This article is derived from a study of the use of Facebook as an educational resource by five dyslexic students at a sixth form college in north‐west England. Through a project in which teacher‐researcher and student‐participants co‐constructed a group Facebook page about the students’ scaffolded research into dyslexia, the study examined the educational affordances of a digitally mediated social network. An innovative, flexible, experiential methodology combining action research and case study with an ethnographic approach was devised. This enabled the use of multiple mixed methods, capturing much of the rich complexity of the students’ online and offline interactions with each other and with digital media as they contributed to the group and co‐constructed their group Facebook page. Social perspectives on dyslexia and multiliteracies were used to help interpret the students’ engagement with the social network and thereby deduce its educational potential. The research concludes that as a digitally mediated social network, Facebook engages the students in active, critical learning about and through literacies in a rich and complex semiotic domain. Offline dialogue plays a crucial role. This learning is reciprocally shaped by the students’ developing identities as both dyslexic students and able learners. The findings suggest that social media can have advantageous applications for literacy learning in the classroom. In prompting learning yet remaining unchanged by it, Facebook can be likened to a catalyst.

Dyslexia has an ambivalent relationship with learning technology. Any potential gains may be nullified if the technology is perceived to exacerbate stigma. This paper examines the use of an ‘everyday’ technology, Facebook, by a small group of sixth form students labelled as dyslexic. ‘Levelling the playing field’ is a phrase the participants used often when discussing what they wanted from learning technology. Because dyslexia usually is defined in terms of significant difficulties with literacy, we might reasonably anticipate that the participants would see Facebook as stigmatising rather than levelling the playing field, because of the very public literacy events that it demands. However, the data indicate that far from shying away from Facebook because of fear of their difficulties with literacy being exposed, the participants enthusiastically embraced it. The students saw Facebook as a desirable presence in their education, one that supported inclusion. For them, levelling the playing field with Facebook had five dimensions: keeping up to date and meeting deadlines; increased control over learning; developing metacognitive awareness; greater control over literacy process and demands; and being experts and helpers. The findings perhaps challenge some assumptions about dyslexia, literacy and learning, and may be of interest to teachers working with dyslexic students, or researchers studying learning in digitally mediated social networks.Keywords: social networking; digital literacies; dyslexia; adolescent; inclusion(Published: 14 February 2014)Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2014, 22: 18535 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v22.18535

In this study the author charts the trajectory of an adolescent student's identity, from being a struggling reader to a competent reader and successful young actor. The author argues that reading is central to our ability to make sense of both our inner selves and our surroundings, and that it is therefore imperative that unskilled readers are given opportunities to improve. A modified Neurological Impress Method Plus is shown to contribute to the focus student's substantial improvements in reading, and to the positive evolution of her sense of identity. Qualitative and quantitative data are combined to provide a vivid account of the student's relationship with reading. Analysis of this relationship helps to challenge some assumptions about the relationship between adolescence, identity, and dyslexia. The article finishes with suggestions for teaching reading with teenage students who have been labelled poor readers. في هذه الدراسة يحدد المؤلف مسار هوية طالب مراهق من كونه قارئ يواجه صعوبات في القراءة إلى قارئ قادر وممثل صغير ناجح. ويحتج المؤلف بأن القراءة هي مركز قردتنا على فهم أنفسنا الداخلية ومحيطاتنا وبالتالي لا بد للقراء غير المهرة من توفيرهم بفرص للتحسن. وتثبت طريقة تأثير النظام العصبي المتعدلة فائدتها في تحسين القراءة عند الطالب بشكل ملحوظ وفي التطور الإيجابي عند وعيه بهويته. ويتم جمع المعطيات الكمية والكيفية لتوفير قصة شديدة الوضوح عن علاقة الطالب بالقراءة. إذ يساعد تحليل هذه العلاقة في تحدي بعض الافتراضات بشأن العلاقة بين المراهقة والهوية والصعوبة في القراءة والكتابة. وتنتهي هذه المقالة بالاقتراحات لتعليم القراءة مع الطلاب المراهقين الذين يندرجون تحت صنف القراء ذوي الصعوبة في القراءة. 本研究之作者绘制出一名青少年学生身份认同的演变轨迹，首先由一名有困难的阅读者演变为一名有足够能力的阅读者，然后再演变为一名成功的青年演员。作者认为，阅读对我们理解内在自我的能力及理解周围环境事物的能力是至为重要的，因此我们必须给予不擅长阅读技能的学生有改进的机会。这项研究显示，经修改后的「神经学记印方法加强版」大大改进了这名焦点学生的阅读能力，也正面地影响了她的身份认同意识的演化。作者综合了定性与定量的研究资料，用以生动地描述该名学生与其阅读之间的关系。这关系的分析有助于质疑一些对青少年、身份认同、阅读障碍之间的关系的假设。本文最后建议一些阅读教学方法，用以教导那些被标签为阅读能力薄弱的青少年学生。 Dans cette étude l'auteur trace la trajectoire identitaire d'un adolescent scolarisé, ayant commencé par être un lecteur en difficulté pour devenir un lecteur compétent et un jeune acteur qui réussit. L'auteur soutient que la lecture est un élément central de notre capacité à donner du sens à la fois à notre moi intime et à notre environnement, et qu'il est donc impératif que les lecteurs malhabiles aient des occasions de progresser. La Neurological Impress Method Plus modifiée apparaît avoir contribué à ses progrès substantiels en lecture, et à une évolution positive du sens de son identité. Des données qualitatives et quantitatives ont été combinées pour rendre compte de façon vivante de la relation de cette élève à la lecture. L'analyse de cette relation contribue à jeter un doute sur la relation entre adolescence, identité, et dyslexie. L'article se termine par des suggestions pour enseigner la lecture aux plus de dix ans que l'on étiquette comme de mauvais lecteurs. В данном исследовании автор прослеживает траекторию развития идентичности девочки‐подростка: от неумеющей читать ученицы до компетентного читателя и успешной ...

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