Vision

in progress
Talking to colleagues on our Multimedia course this evening, I was struck by the way in which lack of vision restricts the way new technology is used in educational settings. We were talking about how schooled ICT is so limited when compared to students’ everyday Web 2.0 practices. How can we harness the power of new technologies in meaningful ways? Howard Rheingold draws the connections between what he refers to as participatory media and education in the following way: My fundamental assumption for beginning to teach participatory media skills myself, based on my own encounters with students in social cyberspaces and the advice of more experienced educators is that voice, the unique style of personal expression that distinguishes one’s communication from those of others, can be called upon to help connect young people’s energetic involvement in identity-formation with their potential engagement with society as citizens. Moving from a private to a public voice can help students turn their self-expression into a form of public participation. Public voice is learnable, a matter of consciously engaging with an active public rather than broadcasting to a passive audience. (The article is here.)