Week 3 Journal Post: Large Scale Communication

When I first heard the term participatory culture, I took it at face value.  Participating in culture.  As this is a New Media course, it only made sense that the term related to technology, namely the internet.  This week’s readings broadened my understanding of what participatory culture is and the impact that it has on society.  

One new and important skill that has emerged from participatory culture is the active role that young people are now taking in society.  I have always seen social media as the proverbial “devil’s playground”; a place for people to broadcast their personal business and to gossip.  Being a very private person, I hand’t created a Facebook, Twitter or any other social media account.  My son always seemed to be on these social networking sites and as a parent, I would check up on him, reading posts, viewing his profile and the profiles of his “friends”.  That was the extent of it.  After a while I began to see social media as a way to “use popular culture to change the world around us” (Jenkins, video clip).  Most recently, for example, the ALS Bucket Challenge.  Social media served as an amazing platform to bring awareness to ALS. This use of social media exemplifies the education and knowledge that comes as a direct result of these new literacies.  Changing educational practices by utilizing new media and new literacies  in the classroom is necessary (Huffaker, 2005, p.96).  Children use these social media sites daily.  It only makes sense to bring something that they are so connected to and engaged with into the classroom to facilitate learning.  

In the article “The Educated Blogger: Using Weblogs to Promote Literacy in the Classroom”, Huffaker also discusses the ways that participatory culture has a positive impact on education.  Haffaker highlights the use of blogs in the classrooms that can be created and shared.  One of the underlying issues that is present is cultural.  I myself was uncomfortable with using social media as are many of the parents in the elementary school where I teach.  Sometimes that underlying fear proves to be counterproductive to the direction in which society is clearly headed.  I come from a culture where your business is your business and social media as the Nation Enquirer on the magazine rack at the checkout in the supermarket. Changing these paradigms through understanding participatory culture is necessary to effectively make changes and prepare the youth for the future.  

References

Huffaker, D. (2005). The Educated Blogger: Using Weblogs to Promote Literacy in the Classroom. AACE Journal 13(2), 91-98.

Jenkins, H. (2010, March 6). New Media Literacies. [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFCLKa0XRlw#t=15