. Lane, 1992; Ong, 1975; and many others) and the importance of audience (Black, 1989; Flower, 1979; Ong, 1975; Sperling, 1996 and others)

Writing as a Social and Cognitive Tool and the Digital The shift in recent years to massive use of digital and explicitly social writing has increased the importance of audience (Baker & Moore, 2008; Fishman, Lunsford, Mc. Gregor, & Otuteye, 2005; Magnifico, 2011; Manago, Tamara, & Greenfield, 2012)

What is a blog? Often, but not exclusively, blogs are written from one author’s or group of authors’ perspective. Distinct from platforms like Facebook and Twitter in two main ways. 1. Opportunities for interaction are more limited and structured on a blog. 2. Blogs generally place more emphasis on longer written texts, around 500 words, as opposed to Twitter where writers are limited to 140 characters, and though Facebook does not have the same limitations – the average post is around 122 words. (Cvijikj & Michahelles, 2011).

Affordances of the Blog Magnify the Importance of Audience (Bolander, 2012; Graves, 2007 ; Heft, 2007) Hypertext Blogger can explicitly select their audience; public, private with limited access to chosen others, or completely private Allow writers and commenters to communicate across geographical space. posts and subsequent comments can be appear synchronous - or asynchronous

Affordances of the Blog Magnify the Importance of Audience Formation of connections leading to increased implicit and explicit support as compared to most other writing mediums • Social interactions and supports why blogging contributes to positive emotional development (Baker & Moore, 2008; Bane, Cornish, Erspamer, & Kampan, 2010; Boniel-Nissim & Barak, 2011; Ko & Kuo, 2009; Schmitt, Davanim, & Matthias, 2008; Sosnowy, 2013) • and perhaps cognitive development too (Davidson, 2011; Ducate & Lomicka, 2008; Fishman et al. , 2005) • little systematic and empirical work has examined these claims (Wuyts, Broome and Mc. Guire, 2011)

Writing Supports Sense. Making During Challenging Transitions Writing can be a tool to support sense-making. Sense-making involves figuring out how one fits into a context (Daiute & Nelson, 1997; Lucic, 2013).

Increasing college enrollment and importance of a degree

Writing as a Gatekeeper Increasing college enrollment and importance of a degree

College Transition is Challenging for All Especially for students from low income backgrounds many of whom are the first in their family to attend college. (Bailey & Dynarski, 2011; Clark, 2005; Terenzini et al. , 1994; Hurtado, Carter, & Spuler, 1996; Hurtado & Carter, 1997; Zhang & Smith, 2011 )

Percy Ellis Sutton Search for Education Elevation and Knowledge (SEEK) at CUNY SEEK provides funding and support for students • for families with annual income below $20, 655 • slightly lower SAT and high school GPA as compared to other students at the college • 22 transfer students (with over 120 freshman admitted in the fall)

Research Questions How do SEEK transfer students use blogging to support their transition to a new college? How might their writing change over the course of the semester. What are the implications of the change?

Design Students write at the beginning, middle and near the end of the semester. Beginning set up blog and respond to prompt and comment Middle Respond to prompt and comment End Respond to prompt, comment and brief survey

Design Beginning Set up blog and respond to prompt and comment Middle Respond to prompt and comment End Respond to prompt, comment and brief survey

Design, Prompt 1

Emma’s First Post

Emma’s Last Post

Coding Narratives: A Significance Analysis Emma’s 1 st Post Cognitive Words (Daiute, 2014)

Coding Narratives: A Significance Analysis Emma’s 1 st Post Cognitive and Affect Words

Coding Narratives: A Significance Analysis Emma’s 3 rd Post Cognitive Words

Coding Narratives: A Significance Analysis Emma’s 3 rd Post Cognitive and Affect Words

Comparing 1 st and 3 rd Narratives: A Significance Analysis Emma’s Cognitive and Affect Words 1 st Post 3 rd Post

Use of Affect Increased Over the Semester Note: Mean ratios of affect words to total words per narrative.

Use of Cognitive Words Increased Over the Semester Note: Mean ratios of cognitive words to total words per narrative.

Implications of the change in writing over the semester Bloggers increased use of affect and cognitive words over time suggesting that this explicitly social writing was an enactment of emotional and cognitive development. Bloggers used the writing activity to make sense of – and think through their challenging college transition.

Next Steps Explore the comments and the interaction of comments and how bloggers’ writings changed. Next cohort of participants Comparison of explicitly social writing (bloggers) and implicitly social writing (word processed). Other outcomes – i. e. college graduation rates?

Thank You. Questions? pkreniske@gc. cuny. edu