From Freeware to Free Expression

Jay Pfaffman is not only engaging to listen to he's quite provocative when it comes to his thoughts on education and technology. He began a recent post to his blog "...I have been interested in finding ways to make classroom instruction more engaging. Thinking that hobbyists are the perfect example of life-long learners, I did some surveys to see if there are particular things that make all hobbies enjoyable. These surveys, of adult hobbyists and high school students, suggest that people like to create things that they can use to express themselves and be able to share with others."

Jay's comments connect ever so fluidly with the philosophy of Constructivist teaching and learning, a common theme throughout this course. It seems that the idea of students expressing themselves is not a "new" idea (see the 1960's Free Speech Movement). What can be considered new as far as student expression in the Digital Information Age is shown in the proliferation of social networking sites. Students are creating their MyFaceSpacebook (my agglomeration which makes my adolescent nieces crazy!) pages for others to interact with and respond to. The challenge to teachers as Jay (alludes to) is to have students as excited about creating and sharing their American history project as they would be in modifying their own MySpace profiles. On some levels education needs to be revamped from one that reflects its origins in the Industrial- Mass-Produced -Standardized -Society. When I reflect on the topics we've read and discussed in class, it seems that education needs to be revamped to reflect the Digital- Information -Collaboration-Creative society that our students will work and live in! The paradigm shift that that will entail makes my head hurt!

I often wish I could time travel and listen in on conversations of educators in the early 20th century as new technologies like electricity, radio, automobiles, and telephones massively reshaped society and what it meant to be educated or successful.

The Henry Jenkins report Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century was hard to disagree with. I found several points particularly compelling. Jenkins called for
a. a shift in the focus of the conversation about the digital divide from questions of technological access to those of opportunities to participate AND to develop cultural competencies and social skills needed for full involvement.
b. adult acknowledgement of the creation of new participatory cultures and adolescents' engagement in them.
c. a systemic approach to media education.

What really struck me was how media competency and skills create a new "hidden curriculum" which can prove to be a barrier for student success depending on their access to technology whether at school or at home. While technology integration has been a significant motivating force in my school district, the really, really, really big emphasis has been targeted at the achievement gap as it impacts students of color, non-native speakers, and immigrants. Seems to me that these two driving forces (technology integration and diversity training) could unify around this shared issue.