“Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an
idiot, and anybody driving faster is a maniac?” – George Carlin
It is hard to imagine what
education will be like 100 years from now. People will probably be looking back at what we marvel at today as "technological innovation" the same way look at a chalkboard 100 years past.
The pace of change,
from a time of the written and printed word, to one driven by multiple
media, appears overwhelming. For example, Jim Pinto observes, "In
the US most newspapers are reporting accelerating declines, and the
same is true of all developing countries. Do you read newspapers? I
don't anymore - I get my news from on a variety of sources on the
Internet, including text, video and audio." What does this mean for
education? For
one thing, reading is in decline among youth aged 18-24. From 1982 to
2005 the number of young people reading literary works decreased by 55
percent. Further, a report by the National Endowment for the Arts found 50 percent of young people,
ages 18-24, never read books for pleasure. What significance is there
if our children don't read Beowulf, Shakespeare, or Faulkner? Some
argue that the shift from a text-driven culture to a world dominated by
electronic media prevents youth from achieving their full potential. In
fact, the NEA study reports, "Only about a third of high school seniors
read at a proficient level, a 13 percent decline since 1992." The
reality does not look much better for college students. "In 2005,
almost 40 percent of college freshmen (and 35 percent of seniors) read
nothing at all for pleasure, and 26 percent (28 percent of seniors)
read less than one hour per week. Even among college graduates,
prose-reading proficiency declined from 40 percent in 1992 to 31
percent in 2003." Lauren Beebe (2008) notes,
"While hours of reality television shows and Xbox gaming does engage
one’s brain in some ways, it is no substitute for the intellectual
sustenance provided by a good novel."
The pace of change pushed on us by computer-mediated communication
impacts how we teach and learn. Learning today in a digital environment
is non-linear and a sometimes impractical. No longer can we relay on literacy, that is competency in reading and writing, as a primary goal of education. Reading and writing, will of course remain important in society, but so to will the need to teach technological literacy. Mark Poster (2001) suggests
that electronic devices, in the form of new media technologies, have
modified the constraints of time and space so much so that they have
changed the way people exchange information.
From an educational perspective, Poster argues, self concept becomes
"decentered, dispersed, and multiplied in continuous instability." In
other words, the stages of communication, from oral, to printed, and
now to electronic, are changing the informational/representational
landscape. This can be seen, for example, in our dependency on e-mail,
text messaging, and instant messaging. Moreover, students no longer
line up outside our offices waiting for guidance like groupies at a
rock concert. Instead, a note on Facebook, an email, or even a last
second text message, the boundaries between teachers, students, and
parents seem more elastic and less formal. In other words, learning is
no longer the top down communicative process it once was; and, are far
more variables in the aggregation and acquisition of knowledge than
even before. For one thing, there is as much or perhaps even more “back
channel” communication, sharing, and learning going on then antecedent
behaviors associated with direct face-to-face dissemination of
information foreshadowing classroom learning.
At the same time, I am inclined to believe that for every technological
innovation, for every so-called advance in technology, there is a
significant amount of human energy put into accepting change. People
don’t jump on the bus when it’s still moving. For example, only a few
brave soles waiting in line for the release of the new iPhone, and they
were willing to come up with nearly $500 for the privilege. Within two
years the phone was being mass marketed in Wal-Mart and available for
about $100. The point is that some people are willing to jump into a
new innovation as early adopters with the critical mass in tow.
Learning in the 21st century is increasingly a participatory culture
where perceptions governing the norms of communicative behavior are
shifting. Digital technologies have introduced an era of immediacy and
instant gratification. If, for example, a text message or an email is
not answered immediately, then it is possible to take the gesture as a
brush off. As Jenkins (2006) notes, “The term, participatory culture,
contrasts with older notions of passive media spectatorship. Rather
than talking about media producers and consumers as occupying separate
roles, we might now see them as participants who interact with each
other according to a new setoff rules that none us fully understand”
(2). In a similar way learning has changed from passive listening and
reading to interactive discussions with cohorts and teachers.
luehman, A. & Frink (2009) note, "Social networking technologies such as blogging have the potential to offer reform-minded teachers unique support that may address many of these challenges."
“A participatory culture is a culture with relatively low barriers to
artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating
and sharing one’s creations, and some type of informal mentorship
whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to
novices. A participatory culture is also one in which members believe
their contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connection
with one another (at the least they care what other people think about
what they have created)” (Jenkins, et al., 2006)
"Whether it's a Wiki or Twitter, the notion of a participatory culture — upstream and downstream — is not going away" -- Chris Lehman, the principal of Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia
“All technology influences language, in ways that are not always
obvious. The development of transport systems, for example, leads
people to move around so that language forms used in regional varieties
may move into other regions. We use a metaphor such as "all guns
blazing" to suggest the idea of an action performed with energy or
aggression - so the technology of weapons extends the usage of everyday
speech or writing” – Andrew Moore
Works Cited
Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century
Jenkins, Henry and Clinton, Katie and Purushotma, Ravi and Robinson,
Alice J. and Weigel, Margaret (2006) Confronting the Challenges of
Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century. Building
the field of digital media and learning . pp. 1-68.
It's time to turn technology loose in the classroom, Larry Magid, San Jose Mercury News, 3 July 2009.
YouTube:Online Video and Participatory Culture, Jean Burgess, Joshua Green. May 2009. Polity.
The Information Subject, Mark Poster, 2001, G + B Arts.
How participatory culture and mass collaboration are changing our world. Vikas Shah, Thought Economics, June 2009
How Can Blogging Help Teachers Realize the Goals of Reform-based Science Instruction? A Study of Nine Classroom Blogs, luehman, A. & Frink, J. Journal of Science Education and Technology Volume 18, Number 3 / June, 2009
