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Through the various videos in this week's module, 'participatory culture' comes to be defined in myriad ways. Mimi Ito uses the phrase 'hanging out,' while Henry Jenkins embraces the term 'geeking out.' 'Participatory culture' can be more specifically defined as a diverse media practice that is passion- and friendship-driven, challenging participants to use new media while engaging in real-world experiences. When many members participate and create a robust community of learners and makers, honest and real-time feedback are provided to help participants know how they need to improve at what they are doing online. In my own experience, I see evidence of this participatory culture in my students every day. Often in my class, if they have some exploration time given to them, they will collaborate on projects that seem fun to them. One group of boys put together a Prezi, just for fun, on information about World War Two. Cloud computing offers flexibility for collaborative participation, and because it is widely available, students use it regularly in and out of school. My daughters discovered Minecraft this past year and also found that they could share their 'worlds' with each other and connect from different devices, simultaneously. It was fascinating to listen to their conversations while they were working on their worlds; "How did you do that?" "How do you make that?" "Watch this!" "Come see what I did!" "You should add such-and-such" and so on. The 'old' me would have said they were killing time with a mindless video game. The 'new' me would still limit the time they spent 'plugged in' but also marvel at the collaboration and conversation that was being sparked by a participatory activity like Minecraft.
How can we guide students to expand on the online skills and interests that they have developed in their personal lives in order to create individuals who become productive, contributing members of a larger 'participatory culture'?
In my experience, there is a fine line between bringing online skills students have developed into the classroom and killing the enthusiasm by bringing them into the classroom. How does the teacher link standards and literacies to these interests without squashing them? We are responsible for skills and disciplines as well as for providing real-world experiences that will add value to our students' learning experiences. We talk at length about making connections between home and school, academic and personal sides of each student. The following are some strategies for expanding on the skills students bring to the classroom and engaging them in their larger 'participatory culture.'
- Allow students to make choices in the way they present the information they are required to learn. Not everything needs to be shared via PowerPoint. Students can make games, posters, word clouds, PowToons...whatever medium they connect well with (or want to experiment with) may work to synthesize content matter.
- Teachers must look at online engagements through a wider lens. Not all new media is 'bad' or a 'time waster.' We must ask ourselves what the value is in these activities and what critical thinking skills are being mastered. (Ito, 2011)
- Provide opportunities for students to reflect on their online experiences. Affording students a broader lens through which they view their work can be incredibly empowering and validating.
- Create for an authentic audience. We see in the Edutopia video that while educator feedback is important in addressing baseline standards and online literacies, authentic audiences have more time to give feedback and are direct and genuine in their comments.
- Redefine our learning environments. Shift away from 'propositional knowledge' - or content and isolated skills - and move toward 'procedural knowledge' - where students learn how to learn and how to continue learning (New Literacies Handbook, Chapter 21).
- Pay attention to the types of 'procedural learning' that are taking place in students' online spaces outside of school and embed them in guided activities in the classroom.
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Coiro, J., Knobel, M., Lankshear, C., & Leu, D.J. (Eds). (2008). Handbook of research on new literacies.
"Cultural Anthropologist Mimi Ito on Connected Learning, Children, and Digital Media." YouTube. YouTube, 4 Aug. 2011. Web.
"Henry Jenkins on Participatory Culture (Big Thinkers Series)." YouTube. YouTube, 7 May 2013. Web.
"Learning STEM Skills by Designing Video Games (Is School Enough? Series)." YouTube. YouTube, 27 March, 2013. Web.