Ok, so it's been a long day already and I'm about to start class, so I'll try to get through this as academically correct and professional as I possibly can... Also, I know the video isn't up yet, but I will hopefully have it up by the end of this weekend, (if anyone cares). I just didn't have the time to upload/edit it on Tuesday. I need coffee stat... Anyway, on to the literacy discussion!
One of my courses is called "Digital Literacies" and we're currently talking about technology in/outside the classroom and how it either hinders or improves students' skills over time based on each individual level of competency. Depending on the view of the researcher, you could say a lot about this subject as it pertains to current educational standards and requirements.
In our discussion, we focused mainly on technology as a means to gain knowledge rather than a distraction. Most teachers and parents will probably tell you that gaming and social media is rotting our young adults' minds to the point where they can't pay attention to anything else. But what if I told you that there are educational researchers dedicated to proving that isn't the case at all? That in fact the opposite is taking place, and students are learning just as much from social media sites and online gaming as they do in the classroom; possibly even
more.
We read an article titled
Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century in which the authors talk about new media technologies and the benefits of peer-to-peer learning through online communities. I found this article fascinating because of all the potential that these technologies bring and yet not a lot of people have seen it, or understand it enough to make these connections. Many successful individuals, such as the 14-year-old founder of FireFox, found the necessary skills and knowledge they needed to generate results through participation in informal online learning communities as opposed to a classroom. Some kids are able to do this on their own because it comes naturally to them, while others may need a little more guidance in the form of an instructor.
As you know, I'm doing a case study on YouTube as a participatory culture as well as an online learning community. I've since found many articles and journals demonstrating these ideas about social networking as a tool for knowledge rather than pleasure. It's extremely reassuring to know that at least a few educational experts are taking new media technologies seriously. Sadly, most schools still see social media and other online technologies as a distracting and unnecessary tool working against learning. In fact, most schools have special security blocks on sites popular with students so that they can't access them during school hours.
I can understand the motives behind this; unfortunately, we can't give students the benefit of the doubt all the time. There are some students that would abuse the privilege of having full access to the Internet solely because they don't know how to use it properly as a learning tool. Those students who do understand the complexities of Internet communities can and will gain knowledge from access and are thus being deprived of improving their existing skills. Nowadays I don't think we trust students enough to let them think for themselves and have their own way of doing things. We have to keep them in this rigid state and government-mandated system that doesn't allow them to use their best assets as a part of the curriculum. Although, some teachers are starting to branch out and allow some creativity to seep through into their lessons. Eventually I hope that schools will trust us enough, (as teachers), to promote positive usage of new media literacy in our classrooms and utilize the tools that students already have a good grasp on in order to prepare them for a technologically savvy world.
I found a really cool article about Pokemon while I was actually doing some research for my YouTube project. The article is called
What Pokemon Can Teach Us About Learning and Literacy and focuses on the author's nephew Curtis and his differentiated levels of learning with the Pokemon card game. If you get a chance, I highly recommend reading it. The bad news is that I can't use this article for my YouTube project because there's no real way for me to connect the two together in an academic way....but the good news is that I can do a completely different study, (on my own time), pertaining to Pokemon and literacy, which are two things that I've been passionate about for a long time. Not to mention I've been looking for an excuse to start playing video games again...so what the hell?
There are a lot of new technological advances in education, hopefully meaning new advances in legislature to make things happen. I'd love to be able to work in a school someday where kids were trusted and could adapt to learning something from aspects of social media and online learning communities. We live in a world that values tech savvy almost above all else, so we have to get our kids to a point where they can at least understand what they do outside of school is important and could potentially get them a job somewhere someday.
I'm super pumped to be taking this class. It's given me a lot of material to make me reconsider some things I thought I already knew about media literacy and also ideas for my own future classroom. Now I have to stay focused and stay on track with my YouTube research so I can actually get something tangible out if this. If you guys have any suggestions, interjections or topics to discuss for next week, let me know in the comments or on any of my social media links to the right. I'll be back again to post on Tuesday, so I hope everyone has an awesome weekend! Until next time, I remain your faithful correspondent.
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