Media and styles in the school

Pia Quist

University of Copenhagen, Denmark

WS156: Interfaces between media, speech, and interaction

Media and styles in the school

In many Danish schools the laptop has become a common personal equipment. Students carry around their computers in and out of class rooms, and they go online via the schools' wireless internet connections. The laptop is integrated in as much schoolwork as possible, e.g. in class, laboratory and group work. But it also plays a significant part in the school's leisure time activities. During breaks students go online to surf the internet, to participate in instant messaging, chat rooms, emailing etc. Drawing on an ethnographic study of linguistic variation and stylistic practices at a Copenhagen high school I will in this paper focus on the ways in which the students' laptops are integrated parts of local practices. The paper is structured in two parts: 1) First, I will briefly sketch out how different attitudes towards computers as well as different ways of using computers form part of general stylistic practices; and 2) I shall show examples of concrete class room conversations around and "with" the computer. 1) and 2) together state a clear argument for why a traditional 'sender/receiver media communication model' can not account for everyday media practices among high school students.

Session: Workshop (part 2)
Interfaces between media, speech, and interaction
Thursday, April 3, 2008, 15:45-17:15
room: 04