Stand up and be counted! Using technology based informal learning to enhance agency and sociability of low educated and disadvantaged youth. Drs. P.B.F. Moekotte 1 , Dr. H. Ritzen 2 , Prof. dr. P. Robert Jan Simons 3 1 PhD student, Institute of Education (IVLOS), Utrecht University, the Netherlands 2 Lector ‘Educational arrangements in social context’, Applied University Edith Stein/OCT, Hengelo (Ov), the Netherlands. 3 Director of Netherlands School of Educational Management (NSO); Amsterdam, the Netherlands Professor of digital learning, Institute of Education (IVLOS), Utrecht University Aim This research aims at developing an informal learning arrangement and meanwhile have practitioners develop new insights, knowledge and skills from a design perspective, regarding social media, both as didactical tool and a curriculum topic. It addresses the educational question how social media can be used as core element of such an arrangement in order to develop agency, enhance the sociability and thereby foster the economic and social participation of low educated youth and potential early school leavers. The social support structure, the learning that new digital skills require and the overall social context are determining factors for digital exclusion (Mariën & Van Audenhove, 2011). Low educated or disadvantaged youth also hold themselves back through their overall low self-confidence, overestimation of their digital information and strategic skills (Van Deursen & Van Dijk, 2011) and lack of awareness of new agentic and participatory demands (Jenkins, 2006; Schäfer, 2008). Proficient strategic use of social media however, seems a promising way out of this sometimes paradoxical dilemma (De Haan & Adrichem, 2010). Assisting young people in realising network based forms of meaningful learning and social participation that contribute to their own life and professional career, not only calls for helping them learn how to build connections with their own environment or join certain networks, thereby creating so called ‘open learning environments’ (Wildemeersch, 2000; Zürcher, 2007). The help should also contribute to leveraging opportunities for situational, experiential learning and meaning making (Jenkins, 2006; Suthers, 2006) in different social, political, cultural and economic contexts (Wildemeersch, 2000; Berghouwer & Van Wieringen, 2006; Jenkins, 2006). The importance of ‘network sociality’ (Wittel, 2001 ), ‘informational availability’ (Mejias, 2007) and ‘communicative sovereignty’ (Laermans, 2010) for establishing an online ‘social presence’, sets new demands for learning. Especially with regard to ‘online self presentation’ (Stauber, 2004; Valkenburg, Schouten & Peter, 2005; Schouten, 2007), modern youth should experience the possibilities and consequences of online identity formation and self disclosure in order to understand the interrelatedness of human and material agency, i.e. the ‘social agency of code’ (Mejias, 2006), and the agentic power, possibilities and perils that come with social media use. Gaining access to networks and communities, seen as detrimental to multiple forms and genres of participation (Rheingold, 2000; Jenkins, 2006; Ito, 2010) in order to exercise social power and gain social influence, also requires learning modern youth the value of ‘networking’ (Stauber & Walther, 2006) with regard to transitions in life and work (Wildemeersch et al., 2000; Field, 2006) as well as knowing how to exercise explicit influence and estimate/rate implicit influence (Schäfer, 2008) as either augmenting or constraining the process of negotiating. Methodology The research activities consist of the testing, refining and validating of design principles that attribute to the robustness and effectiveness of technology based informal learning arrangements. Furthermore the research design aims at enhancing the practice of Educational Design Research with regard to the constructive and reflective involvement of respondents. The entire proces entails a combination of professional development and educational design, as the practitioners in fact ‘use’, undergo or experience the different collaborative design activities (including reflection and evaluation) and iterative design stages as a process of informal learning. During the