Confronting Challenges of a Particapatory Culture

We were asked to take a look at Henry Jenkins' article, "Confronting the Challenges 

of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century," for writing in the digital age. Immediately I began to think about my mom when I first explored the paper and browsing through. I even read a few excerpts to her while I was riding in the car down to visit my sister in Pikeville this weekend. 

Reading this to her lead to discussions about what is asked from teachers and what is expected of them in today's society. Let me tell you what is being taught now is already so different from what we were taught not so long ago. I read the listed skills to my mom and to her excitement, she practices many of these with her kindergarten students. Even distributed cognition, which she described as interacting with manipulatives in the classroom. This might be blocks, tens units, plastic farm animals, and so on. 

The skills that stood out to me and that I felt that I have been taught include: 

Play — the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem-solving

Distributed Cognition — the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand

mental capacities

Networking — the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information

Now when I first read these words, I thought there is no way that I have been taught these things. In reality, I really was. First "play" this is something that my mom alway encouraged and promoted as well. It continued for me through school as I participated in the FIRST LEGO League (FLL). When I was in seventh grade I was briefly introduced to the concept of the LEGO robots. I was reintroduced in the eight grade where for an entire semester I "played" with the LEGOs and problem solved with them. We had a board of tasks that we had to program the robot to complete. It was through play that we solved these problems. We got to build, rebuild and build one more time different gadgets for the robot with LEGOs. There were also team building aspects in which we had to build together and a project we did about how to clean our water ways. Sometimes it could be grueling, but we had so much fun. 

I am the one with the trophy, circa 2006.

The FLL also added Distributed Cognition as well. I was using tools, LEGOs, to expand my mental capacity. I may have not recognized this at the time it was happening, but it did. Using these manipulatives to problem solve expanded my knowledge and allowed me to solve a problem and complete tasks with the LEGOs. 

Networking was apart of our challenge as well. We had to be able to take in the information about issues with our water ways and pollution and devise a plan to clean them. Our solution? Activated charcoal. Would I have known what that was before this, no. I was able to learn all I could with my team about the water ways and then synthesize the information and in turn share that information with those who asked about it as well. We even made a demonstration of how such a system could be achieved through the dam systems. 

Reflecting on the opportunities that I was given through Robotics and the FLL are amazing. They taught me so much. Things that a traditional classroom did not. This brings me to challenge the research and articles that so many follow. Like my mom, I see the sense is some of it, but where is the breaking point? Learning is no where as interactive for most as it was when I was in school. There is not as much hands on either. The "new" skills that are proposed by Jenkins aren't necessarily new, but need to reemerge in our society.