Janette Hughes
PhD

The Digital Principal

From Pembroke Publishers in 2014, The Digital Principal shows education leaders how to apply their leadership skills to the challenge of creating and supporting a learning environment rich in technology and opportunities for both students and teachers to work, teach, and learn in the digital age.

Social Action Through Digital Literacy

Published by iBooks in 2013 with one of her graduate students and available on iTunes, this book explores the impact on adolescents’ learning when given opportunities to create digital texts for a wider audience and engage with social justice issues on a global scale. The research presented in this book positioned adolescents as agents of change as they produced digital texts based on issues identified through the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Crossing Cultural Borders Through Ning

The aim of this mixed methods research study was to examine the construction of adolescents’ bi-cultural identities through an exploration of their social practices on the social networking site, Ning. More specifically, we ask: (1) how are new Canadian and first-generation adolescents’ bi-cultural identities shaped and performed as they use multimedia and social networking tools in their classroom; and (2) how can social networking tools help students cross cultural barriers and build strong communities of practice.

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Mobilizing Knowledge Via Documentary Filmmaking: Is the Academy Ready?

The predominant form of research dissemination resides in the scholar’s domain, namely academic conferences and peer-reviewed journals. This paper describes how two colleagues and researchers integrated documentary filmmaking with research methods in their respective scholarly work, supporting the case for documentary film as an alternative form of scholarly work and knowledge mobilization outside the walls of the university. The authors add to the ongoing conversation for a more dynamic use of digital video-recording that moves beyond simple data collection and encourage researchers to tap into multimodal forms of expression, specifically digital filmmaking.

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You Don’t Know Me: Adolescent Identity Development Through Poetry Performance

Our study concerns adolescents using poetry writing as an interrogative and creative means of shaping and creating “voices” or “identities.” Toronto-based high school students were challenged to be creators (rather than solely consumers) of available social practices within a digital landscape using mobile devices and social networking platforms.

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The Evolution of Teaching with Graphic Novels

Much has changed since I began teaching in a Pre-service Teacher Education program in 2006. Back then, when I introduced our future elementary and secondary English Language Arts teachers to graphic novels, only a few students in each class had any experience with them. Most of the teacher candidates knew about and had read comics at some point in their lives, but only a few had actually read a graphic novel. Now, eight years later, almost all of them know what a graphic novel is, and some enter my classes having taken university courses in the area.

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At the Intersection of Critical Digital Literacies, YAL and Literature Circles

In this qualitative case study, we share findings on the link between a critical digital literacies pedagogy, and the use of young adult novels, literature circles and various digital tools to develop students' traditional and digital literacy skills.

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Adolescents as Agents of Change: Digital Text-Making for Social Justice

This article chronicles a research study in two middle schools in Canada where teachers and learners were engaged to create and integrate digital texts representative of social justice issues into the school curriculum. The article illustrates through samples of digital texts the tacit skills of students that are not readily seen in schools.

Using Facebook to Explore Adolescent Identities

This study examines the construction, deconstruction and reconstruction of adolescent identities through an exploration of their social practices within a digital landscape using mobile devices and Facebook for learning in the classroom and in their lives.

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The Writing is on My Wall: Engagement and LearNING Through Social Networking

This research chronicles experiences using a social networking site (Ning) to engage and promote collaboration between a class of grade 7 and 8 students, preservice teachers at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, and graduate students at memorial University in Newfoundland.

ImMEDIAte Gratification: Examining the Use of Mobile Devices in Adolescents’ In-School and Out-of-School Lives

Using a mixed method media approach of qualitative case study analysis and quantitative surveying, this research investigates the development of adolescent digital literacies and their use of mobile devices to further their understandings.