Participatory Culture

While reading “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21^st Century” by Henry Jenkins, I was drawn to the sections on Enabling Participation and Affinity Spaces. On page 9, it states that “…Affinity spaces offer powerful opportunities for learning because they are sustained by common endeavors that bridge differences in age, class, race, gender, and educational level, and because people can participate in various ways according to their skills and interests, because they depend on peer to peer teaching with each participant constantly motivated to acquire new knowledge or refine their existing skills, and because they allow each participant to feel like an expert while tapping the expertise of others.” This quote alone bridges the aforementioned sections of this reading together, as it provides a sort-of cause and effect type response as to how participation can be empowered through the use of these informal learning cultures.

When I think about the skills that are being gained as a result of informal learning cultures, I find it rather difficult to see any reason why they shouldn't be embraced as a useful learning tool. As we all know, digital media and technology are skills that learners need to be active participants in today’s society, and so to deny them the opportunity to hone and further develop those skills seems counterproductive to the whole point of education. While there may be valid arguments to the benefits of a formal education, the article pointed out some aspects of the intuition that makes it seem almost lacking in its purposes. The following limitations of formal education can be found on page 9: Formal education is static, conservative, and beaurocratic, whereas informal learning cultures are innovative, localized, and provide flexibility to the learner. As educators, our goal should be to encourage and engage our students in learning; it shouldn't be a chore for our learners to come into a classroom and open their minds to new information – they should be eager to explore new information and gain skills that will shape them into participants in 21^st century society. If there are methods of learning that draw students towards them, it makes little sense to pull them away. We should embrace any learning culture that promotes necessary skill-sets and engages our learners.

One example given within the reading that I could relate to was the use of expressive participation in these informal learning cultures. Posting fan fiction or other types of written expression within one’s own blog or on a writing forum, allows the writer to gain feedback from other members of the writing community that can, in turn, promote improvement in each other’s writing and promote collaboration. This type of culture can also support and promote creativity, self-expression, and confidence in one’s own work and expertise; which ultimately leads me to conclude that there is an increased need and importance for utilizing  affinity spaces within various learning environments.  

In the video, I really liked the emphasis on young people taking ownership. I feel like we see this a lot today in blogging sites, fan fiction, fan videos, and social networking sites. People are taking a personal interest and pride in  their own works, like receiving feedback, and are eager to put their work out there for the world to see. They aren't as afraid to make mistakes, to learn something, or to ask questions in these affinity spaces, and it almost seems as though these spaces remove some of the pressure to perform that learners run into in formal education or professional settings. I also enjoyed how he said that forms of play, become forms of professionalism, an example being individuals who learned how to film political documentaries by first filming themselves skateboarding. Jenkins did a phenomenal job at showing the cause and effects of participatory culture, and I look forward to reading more from him. 

Literacy and the New Media Landscape [excerpts]

 When we consider the definition of what it means to be literate, we must now take a look at new medias and the ways in which they have changed the implication of the term. No longer does being literate allude to one’s proficiency in reading and writing basic text; it now includes a plethora of other mediums, such as online blogging, social media, and fan-based websites, just to name a few. As new technology emerges, so does new definitions of literacy and what it means to be literate.

Today more than ever, internet and technological proficiency is a required skillset for success in the 21^st century, both within and outside the classroom. Individuals are expected to have knowledge and varying degrees of proficiency in technological navigation, typing, and accessing resources via the internet.  Children being born today are being raised in a digital era; and often times are far more proficient in digital technologies than their professors, who are not. While some educators may be resistant to the importance and use of technology within academia, it should not be an excuse to dissolve digital literacy as a legitimate alternative and/or supplement to archetypal forms of literacy instruction.

