Value of Social Media: Continuing the Conversation

After our last class, discussing the Media Education article, I had a few remaining questions and comments.  When social media is used in the classroom, the conversation doesn't need to end when class is over.


-My discussion with Wei:
     1. In Singapore: Schools are replacing books with iPads.  Wei described this as "replacing the old washing machine with a new washing machine."  And I agree.  I think this shows a lack of careful thinking on the part of the schools, a naive over-endorsement of technology for technology's sake.  I have seen this in my student teaching with the use of SmartBoard, which seems to just be replacing the white board with digital markers, and transparencies with slide shows.  Here, there is no student application of technology.


     2. Technology can lead to a degradation of language:  Wei observed that in discussion boards online, posts and comments are often unreflected outbursts, sometime inflammatory, and unproductive.
     -I would suggest that the same concern could be applied to class discussions with 7th graders (or adults), with no instruction of the necessary skills needed for meaningful discussion.  Students shout out their thoughts without consideration for what has been said. These skills must be made transparent, valued, and practiced.

Media Education for the 21st Century

-Some responses to Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, Henry Jenkins, et al.


! Some reservations: This article provides an excellent examination of the many skills that can be applied and developed through Media Education, and offers many examples of how those skills have been successful applied in particular programs.  However, it is important to note that this article is intended to inspire educators and administrators, and does not necessarily offer methods for application in the classroom.
     -There is the suggestion that young people, through pursuing their own interests connected to media, have developed this core set of skills, and were readily capable of applying those skills to classroom learning.  With the example of Sam, the baseball card collector, the article states:
     "On another level, the cards provided a scaffold, which motivated and shaped his acquisition of other forms of school knowledge. ... Sam developed a sense of himself as a learner."
     ! He did not develop his sense of self as a learner, until an educator made clear the connections between baseball cards and school subjects.  It is far more likely that teachers and other students reinforced the notion that baseball card collecting is a "hobby," a free-time activity, and less important than math homework.  I'm not sure that I have ever encountered a student at any age who was able to connect life learning to class learning.  If I were to ask Sam in the classroom, as the article states, he would say he was "having fun." 
     -There are several elements that must be developed under the guidance of the teacher:

1. Meta-Cognition of learning styles or process, strengths and weaknesses.  Sam must be able to discuss how learning or understanding takes place, and which terms best describe his style.
2. Identification of the skills applied in baseball card collecting or trading, and understanding of how those skills were used.
3. Identification of the skills necessary for the academic subject, for example: architecture, 20th century American history, and map-reading (subjects identified in the article).  
4. A familiarity with the subject:  When a teacher identifies the skills necessary for map-reading, for example, these skills will most likely remain entirely abstract, unless the student has some experience reading maps.

My point here is not to suggest that this is impossible.  And I admire the zest and enthusiam for Media Education projected in this article.  However, it is naive, and perhaps misleading, to suggest that life-learning and academic learning is inherently transferable.  And perhaps this is not because of a lacking on the parts of the students, but rather the result of a education culture that prioritizes particular skills (math and reading, for example) and stigmatizes others (almost every subject of Media Education).

I would like to point to a particular example with Graphic Novels in Language Arts education.  With the increase in publishing and availability of graphic novels, teachers have seen struggling and resistant readers eagerly consuming books with images.  The assumption often made here is that reading comics will increase readers' interest in reading texts.  There are several problems here:

1. This reinforces the hierarchy of texts over comics.  The comics those reader love are devalued when treated as a stepping stone to texts.
2. This fails to consider the many cognitive skills necessary for understanding and making meaning from comics, as well as the skills necessary for text reading.  

I suggest instead, that the teacher must make transparent the process of reading comics and reading texts.  Where are skills supported with the other?  What are the potential limitations of each medium?  A comic reader must be able to see herself as a comic reader even when reading texts.

-"...researchers such as Black and Henry Jenkins have argued, the new digital cultures porvide support systems to help youth improve their core competencies as readers and writers."