Digital Media and Learning

This article is in response to a paper funded by the MacArthur Foundation called "Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century.  The paper discussed our new digital generation and the current participatory culture that has come out of it, along with the new skills needed in this environment. Although I agree with the intent of the paper and agree with most everything it says, I disagree with a few points it makes.  This is from my own bias on the importance gaming, but I felt there were too many references and examples of gaming, or at least not enough of other forms of digital media that in my mind would have done a better job of making the argument for the paper.  The argument as I understood it, or the most important issue that stood out to me -- 
            
 "Schools as institutions have been slow to react to the emergence of this new participatory clulture; the greatest opportunity for change is currently found in after-school programs and informal learning communities.(Jenkins p.4)"


I'm not so sure why this statement is so shocking to me because I was in high school only four years ago, but I find it very unsettling that most students learn valuable skills and retain more information outside the classrooms.  I don't feel like this is the teachers fault, because I know many work hard to include digital media in lessons whenever they can, but it comes down to the school system that limits what teachers should teach, how they should teach it, and the resources to do so.  Jenkins list three concerns about students interacting on their own that include unequal opportunities, misperception, and ethical concerns.  I believe this is just the tip of the iceberg for reasons why there is need for a more formal education in digital media in the classroom.


There are skills listed that come in play with digital media literacy.  Of these eleven, I feel that the two most important in my experience are judgement and collective intelligence. Digital media should be taught in the classroom because with the availability of the internet, students need to be able to set apart virtual reality and real world concepts along with reliability and credibility and understanding the intent of the information being given.  Also, I feel that there has always been taboo around techie-computer literate people and that they keep to themselves, game all day long, and have little interactions with others.  Collective intelligence along with networking is a great to link people, ideas, and information together.  The digital media world is no longer as individualized at it use to be and it think that is the whole point for the participatory culture. 

Digital Media for Educators: What? How? Why?

Digital Media for Educators

What is it?

Digital media is anything that informs us on a subject, helps us learn about something, or makes us aware of something electronically. The Internet is one of the biggest sources of digital media with an unlimited number of digital images and pictures, news articles, e-books, academic journals, blogs, discussion forums, online seminars, and information on anything you would want to know about anything. Other digital media includes video, PowerPoint presentations, video and computer games, virtual labs, media library's, audio files, and image generators such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Using digital media in the classroom helps teach material in a more creative way than just lecture and worksheets.

How and when do we use it?

Digital media can be used for both entertainment and educational purposes and is great tool for educators. It allows you to bring in an endless amount of information to students in the classroom, learn about things on a much wider scale, and teach the material in different formats so that it appeals to all students. In an art class setting, digital media is used when images of artwork are presented to the class by using PowerPoint, slide shows, or art history websites. Also, film and photography are now a big part of digital media because work is moving from manual to digital technology. Students use digital media with written reports, websites, presentations, photo essays, and more with projects that they make.

Why is it important?

Digital media is a great interactive learning tool that stimulates students visually and mentally. Especially in today's technology based society, it is important to use digital media in the classroom to expose students to it and get them comfortable with it. Digital media also provides a source of communication of individuals and groups with emails, blogs, and discussion forums, that keeps a conversation going among students outside the classroom.

Examples/Sources

Below are a list of websites that are based around digital media and are resources for teachers.

Teachers' Domain

PBS Teachers

Discovery Education

Apple -Education-Digital Content Creation

Side Note

I think that using digital media as a teaching aid is a great way to teach a variety of material and is often a missed opportunity in many schools today.  The thing about the digital world is there are many possibilities and multiple paths to link you to your goal.   This new generation has taken a greater enjoyment of learning because digital media has made it more fun and allows students with different learning styles to learn the same material.  I believe it is important to incorporate different techniques in teaching coursework and we should be using even more digital media than there is in the average classroom now.  Potentially, the use of digital media could change the dynamics in the classroom completely.