I love the quote from the Brennen article “Being a creator of interactive media enables broader understandings of how these artifacts are created and function, understandings required for full participation in and negotiation of a technologically saturated society.” I wholeheartedly agree with Brennen when she talks about our assumptions that students today come to us with an inherent understanding of technology use. What I see over and over again is that this is just not true, depending on the access and opportunity each student has, their familiarity can be vastly different.
What I’ve learned from all three texts is that all students need is the encouragement to seek out communities all their own. To find the help, support and inspiration they need online. Like Zywica stated in her article, learning networks can be used in various ways. From supplements to existing courses to encouraging participation in discussion groups, they can be both an enhancement to the real-world classroom and a place to exchange information with peers.
When I was growing up I found myself choosing the same hobbies as the kids in my neighborhood because that is where my support system was. If I needed to learn how to do something or to see if what I was doing was correct, I had to find an actual person that knew the answer. Now students need only turn to the internet, and while a glimpse will show you just how big the world is, it can also provide the close community you need. The great thing is that students are now able to anything and get help with just about anything, because there is someone else in the world that has the same hobbies as they do. This in turn can encourage them to experiment with creation because maybe their hobby doesn’t seem so “weird” and they know they’ll have an audience ready to accept them.
When growing up, I enjoyed many of the same hobbies as my peers. After awhile, I began venturing out on my own. As nerdy as it sounds, I picked up Magic: The Gathering. My interest was more than casual; it was competitive. I scoured all website resources for the best insights into the game. I read all the articles written by professionals and aspiring players alike. Every day after finishing my homework in middle school I read. On weekends I played in two or three tournaments, using the knowledge garnered throughout the week. In the course of time and after several months of traveling to Jersey and New York to compete, I earned the third highest rating in the state of Pennsylvania. Although I systematically play tested for hours, a major factor in this kind of result was the online community that helped me learn and achieve my goals.
The point that really stood out to me from your post is the idea that students need encouragement to present their work collaboratively with their peers. I didn’t really pick up on the importance of that point until reading your post. This, like many other articles we have read in this class, points out the need for teachers of 21st century learners to become more like coaches and encouragers to our students learning. Promoting peer interaction whether it be internal from classroom peers or external from the global society, the importance is great. This type of learning environment helps the learner to become self-motivated about their work and to enhance their learning to a deeper level!
…I wholeheartedly agree with Brennen when she talks about our assumptions. Yes, I think this has been a persistent problem until somewhat recently. Simply by virtue of the generational gap between teachers and students, there is a tendency by us older folks 😉 to assume that just because the kids are surrounded by the tech that they are widely fluent in it. But as you say, this isn’t true; the digital literacy and/or tool bandwidth is actually fairly narrow. It’s analogous to when you write
They flock to the networks and tools that their friends or peers are using (e.g., Facebook, Instagram) because that is where they can connect and communicate. Mimi Ito, et al. found this in their multi-year ethnography of youth networks where most kids used digital tools and networks to extend their existing, face-to-face relationships, rather than necessarily seeking out new connections. So as Brennan, et al. argue, the challenge for educators, in part, is cultivating the dispositions for creative capacity with these various tools; it’s about bringing out that middle space, where participants [e.g., students] draw on the best of the socializing and creating practices (p. 78).
Hannah stated: What I’ve learned from all three texts is that all students need is the encouragement to seek out communities all their own.
This is a powerful statement that I think has always been a part of the youth scene. When I was in high school in the 80’s (sigh…so very long ago…), it was skateboard community or the athletic community or the drama community or the marching band community, etc. For as much as the youth want to be individuals, they also want to belong. Each of the articles discuss both the desire to belong as well as the effort to create the community.