Reading 5

As educators, we need to be aware of this new "participatory culture" that is experimenting with online sites (facebook, message board, blogger etc). They are young teens that want to be heard and thinks for only themselves or their age groups. This "participatory culture" can do one of two things create great podcasts that gets anyone thinking about an issue and go far in this high tech world; or just wants to cause trouble and uses sites to bash and/or bully others in their age group. This bullying on the web has become one the major uproars at school and on the news. We as teachers need to educate this teens and parents about the proper use of blogging and message board. With bullying on the web, schools are locking down more and more sites, teachers have little to none in the classroom. Honestly most of the problems are happening at home where teens have access to everything on the web with little or not parent supervision. According to this article Confronting the Challenges of Paricipatory Culture Media Education for the 21st Century: Educatiors must work together to ensure that every American young person has access to the skill and experiences needed to become full participants, can articulate their understanding of how media shapes perceptions, and has been socialized into the emerging ethical standards that should shape thier practices as media makers and paticipants in online communities. Educators need to shift this "participatory culture" from individual expression to community involvement. By teaching the new core social skills of using Web 2.0, teens can express themselves by what they can do for their neighborhood, school community and computer community in a positive nature. Teens are learning to develop bloggs and live action gaming sites that help with reading comprehension, writing and data processing skills which everyone will need to be successful in this high tech world. As a 2nd grade teacher, I could teach these skills by using a blogger site as a "look what I did in school this week". My students could post daily or weekly work to show their parents when they get home. It could be as simple as a couple of math problems that they finally accomplished or a story that they publish to read at the next Reading Expo (a Friday function at Copper King where students K-8th grade can read to an audience).