Teaching the Digital Youth and Tech Savvy Kids

Digital Youth Project and Tech Savvy Kids

Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project. “Conclusions and Implications” (35-39). and Jessica Parker's, Teaching Tech-Savvy Kids, "Conclusion" (167-173). a brief overview and analysis

This is a shortened version of the highlights of that summary and connections to other readings from the EDCT552 class.
The conclusions of the Digital Youth Project reinforce the importance of youth culture, youth use of media, and the youth perspective on media.  Youth use media for a variety of purposes, in a variety of ways, and it is important for adults, parents, and educators to interact with youth concerning media. These conclusions highlight the problem of new media and new media participation in that it challenges and may be “threatening to existing social norms and educational standards” (35).   The conclusion reiterates the importance of youth participating in online communities which are friendship based and those which are interest based.  Youth do establish norms and respond to feedback from peers in their online creations and interactions.  Youth do learn from peers and “peer based learning has unique properties that suggest alternatives to formal instruction” (38).  Peers respect each other and adults often interact in interest-based online communities as “respected peers rather than formal evaluators”(39).  Furthermore, Parker returns us to the original three questions she asked of educators:

1. What does learning look like in the 21st century?
2. What does literacy look like in the 21st century?
3. What is knowledge in the 21st century? (Or what does it mean to know something in our mediated culture?) (168)

These are questions that educators must consider as we take those leadership roles in our education communities. She cautions that these questions are not easily answered and could force us to re-think our vision for education. Studies from Ito (2008) and the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine (2004) show us that the rapid pace of technological change requires deeper levels of critical thinking and analysis than ever before, resulting in a need for “learning that places students’ motivation and engagement at the forefront” (169).

Here are some connections that we made between our readings and the other readings in the class.

The Digital Youth Project and Parker lead us to envision education in a different direction as do several other articles.  The need to “reconceptualise what learning is” (Kalantzis & Cope), the need for “generative topics” (Wiske), for students to explore, the understanding that “changes in technology are always accompanied by a host of other changes in social processes” (Burbles & Callister), all drive education in a radically new direction from its current course.  These ideas resonate with teachers who see their students disengaged in traditional classrooms, yet alive, curious, talented and creative, in other ways.  Often these other ways are connected to digital media, online social networking, and being a prosumer of technology. These types of participatory media have allowed the establishment of participatory culture (Jenkins) which promote a form of collaboration that affords participants a sense of encouragement and support in a manner that allows them to feel that their contributions are important and will be valued. The “Digital Youth Project” reading demonstrates how “youth continue to test the limits of forms of new media literacy and expression.” (Pg. 38) Rather than bearing down on kids with complicated rules and restrictions and heavy-handed norms about how they should engage online, teachers and parents must embrace new media as an educational advantage. By being co-conspirators in support of a prosumer of technology movement, teachers can actively engage in the re-conceptualization of what learning is by allowing a movement from nearly universal literacy to nearly universal authorship (Seed Magazine 2009). This kind of shift is imperative to removing the generational-wedge, reviving the active engagement that is being lost in our antiquated school system, and promoting lifelong/networked learning (Davidson & Goldberg)

References

Burbules, Nicolas, C. and Callister, Thomas, A. Jr., “The Risky Promises and Promising Risks of New Information Technologies for Education” (2000) Westview Press

Davidson, C. N. & Goldberg D. T., “The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age” (2009) Cambridge, The MIT Press

Kalantzis M. & Cope B., “The Learning by Design Guide” (2006) Champaign, The Learner

MacAuthur? John D. & Catherine T. Foundation “Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project” in “Reports on Digital Media and Learning” (2008), Cambridge, The MIT Press

Parker, J. K. “Teaching Tech-Savvy Kids: Bringing Digital Media into the Classroom, Grades 5-12” (2010) Thousand Oaks, Corwin

Parker, J. K. “Teaching Tech-Savvy Kids: Bringing Digital Media into the Classroom” (2010) http://teachingtechsavvykids.com/forum/topics/what-does-learning-literacy

Pelli D. G. & Bigelow C., A Writing Revolution in Seed Magazine online (2011) originally published (2009) http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/a_writing_revolution/

Wiske, M. S., “Learning with New Technologies” in “Meaningful Learning” Ashburn E. & Floden R. (2006), New York, Teachers College Press.