Using disruptive technologies to make digital connections: stories of media use and digital literacy in secondary classrooms

This study focused on ways teachers and students in an urban high school used technologies often labeled as disruptive (i.e. social media and mobile phones) as learning and relationship building tools, inside and outside the classroom. In this teacher research study, secondary teachers discussed digital literacies, the digital divide, and digital teacher–student relationships with their urban high school students. Findings showed that students had difficulties connecting their personal media use (social media and mobile phones) with its usefulness as an educational tool. In response, teachers leveraged teacher–student relationships, the social–emotional bond developed through classroom communication that links the two groups, by connecting with students via social media and other technologies in order to extend learning beyond the classroom. Examples of how and why secondary teachers structured their digital interactions with students may provide a framework for other secondary educators wanting to create or expand their digital classrooms.