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Monday, October 10, 2011

Participatory Learning

Let me ask you this: how many teens do you know that you would consider tech savvy?  Out of say five teens, would you think one or two are tech savvy or more like four or five?  If I told you that more than one half of all teens have created some sort of media content, would that seem accurate?  According the Pew Internet & American Life project, not only is that accurate, but one third of teens who use the Internet have shared this content.  In Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century published by the MacArthur Foundation, "participatory culture" is "a culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one's creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices".  Some forms of participatory culture are:

1. Affiliations - Formal or informal memberships such as Facebook, MySpace, message boards, etc.
2. Expressions - Producing creative forms such as mash-ups, digital sampling, fan videomaking, etc.
3. Collaborative Problem-solving - Working in teams, formally or informally, to complete a task such as Wikipedia, reality gaming, etc.
4. Circulations - Flow of media such as podcasting, blogging, etc.

Peer-to-peer learning, diversification of cultural expression, development of skills in the modern workplace (such as performance, multitasking, networking, etc.), among other benefits, help these youth acquire important skills and competencies through popular culture.  More opportunities for youth to collaborate world-wide thus creating more opportunity for interaction and understanding between cultures.  Besides the benefits, we must take a look at pedagogical concerns such as participation gap, transparency problem, and ethics challenge.  Do youth have equal access?  Can these youth see how media shapes perceptions of the world?  Are they prepared ethically to take on such challenges? 

One of the concerns that I had was whether or not students would actually learn these skills in a formal school setting or not.  If not, I am afraid it will cause highly motivated students to become discouraged and disillusioned with formal eductional institutions and maybe even dropout.  These members believe in the weight of their contributions and social connections to some degree. 

4 comments:

  1. I was rather struck by something Craigg Kapp from NYU shared in our class. This was in the week of mobile technology (wrong week... this is participatory learning). He said his vision was to build software, so that people can create augmented reality without the need for all the programming work. This is the story behind Zooburst? Enabling educators and students to create digital stories. Technology gives them the voice to do so.
    I think Web 2.0 and social media are powerful tools. They can empower the students' voice. But I also think cultivating a sense of responsibility of what one publish or share online is a balance that is required. Issues on copyright etc. There are also students who may not learn best this way. (There are many lurkers on the Internet). And we know all the things that can go wrong with collaboration. But I figure that the social skills, and knowledge construction are well worth the effort, if well co-ordinated by a well trained teacher. And the article you summarized talks about informal mentorship to novices. I think that is a great idea!

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  3. I don't see it as a problem that some students may not learn well via creative collaboration. I think this can be overcome if a teacher gives some structured choices for how to do a project, and allows students to come up with their own project as well. If students are studying how to make a video or how to practice a particular skill, the "lurker" students can practice their skills by following the instructions of one of the prescribed choices, while the creative student can come up with an idea that fits within the curriculum on their own. Each student is learning the skills and is allowed to proceed with individual learning styles taken in to consideration.

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  4. I think one of the strongest point about participatory learning is that every student should understand the importance and possible implications of "sharing". This can be good from the view point that the learners can get a feeling that they can express their feelings and opinions in multiple ways which can be good.
    At the same time, the responsibility of an educator/teacher increases since he/she should be able to convince the students regarding the underlying responsibilities.
    In contrast to the traditional class room learning, introduction of this and other such utilities should be considered important ONLY up to an extent. What I mean is that such tools are becoming available so that its 'cooperative' use will enrich the learning process.

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