Teachers are looking for ways to meaningfully teach digital citizenship and media literacy as the world is increasingly becoming inundated with technology. Teachers and parents know that students from Pre-K to grade 12 and beyond are influenced by technology. This rapid evolution of available technology is having both positive and negative impacts. And I must add that this is not the case for all students, as not all students have access to devices or the internet. Despite this, there is a certain push and need for education to adapt and change to this new reality of life driven by technology.
This week I have thought about the changes that will impact this generation, Gen Z, and future generations. I think about what life will be like for my toddler son and my second child. What will education look like for them? I imagine that it will be much the same as it is today when my son enters Kindergarten in a few short years, however, I imagine it may look very different by the time he graduates in 2038. How will his teachers be using technology in the classroom? What will learning look like for him?
The new skills as listed in “Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century” are important in helping students become active, informed, and confident participants in our society. They build the foundation not only of traditional literacy, but also research and technical skills, and critical thinking skills.
The new skills include:
Play — the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem-solving
Performance — the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery
Simulation — the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world processes
Appropriation — the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content
Multitasking — the ability to scan one’s environment and shift focus as needed to salient details.
Distributed Cognition — the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities
Collective Intelligence — the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal
Judgment — the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources
Transmedia Navigation — the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities
Networking — the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information
Negotiation — the ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms.
Jenkins White Paper – MacArthur Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved January 28, 2022, from https://www.macfound.org/media/article_pdfs/jenkins_white_paper.pdf
Problem Solving and Instant Gratification
Out of these skills, one of the most important is “Play” as it relates to the capacity to problem solve. Teaching students how to solve problems on their own is crucial. I feel many students need to work at this skill. Our world is filled with instant gratification (shopping, watching content, downloading video games etc.) and this certainly has an impact on students. In my experience, some students have trouble with delayed gratification and even transitioning from one task to the next. They want to finish the entire activity or assignment in one swoop.
Furthermore, students speak about how quickly (or slowly) their parcels arrive when they order them online or how they have already watched the latest movie on Disney+. I have had students (and parents) tell me how late they have stayed up playing a game or watching content because they simply can’t put their devices down.
I think that an abundance of instant gratification impacts the ability for students to problem solve and persevere. They are rarely left alone to play, or to become purposefully bored. I look back at my own childhood and the summer days spent at my grandparents farm bored out of my mind. With that boredom came many adventures, engineering feats and fun. Some memorable experiences include gardening, baking, quadding, helping my Uncle’s in the shop, swinging for hours on the playset, engineering small ramps and traps, and even making my own “hot tub” out of a giant Rubbermaid container. These experiences were influential to fostering my interest in engineering and science and my love of nature.
I am certain many kids are having these same experiences today, but I would guess that far too many are spending more time consuming content rather than playing or building. I hear of students who just “watch” others play video games on YouTube, rather than actually playing it themselves. Are they actually gaining any skills by watching? I feel if they were actually playing the game, they would be using problem solving skills. So, what do you think? How would you assess the problem solving skills of your students or maybe your children? If you have been teaching for a while, have you seen a noticeable difference throughout the years?
Rae, I too think that problem-solving skills are being taught less and less, and kiddos (and adults alike) are wanting instant answers that can be Googled or at the very least answered by someone ASAP. Students in my classroom are often very frustrated for the first few months of school when I really get them problem-solving, individually or together, and building those skills up can be frustrating when you haven’t had to practice them. I also explicitly teach how to problem-solve so that students can work through things with the toolbox necessary to get them through it. Is it tricky? For sure. Is it an important skill? I really do think so.
I appreciate you bringing up the subject of being ‘bored’ as a kid. I remember telling my parents all the time “I am bored” in my childhood. It always was in an instance where I didn’t know what to play with, or how to entertain myself. Now, as an adult, I treasure time when I get to sit and do nothing, and boredom usually comes from watching or reading something that doesn’t pique my interest. I wonder if there is a certain quality to being a kid that makes you more susceptible to feeling ‘bored.’ I do think it is a skill to be able to deal with feelings of boredom. In essence, I suppose it’s another layer of problem solving like you (and Kelly) are talking about. We often teach kids how to deal with anger or sadness, but never boredom!
Another great post, Rae! I agree with Kelly and Kara too! Kids do not have the same opportunities to be bored or to problem solve anymore. On the playground, we rush to solve problems and make suggestions for new games to play. With my own kids, I keep them so busy and help them work through their issues all of the time. I realize I am robbing them of precious opportunities to practice their problem solving and negotiation skills.
I think in our society, we plan and schedule every minute of our days and we can’t stand to see kids being bored (doing nothing). We feel, as teachers and parents, it is our duty to keep our kids engaged and interested, otherwise this time is lost. I certainly know I am guilty of it! How do we teach kids to be bored? or maybe the question is, how do we step back and let them struggle a little bit?