Blackboard vs. MySpace: Tracing urban adolescent identities and literacy practices within school and out-of-school online communities

At no time in history has the gap between student learning with technology in school and out of school been more apparent. A great deal of students' educational use of the Internet occurs outside the classroom and purview of their teacher, whereas in class, Internet use is often controlled by policies limiting access to filtered web sites or a learning management system (LMS). At the same time, adolescents spend significant amounts of time interacting within global social networking sites (SNS) outside of school. This research might be of value to educators and researchers interested in the impact of online social and academic environments on the development of adolescent identity formations and literacy practices within an urban Latino community.;This connective case study traced the identity formations and literacy practices of six adolescents from a small urban high school while they interacted within their Learning Management System (LMS) and Social Network Site (SNS). Blackboard (LMS) and MySpace (SNS) became an indispensable part of the participants' social and academic lives. They used their SNS and LMS to form and experiment with their identity, practice multiple identities, and to express future aspirations. They also demonstrated various social and academic literacies including the ability to navigate and manage complex social relationships and to critically analyze texts by interacting with others within their academic environment. The adolescents chose to use a SNS that appeared to reproduce their social and racial divisions online and used mobile devices to stay constantly connected to MySpace and Blackboard. All of the participants had access to the Internet outside of school, yet some lacked the academic skills or social capital necessary to use the technologies for meaningful social and academic practices. The study concludes by offering three recommendations for educators interested in how to use online environments to develop adolescent identity formations and literacy practices.