According to Dana J. Wilbur [2010], new literacies are “…more collaborative in allowing for the open sharing and creation of information on sites like wikis and blogs.” In fact, blogs are finding their way into modern day classrooms more than ever before “…because their format is similar to a personal diary, where recounting tales and autobiographical events is prevalent…blogs provide an arena where self-expression and creativity is encouraged. Its linkages to other bloggers establish the same peer-group relationships found in nonvirtual worlds” [Huffaker, 2005, p.94]. I have known students who struggle to sit and read through a traditional text, whether it be fiction or non-fiction, but have an easy time engaging in digital literacy.

One student in particular that I worked with, a twelfth grade student who was reading at a sixth grade level, struggled to find the enjoyment in reading books but would spend hours reading and writing fan fiction on http://archiveofourown.org/, a fan-created and fan-run site that hosts fan fiction, fan art, and fan made videos. While her mother found little value in her spending so much time on this site, I found it to be extremely valuable in the sense that she was actually reading and enjoying it. Her use of this site also encouraged her to start writing fan fiction of her own, which was wonderful as you could see the proficiency in her writing increase the more she wrote, and the more feedback she received from readers of her works. For me, I found her progress in digital fluency to be extremely valuable; she was growing as a writer, growing as a reader, and she was engaged in something that was increasing a necessary skill set.

In essence, in a technology driven society, it is important for us as educators, to consider the new and emerging forms of literacy and the ways in which they can be utilized to promote achievement within our learners. No longer can the internet, blogging, and online forums be discredited as a form of literacy, and in an age when digital fluency is just as important as traditional literacy, the value of online communication should not be discredited as a beneficial method of learning.

sources:

1.    Wilber, D.J. (2010). Special themed issue: Beyond ʻnewʼ literacies. Digital Culture & Education, 2:1, 1-6.

 http://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/dce_editorial_wilber_2010.pdf

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

How to Further Your Own Learning With Various Texts - Week 1 Assignment

"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)

Discussion

I have found the increase in the variety of texts and the variety of text uses to be rather remarkable, and have found myself gravitating towards them all. From text books, to paperback novels, to online blogging, and social media, I have delved into them all for various purposes and uses, and have had both good and bad experiences with them all. 

Some of the texts that I use more often than not, and will likely refer back to as I begin to learn more and discuss this topic further are blogging sites like Tumblr and Livejournal [Blogger is new for me], online forums and message-boards such as the Dis-boards and Wowhead, online news sites such as cnn and TimesUnion, and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. My use of these texts vary from gathering information, reading and writing for pleasure, and sharing and receiving advice on various topics of interest. 

When reading the editorial written by Diane J. Wilbur in the Digital Culture and Education online journal, I was struck by something she said; "...new literacies change so quickly, they can be thought of as deictic, or dependent on the context on which they are used at the moment they are used." The truth of this statement becomes obvious the more time you spend browsing digital texts in particular. 

As an example, the other night I was reading an article on cnn.com regarding an illness in Massachusetts related to a particular type of shellfish. I thought it was interesting, and so when I went to click on the article once more to read it aloud to my significant other, the article had been removed! It was not replaced or even edited, and so whether or not the information I initially received was inaccurate in some way, I will never know. But it happened so quickly, in a matter of seconds - which I almost found hard to believe. Even so, this is, to me, a prime example of the rapid pace the information we obtain through new literacies can change and be altered, rendering the information we gained just moments before useless. [Of course, this could have a great deal to do with the lack of editing in online forums, but I am sure this is a discussion for another time]. 

Even so, I believe that these various texts do have their plus-sides, the main one being that information is now available right at our fingertips. Searching for movie-times, breaking news, and the weather [as an example], has never been easier; and I believe that such easy access to a knowledge base can spark the desire to search new topics and expand existing knowledge on certain subjects. To refer back to my original example of the shellfish article, during a desperate Google search to find the article somewhere else, I learned that back in August, there was an outbreak of illness in Connecticut linked to clams and oysters, as well as other shellfish, due to high levels of the naturally occurring bacteria Vibrio parahaemolticus.

reference:
Diane J. Wilbur http://www.digitalcultureandeducation.com/uncategorized/dce_editorial_vol2_iss1_2010/