This study explores how digital learning spaces with politically charged discussions are designed. A facebook group with politically charged content is analyzed to examine which affordances (Gibson, 1979; Kress, 2003) emerge and how these are used to create semi-formal learning and alternative places for communication. A social semiotic approach (Kress, 1997; 2003; Van Leeuwen, 2005; Selander & Kress, 2010; Jewitt, 2012) is used in combination with netnographic method (Kozinets, 2015), to investigate the particular aspects of designing for learning (Selander & Kress, 2010) in such semi-formal, digital, learning spaces. The results illustrate how traditional design aspects are intertwined with more modern, contemporary content. Learning democratic values, can be understood as one of the overarching themes in the facebook group. This is designed by using different symbols of diversity, in pictures and films (c.f. Jewitt, 2008). The need to understand the setting (c.f. Kress, 1997; Selander & Kress, 2010) and the sender in these kinds of social media (Boyd, 2014; Kozinets, 2020), is also discussed, in relation to what extent the users can act as agents of their own learning.
QC 20250806