The article calls attention to participatory culture for user created media and content. This emerging and contemporary participatory culture is a degree of digital literacy. The author advocates that we prepare our students for skill sets they will need in the future. However, one way to facilitate a skill set for participatory culture is to focus on, in classroom collaboration that utilizes the real time communication potential of mobile devices for the application of critical thinking communications between students. Mobile devices are inherently social collaboration and communication devices that provide powerful tools for enabling social constructivist pedagogy. Thus, projects focused upon student- generated content and collaboration rather than the delivery of teacher-generated content supports student practice at participatory culture. For example, mobile devices can be used in a structured constructivist application for the specific task of facilitating student generated responses on a social platform for peer and instructor review. Classroom settings can benefit from a variety of media integration in student generated content, such as audio, video, picture, text links or original content.
I like your idea of using the technologies that students already have (i.e., mobile phones) as media for participating in classroom collaboration! I think that it's definitely a powerful tool to use, especially because it can capture audio and video as things are happening! Though, I wonder whether or not the tools have to be used within specific content that teachers do put forth if it is to work well in the hands of the students... Not that I think you're suggesting this at all, but it's something to keep in mind when students are so used to incorporating these technologies into everyday life that they forget to use them for more educational purposes.
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