Teaching with Technology

A good place to build technology enriched learning activities is upon technologies that many higher education students are already familiar. For example: many students have experience posting to Facebook, other networking sites and Blackboard. Wiki sites like Wikipedia are another technology with which students have familiarity.  Because of this familiarity, learning activities that build upon these forums can serve a comfortable point from which students can grow and expand their Information, communication and technology (ICT) knowledge.  Natural outgrowths for technology enriched learning activities would be class blogs (both written and vocal) and Wikis.

These activities can promote a sense of ownership since students contribute to the body of work. They can also foster a sense of community as students work together to pool information (especially through the use of Wikis). Researching a topic to post on either a class blog or Wiki site will provide students with the opportunity to shift through information and discern the most salient pieces for their contribution.  Students can also develop an understanding that the sources of information on Wikis, blogs and other information sites are human beings with individual perspectives and agendas. This understanding is essential to confront “The Transparency Problem” Jenkins describes in Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21^st century, “The challenges young people face in learning to see clearly the ways that media shape perceptions of the world” (p. 1).

Adding a post to a Wiki or commenting on classmates’ blog posts or knowing your posts can be commented upon provides students with responsibility.  Being responsible to the class for the information that is created and posted can help alleviate “The Ethics Challenge” that Jenkins described as, “The breakdown of traditional forms of professional training and socialization that might prepare young people for their increasingly public roles as media makers and community participants”.

For the students that have not had exposure to technologies that contain a posting feature, Wikis and blogging learning activities are even more vital. Technologies are moving toward greater individual participation and it is essential that students know how to navigate and contribute to them to address what Jenkins terms “The Participation Gap – the unequal access to the opportunities, experiences, skills and knowledge that will prepare youth for full participation in the world of tomorrow” learning activities need to incorporate common technologies to help ensure that students are not being left behind.

Jenkins discusses eleven “new media literacies: a set of cultural competencies and social skills that young people need in the new media landscape” (p. 4).  Class blogs and Wikis address many of these literacies; such as, judgment, collective intelligence, multitasking, appropriation, networking, and possibly even performance and play. Additionally, these technology enriched learning activities will, in many cases, build upon existing student knowledge or will be a vital introduction to these growing technologies. As we have witnesses in recent decades, technology is rapidly changing and with it the world. Technology has moved into every corner of society and to be responsible educators we must prepare our students to live, work and play in the world of today and tomorrow. Technology has not supplanted social relations or cooperative work it has just altered the landscape. Wikis and blogs are ways to involve students in technologies that allow them access and the ability to be an integral part of our evolving world.

Jenkins, H., Purushotma, R., Clinton, K., Weigel, M. & Robison, A.   Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21^st century. Building on the Field of Digital Media and Learning. MacArthur, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/63pmfm