Part 3: review of Confronting the Challenges of the Participatory Culture continued

The authors have given us the three core problems and eleven core skills. In the last section of the chapter they give suggestions about how schools, after-school programs and parents can help students learn this new literacy.

Of course, I was most interested in their suggestions of how schools could help students learn the new literacy. Many ideas were shown under the "What Might Be Done" section of each of the eleven skills. However, the authors want schools to take a more systematic approach to teaching thes literacy skills. They believe skills and cultural competencies have implications across the entire schools curriculum. Furthermore, they suggest that each teacher should take the reponsibility to help students develop the skills necessary for participation within their discipline (i.e. school subject). They admit more "discipline-specific research is needed to fully nderstand the value and relevance of these skills to different aspects of the school curriculum".

I believe that ISTE standards are a beginning "systematic approach" to schools having similar demands as other schools/districts. Though these new literacy skills are not thoroughly known, directly taught, nor systematically taught, they are to some degree happening within our schools both - with technology and in non-technological areas. More and more students are coming to school with some of the new literacy skills already showing through their computer work and classroom assignments. Beyond this, some students are not only working with fellow students but teaching these students computer skills and resulting thinking/problem-solving skills. Also, some students are actually teaching teachers computer skills and the "how to" behind their thinking/problemsolving skills.

Teachers and schools have a distance to go before they can teach students either advanced computer skills or bew literacy skills. First, of course, they must learn more advanced computer skills and, in this process and that of exploration, begin to learn the new literacy skills themselves. We must first experience more computer use, both personally and professionally, and become more a part of the computer participatory culture ourselves!

The authors are correct in assessing that the resistance to media literacy training is that the school day is "bursting at its seams". (And I would add that teachers are swamped with numerous continuing curriculum changes, and added state standards, almost every year. So we have created a system that itself creates burned out teachers!) Our only salvation might come in systematically integrating computer and media literacy skills within each subject area and/or looking at what is essential in each subject area to make a student a success in the future. I often think we need to simplify our goals and standards in order to be successful without burning out the students or the teachers! There is a point where less really is more...

The authors comment that it is not just traditional media- print, broadcast, cinema, popular music, and advertising- that is having a great influence on students' lives but, rather, the broader picture of media power. This "more complex picture of media" is that not only is media power more concentrated than ever before but media is now produced by everyday people and districuted world-wide via the internet. The media literacy rules help us to teach students to think critically about how the media communicates perceptions of the world and reshapes experience according to its "own codes and conventions". The authors advocate that these concepts need to be thought about again in our new "era of participatory culture".

The authors contend that after-school programs should be more than playing "catch up on school based standards". They contend that after-school programs should be places that promote experimentation and encourage innovation. These programs should be places where teachers "catch up with changing culture and teach new subjects that expand children's understanding of the world". (Again, I hear idealism creeping into the authors' ideas. Most after-school programs I know about are simply trying to maintain the safety of their charges and their own sanity! Most are not out to create a "brave new world" for the children. Though I believe some activities open new worlds for individual children. For example, excursions to the public library
open worlds for children if they can read [or have someone to read to them].)


I'm glad that the authors get around to suggesting that parents have a role to platy in their children's lives! It's true that the firt five or six years of a child's life are formulative for literacy and social skills. And I believe that parents really are their child's first teachers (in every area of life and functioning).
I agree with the authors that parents play significant roles in teaching their children "to make meaningful choices in their use of media and in helping them anticipate the consequences of the choices they make". Again, the issue here for me is that parents must first be computer saavy themselves and aware of their own personal use of media. Also, parents must anticipate the consequences of their own choices on both themselves and their children. So, in my opinion, adults must accept responsibility for their own lives and learn to reflect on their own choices before they can guide their children or anyone else. Furthermore, we live in such a hurried culture. We are not often encouraged to reflect because we are too busy working on the next goal or activity. Without relection, we repeat past performances but do not often find ways to learn from our experiences.