Learning through Affinity Spaces

Hyunwoo ParkKaili XueKeisha RidwanSelina Perng

IMAGE: PEXELS

PARTICIPATORY CULTURE

“Participatory culture shifts the focus of literacy from one of individual expression to community

involvement.”Henry Jenkins

IMAGE: MIT

PARTICIPATORY CULTURE

Many young people are already part of this process through:• Affiliations• Expressions• Collaborative Problem-

Solving• Circulations

SOURCE: Jenkins, H. et al. (2006) Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century , Cambridge & London: The MIT Press.

AFFINITY SPACE

“Human intelligence and creativity, today more than ever, are tied to connecting—synchronizing—people, tools, texts, digital and social media, virtual spaces, and real spaces in the right ways, in ways that make us minds and not just minds, but also better people in a better world.”

SOURCE: Gee, James Paul (2013) The Anti-Education Era: Creating smarter students through digital learning, New York: Palgrave Macmillan. IMAGE: INDIANA UNIVERSITY

Why are humans

so stupid?

HUMANS ARE NOT SMART ALONE

“School is often based not on problem solving, which perforce involves actions and goals, but on learning information, facts, and formulas that one has read about in texts or heard about in lectures. It is not surprising, then, that research has long shown that a student’s doing well in school, in terms of grades and tests, does not correlate with being able to solve problems in the areas in which the student has been taught (e.g., math, civics, physics).”(Gee, 2013, p. 178)

Association gives pleasure: humans needs sense of worth – participation and control and counting to others.

SOURCE: Gee, James Paul (2013) The Anti-Education Era: Creating smarter students through digital learning, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

IMAGE: JISC

HENRY JENKINS

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

2. Performance3. Simulation 4. Appropriation5. Multitasking – the ability to scan one’s

environment and shift focus as needed to salient details.

6. Distributed Cognition


HENRY JENKINS

7. Collective Intelligence – the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal.

8. Judgment9. Transmedia Navigation 10.Networking — the ability to search for,

synthesize, and disseminate information11.Negotiation


‘Synchronised Intelligence’ (Gee, 2013)

Gee, James Paul (2013) The Anti-Education Era: Creating smarter students through digital learning, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

JAMES PAUL GEE

• Gee suggests ‘collective intelligence’ and ‘passionate affinity spaces’ for students and teachers. We must all learn how to be part of big minds with big ideas.

• Students must learn to balance sciences empirical methods with the liberals arts.

• Mind visions – we must demand that ‘each student become a maker of visions, a visionary, and not just a spectator of visions.’ (Thompson, 2015)


JAMES PAUL GEE

• The best way to help poor children is high-quality early education to close the literacy gap.

• Educators must engage children and help parents engage their children in extended conversations about the world. This instruction must incorporate rich images. It must teach children to engage in goal-based actions.

• Pre-school must essentially extend children’s experiences beyond their neighbourhood. In other words, parents and educators must help children develop islands of expertise.


IMAGE: PEXELS

THE PARTICIPATION GAP / THE LITERACY GAP

“… the unequal access to the opportunities, experiences, skills, and knowledge that will prepare youth for full participation …”(Jenkins et al., 2006)


Albert Einstein? Clifford Stoll? Frank Zappa?

MEDIA EDUCATION 2

INFORMATION OVERLOAD

Access ≠ Literacy(Brabazon, 2013)

IMAGE: PEXELSSOURCE: Brabazon, T. (2013) Digital Dieting: From Information Obesity to Intellectual Fitness. Ashgate.

AUTHENTICITY AND CREDIBILITY OF SOURCES

“ We are Anonymous”

IMAGE: ANONYMOUS VIDEO SCREENSHOT

Questioning the “Wisdom of the Crowds”

MEDIA EDUCATION 2

COLLECTIVE STUPIDITY

4chan + reddit and Boston Marathon Bombing

IMAGE: GAWKER

COLLECTIVE STUPIDITY

SOURCE: Pratchett, T. (1995) ‘Maskerade’, Discworld, Book 18, Victor Gollancz.

“And, since the IQ of a mob is the IQ of its most stupid member divided by the number of mobsters, it was never very clear to anyone what had happened.” Terry Pratchett, Maskerade

IMAGE: PEXELS

ADDRESSING INEQUALITY

Addressing “the unequal access to the opportunities, experiences, skills, and knowledge” (Jenkins et al.,

2006) that will prepare for full participation and richer learning experience.


TACKLING THE ETHICS CHALLENGE

Utilising media education as the avenue to prepare learners for ‘their increasingly public roles as media makers and community participants’, breaking down ‘traditional forms of professional training and socialisation’ (Jenkins et al., 2006).


• The hub of ‘development’ (Brabazon, 2013)• The relationship between humans and their

environmentsSOURCE: Brabazon, T. (2013) Digital Dieting: From Information Obesity to Intellectual Fitness. Ashgate. IMAGE: LETOUKAN

SCAFFOLDING

• Pedagogical process works

• The entire community takes on some responsibility for helping newbies find their way (Jenkins, 2006)

SOURCE: Jenkins, Henry (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: NYU Press

Hyunwoo ParkKaili XueKeisha RidwanSelina Perng