This document discusses how changes in media are impacting education. It outlines the evolution of media from new media to today's complex media ecologies and social media. Participatory culture is spreading through social media, which functions as a form of folk culture where people actively create and share knowledge. Media are now experiential places for interactive cultural exchange rather than passive consumption. As a result, learning is becoming more experiential. These changes in media are shifting education away from traditional Taylorist models towards more networked, collaborative and self-directed models that socialize students for fluid, informal learning environments.

1. WHAT HAPPENS TO EDUCATION WHEN MEDIA
BECOME PLACES OF CULTURAL AND
KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE?
Alexandra Bal & Jason Nolan
APG meeting, Ryerson, May 12th, 2010

2. MEDIA LIFE CYCLE

3. NEW MEDIA IDENTIFIES A PHASE OF
INNOVATION
New media is not tied to one specific technology, it is
the experimental phase in the life of a media :
 100 years ago film was new media;
 30 years ago digital processes were new media;
 20 years ago the internet was new media;
 Today, complex media ecologies are new media.

4. THE CURRENT MEDIA LANDSCAPE

5. CURRENT MASS MEDIA
 Digital Media: industries that have
adopted computational production
processes such as film, television,
multimedia and web.
 Social Media: peer to peer technologies
that individuals use to be active social
participants in the creation of their
culture.

6. EVOLUTION OF THINKING ON DIGITAL MEDIA
Digital Revolution (80s-90s): New media reshaping experience.
Horizontal Integration (mid-90’s): Media companies extend interests across
many sectors of the entertainment industry.
Technological Convergence (late 90s): Industry mergers and dramatic
technological developments create a network environments where primary
media, is accessed from a single device.
Globalization (late 90s): Emergence of a "global media culture” from the
cross-fertilization of national and international cultural traditions, generating
new styles and genres of media.
Socio-Technological Hybridization (early 00s): Adept consumers/citizens
integrate media through their own use through the ability to build their own
hybrid social and cultural applications.
Media Ecologies (early10s): Ubiquitous computing means that intelligent
devices facilitate machine and human networks.

7. Source: : http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/images/michaelwalford/2008/02/10/digital_business_model.jpg

8. PARTICIPATORY CULTURE IS SPREADING
THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA
Signs of participatory culture:
 Peer-based production and consumption of media;
 Facilitated user participation;
 New tools and technologies that enable consumers to archive,
annotate, appropriate and re-circulate media;
 Mediated human relationships;
 Do It Yourself (DYI) media allows individuals and
groups to participate to conversations.

9. SOCIAL MEDIA IS FOLK CULTURE
Folk culture responds to
the needs of people to be
active social participants
in the creation of their
culture.
Source: http://samirbalwani.com/wp-
content/uploads/2009/08/15899841_1b44e3f11d_b-500x375.jpgIn folk culture, members:
• Share, create & perform their own stories, experiences
and knowledge;
• Networks are public spheres where individuals create and
participate in public discourse;
•Media are locations for the dynamic exchange of co-
constructed culture and knowledge.

10. MEDIA ARE NOW EXPERIENTIAL
 Old broadcast models are dying.
 Media industries now facilitate personalized socially-
embedded activities that are local and interconnected.
 Media are ubiquitous and interactive as modes of production
are developed around real-time simulation.
 Creators see value in engagement and experiences.
 Media are used not watched.
 Trans-disciplinary practices are emerging in cultural and
social sectors where practices grow from networked cultures.
 Media are active experiential learning.
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11. LEARNING IS EXPERIENTIAL
Source: http://olcourseblog.tru.ca/eddl511/david/files/2010/03/Blooms_Digital_Taxonomy.jpg

12. CHANGES IN MEDIA ARE CHANGING EDUCATION
 Digital natives are growing up with media and are
using new forms of communication that challenge our
notions of learning.
 Different models of communication influence
educational models which are a reflection of
industrial frameworks.
 Since the role of education is social reproduction,
which industrial values should we now promote?

13. TAYLORIST TO INNOVATION FRAMEWORKS
Taylorist education socializes us in:
• Passive routines and behaviours;
• Top-down institutional hierarchies;
• Standardized notions of process;
• Competitive social engagement.
Innovation education socializes us to:
• hierarchies flatten;
• individuals have value;
• innovating workers share knowledge;
• professional communities collaborate;
• active behaviours and routines;
• standardized notions of process;
• professional social networks;
• collaboration;

14. NETWORKED INDUSTRIES FRAMEWORK
People create value outside of the
institutions in which they work.
Networked Industries education
socializes us to:
•Autonomy;
• Diversity;
• Inclusion;
• Distributed workplaces;
• Learning collaboratively within our
social networks;
• Competition is collaborative.

15. PEER 2 PEER INDUSTRIES FRAMEWORK
Delocalized and self-organizing collectives
create their own industrial frameworks.
Self-directed education is supported by
social relations, in fluid, informal
arrangements.
Institutions will emerge from informal
communities of practices.
P2P education socializes us to:
• mobile work;
• fluid work relationships;
• public workspaces;
• making is central form of capital;
• building together.

16. EXPERIENTIAL MEDIA INSTITUTE MODEL
XMI incorporates new opportunities on top of
previous models:
• acknowledging that innovation exists outside of
institutions;
• accepting peer culture within fluid institutional
boundaries;
• facilitate new infrastructures for informal
learning;
•personal interest drives learning.
XMI education socializes us to:
• mixed spheres of social/learning interactions;
• the value of intrinsic interest and motivation;
• the value of personal, practical knowledge;
• alternative ways of knowing.