Learning through Affinity Spaces: Exploring the role of media education in the 24/7 digital era This slide was designed to be viewed alongside live presenters discussing the role of 'Media Education', which was conducted in a closed session on 2 December. We focused on the problems with relying on the utopian idea of learning through 'affinity spaces' (a concept outlined by James P. Gee) for future education, and our expectations for its development.

1. Hyunwoo Park
Kaili Xue
Keisha Ridwan
Selina Perng

2. IMAGE: PEXELS

3. PARTICIPATORY CULTURE
“Participatory culture shifts the focus of literacy from one
of individual expression to community involvement.”
Henry Jenkins
IMAGE: MIT

4. PARTICIPATORY CULTURE
Many young people are already part
of this process through:
• Affiliations
• Expressions
• Collaborative Problem-Solving
• Circulations
SOURCE: Jenkins, H. et al. (2006) Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, Cambridge & London: The MIT Press.

5. AFFINITY SPACE
“Human intelligence and creativity,
today more than ever, are tied to
connecting—synchronizing—people,
tools, texts, digital and social media,
virtual spaces, and real spaces in the
right ways, in ways that make us
minds and not just minds, but also
better people in a better world.”
SOURCE: Gee, James Paul (2013) The Anti-Education Era: Creating smarter students through digital learning, New York: Palgrave Macmillan. IMAGE: INDIANA UNIVERSITY
Why are humans
so stupid?

6. HUMANS ARE NOT SMART ALONE
“School is often based not on problem solving, which
perforce involves actions and goals, but on learning
information, facts, and formulas that one has read about in
texts or heard about in lectures. It is not surprising, then, that
research has long shown that a student’s doing well in
school, in terms of grades and tests, does not correlate with
being able to solve problems in the areas in which the
student has been taught (e.g., math, civics, physics).”
(Gee, 2013, p. 178)
Association gives pleasure: humans needs sense of worth –
participation and control and counting to others.
SOURCE: Gee, James Paul (2013) The Anti-Education Era: Creating smarter students through digital learning, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

7. IMAGE: JISC

9. HENRY JENKINS
1. Play – the capacity to experiment with one’s
surroundings as a form of problem-solving.
2. Performance
3. Simulation
4. Appropriation
5. Multitasking – the ability to scan one’s environment and
shift focus as needed to salient details.
6. Distributed Cognition
SOURCE: Jenkins, H. et al. (2006) Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, Cambridge & London: The MIT Press.

10. HENRY JENKINS
7. Collective Intelligence – the ability to pool knowledge
and compare notes with others toward a common goal.
8. Judgment
9. Transmedia Navigation
10. Networking — the ability to search for, synthesize, and
disseminate information
11. Negotiation
SOURCE: Jenkins, H. et al. (2006) Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, Cambridge & London: The MIT Press.

11. ‘Synchronised Intelligence’ (Gee, 2013)
Gee, James Paul (2013) The Anti-Education Era: Creating smarter students through digital learning, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

12. JAMES PAUL GEE
• Gee suggests ‘collective intelligence’ and ‘passionate
affinity spaces’ for students and teachers. We must all
learn how to be part of big minds with big ideas.
• Students must learn to balance sciences empirical
methods with the liberals arts.
• Mind visions – we must demand that ‘each student
become a maker of visions, a visionary, and not just a
spectator of visions.’ (Thompson, 2015)
SOURCE: Gee, James Paul (2013) The Anti-Education Era: Creating smarter students through digital learning, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

13. JAMES PAUL GEE
• The best way to help poor children is high-quality early
education to close the literacy gap.
• Educators must engage children and help parents engage
their children in extended conversations about the world.
This instruction must incorporate rich images. It must
teach children to engage in goal-based actions.
• Pre-school must essentially extend children’s experiences
beyond their neighbourhood. In other words, parents and
educators must help children develop islands of
expertise.
SOURCE: Gee, James Paul (2013) The Anti-Education Era: Creating smarter students through digital learning, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

14. IMAGE: PEXELS

15. THE PARTICIPATION GAP / THE LITERACY GAP
“… the unequal access to the opportunities,
experiences, skills, and knowledge that will
prepare youth for full participation …”
(Jenkins et al., 2006)
SOURCE: Jenkins, H. et al. (2006) Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, Cambridge & London: The MIT Press.

16. Albert Einstein? Clifford Stoll? Frank Zappa?
MEDIA EDUCATION 2

17. INFORMATION OVERLOAD
Access ≠ Literacy
(Brabazon, 2013)
IMAGE: PEXELSSOURCE: Brabazon, T. (2013) Digital Dieting: From Information Obesity to Intellectual Fitness. Ashgate.

18. AUTHENTICITY AND CREDIBILITY OF SOURCES
“ We are Anonymous”
IMAGE: ANONYMOUS VIDEO SCREENSHOT

19. Questioning the “Wisdom of the Crowds”
MEDIA EDUCATION 2

20. COLLECTIVE STUPIDITY
4chan + reddit and Boston Marathon Bombing
IMAGE: GAWKER

21. COLLECTIVE STUPIDITY
SOURCE: Pratchett, T. (1995) ‘Maskerade’, Discworld, Book 18, Victor Gollancz.
“And, since the IQ of a mob is the IQ of its
most stupid member divided by the number
of mobsters, it was never very clear to anyone
what had happened.”
Terry Pratchett, Maskerade

22. IMAGE: PEXELS

23. ADDRESSING INEQUALITY
Addressing “the unequal
access to the opportunities,
experiences, skills, and
knowledge” (Jenkins et al., 2006)
that will prepare for full
participation and richer
learning experience.
SOURCE: Jenkins, H. et al. (2006) Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, Cambridge & London: The MIT Press.

24. TACKLING THE ETHICS CHALLENGE
Utilising media education as the avenue to prepare
learners for ‘their increasingly public roles as media
makers and community participants’, breaking down
‘traditional forms of professional training and
socialisation’ (Jenkins et al., 2006).
SOURCE: Jenkins, H. et al. (2006) Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century, Cambridge & London: The MIT Press.

25. • The hub of ‘development’ (Brabazon, 2013)
• The relationship between humans and their environments
SOURCE: Brabazon, T. (2013) Digital Dieting: From Information Obesity to Intellectual Fitness. Ashgate. IMAGE: LETOUKAN

26. SCAFFOLDING
• Pedagogical process works
• The entire community takes on some
responsibility for helping newbies find their way
(Jenkins, 2006)
SOURCE: Jenkins, Henry (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: NYU Press

27. Hyunwoo Park
Kaili Xue
Keisha Ridwan
Selina Perng