NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR INTEREST-DRIVEN ARTS LEARNING IN A DIGITAL AGE
1. Kylie Peppler introduces the concept of a transition from "push" to "pull" learning in her introduction chapter, defining the terms as, "a 'push' approach of education, where schools push the learning of particular content, [versus]...a 'pull' approach of social learning, where new technologies enable people to pull information when they want to solve particular problems at particular times." This concept struck me while reading as it made me quickly defensive for a traditional 'push' approach. It is easy to access the positive reasons for a 'pull' method when you consider information that sparks a personal interest, as opposed to texts and histories we are forced to absorb but don't resonate with our passions. Certainly students, youth, and people in general, retain information and seek it in much more voracious ways when the subject is something they are interested in. Where the 'pull' argument starts to get fuzzy for me is when considering how immediate, accessible topics might grab our interest most easily, but may not hold as much value as unknown or unfamiliar topics that stretch our thoughts and opinions. When thinking of what youth with access to smart phones are googling or youtubing, I don't know that it is always information that is pushing them intellectually, socially or creatively. When left to our own devices -no pun intended - it is often easiest to source material that is either not significantly mental challenging, or follow familiar paths of past habits, checking the same news sources, or blogs, or channels that we have looked into before. While Peppler makes a clear argument that digital technologies are creating opportunities for creativity and learning for youth, leaving this group of youth to source their own information in a 'pull' method, provides them with useful resources, but these cannot replace the value of being asked to consider new information from someone who is an expert in the field and has vastly more life experience. In my personal Learning Objectives for this course I first listed that I would set out to "attain new information, opinions and proficiencies." I can skim a wikipedia article or look up "how to" videos when needed, but I will not reach new depths on my own through my device. That level of learning is prompted by excellent educators, researched reading lists, and by listening to those around me, not just absorbing the shorthand discussions on comments pages.
2. Peppler provides the shocking (and dated, as of July 2013) fact that an average youth spends "a tremendous amount of time using media - an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes a day", which she further clarifies could be closer 10 hours and 45 minutes if you consider the multi-tasking of different programs. To me, these numbers are frightening. Not that there is not value both socially and intellectually on the internet or through devices, but that amount of time is longer than I was expected to attend high school on a daily basis. One part of the nature of technological devices is that it is easy to get "lost" on them for long periods of time, down a rabbit hole, as it could be described, of memes, twitter rants, image searches, snapchat stories, the Instagram accounts of somewhat famous models, Keeping Up with the Kardashians or Jimmy Fallon clips, programmed to go right into another if you don't actively click away. What percentage of the 7 to 10 hours are youth creating or building their own content, as opposed to finding themselves down such a rabbit hole, or in a 3 hour text conversation with their bff's? The creative potential of the current digital world does not excuse or make up for the fact that teens and youth are engaging through devices potentially more each day than with other humans in person. Neither smart phones nor Facebook existed while I was in High School, and I haven't yet worked with a student population old enough to own their own phones, but I hope that cases can be made in educational settings about how to utilize opportunities on technology, but also how to support skills and activities that ask youth to step away from a screen for a few hours of their evenings and weekends.
2. Peppler provides the shocking (and dated, as of July 2013) fact that an average youth spends "a tremendous amount of time using media - an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes a day", which she further clarifies could be closer 10 hours and 45 minutes if you consider the multi-tasking of different programs. To me, these numbers are frightening. Not that there is not value both socially and intellectually on the internet or through devices, but that amount of time is longer than I was expected to attend high school on a daily basis. One part of the nature of technological devices is that it is easy to get "lost" on them for long periods of time, down a rabbit hole, as it could be described, of memes, twitter rants, image searches, snapchat stories, the Instagram accounts of somewhat famous models, Keeping Up with the Kardashians or Jimmy Fallon clips, programmed to go right into another if you don't actively click away. What percentage of the 7 to 10 hours are youth creating or building their own content, as opposed to finding themselves down such a rabbit hole, or in a 3 hour text conversation with their bff's? The creative potential of the current digital world does not excuse or make up for the fact that teens and youth are engaging through devices potentially more each day than with other humans in person. Neither smart phones nor Facebook existed while I was in High School, and I haven't yet worked with a student population old enough to own their own phones, but I hope that cases can be made in educational settings about how to utilize opportunities on technology, but also how to support skills and activities that ask youth to step away from a screen for a few hours of their evenings and weekends.
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