For the moment, let’s define participatory culture as one: 1. With relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement
2. With strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations with others
3. With some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices
4. Where members believe that their contributions matter
5. Where members feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least they care what other people think about what they have created).
(Jenkins, 2006).
Does this describe our current culture?
I believe, whole-heartedly in the power of participatory culture as Henry Jenkins describes. Why fight what’s already happening in the lives of our students? Students learn so much on their own when there is high interest and high motivation. Being apart of the culture and a society is even a priority for my third graders. It may not be directly related to the twitter-sphere however, when I ask them what they did over the weekend and they say, I stayed up all night watching a youtube channel with my friend. Instead of rolling my eyes and responding with a, you didn’t play outside at all? What if we embrace that reality and have our students create their own youtube channel?
As Jenkins (2011) explained, students are acquiring their media skills because they want to share stuff online and really all they're doing is messing around with technology. I believe technology is such a driving force within our culture. I say, embrace it! What is the point in avoiding it? It’s not going away. If anything it’s only going to become more prevalent in every kid's life. When students are interested, they ask questions. They dig deeper. They are more willing to "geek out” with something they feel empowered to do. Technology has that power. Embrace the evolving tool. I love opening my weekday mornings with a morning meeting within my classroom. It give me a chance to engage with my students. I get to know them and they get to know one another on a personal level. They form relationships with people who are similar and different and more than that, they learn from each other. During these morning meetings one thing I always enjoying hearing about is their after-school activities. I have many that play football and cheerleading, some that have dance, others that have baseball or soccer. And what I can learn about their lives just by talking to them provides more insight into my teaching and a connection I can leverage to instill motivation. They care more about what’s outside of school and what they participate in. I would be a foolish teacher if I did not harness those interests outside of school and incorporate them within my teaching.
Although technology holds MANY affordances in my profession, it also is my responsibility to understand all the constraints and downsides that participatory culture and technology also allow. There is this huge customizer that participatory culture can create. We are drawn to certain people and certain personalities based on our interests and just overall compatibility. However, when technology makes it so easy to connect with what Gee (2013) refers to at affinity groups. These are groups that share your values, interests, and perspectives. They repeat what you’re already thinking. This was a thought I had to stop and think about. As I look into my own twitter-sphere and my own network of people, I realize there are other viewpoints that have seemingly slipped through the cracks. After realizing this, I revisited my own social network and began searching for different perspectives on topics I hold strong beliefs in.
Harder than it seems. I found myself barely reading their tweets or articles. I found myself skimming and extracting certain thoughts I disagreed with. One of my colleagues, Kenna Holsinger, researched a project about a political science professor. He led an experiment where he required his students to blog about a politician they were actively against. This experiment was designed for students to step into the shoes of another person. It was designed to pull students out of their comfort zones. It was designed to build connectedness with different perspectives. As an elementary educator, it is a goal of mine that I build and foster well-rounded students. I believe their skill sets should be well-rounded, as well as their viewpoints. I encourage disagreement within my classroom. It’s something we can talk about, ask questions, and explore thoughts we never thought we could think of. Somewhere along they way students migrate to familiar patterns. They dive into the culture and lose sight of other perspectives and they turn out like well…. me.
So focused on what I want to do and what I believe. Technology gives me the affordance to do that just that! I can filter out information I don't want to see. I can actively avoid listening to news channels that I typically disagree with. Ultimately, I fail to embrace or even hear the voices I so quickly dismiss. So what does this mean?
In a grander sense, that is why we have created information diets. Some are healthy and others are unhealthy. This is why we only see certain sides to important issues. This is why we shift and skim through the whole issue just to get to the “good part”. What if everyone in our country could gain knowledge from every angle? What if the internet, as amazing at it truly is, could provide information that builds a whole person instead of a misinformed half of one?
As a participant of education technology, it is important that I pay attention to this reality. Participatory culture is a real thing and it can be a very powerful asset to teaching young, vulnerable minds. However, I take note that my students need a healthy info diet. One that holds habits in critical eyes, questioning everything, and a wide eye lens of the view around them.
References
Gee, J. P. (2013). The anti-education era: Creating smarter students through digital learning. Palgrave Macmillan.
Caughell, L. (2018). Teaching students to hear the other side: Using web design and election events to build empathy in the political science classroom. PS, Political Science & Politics, 51(3), 659-663. Doi: http://dx.doi.org.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/10.1017/S1049096518000082
Jenkins, H. 2006. Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, 5-7, 19-20, 3-4.
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