Challenges of a Participatory Culture

Marshall McLuhan, a media guru far before his time, talks about The Global Village, long before the days of social media platforms.  The global village took the literary man as an individual and brought us into a tribal group.  He talks about this, and at the time, the electronic devices he was referring to were stationary telephones, radio and televisions.  As a society, we moved from interacting as individuals, obtaining our knowledge through books, to being members of a tribe - a global village of interaction.  From the 1960's when he shared his view until now, we have seen many changes in the way individuals interact.  We now have mobile devices that can alert us the minute triumph or tragedy happens, no matter where we are.  Even when the electronic age he referred to started growing, there was no way to prepare for the all out openness we are experiencing now.  Through new technologies, we can connect two classrooms from half way around the world with each other to share a common lesson through the use of smart boards and the internet.  But attention needs to be paid to the use of the technologies and media.

Jenkins discusses the need to teach media literacy, and the challenges that are faced in order to do so.  The first is the Participation Gap.  Access to internet is one thing, access to internet with the capability of being able to do the work that is necessary for schooling is another.  I conducted an interview at the beginning of the year for another course to find out about the development of courses and instructional design.  One of the many things that needs to be taken into consideration is the technology which may be affected by the participation gap. (p. 13)  

The second challenge, Transparency Problem is one that I should not be surprised with, yet do find surprising.  In Shier’s study (2005) a game was developed based on historic interpretation of the first shot of the American Revolution.  Students took the representation of historical evidence in the game as being authentic.  (p. 16)  The concern lies in the ability of young people to be able to assess the quality of information received.  I had an exchange with a friend today on Facebook on this story:

http://nationalreport.net/obama-declares-november-national-muslim-appreciation-month/

When I initially commented of the fakeness of the story, responses came back with stories less and less believable than this initial posting.  But because it was on the internet, and shared by several people, then it must be truth. 

The third concern, Ethics Challenge, is an issue where young people creating new modes of expression that are poorly understood by adults.  He also points out the implications of their media and communications practices.  Most notably that the information that is shared maybe initially just for friends and followers can bring unwelcome attention.  (p. 17)  A recent example that comes to mind with me is happening right now in the Capital District.  Over Labor Day weekend, a party was held at a vacated house that is up for sale by a former NFL football player.  Somewhere between 200 – 300 kids illegally entered the home and held a party.  Through a series of Tweets, the teens implicated themselves not only with the text but with visual proof of who was at the party and what was going on.  The ethical norm was non-existent as they not only were breaking and entering, they stole items and did thousands and thousands of dollars worth of damage. 

We have come a long way from the new media that McLuhan referred to, yet we need to be more diligent in not only teaching and understanding the media and the use of them.  Not only do we need to make sure users can understand the operation of the media, but be able to develop critical thinking in regards to determining the validity of what they are reading/viewing.

References:

Jenkins, H.  Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture:  Media Education for the 21^st Century

Marshall McLuhan - The World is a Global Village (CBC TV)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeDnPP6ntic

Literacies

When one thinks about literacy, they may make an immediate reference to the basics of words and numbers.  But literacy of the 21^st century has expanded to from one’s ability to work with words and numbers to the development of information literacy, digital literacy, computer literacy, social literacy and visual literacy.  One needs to have:

• Computer literacy skills in order to navigate through the Internet 
• Information literacy skills in order to identify, locate, evaluate and effectively use the information 
• Visual literacy in order to read and decipher visual information such as photos, graphics, charts, etc. 
• Social Literacy in order to work collaboratively with and engage with others 
• Digital literacy to be able to read and interpret media, reproduce data and images and evaluate and apply new knowledge gained from the digital environments

There are valid arguments on both sides of the literacy debate regarding the use of the Internet.  However, I tend to lean more toward the value that the Internet lends in an education environment.  One particular statement in Rich’s article that resonated with me, and supports my view was Zachary Sims, “The Web is more about a conversation, books are more one-way.” As an avid reader of both the Internet and printed books, I have to agree with him.  Books are more personal.  Whereas information on the Internet does tend to be more of a conversation.  In most cases, sites, blogs, information on the Internet promotes or gives the opportunity for engagement.  One can share, comment, respond and interact based on what they have read. 

Rich talks of the traditionalists who feel that digital reading is the equivalence of empty calories.  I don’t agree with this view.  I find that the use of readings on the Internet can have value.  Individuals can gather information via the Internet and decide how this information relates to the issue or problem and then use the information gathered to solve the problem or form an opinion.  It offers the opportunity to gather and share information beyond geographic boundaries, which can also enhance one’s learning.  

Making sense of literacies

"The distinctive contribution of the approach to literacy as social practice lies in the ways in which it involves careful and sensitive attention to what people do with texts, how they make sense of them and use them to further their own purposes in their own learning lives" (Gillen and Barton, 2010, p. 9).

  

The first course I took at ESC was Digital Storytelling, a course based on telling stories, sharing communication on a broader stage than I had been used to.  It incorporated the use of several media platforms such as Blogger/WordPress, Wordle and Twitter, as well as several other sites which have multimedia capabilities such as Voice Threads, Animoto.  While I had read blogs and heard about the Twitter craze, I hadn’t used either.  I came to find that the use of blogs had had me connect with others in similar topics/subject areas.  I may have read their blog and from that researched other information that I made a connection to.  

Huffaker cites 2003 statistics that indicate 51.5% of all blogs are being developed and maintained by 13-19 year olds.  I tried finding updated statistics because I have to believe that there is a shift in the percentage.  The use of blogs has become widespread with adults.  Companies use blogs on their websites for promotional purposes; newspapers have both their printed version and online version (which includes a variety of bloggers on subjects from politics to finance to entertainment and lifestyle) and social media platforms such as LinkedIn include subject area experts sharing their viewpoint as well as trending material.  In academia, instructors have students use Blogger and WordPress as part of the curriculum. 

According to Huffaker, blogs are both individualistic and collaborative promoting self-expression and connecting with an online community.  From a learning theory perspective, I tend to favor humanistic style learning and through my own experiences or others I am able to make correlation between the text and assignments and shared experiences.  I have used both for several of my courses in both undergraduate and graduate work.  What began as generalized voicing my opinion or writing about nothing much, became writing blogs reflecting on weekly readings, and another way for me to learn. 

At the same time, I hadn’t quite caught the Twitter craze.  It didn’t seem to make much sense to me.  I revisited it about a couple years later, and found learning advantages to it.  I started following individuals on subject areas I had an interest in, particularly online learning and adult education.  Through this platform individuals can share their viewpoint on a worldwide stage for anyone to read, interact with and share.  It’s not to say that any of the authors are experts – but more sharing their view which a reader can relate to.

Lankshear and Knobel discuss active citizenship and its affect on education.  They state, “Education for active citizenship calls for fostering a sophisticated “sociological imagination” that incorporates (what we call) institutional imagination, political imagination, cultural imagination and moral imagination.” (Lankshear & Knobel 2001-2003, p. 86)  Twitter and blogs share information which individuals can either accept or reject based on their views.  For example, today an blog was shared on LinkedIn about the MBTI (Say Goodbye to MBTI, the Fad That Won’t Die).  Supporters and those that favor the use of MBTI may reject what the author is saying based on their institutional imagination. 

References 

Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M. (1992/94/97). Critical literacy and active citizenship. In C. Lankshear & M. Knobel, Literacies: Social, Cultural, and Historical Perspectives (p. 89). New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.

Huffaker, D. (2005). The educated blogger: Using weblogs to promote literacy in the classroom. AACE Journal, 13(2), 91-98.