What is Second Life?
Thursday, 15 March 2012
Friday, 9 March 2012
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
Growing Up Digital.
What does it mean for schools and educators to have students in their classrooms who have grown up “digitally”?
"No generation has yet lived from cradle to grave in the digital era"
(Palfrey & Gasser, 2008).
This is quite a profound statement, when you take a step back and take a look at our society and the sheer level that technology has affected our everyday lives.
post industrial, children and teenagers given more space and free time without work/chores that was included in pre-industrial and industrial times.
young people not subject to media messages, rather create own place in society, owning their own culture and subcultures, and developing it.
new media lit. much more centered around social function; very little, or behind times in formal education. though emerging, often playing catch up.
participation
memorise -> navigate skills
new school structure in vid (middleton alternative secondary school)
more choice
play
study to win
double standards idea (sports/theatre vs gaming)
based on child, rather than teacher/focus
ways to integrate education and learning into everyday life, exploration and experience
changing assessment model?
intelligent society, colaboration
(Brown, S., Digital Media - New Learners of the 21st Century (2010), PBS)
So what does it actually mean, what are the effects of children having grown up with technology and digital communication in the home?
Changed, or changing the way education is thought of and practiced. More level playing field, more equal. Increased confidence when taking part in the wider world, increased connectivity. Ability to take control of their own learning, learning all the time, about wider ranges of topics.
Educators need to stay on top of developments otherwise they will be left behind, and therefore their students will be left behind.
References:
"No generation has yet lived from cradle to grave in the digital era"
(Palfrey & Gasser, 2008).
This is quite a profound statement, when you take a step back and take a look at our society and the sheer level that technology has affected our everyday lives.
post industrial, children and teenagers given more space and free time without work/chores that was included in pre-industrial and industrial times.
young people not subject to media messages, rather create own place in society, owning their own culture and subcultures, and developing it.
(Lyman, P., Ito, M., Thorne, B. and Carter, M. (2009). Hanging out, messing around, and geeking out: kids living and learning with new media. Cambridge: MIT Press/MacArthur Foundation.)
new media lit. much more centered around social function; very little, or behind times in formal education. though emerging, often playing catch up.
"Literacy of co-operation" building collective action cross platform and facilitating colaboration. (Lankshear, C. & Knobel, M., New Literacies (2011), Open University Press)
participation
memorise -> navigate skills
new school structure in vid (middleton alternative secondary school)
more choice
play
study to win
double standards idea (sports/theatre vs gaming)
based on child, rather than teacher/focus
ways to integrate education and learning into everyday life, exploration and experience
changing assessment model?
intelligent society, colaboration
(Brown, S., Digital Media - New Learners of the 21st Century (2010), PBS)
So what does it actually mean, what are the effects of children having grown up with technology and digital communication in the home?
Changed, or changing the way education is thought of and practiced. More level playing field, more equal. Increased confidence when taking part in the wider world, increased connectivity. Ability to take control of their own learning, learning all the time, about wider ranges of topics.
Educators need to stay on top of developments otherwise they will be left behind, and therefore their students will be left behind.
References:
Palfrey, J. and Gasser, U. (2008). Born digital. Philadelphia: Basic Books
Sunday, 26 February 2012
New Media Literacies.
A new country, a new life, a new world.
Today I officially started university in Tasmania. After nearly two months of being in Australia, I can't help but think "finally...". I had been worried that uni wouldn't work well for me. I mean, in all honesty, I was hardly academic during my bachelors degree. But I feel that I've matured, both mentally and emotionally. And I'm ready for this. Throughout my first lecture I actually felt comfortable in my ability to learn; to take information in, derive meaning and follow different lines of (relevant) thought throughout the hour long class, while taking mostly coherent notes.
And I enjoyed it.
I enjoyed the academia after three years without uni. I enjoyed the fact that this was the first step towards the rest of my life. And I enjoy the fact that there is more, lots more, to come.
Which leads me onto the reason for this post, this thought-repository, this blog. New Media Literacies, a university unit looking at, what seems to me on first glance, the social aspects inherent in ever evolving technology and digital networking. Such aspects could conceivably cover a massive range of issues; from the teaching and development of youths, to building communities and personal relationships, both online and off, to youtube's rewriting the rules of traditional media such as television via vlogs, machinima, commentaries and music videos, even to massive social, cultural and political uprisings as witnessed in the role social media played in accelerating "social protest" in the 2011 Arab Spring and beyond.
The scope is massive; twitter, google, wikipedia, youtube, facebook, news, ebooks, apps, blogs, education, research, criminal activity, activism, dating, banking and many many more. It seems nearly every part of modern, developed life is connected to new media, the internet. Even during my five months teaching in rural Nepal, I met plenty of locals offering email addresses, mobile phone numbers and facebook adds. It's everywhere. And it's interesting.
I think I'm going to like this unit.
Today I officially started university in Tasmania. After nearly two months of being in Australia, I can't help but think "finally...". I had been worried that uni wouldn't work well for me. I mean, in all honesty, I was hardly academic during my bachelors degree. But I feel that I've matured, both mentally and emotionally. And I'm ready for this. Throughout my first lecture I actually felt comfortable in my ability to learn; to take information in, derive meaning and follow different lines of (relevant) thought throughout the hour long class, while taking mostly coherent notes.
And I enjoyed it.
I enjoyed the academia after three years without uni. I enjoyed the fact that this was the first step towards the rest of my life. And I enjoy the fact that there is more, lots more, to come.
Which leads me onto the reason for this post, this thought-repository, this blog. New Media Literacies, a university unit looking at, what seems to me on first glance, the social aspects inherent in ever evolving technology and digital networking. Such aspects could conceivably cover a massive range of issues; from the teaching and development of youths, to building communities and personal relationships, both online and off, to youtube's rewriting the rules of traditional media such as television via vlogs, machinima, commentaries and music videos, even to massive social, cultural and political uprisings as witnessed in the role social media played in accelerating "social protest" in the 2011 Arab Spring and beyond.
The scope is massive; twitter, google, wikipedia, youtube, facebook, news, ebooks, apps, blogs, education, research, criminal activity, activism, dating, banking and many many more. It seems nearly every part of modern, developed life is connected to new media, the internet. Even during my five months teaching in rural Nepal, I met plenty of locals offering email addresses, mobile phone numbers and facebook adds. It's everywhere. And it's interesting.
I think I'm going to like this unit.
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