I will say it is amazing how much my eyes have been opened in just the last year since starting grad school. I have known about Scratch for probably around 8 or 9 years, but at no time had I ever thought of it as anything other than a space to work on learning how to code. Truth be told that right there made the site intimidating to me and I have largely steered away from it, even with the knowledge that exploring it would be beneficial for my students (cue the bad teacher comments) After this week’s readings and taking a brief look at the site, I know see how it truly can be a place of self-expression and creation and that it doesn’t need to be intimidating. As the MacArthur report defines it, “A participatory culture is a culture with relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations, and some type of informal mentorship whereby what is know by the most experienced is passed along to novices”. Scratch clearly encompasses what is necessary for a true participatory culture, but more about that later.
So, as a supposed Gen X’er, I can say that not much of my life has involved partaking in a participatory culture. I don’t think it was until possibly my late high school years that AIM became a thing and that is probably the first time I recall interacting with other people online. Now, technically, nothing in the definiton of a participatory culture states that it needs to be an online undertaking, but for the purposes of this class, that is what we are focusing on. I guess the closest I can personally say I have come to a participatory culture is Facebook. I have developed wonderful relationships that I wouldn’t otherwise have encountered. I guess Facebook falls under Affiliations as a form of participatory culture, but I think it goes farther than that. In addition to developing wonderful relationships, I have become a member of several teacher groups that have been immensely helpful to not only myself but thousands of others. I want to highlight one particular group.
Another form of participatory culture is that of Collaborative problem-solving, in which you work together “in teams, formal and informal to complete tasks and develop new knowledge…..”. Well, this one particular facebook group absolutely helps me complete tasks and develop new knowledge. The group is actually sort of two groups, but with the same purpose in mind, “Technology Teacher Tribe with Brittany Washburn” and “Technology Teaching Resources with Brittany Washburn”. If you are on Facebook and are looking to collaborate with other like-minded teachers run and join the group. This group is amazing and it really does encompass what a participatory culture is. First of all, teachers are constantly posting lesson ideas (can be a form of self-expression) and looking for feedback, or they are asking questions of how to do something. They also are posting actual resources for various technology lessons to a community reservoir for free use. Fellow members are free to make copies and alter the resource as needed(remixing). There is a ton of mentorship that can occur directly and indirectly with this group. An individual in some ways can be indirectly mentored simply by observing/interacting with posts by “expert” teachers. More directly, members are constantly posting questions on how to do this or that or looking for best practices. 99 out of 100 times there will be plenty of people that respond trying to be of assistance. I could go on and on about the benefits of this group, but I think I have made my point.
I actually was trying to make a point when I mentioned being a Gen X’er, but I got sidetracked. So, back to that point, to truly interact in an online participatory culture, I in some ways missed my window. I think, and I could be wrong as I often am, that these type of cultures lend themselves to the young people of if not today that last 10 to 15 years. They are growing up in this digital world (that doesn’t mean they are digital fluent per se as we have already discussed) which lends itself to creating, collaborating and interacting with people halfway across the world. Now with that said, I do think we need to make a point of fostering the people creating “in the middle space” as Brennan, Monroy-Hernandez, and Resnick mention. The people that are interacting in this middle space, which is essentially where socialization and creation meet are the individuals that will have the requisite skills needed in the future workplaces. As Resnik said in the video and I paraphrase, more than ever people need to be able to think and act creatively. With the continued development of technology, we know that we don’t simply need people that can do, we need people that can problem solve, be creative, and think outside of the box. Spaces like Scratch help develop those skills and attributes.
Earlier I said I would get back to Scratch, as I had a few points I wanted to make. I did say that Scratch truthfully scared me and therefore I avoided it like the plague. Well, I may have been avoiding it, but my students were not. I have had plenty of students choose to work in Scratch and I have to say I learned so much from them about the Scratch universe. They were so excited to add to other members work or as they call it remixing. They also were all about the likes and the comments. They had no fear of rejection and were so confident in sharing their contributions. One thing I love about teaching is learning from my students and I don’t mean just technology skills. I now realize that Scratch can be an environment that builds confidence as well as teaches young people the importance of constructive failure as Resnik called it. I did recently sign up for a Scratch educators account and am going to look into getting Scratch login’s approved by my district. I am only doing my students a disservice by not embracing a program that I now see can truly be far more beneficial than just learning how to code. So, that comes full circle to my initial point it is amazing how much I have gained in just these two semesters of grad school and I am so excited to use my new found knowledge from this participatory culture (it kind of is even though it is structured) to benefit my students.
Post Script
I was reviewing that PEW article and I was slightly shocked by the numbers. I occasionally check social media while I am at work, but it is usually when I am on lunch or prep, but I do think the numbers are probably on the low side, then again the numbers are from 2014 I think and the use of social media overall has increased exponentially. There were a few categories that I was sad to see the percents on. Social media can be such a gift professionally, all you need to do is reach out. I can’t really express how much I constantly learn from the social media that I do interact with (professionally mostly Facebook and Twitter, but occasionally Instagram) Therefore seeing the low numbers for people using social media to enhance their professional work was shocking. If those numbers are accurate, many professionals don’t realize the depth of knowledge they are missing out on.