Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

1.20.10 | Educating for the Future, Not the Past: Writing at DMLcentral, Cathy Davidson, co-founder of HASTAC, notes that while the job landscape of the future will look nothing like it does today, formal institutions of education are not addressing how to prepare students for a new world:

Our emphasis on specialization, on rote memorization, on multiple choice answers to a prescribed curriculum, and even on individual achievement are all products of the late nineteenth century Industrial Age when it was imperative to train an unskilled workforce for the factories. [...] What are we doing, on a national level, to educate our kids for a new digital age? In a world where any knowledge is at your finger tips, is multiple choice really the way to be teaching kids about how to search and how to evaluate what you find? Is extreme field specialization, so crucial for a segregated and hierarchical workforce, the right way to train kids for a future that might include three to seven career changes?

Futurist Alvin Toffler has said that, in addition to reading, writing, and ‘rithmatic, the most important “‘literacy’ for the twenty-first century is the ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn.”  Do our schools today teach that ability to rethink one’s assumptions and try again?

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A Facebook Movement, Against Mom and Dad: When Tess Chapin, a 15-year-old from Sunnyside, Queens, was grounded by her parents for breaking curfew, she responded by taking her protest public: Chapin founded the Facebook group “1000 to get tess ungrounded”

“The group promptly took off, proving that no adolescent experience, in the age of social networking, is too small to start a movement,” writes New York Times columnist Susan Dominus.

“Have never met u but I pledge to make a statement so I hope this works,” wrote a young New Yorker named Ethan Bloom, in a typical sentiment of support displayed on the Facebook group’s wall, a public space for messages.

There are, of course, dissenters. A range of parenting philosophies have emerged on the wall, turning it into a mini-forum on child rearing, 2010.

“If your parents didn’t care,” pointed out a sophomore at Ithaca College, “they would have just let you rot.” Someone agreed with Tess that “parents can be stupid.” A friend of a friend expressed hope that she and her parents would take something “grand” away from the experience. A close pal chimed in, “I love you, but your parents are not gonna unground you for convincing 1,000 people to join a group.”

Vote for Barbie to be a Computer Engineer: Barbie’s been a busy woman, holding down more than 120 careers over the last half-century. Her next career move is up for a vote, and a group of technology advocates are weighing in.

A discussion started at the LinkedIn page for the Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology is encouraging voting for “computer engineer.” The other four options are: environmentalist, surgeon, architect and news anchor.

“Most of these choices require STEM education and skills, so Barbie has come a long way from the ‘Math is hard’ days,” notes BJ Wishinsky, communities program manager for the Anita Borg Institute.

Lights, Camera, House Slippers: Ball State University has created a new living-learning community, providing students across multiple disciplines with access to an entire floor renovated into a collaborative space to work on large-scale media projects, according to a university release. In addition to new furniture, the floor is outfitted with the latest editing software, computers, high-definition television with Blu-ray and surround sound, and top-of-the-line video equipment.

“The emerging media living-learning community will allow students to fully immerse themselves in a digital lifestyle,” said Jonathan Huer, Ball State’s director of emerging technology and media development. “It will be the only place in the halls where media projects like short films or video blogs can take place because everyone on the floor has agreed to the idea that they might end up on camera.”