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.