“While to adults the Internet primarily means the world wide web, for children it means email, chat, games— and here they are already content producers. Too often neglected, except as a source of risk, these communication and entertainment focused activities, by contrast with the information-focused uses at the centre of public and policy agendas, are driving emerging media literacy. Through such uses, children are most engaged— multi-tasking, becoming proficient at navigation and manoeuvre so as to win, judging their participation and that of others, etc.... In terms of personal development, identity, expression and their social consequences— participation, social capital, civic culture- these are the activities that serve to network today’s younger generation.”
”With relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement
” With strong support for creating and sharing one's creations with others
” With some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices
” Where members believe that their contributions matter
””Where members feel some degree of social connection with one anther (at the least they care what other people think about what they have created)
Nate Combs asks to what extent are MMOGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Games) participatory and wonders whether personality is enough of a contribution. In terms of a digitally literate classroom, where might elements of a participatory culture come in? In all classrooms, not just ones that employ new technology, participation is a must.Teachers encourage students to ask questions, to converse with other students, to share experiences, to conduct group-work, in essence: to perform.With the addition of access to the internet how does the concept of performance and participation expand? Students using MySpace, Facebook, instant messaging, Skype, and other elements of social media are refining their performance skills.These students are learning to express themselves while becoming transliterate.These students are content creators in a world where “knowledge, power, and productive capability will be more dispersed than at any time in our history – a world where value creation will be fast, fluid, and persistently disruptive.”If this is true, then students who are not taught how to harness collaborative approaches will find themselves isolated in a world which values sharing, updating, and constant feedback.Using digital media in the classroom (like blogs, vlogs, podcasts, digital lit. etc…) can amplify an ecology where learning is diffuse rather than hierarchically organised.
“If it were possible to define generally the mission of education, it could be said that its fundamental purpose is to ensure that all students benefit from learning in ways that allow them to participate fully in public, community, creative and economic life.” (See "A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies" 9-37).
“Our view of mind, society, and learning is based on the assumption that the human mind is embodied, situated and social” (ibid. 30).
Important to all learning is the notion that what we learn builds on what we already know, just as new technologies build on existing features.The current online realisation of participation transforms literacy (in my view) from a personal experience to a community endeavour highlighting networks and collaborative reading (in all senses of the word).These skills thrive alongside the existing foundations of print literacy, film literacy, social literacy, critical literacy, and technical literacy.
As Peg Syverson, Associate Director of the Computer Writing and Research Labs at the University of Texas, Austin explains: “Can I prove that online writing courses improve students' ability to write traditional essays? No, I can't. I also can't prove that driver's ed. courses improve students' equestrian ability.... What we're doing is preparing students for the kinds of writing they need in the future” (qtd. in Electronic Literacies: Language, Culture, and Power in Online Education, 155.)
I agree entirely that the internet has liberated communication, especially for kids. MSN messenger, where they can talk multiply to their friends is tremendous. So, they can observe bedtimes as prescribed by parenst and then, instead of reading under the blankets, tap into MSN on top of the quilt and 'be' with their friends much later.
I also think that email groups have multiplied discussion. The Leicester Social Forum Yahoo group is full of comments, questions, debates and polemics and i love every bit of it. Just like i value the FLB blogsite.
I have never met you, live nowhere near you but i can read your views and comment on them. Nice.
I just wish I could understand some of the terms you use. What is 'mimesis'. It sounds delicious.
Subject: Response to Peter
Made by:Jess (20) on: Wednesday 25th April 2007 at 15:01
What a nice comment Peter. Thanks. It's rare to be able to welcome (publicly!) such optimism towards new technologies - especially when it concerns younger people. That new technologies is enabling communication is fantastic, obviously we still need to work on who has access to it - but I think that's improving.
Hrm...mimesis. What about "multi-mimesis"? More delicious? Mimesis (pardon the broad sweep) usually is equated to a literary theory of the representation of reality (check out Auerbach's Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature). Multi-mimesis is my theory (this is my ph.d research) of how we can now (easily) represent multimodaly (text, sound, graphic, video, haptics) in one medium, thanks to the online environment. Taking a feminist view I link Braidotti's (and Kristeva's) idea that women are "becoming" subjectivities (always in-process, not stagnant or fixed) to a multi-modal representation and see how that plays out in certain women-authored web fictions. Whew. I can breathe now...
Subject:
Made by:Cassis (20) on: Monday 30th April 2007 at 22:39
The Henry Jenkins clip gives lots of food for thought, Jess...the notion of kids becoming de-skilled when they step into the classroom; the need to shine a light into a dark cave to show the contours of a new landscape.
In my work, the phrase 'reflective practice' has become a kind of mantra..
Where does reflection live in this fast, fluid, interactive world? Or is that quality or skill becoming redundant? And is that a good thing?
Subject: Response to Cassis
Made by:Jess (20) on: Wednesday 2nd May 2007 at 18:08
Glad you liked the Jenkins video - I thought it was quite handy myself.
What does "reflective practise" mean in your work?
In this fast-paced digitally inclined world I think we still reflect but how we do it and what it means might change...I wonder the idea of reflective practise, thinking about why one does things, might become more apparent when working at a computer and seeing one's reflection...
>what extent are MMOGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Games) participatory and wonders whether personality is enough of a contribution.
a good question... although they might not be participatory in the sense of creating the initial world that players inhabit, MMOGs do offer the chance to participate in the form and experience of the live environment (which I guess is the 'personality' that Nate mentions). Less so the ongoing story or plotlines, but feedback from players is always an important part of the development of MMOGs, even if this process isn't direct or clear.
Subject: Repsonse to Babel
Made by:Jess (20) on: Tuesday 8th May 2007 at 18:19
Check out all this participation:
Subject: Response to Anon.
Made by:Jess (20) on: Tuesday 8th May 2007 at 18:25
Thanks for clarifying what reflective practise means. I was hoping to hear what it means in specific contexts....
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