Daniel makes stuff, and, in his spare time, writes about things like movies, kid culture, and geek stuff.
A Conversation About New Media and Education

Part one in a series from Henry Jenkins entitled “Learning in a Participatory Culture.” A must-read for anybody interested in education, technology or how children learn and why they choose to spend so much of their time in front of a computer or playing video games.

Here’s one particular lesson we could all stand to remember:

At the end of the day, it isn’t about the technology. It certainly isn’t about the screen per se. It is about the informational affordances and cultural practices which have taken shape around the computer and other interactive technologies. It isn’t about the computer replacing the book. It is about a world where students learn with a book in one hand and a mouse in the other, rather than one where they are taught that book culture is so fragile it needs to be protected from the computer.

‘Informational affordances’ is an important frame to view technology through – it emphasizes what’s good about technology, and is a refreshing break from the ‘Doom and Gloom’ rhetoric we’re used to. It urges us to think about what technology allows children (and the rest of us) to do that they couldn’t have done before, rather than focusing solely on its own detriments. In short: There’s something that attracts kids to technology, and we would be wise to find out what it is instead of immediately writing it off. We need to consider the sheer, unending wealth of possibilities an Internet-equipped computer has to offer – the unending knowledge of Wikipedia, the direct, global visual communication that YouTube offers, the vast meta-narratives and stories that video games put forth to indulge in – and then compare that to the increasingly restricted mobility kids are given outside, the shocking dearth of compelling outdoor environments and stimulating activities, and the social sanctions we implicitly place against children when they do decide to “hang out” in public spaces. When we think of it like that, it’s no wonder they retreat indoors – they simply get ‘more’ by sitting in front of a computer.

If we truly want kids to play outside more, then we’ll have to consider the obstacles in the way of enjoying the outdoors – and not only work to minimize them, but find ways to turn the outdoors into a space that also offers similar affordances to what children get from technology. Even more preferable than this, we have to think about how technology and the outdoors can complement, and their affordances can be enjoyed in a balanced, holistic way of living.

Henry Jenkins is the first guy I go to to better understand how to do this.

UPDATE: For another perspective, Morgan Leichter-Saxby urges us to consider our own technological habits, in a piece called “Do As I Say, Not As I Do.”

Feb 08, 2010 :: Tagged under: , , :: #