Jenkin's article "Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture" pp 3-18 Reaction/Annotations

Initial questions I had before I read the whole article: What are the challenges of a participatory culture & why are these challenges present?

The What answer:
1. the "participation gap" -- not everyone can have the same amount of access to the web/other technologies, therefore some students have advantages over others (if we don't intervene the gap will grow and grow and the lower class will not be able to better themselves)
2. the "transparency problem" -- students may not see how information that is made public shapes views of others (do not understand their impact). students have to be taught to be more reflective. students may take things at face value that need to be explored more (Shrier's history game about the American Revolution). students need to know how to judge the quality of the information they receive (think commercialism/sponsors)
3. the "ethics challenge" -- students are not properly taught about how to conduct themselves. they need to be helped so that they can say what they think in a respectful way and know how to properly interact with others in public (on the web). It is neat that web "ecology" is so diverse, but students need to be aware of how they might be interpreted by those of different backgrounds. students also have to learn to protect their own safety in this public realm.

Students need our help to improve themselves within their social learning experiences. We cannot simply assume they will learn everything on their own.

The Why answer:
According to Jenkins, "The new literacies (on the web) almost all involve social skills developed through collaboration and networking. These skills build on the foundation of traditional literacy, research skills, technical skills, and critical analysis skills taught in the classroom." Though schools could do so much to empower students with these necessary skills and teach them how to apply this knowledge to social interaction on the web "schools [...] have been slow to react to the emergence of this new participatory culture." In short, in order to be able to thrive/learn on the web you need to have certain social skills prior to coming onto the web. This is necessary because learning on the web is a social activity.

Interesting bit of info: "more than half of all American teens [...] could be considered media creators." How they chose to create differed. Girls were more likely to blog, urban youth were more likely to create than rural youth, and race differences made no real difference in the amount of participation.

What I gather from the info above, is that if there are students who are not able to participate it has more to do with economics & location. If a person lives in a small farming community, the chances they will have access to technology is limited. Also, if a person lives in a poor part of a town and cannot get convenient transportation to a place with technology (computers) and obviously cannot afford these technological devices they too will not have access. How can we help these people interact socially online? Participatory culture encourages self expression/creativity, but if students don't have access to technology, they cannot participate, they cannot be part of this enriching community.

Note: "Not every member (on the web) must contribute, but all must believe they are free to contribute when ready and that what they contribute will be appropriately valued." For me (personally) being creative and getting feedback on the web is self-esteem building & something that I grow from. I can take others feedback and create something else.

Was the tree falling vs. computer not being used analogy a good one? I think so. There is an abstract idea (like traditional reasoning) vs. bricolage (concrete based reasoning). Computers are dependent on us. If there were no people, there would be no web. Technology will only be used by a culture if it fills "recurring needs at a particular juncture." This explains to me why technology is changing so rapidly, it is changing to fit the needs of an ever growing community of users. An important point that Jenkins brings up is that technology is only a tool and its importance is in how it is being used by that community. A connected idea (to the importance of community membership) is that students who create their own media are less likely to steal ideas from others. They can see the work that goes into creation and have more respect for the creativity of others. To me that means more respect for their community as a whole is expressed by the students.

Liked this quote: "Our goals should be to encourage youth to develop the skills, knowledge, ethical frameworks, and self-confidence needed to be full participants in comtemporary culture."

I was wondering why the idea of the importance of playing seems so revolutionary? We have known forever that animals play fight so that they are prepared when they grow up and have to fight against foes for real. We know that little children pretend to cook, nurse others, etc as a way for them to prepare to grow up. As in the Brown article, Jenkins addresses (indirectly here) the idea that tacit learning is only secondary to ellicit learning in the minds of most adults.

*Interesting idea: the act of blocking social networking sites at schools/libraries hinders learning just where we want learning to take place.

This article was a lot to chew on. I am still mulling over different ideas. I must say that the Brown article was a much easier read.