Youth Online: Identity and Literacy in the Digital Age: 19 (New Literacies and Digital Epistemologies) - Tapa dura

«This book deals with crucially urgent concerns for all involved in the education of school-age young people who live their lives at the interface of contemporary material and cyberworlds. It explores how young people construct their identities in online social, fantasy, role-playing and educational contexts and for various social purposes including leadership, learning, power, rebellion and romance. Angela Thomas masterfully focuses her transdisciplinary research, integrating studies of identity, multimodal semiotics, socially constructed new literacies, and education, to reveal the achievements and challenges reflected in the online lives of net-age adolescents. The work presented is both scholarly and accessible. It is both essential and enjoyable reading for all who work with young people.» (Len Unsworth, Professor in English and Literacies Education, The University of New England)

Youth Online chronicles the stories of young people from several countries - the US, Australia, Canada, Switzerland, and Holland - and their interactions in online communities over a seven-year period. It examines how young people construct their identities in various social contexts: social, fantasy, role-playing; and for various social purposes: leadership, learning, power, rebellion and romance. It explores the ways youth are deploying both visual and literary cues to develop a full sense of presence online and to effectively communicate with their peers. Using methods of textual, visual, and socio-psychological analysis, this book illuminates the ways in which young people are making sense of their own identities and their place within broader communities.