Doctoral Dissertation Research: Digital Adaptation and the Stratification of Cultural Practices

出生在嵌入式数字技术时代的年轻人通常被认为是“数字原住民”，他们通过简单的沉浸就能毫不费力地掌握技术。研究表明，技术能力的深度差距很大，可以影响收入、健康和政治参与等不同领域。同时，如何描述技术能力的发展以及如何解释技术能力的不均衡分布，人们却知之甚少。虽然获取技术仍然是许多人的障碍，但获取技术本身并不能解释为什么有些人比其他人更容易学习新技术，甚至在年轻人中也是如此。同时，技术性质的变化阻碍了对技术能力差异的概念化、测量和解释。该研究通过关注能力的一个方面来解决这一差距：数字适应性。适应性的概念化和测量已经在早期的工作中得到解决，但本研究将重点关注数字适应性的社会决定因素。更具体地说，除了考虑人口因素外，该研究的研究问题是：1)在青少年社会世界的每个领域（即，在家里，在学校，在同龄人中，以及在其他选修领域），哪些想法和做法会影响数字适应性？2)纵观整个“学习生态”，思想和实践的异质性如何影响数字适应性？为了调查这些问题，本研究采用混合方法，分为两个数据收集阶段：1)探索性案例研究和调查细化阶段，为芝加哥公立学校（CPS）学生的小样本学习领域内部和跨学习领域的动态提供丰富的定性理解，并为调查的发展提供信息；2)对32所CPS文法学校的约2800名8年级学生进行调查数据收集阶段，研究更大人群中数字适应性的相关性。更广泛的影响本研究将：1)为青少年的评估提供实用的工具？学习新技术的倾向，2)为关于学习生态的本质如何塑造社会学习过程的社会学研究做出贡献，3)通过会议和出版物获得广泛的研究和教育受众。此外，研究本身将通过低收入的本科生和高中研究助理参与研究、分析和传播过程，为从高中到博士阶段的低收入学生的教育做出贡献

Jeremy Freese Cassidy PuckettNorthwestern University Youth born in an era of embedded digital technologies are commonly assumed to be "digital natives" who uniformly and effortlessly master technology through simple immersion. Research indicates there are wide gaps in depth of technological competence that can influence areas as diverse as income, health, and political participation. Meanwhile little is known about how to describe the development of technological competence and how to explain its uneven distribution. While technological access continues to be a barrier for many, access alone does not explain why some learn new technologies more readily than others, even among younger cohorts. Meanwhile, the changing nature of technology has hindered conceptualization, measurement, and explanation of differences in technological competence.The research addresses this gap by focusing on one aspect of competence: digital adaptability. Conceptualization and measurement of adaptability has been addressed in earlier work, but this study will focus on the social determinants of digital adaptability. More specifically, in addition to considering demographic factors, the study's research questions are: 1) What ideas and practices within each sphere of adolescents' social worlds affect digital adaptability (i.e., at home, in school, among peers, and in other elective spheres)? 2) Looking across the entire "learning ecology," how does heterogeneity of ideas and practices affect digital adaptability? To investigate these questions, the study employs mixed methods with two data collection phases: 1) an exploratory case study and survey refinement phase to provide rich, qualitative understanding of the dynamics within and across learning spheres of a small sample of Chicago Public School (CPS) students as well as to inform development of a survey and 2) a survey data collection phase among ~2800 8th grade students in 32 CPS grammar schools to study correlates of digital adaptability across a larger population. Broader ImpactsThis research will: 1) provide practical tools for the assessment of adolescents? propensity to learn new technologies, 2) contribute to sociological research about how the nature of learning ecologies can shape social learning processes, and 3) reach broad research and educator audiences through conferences and publications. In addition, the research itself will contribute to the education of low-income students from high school through PhD levels through involvement of low-income undergraduate and high school research assistants in the research, analysis, and dissemination processes