  Researchers and designers have incorporated social media affordances into
learning technologies to engage young people and support personally relevant
learning, but youth may reject these attempts because they do not meet user
expectations. Through in-depth case studies, we explore the sociotechnical
ecosystems of six teens (ages 15-18) working at a science center that had
recently introduced a digital badge system to track and recognize their
learning. By analyzing interviews, observations, ecological momentary
assessments, and system data, we examined tensions in how badges as connected
learning technologies operate in teens' sociotechnical ecosystems. We found
that, due to issues of unwanted context collapse and incongruent identity
representations, youth only used certain affordances of the system and did so
sporadically. Additionally, we noted that some features seemed to prioritize
values of adult stakeholders over youth. Using badges as a lens, we reveal
critical tensions and offer design recommendations for networked learning
technologies.
