How are you addressing the digital participation gap? #newlearningculture

There is a growing “digital participation gap” between young people in our schools and communities today. This gap is caused by many things, but IGNORANCE and FEAR continue to be significant reasons many parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, and others involved in education shy away from conversations about digital media and social networking both inside and outside schools. Scholar Henry Jenkins addresses this and our need to bridge this gap (through more balanced approaches to content filtering and other strategies) in this 9.5 minute video shared by EduTopia.

Jenkins also addresses the issue of how as teachers, we need to be comfortable NOT being the expert (or the only expert) on topics we discuss and tackle with students in our classrooms. This is embedded in the concept of co-learning and co-learners, which unfortunately remains a foreign instructional approach some classrooms.

The augmented reality, GPS-enabled games built for learners at MIT like “Environmental Detectives” which Jenkins discusses sound FANTASTIC! I’ve heard Chris Dede discuss these “out in the community” GPS and virtual reality games previously at conferences. I wish we had games like this available for learners in the Oklahoma City area. If you know of anyone building this sort of thing in the OKC metro area please let me know. This would be a GREAT project for a summer class or summer workshop to take on.

How are you practically addressing the issues of the “digital participation gap” NOW in your school? Two of the best ideas I’ve encountered are sponsoring a local Scratch club at your school or elsewhere in your community, and becoming a Storychaser with others in your school. Seven upcoming workshops offered by Storychasers are being held in Oklahoma and Kansas during June and July 2011. If you’d like to host a Storychasers workshop in your local area, more information about volunteering your site is available.

If you have not yet read or added to your “read soon” list Jenkins’ book with Douglas Thomas, “A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change,” do so soon! This is one of the best books I’ve read in a LONG time about learning and its intersections with technology as well as schools.

I encountered this video of Henry Jenkins via Jackie Gerstein‘s outstanding recent post, “Kids Are Learning . . . Just Not in Ways We Want Them To.”

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edtech, education, technology, jenkins, newlearningculture, gps

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On this day..

• Inspire Your Students with the 2017 Google I/O Opening Animated Video – 2017
• Rocket Time! (an iPhone iMovie Trailer) – 2014
• Redeeming the Family: Blessing Children of Incarcerated Parents – 2013
• Rise Up Oklahoma City: Support Our Public Schools! – 2012
• Brainstorming PlayingWithMedia.com with Popplet – 2011
• 7th Annual American Indian Learner’s Conference: May 21, 2011 – 2011
• Scratch, Stopmotion, Lego Robotics, Worm Farming and more at Kids College in Altus – 2010
• Digital audio recorder quest: affordable, powerful, compatible (May 2010) – 2010
• First geocaching experiences with our Garmin eTrex Legend HCx – 2008
• Two great podcast presentations from TCEA 2007 – 2007