The Role of Funds of Knowledge in Online Search and Brokering

Lower-socioeconomic status, immigrant parents who are English language learners often work collaboratively with their children to search the internet. Family members rely on each other's language and digital literacy skills in this collaborative information problem solving process known as online search and brokering (OSB). While previous work has identified the ecological factors that impact OSB, research has not yet distilled the specific learning processes behind such collaborations. From a case study analysis of three families, this work explores the funds of knowledge that children and parents rely on as they engage in collaborative learning experiences through OSB. We demonstrate how in-home computer supported collaborative processes are often informal, collaborative, social, and highly relevant to solving real-life information challenges. Our work shows how parents and children draw on their funds of knowledge when they search collaboratively, with and for their family members, to build their collective knowledge of technology and problem-solving.