Participatory thinking

A few examples on participatory learning came in an after-lunch session on participatory learning in ELA: using Ning, collaborative writing between classes in Indiana and Massachusetts, even “playing around” with remixing media to express a new idea. One teacher on the panel just summed it up.  It used to be that we teachers dispensed knowledge, we told students what to think,  what to write.  Now, using a model of media production – taking writing beyond the words -  it’s up to students to decide what to think and how to show their thoughts. And she added, they know when they’re not thinking enough, when they need to dig in and think a little harder.

Referenced this a.m.:

Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project

Dave

 

Stay tuned for news from the Learning in a Participatory Culture Conference on May 2nd

Stay tuned as colleagues Tina Browne, from the Western Massachusetts Writing Project, and Dave Boardman, from the Maine Writing Project, share some news and notes from the Learning in a Participatory Culture Conference at MIT on May 2nd. This conference is being hosted by Project New Media Literacies, a research initiative based within MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program that explores how we might best equip young people with the social skills and cultural competencies required to become full participants in an emergent media landscape and raise public understanding about what it means to be literate in a globally interconnected, multicultural world. Project New Media Literacies is a grantee of the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning Initiative.