On Wednesday evening, I attended a public forum in the Brattle Theatre featuring an impressive discussion panel : Jonathan Fanton (president of the MacArthur Foundation), Howard Gardner (Professor at Harvard Ed School), Henry Jenkins (Professor at MIT), and Katie Salen (Professor at Parsons School of Design & game designer). Unfortunately, there was an overflow so I had to watch it via a webcast in the Ed School (I grabbed a sloppy burger at Charley’s Kitchen first! Doh!), but that actually afforded me time to get to the reception at Upstairs on the Square early. I was able to say hello to Professor Jenkins, but I don’t think he quite remembered me from the C4CFM! I actually spent most of the reception catching up with old acquaintances from Facing History and Ourselves’ Digital Legacies Project. I still and know I will always feel a strong bond with the teachers and students from that summer project! I meant to introduce myself to Howard Gardner, as he knows my headmaster, Mary Skipper, who had approached me last year about integrating morality into the media classes (which was in fact my thesis topic choice last year : moral dilemmas in media). I couldn’t locate Katie Salen either! I am fascinated by the new school she is founding in New York : its curriculum will be based on games and the gaming experience (this was a point she made that I latched onto : gaming is not just about the game itself - its not like kids will be playing games all day in math class! - but about the whole experience the gamer goes through).
The forum itself was hard to hear from the webcast! But I picked up some “nuggets”.
The panel, facilitated by Ellen Fanton, Director of MIT Press, discussed ways in which young people’s participation in online social communities and gaming affects their learning experience. Across the panel, there was a consensus that learning was indeed taking place online in the following 5 areas :
- identity : who am I online vs offline?
- privacy : there is a HUGE learning moment when a child must decide what to make private and what to make public
- ownership & authorship : if I modify existing media, is it “mine”?
- trust & credibility : what is credible in an information overload? who can I trust and how do I know I can?
- the definition of community & what it means to be a member of a community
One challenge is how to assess the learning that is indeed taking place in “new” media, versus “traditional” media (these labels were also put into question by Gardner : what is “new” and what is “traditional”?). What are the performances of understanding ethical behavior in a digital world (a TFU framework approach)?
This was the endeavor that Fanton was announcing : to identify the behaviors of a participatory culture and to find ways of assessing them. From my perspective, a digital media teacher who has had students blogging, posting into forums, and joining social communities like Tapped In since 3 years ago, how do I TEACH the students how to behave? I think this involves a much more explicit teaching of morality and ethics in the classroom than ever before, as there are definitive behaviors that are acceptable and not in most online communities : see the acceptable use policies…But what I am facing in the international Ning is emails from banned members demanding to know WHY they were banned, or why they can not post that picture…There is still a disconnect between what is explained to participants explicitly and how they actually CHOOSE to behave. How do I teach them to make “better” choices online?
The participatory culture is widely “blocked” (quite literally) in schools, and extreme examples of “bad” behavior online is sensationalized in the news. What was “too risky” before with myspace (anyone can join, even predators) is now being solved by social tools like Ning and CrowdVine in which users can create and control their OWN social communities. What would be cool would be a class in which students create and control their own online community, where they do everything from forming their own AUP, electing moderators, banning their own members, and more! Kindof like a digital version of Kid Nation!
Jenkins pointed out, whereas before we had a “digital divide” (a discrepancy over access to computers), we now have a “participation gap”, where not every child has the same experience online. Not every child is in MySpace - a fact I assess when 1/4 of the hands go up in the 9th grade Web Classroom. Why am I surprised? And by asking this survey question, do the kids who choose to not participate feel they should be?
The MacArthur Foundation announced the new International Journal of Learning and Media which examines the effect of digital media on how young people learn, play socialize and participate in civic life. Mr. Fanton announced a call for project proposals and papers.
I think Ill be submitting something, especially as my thesis research on youth-produced civic media evolves…
