The New Media Landscape

In Henry Jenkins' "Eight Traits of a Media Landscape" he lists his assessment of the contemporary media landscape as such:

1) Innovative
2) Convergent
3) Everyday
4) Appropriative
5) Networked
6) Global
7) Generational
8) Unequal

He then ends by stating, "Of these eight traits, the only one which might describe our current educational institutions is "unequal." Otherwise, our schools have not kept pace with the changing environment around them. If we were to start from scratch and design an educational system to meet the needs of the culture we have just described, it would look very little like the current school system. Our schools doubly fail kids -- offering them neither the insights they need to avoid the risks nor the opportunity to exploit the potentials of this new participatory culture. Indeed, the skills kids need to function in the new media landscape are skills which are often read as dysfunctional and disruptive in the context of formal education. Kids are, for the most part, learning these skills on their own, outside of school, with the consequence that they are unevenly distributed across the population" (http://henryjenkins.org/2006/11/eight_traits_of_the_new_media.html).

I found Jenkins' opinion refreshing because as I move across the country in a few weeks with my 5 year old son, we are beginning the journey of unschooling. Unschooling for my family is an action to equalize the educational experience. I would go into it all more if there were someone interested in listening, but for now I'll try to move on with my point. The basic unschooling principle is that we are learning all the time. People learn by playing, thinking and amazing themselves. They learn while they're laughing at something surprising, and they learn while they're wondering "What the heck is this!?" In other words, the unschooling concept more accordingly moves in track with the changing environment around us -- a media landscape that requires understanding and addressing of the above eight traits.

So, philosophically, what has brought this change? Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind, offers insight into the needs of this new media landscape. He defines the era we are approaching as the Conceptual Age. It is in direct opposition the the departing era referred to as the Information Age. Pink argues that in these changing times we must consider expanding the use of the right hemisphere of our brain as an important tool for navigating our world. This is so because in the Conceptual Age, right brainers will for lack of a better phrase, rule the world. The left hemisphere reasons sequentially, excels at analysis, and handles words. The right hemisphere reasons holistically, recognizes patterns, and interprets emotions and nonverbal expressions. In a participatory culture that is becoming so empowering for so many through this new media landscape and a new era of Conceptualism, it is logical, in fact, that developing our right brain thinking will help us through it.

How does the notion of participatory culture relate to girls and digital literacy? Heather Lawver was 14 years old. She wanted to help other young people improve their reading and writing skills. She established an online publication with a staff of more than 100 people across the world. Her project was embraced by teachers and integrated into their curriculum. She emerged as an important spokesperson in a national debate about intellectual property. The website Lawver created was a school newspaper for the fictional Hogwarts, the location for the popular Harry Potter books.

Obviously, this is a positive example of participatory culture relating to girls and digit literacy. The idea is not that there are no negative concerns to raise. But as Jenkins explains, "(it) may squeeze out time for other learning activities; that contemporary children often lack access to real world play spaces, with adverse health consequences, that adults may inadequately supervise and interact with children about the media they consume (and produce); or concerns about the moral values and commercialization in much contemporary entertainment. Yet, the focus on negative effects of media consumption offers an incomplete picture. These accounts do not appropriately value the skills and knowledge young people are gaining through their involvement with new media, and as a consequence, they may mislead us about the roles teachers and parents should play in helping children learn and grow."