Literacies through media: identity and discourse in the process of constructing a web site

In this research note we explore how children construct their identity in the context of a literacy practice: developing written and audio-visual texts in small-group situation to be published on the Internet. Through their dialogue, a shared identity is growing on the context, and every children create an identity as member of a community in which is included [Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice. Learning meaning and identity. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press].Methodologically we have adopted, on one hand, an ethnographic perspective (Atkinson et al., 2001) and, on the other, an action-research perspective [Reason, P., & Bradbury, H. (Eds.) (2001).Handbook of action research. London, Thousand oaks Sage]. We analysed the data collected in five groups in an after-school workshop, during a one-month period with eight two-hour sessions. It is particularly important to compare the history of every group creates a different identity for its page. ndings illustrate how the participants, with their multiple identities [Gee, J.P. (1999). An introduction to discovers analysis. Theory and method. London, NewYork: Routledge], generate a collective identity orientated to a common audience writing as a group, and negotiating during their dialogue. We analyse how these multiple identities turn into a shared identity that, finally, is shown in the product (the Web site). scussion of our results reveals how the process of creating the web pages, in the situation described above, depends on the shared construction of meanings among the participants. Writing on the Internet about the media facilitates multiple dialogues and provides opportunities to educate children in the use of multiliteracies.