I
completely agree with Sarah regarding the fact that we as teachers need to
embrace participatory culture. The
article definition is as follows, “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 known by the most experienced is passed along to
novices” (pg 3). Our classroom environment’s
need to have little to no barriers that allow students to access their artistic
expression and move forward feeling support for their own creations and hard
work. By creating a safe classroom
environment, whatever subject material it may be, allows students to feel
comfortable in their own skin and be willing to take risks. If each response or new idea is shut down or
disciplined by their teacher they will lose all interest in the subject
material, class, and what you have to say.
Each and every opinion and values our students share are important.
Jenkins
also provides that “A participatory culture is also one in which members
believe their contributions matter, and feel some degree of social connection
with one another (at the least they care what other people think about what
they have created)” (pg 3). A classroom is the
perfect space to allow students to not only value their own work, but value the
work around them. I appreciate the
thought Sarah provided regarding students understanding the value of performing
a show for the community. Not only are
they able to see how the show affects their community, but they are also coming
together as a cast and crew learning to value one another. I grew up playing sports my whole life, and although
we were a team it felt like we were constantly competing with one another and
trying to prove ourselves. Although this
is still prevalent in theatre, when given the right environment students are
able to come together and support one another because each member of the cast and
crew is crucial to the success of the show; no one is sitting on the
bench.
In the
classroom itself we need to constantly embrace the new media around us. During my senior year of high school, our
student teacher in my English class began each day by asking for a volunteer to
come and play a song from their ipod for the class. As we listened and then after the song was
over we worked as a class to analyze the song, the message and how that message
was conveyed. The student teacher also
asked the student why they picked that particular song and why it was important
to them. We worked together as a class
expressing our beliefs and values as well as the teacher taking time to really
appreciate the response of an individual student because of their specific
choice of media.
Our students interact with new
media every day and most of the time will be more versed then we will ever
be. We shouldn't be afraid or embarrassed,
but rather embrace the fact that they know more and ask them how they could
incorporate what they know into our class project. As Sarah mentioned, the article stresses the
point that there is the problem of the participation gap. Fortunately if we think creatively, there are
ways to combat the problem of students not having equal access to new
media. First and foremost we need to
incorporate it into the classroom, such as in our individual lessons and
activities as well as the shows. If
students don’t have access to new media at home, we can do as Sarah suggested
and travel to the local library or the school’s library. Media is around us constantly and our
students experience it every day, whether that is at their own homes, looking
over their friends shoulders, or in the classroom, etc. As educators we need to be open to
participatory culture and really caring about what our students have to say and
what they create. It is our job to set
the example as well as the environment for our classroom so students can be
given with the best learning atmosphere we can provide!
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