Oppenheimer/Prensky

I reflected on Oppenheimer’s comments about the waste of time spent on computer instruction ; the idea of teaching computer skills rather than using the computer to facilitate substantial learning. The students in the class my final paper addresses are coming away with skills that empower them. They very quickly learned to use this software (PowerPoint) to create a personal product. They are using traditional skills (reading, writing, planning, convincing an audience) and new important social goals (respecting someone’s opinion, clarifying and communicating their own thoughts and feelings in a respectful manner) while integrating those abilities with the digital skills that will empower them as communicators. These kids need this kind of support. I wish I were seeing more of it in our school. I sometimes think about my own two granddaughters and how I helped them develop as readers. I wanted them to have this critical skill. As a reading teacher I feel literacy is a civil right if not a human right. I used good books to give them a sense of joy and intimacy while building language, wonder, and critical thinking. Meanwhile, I never worked on letter sound or alphabetic principal; I let the computer do that. The computer spiced up the more pedestrian elements of reading instruction and they accessed all of that like lightning. Meanwhile here I am as a reading teacher in a public school. I write a grant for such software and get it, but the computer lab can’t be used by my little group of five or six kinders because either a whole class is using it or, more likely, the lab is being used for testing. Sigh. Which leads me to Prensky...sure, it's there in front of me and I can embrace it, and have made the effort to set it up. But then there is the simple matter of the access to the machinery. It all seems so ponderous and plodding sometimes.

Participatory Culture

This article really made me think. It made me think in a different way. It budged me into a new perspective on digital culture. I was impressed by the scholarly and systematic approach. Most basically it helped me see that it really isn't about the technology but rather about the aspect of communication. I am concerned about access to the internet. I've written letters to legislators expressing my concern about corporate control of the internet here in the United States. (snail mail and e) I've saved a videotape of a Frontline (PBS) documentary on the information superhighway. Wow is this country behind. I see the internet as the hope of continuing free speech. It also is a powerful way to control economic awareness and choices. I used to put the environment on the top of my list of concerns but even the environment is dependent on the ability to freely communicate about it. I would like to get my own children to read this article (especially the first half, which I found very informative) so they can support the grandgirls in accessing digital skills. Like my husband, I find it annoying that everyone seems to walk (or drive) around with a phone stuck to the side of their head. It's as if personal contact has gone by the wayside. Here Jenkins notes that multitasking is not just doing several things at once, but rather allows the brain to "manage constraints on short term memory". Maybe they will automatically develop more plasticity in not becoming overly focused on any one requirement or stimulus. "The focus on negative effects of media consumption offers an incomplete picture. These accounts do not appropriately value the skills and knowledge young people are gaining." P11.

I do agree that formal education seems somewhat stuck. Rigid. Static. Popular culture is moving much faster. There is no denying the dynamic quality. And while it seems a little odd to me it also seems hopeful. These kids have to live with the messes of the globe, maybe the ability to participate in this global culture will give them the edge that they will certainly need to turn things around.