Digital identities, student investments and eGranary as a placed resource
Abstract
In this article, we draw on our research on the digital portable library, eGranary, undertaken in a rural Ugandan village in 2008, to contribute to place-based studies of digital literacy. Our research project investigated the uptake of eGranary by students in the community, focusing on six secondary students who worked as library scholars in the local library. Drawing on Blommaert's construct of scale, we illustrate how both space and time were implicated in the diverse practices associated with eGranary, and their indexical meanings in the wider community. In addition, with reference to Norton's work on identity and investment, we illustrate how students’ identities shifted over time from trainee to tutor, and how the use of eGranary enhanced what was socially imaginable to the library scholars. We demonstrate that Norton's construct of investment thus serves as a useful complement to Blommaert's construct of scale. We also found, however, that students in the wider community who did not have access to eGranary engaged in practices of resistance. We conclude that while eGranary traveled well to Uganda, the limited local resources available in the community compromised its effectiveness, and may well limit the realization of students’ imagined identities for the future.
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The construct of investment extends the notion of uptake because investment indexes issues of identity and imagined futures.
“Norton and Williams have argued that the construct of investment extends the notion of uptake, given that investment indexes issues of identity and imagined futures.”
From Identity and a Model of Investment in Applied Linguistics (2015) · cites this paper as Norton and Williams (2012)
When students and teachers acquired valued digital skills, their cultural capital and social power grew.
“While Norton and her colleagues do not suggest that what is socially imaginable is also socially available in the African context, it was clear that as students and teachers developed valued digital skills, they also gained increasing cultural capital and social power.”
From Identity and a Model of Investment in Applied Linguistics (2015) · cites this paper as Norton & Williams, 2012
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- Authors
- Norton, B., & Williams, C.-J.
- Affiliations
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- ORCID
- Norton, Bonny
- Venue
- Language and Education
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2012-07
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 315-329
- ISSN
- 0950-0782 (ISSN-L)
- 1747-7581
- OpenAlex
- W2132803388
- Cited by
- 53
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 10.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Language and Education (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › ICT in Developing Communities
- Social Sciences › Library and Information Sciences › Library Science and Administration
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Literacy, Media, and Education
- Keywords
- digital literacy, digital identity, student investment, scale, high school students, resistance, rural Uganda, Norton
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