The hidden curriculum of Web portals: Shaping participation in online networks

The World Wide Web (WWW) is an important site of and for learning, but it is necessary to deconstruct the kinds of learning the Web encourages. Web portals are a common entry point to the online world. Portals have gained in popularity in recent years, as their general utility as sites of reference has led to their commercial and educational use. As the term portal implies, these sites are intended to serve as launching points from which users may enter the World Wide Web. Web portal users log on with a username and password, then customize or personalize the datastructure that will be presented to them. As key sites of informal learning about and with technology, portals may influence how habits of technology use are encouraged---and conditioned---as people learn to use portals in their everyday lives. This thesis examines several types of web portals, and theorizes the informal learning commensurate with a public pedagogy of popular culture. Examples of commercial portals are deconstructed in order to understand how portal personalization works, and what this might teach users. These examples are contrasted and compared with a government portal. This leads to a discussion about concepts relating to digital citizenship and participation in online networks and community learning networks. Community Informatics is a field of inquiry that is concerned with understanding how technology can be used in informal and community settings. This dissertation makes two significant contributions to the Community Informatics body of knowledge. First, it advances a theory of learning, based in the sociology of knowledge, that addresses the enculturation processes that encourage people to use portals, and considers what this might mean for community learning networks. Second, it provides an overview and evaluation of the function of portals within the social context of learning. The dissertation concludes with recommendations and strategies for cultivating critical and digital literacies. These recommendations have particular applicability to the use of communications technology in healthcare, education and governance.