SOCIAL MEDIA:

Folk Culture Locations for Cultural Exchange and Knowledge Construction

Jason Nolan and Alexandra BalPresented at Shaping Our Future Conference,Ryerson University, May 12, 2009

SOCIAL MEDIA ARE DIFFERENTFROMVISUAL MEDIA

PARTICIPATORY CULTURE (JENKINS)

Peer based production and consumption of media

Facilitate users’ participation

new tools and technologiesenable consumers to archive, annotate, appropriate, and recirculate media content.

Mediate human relationships

Do It Yourself (DYI) media allows Individuals and groups to participate inconversations

Educators must explore the impact of this participatory culture on education

THE YOUTUBE PHENOMENON

For Wesch,YouTubecelebratesnew formsof:

Expression Empowerment Identity Global Community

YouTube generate new forms of Culture

FANDOM: POP CULTURE JAMMING

Remixingexisting media messages to create new ones

CULTURE JAMMING TO FAMILY FOOTAGE

The public has become both the creator and a performer.

COLLECTIVE PUBLIC PERFORMANCE

This informalparticipatory culture isinfluencingother social spheres.

OBAMA POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS USED CJ

Yes we can song has had17,777,352 views

WHYOBAMACANNOT PULL THIS OFF.

SOCIAL MEDIA = FOLK CULTURE Folk Culture respond to the need of people to be

activesocial participants in the creation of their culture (Nolan and Bakan, 2009)

To share To create (Janick, 2009) To perform (McLuhan, 1967)

Their own stories, experiences and knowledge

The network is a public sphere

Creation and participation to public discourse and culture

FOLK CULTURE EXISTS IN MULTIPLE FORMS

Cartesiansocial form: Youtube:

conversation = co-creation of content

Embodiedform: Real world : Living libraries Virtual worlds

conversation = co-action+ co-creation of content

Social Media has facilitated the emergence of informalcommunitieswhere culture emerges out of informal conversations

SOCIAL MEDIA ARE INFORMAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS

Where people are

self organizing informal

communities and

institutions

SHIFT IN MEDIATEDEDUCATION CULTURE

Visual media: Authored Story Telling An authorformally tells

a story via a scriptedexperience

Social media & Story Sharing:

Peersinformallyshareauthentic and livedexperiences

ExperientialMedia as Living Stories Peersbuildexperiencest

ogether

Information = knowledgeAuthoredknowledge An expert educates

via a scriptedpresentation

Social media as knowledgesharing:

Peersinformallyeducateeachother

ExperientialMedia as knowledge building Peerslearn by

building experiencestogether

WHAT DOES THIS MEANS TO EDUCATION? Digital natives are growing up in these alternate social

realities.

Since education = social reproduction, which values should pedagogy promote?

MEANINGFUL LEARNING

Social media involves creating representations of people, places and things and sharing them with others.

This is constructioNist learning (cf. Papert)

It involves intentional, active, constructive, cooperative, and authentic learning processes (Jonassen)

where students recognize and solve problems, comprehend new phenomena, construct mental models of those phenomena, and, given a new situation, set goals and regulate their own learning

Educators must create these opportunities and situations. My examples engage learners via sharing experiences and participating in culture jams: songchild and creating science simulations

SONGCHILD.ORGW/ SCRATCH.MIT.EDU Students as creators of learning objects to

model learning. Teaching students how to help children

create their own songs and culture. Can you help me (I’m Lost!)

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/girltarist/504554 Learning social technology & creating songs

for children as a way to model course learning outcomes.

Sharing work with others fosters engagement Creating meaningful learning objects can be

done in any learning context

MODELING SCIENCE LEARNING

Documenting classroom activities as learning objects for reflection, evaluation and modeling. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyl7F5B-Ta8 Workshop with educators at Reggio Emilia

conference last week. Document experience, mix it, play it back to

participants, reflect, revise, and share. Creates bridge between discrete experiences

and larger professional/learning community.

CONCLUSION(S)

Key to meaningful learning: intentional, active, constructive, cooperative, and authentic.

Learning w/ social mediacreatingrepresentations of people, places& things & sharing them with others: learning creates content

Learners are embedded in experiential social media practices.