Are You My Mother?

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Ted Talk by Henry Jenkins

Henry Jenkins on participatory culture 03/06/2010

Henry makes an interesting analogy of old ‘technology’ of communications to current trends. Showing that it is not technology driving the participatory culture, but rather the youth. It seems it has always been the younger generation driving the new medium.

However, this is the first generation where age is not the defining factor. Yes, the dividing line falls more heavily to one side – you will find a greater percentage of the population as non-adopters of the new technology in the older generation – yet there are a significant number who are part of this new culture. Parents talking to children in new lingo. A major shift that has come along with this ‘non-generational divide’ – this is the first generation which listens to the same music as their parents. http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/entertainment&id=6961170

“Aug. 15-18, 1969, the weekend the muddy chaos of Woodstock marked rock music as the great divide between generations” http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/entertainment&id=6961170

Since this event it seems the generational gap has closed. Those before it resist technology, those after have moved in with the younger generation, who in turn has embraced the music spawned by the woodie generation.

I find this in my own family. My mother, as much as I cared for her, was a different generation. We held many of the same morals and values, yet she could not fully join my world. My daughters, however, are my equals. Sometimes I am mother, sometimes sister, sometimes I am even daughter – our divisions of who is ‘in charge’ are based on personal abilities for that particular subject rather than age or seniority.

I cannot help but add to this equation the fact that we spend time together in activities precisely because we enjoy the same music. This is turn brings new ideas and technology into my world.

Ted Talk by Henry Jenkins

Keeping up with the Jones’es

There is a debate in academia right now which stems from the testing and teaching of reading and comprehension. Some countries have added technology to their set of testing. The United States has opted out. Testing will continue to be as it has in the past – through printed books only.

This is ridiculous. As much as we need to be careful we do not too quickly adopt a learning platform which is ineffective, to completely discount the current world and the tools that are being used is worse. Turning out a generation of students not adequately prepared to use the technology of the world is a recipe ensuring the failure of those to survive in their future world.

References

A Text or Two

“The distinctive contribution of the approach to literacy as social practice lies in the ways in which it involves careful and sensitive attention to what people do with texts, how they make sense of them and use them to further their own purposes in their own learning lives” (Gillen and Barton, 2010, p. 9).

As someone in the ‘older’ generation a great many of my friends are not so technologically savvy. Text messaging is something most do not do. In this group I am considered the tech ‘guru’.

I’ve converted quite a few of my friends. The first few months of text messaging I get long messages starting with “How are you today” – moving to “how r u” – to no greeting, just going straight to the message. To the outsider who is new to text messaging it seems a very impersonal method of communication. No voice, no face, no handwriting, no greeting, just electronic characters on the screen.

I understand this thought of text being impersonal. However, when I actually began to use the medium I found it was anything but impersonal. The immediacy of it turns a simple message into a continuing conversation. There is no need for a greeting as there was no end to the previous interaction. In essence I carry my entire family and friend network in mid-conversation with me where ever I go.