Adolescents’ Web-Based Literacies, Identity Construction, and Skill Development

Five qualitative multiple-case studies document adolescents' uses of Web-based resources and digital literacy skills to construct their online identities. Working from a perspective that integrates new literacies with multimodality, the researchers enlisted the help of five high school students who kept daily logs of the websites they visited for 8 months. The logs provided a focus for weekly, semi-structured individual interviews that were recorded, transcribed, and used to inform the next week's interviews. A six-step multilayered analysis of the data shows that students use a range of Web-based resources and digital literacy skills to construct their online identities. While such practices are connected to students' offline worlds, a scholarly debate exists concerning their relevancy for preparing youth to be contributing members of society.