My colleagues and I wrote a paper that will appear in a future issue of Learning, Media, and Technology. In the paper, we document our work designing a social media app called ScienceKit for children. In the app children document and share their everyday life (just as they would using tools such as Instagram etc.), but in the process of sharing see their life through a lens of scientific inquiry. We also document the amazing work by co-author Dr. Tammy Clegg in designing a program called Kitchen Chemistry (KC) where children learn scientific inquiry through cooking.
What happens when we combine these two ideas – social media in a life relevant learning environment like KC? We feel that some magic can occur by thoughtfully combining technology and curriculum, and we present some case studies to show how.
Take a look at the pre-publication manuscript here: LINK.