The identity affordances of tools: an examination of visual design tool use in STEM

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article compares how visual design tools are used during an internship for high schoolers co-researching science journalism through infographics. Drawing on interns’ documentation of design processes, we demonstrate that tools shape both how youth create visual representations and how features of tools enable and constrain youth in positioning themselves in socially valued ways. Thus, affordances of tools can be interpreted according to their cognitive and identity fostering properties. We argue identity affordances of tools are under-theorized and are consequential for learners and learning. Educators should be mindful of, if not make explicit, properties of tools when designing for learning.