A description of the framework currently in development for New Media Literacies' PLAY! (Participatory Learning and You!) Program which includes educators, students and community new media literacy and participatory learning development through workshops, professional training and online collaborative platform development.
12. New Media Literacies (NMLs) “…a set of cultural competencies and social skills that young people need in the new media landscape” -Jenkins et al., 2006, p. 4
15. Social and Emotional Learning What is SEL » Skills & Competencies CASEL has identified five core groups of social and emotional competencies: Self-awareness—accurately assessing one’s feelings, interests, values, and strengths; maintaining a well-grounded sense of self-confidence Self-management—regulating one’s emotions to handle stress, control impulses, and persevere in overcoming obstacles; setting and monitoring progress toward personal and academic goals; expressing emotions appropriately Social awareness—being able to take the perspective of and empathize with others; recognizing and appreciating individual and group similarities and differences; recognizing and using family, school, and community resources Relationship skills—establishing and maintaining healthy and rewarding relationships based on cooperation; resisting inappropriate social pressure; preventing, managing, and resolving interpersonal conflict; seeking help when needed Responsible decision-making—making decisions based on consideration of ethical standards, safety concerns, appropriate social norms, respect for others, and likely consequences of various actions; applying decision-making skills to academic and social situations; contributing to the well-being of one’s school and community
Editor's Notes
We are working to create a new model of professional development using the method of participatory design as central to the development. We hope this process will model for teachers the shift we are asking them to take in regard to creating a participatory learning environment. We hope this will help in sustaining the PLAY! model and create environments that are more responsive and appropriate to their inhabitants' and users' cultural, emotional, social and practical needs.
Play – teachers say, is their way of keeping-up with their students – but most can’t seem to find the time. However, it’s about more than just learning how to use tools. Students are participating in media environments that demand mentorship– and require new knowledge and skills. It’s part of our responsibility as educators to create opportunities for them to practice these. But teachers need the chance to learn first.
PLAY! id multilateral. In addition to professional development for teachers, we are also currently piloting and after-school program at the new Robert F. Kennedy School in McArthur Park, where students are exploring themes around mapping in their communities. In the process they are reflecting deeply on the ethical considerations involved in participation both online and off as they create projects using various tools and methods, while practicing the new media literacies and social and emotional learning skills in the process. By the end, these student will be actively participating in the professional development for teachers at their own school by informing what it is they think their teachers need to know about creating more participatory learning environments for students.
So the framework for PLAY models an approach that encourages the adoption of a participatory learning environment in which the new media literacies and social and emotional learning can flourish. As written here: …
PLAY supports practices that help create spaces yielding heightened motivation and new forms of engagement through meaningful play and experimentation. In Lego’s minotoraus game there is no board and there are no rules. Players are asked to build and create them together. In classrooms where students are learning through open-ended play - increased motivation and engagement can result.Discuss Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation
PLAY! supports practices that help create a community designed for co-configured expertise, where educators and students pool their knowledge and share in the tasks of teaching and learning – very much using the NMLs collective intelligence and networking.Shift in ownership / responsibility of learning, more equality in the learning space where knowledge is shared rather than doled out, a push - pull model rather than a model of consumption
A culture that nurtures creativity with media, tools and practices.Creativity is central to a teacher’s mindset in a learning environment where skills of appropriation, transmedia navigation and distributed cognition are a part of integrated (project-based/connected) learning.Playing with new methods of creativity / legitimate peripheral participation (are you a “creator” if you are only ideating, not “making”), creativity in traditionally “non-creative” disciplines like history or sciences/engineering aka. creative problem solving and thinking in new ways about traditional forms / using systems-based design
PLAY supports practices that help create a context that situates itself within a larger learning eco-system.In this picture - one could re-imagine as any number of scenarios where students regularly find themselves needing to master the new media literaciesnegotiation or judgment, and where the skills of social-awareness and self-awareness would be vital for them.Different spaces; formal and informal, different audiences, seamlessness/borderless interactions between microsystems
A place where learning happens in real world situations and individuals’ are given agency to pursue learning in ways that feel relevant and connected.
Through these examples you can see where the NMLs and SELs can organically emerge through fostering participatory learning environments
These 12 new media literacies are a list of social skills and cultural competencies that address what students need for full participation today and tomorrow. Many teachers already have more expertise teaching these skills than they know, and students in practicing them. But PLAY! creates structure for students and teachers to dig deeper through integration of these skills across curriculum in more relevant and organic ways.
Mastery of the NMLs goes hand-in hand with student’s and teacher’s awareness of these basic, but often overlooked social and emotional skills