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In my last blog entry, I introduced “participatory culture” and what it means in terms of education and 21st Century skills. Now we’ll take a closer look at why the educational community has a place in the digital media picture.

According to a recent paper on digital media and learning, there are four forms of participatory culture:
1. affiliations, or formal or informal memberships in online communities, such as MySpace;
2. expressions, or developing new creative forms to express content, such as mash-ups;
3. collaborative problem-solving, or cooperative efforts, whether formal or informal, to complete tasks and develop new knowledge, such as Wikipedia; and
4. circulations, or platforms that shape the flow of media, such as this blog.

A recent study from the Pew Internet and American Life project tells us that more than one-half of all teens have created media content and approximately one-third who have access to the Internet have used it to share their content. But this comes from their own initiative, their own desire to express themselves and connect with others with similar interests or needs. While many of them may have been introduced to the technology at school, their intrinsic motivation and the availability of the technology at home makes their participation possible.

Now, you may ask why do schools need to stick their fingers into this pie? A rapidly growing percentage of teens are experimenting and learning this on their own; however, would you agree that teens instant messaging one another are learning all of the language arts skills that they need to succeed in this world? Would you agree that teens Googling for the latest entertainment news are learning the research skills they need to perform in a professional career? And what about those students on the other side of the digital divide? How do they learn those skills on their own when there is no computer in their home?

So, now that we’ve established why schools are part of the solution, how do we squeeze one more important content area into an environment dictated by No Child Left Behind?

We’ll take up that matter next time. –Diane

Recently, I wrote about 21st Century Skills and how the business community is looking to the education community as a partner in educating children today to be the workforce of tomorrow. The traditional educational philosophy of the individual learner in the classroom no longer fits our world. Business and industry is increasingly in need of workers who can locate, evaluate and synthesize information in conjunction with others. Here’s where the participatory culture comes in.

Time magazine annually selects a Person of the Year, someone who has impacted our world in a significant way in the previous 12 months. In 2006, many of us were caught off guard when we discovered that the Person of the Year was you and me.

“You and me” and millions of other people are creating and sharing and re-creating content in online communities just like this one. And none of it occurs in a vacuum. We all create our content with the express goal of sharing it digitally and the expectation of a response from the others participating in our virtual community.

If our homes and workplaces have changed to operate with this level of integration and cooperation, then why haven’t our schools? Do we expect that our children will be solitary learners in the classroom, yet be well prepared for a career that will demand that they interact with others through technological means? Could that mean that media literacy has taken on still another meaning?

In my next blog, I’ll take a look at a the connection between digital media and learning. –Diane

A brand new year, full of promise and potential, is upon us. We all look into the coming year with hope and curiosity, wondering what changes the next twelve months will bring. You don’t have to look too far to find predictions from the those in the know about what 2007 will bring in virtually any area. K-12 education is no exception. Here are a couple: Six Ed-Tech Trends to Watch in 2007 and Edutopia’s What’s Next?

While the quantum leaps in technology will undoubtedly continue transforming the tools teachers use to educate our children, it seems that the real change is more about philosophy, not practice.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills brought together leaders and representatives from business, education, philanthropy and youth development to discuss the skills children will need to succeed in the 21st century and how we can begin developing them now. The realization that our students are falling behind their counterparts in the rest of the industrialized world has now been eclipsed by the realization that our students are becoming less employable in their own country. A recent survey of human resource officials found that employers believe that recent high school graduates are deficient in critical thinking skills and written communication. College graduates are not faring much better, often labeled as “adequate” rather than “excellent.”

Now that the business community is ready to invest in creating the workforce of the future, the education community must harness this momentum to create real change in how our children are educated. Our goal must be to create lifelong learners who will continue to grow and learn as the world changes around them. -Diane

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know about the recent episodes of school violence that have occurred across our country. As a parent, I can’t help thinking of my children in their classrooms. While I trust their teachers to be vigilant in watching for signs of danger, I realize that recognizing who is and who isn’t dangerous is the most challenging part of all. Administrators are searching everywhere for help in identifying the dangerous individuals. As educators often do, they are turning to technology to provide the silver bullet. Some school districts are using the same high-tech security systems we see in airports and government buildings. However, when you look at the perpetrators of school violence, it is rarely a stranger who gains access to the school building and snuffs out the lives of teachers and students. It is often a fellow student with mental health issues or simply an axe to grind against others, whether one person or society in general. This disgruntled youth sees a weapon as a tool and defenseless classmates as pawns in their violent effort to express themselves. While we’ll never completely eliminate violence from what should be a safe, calm learning environment, there are steps that school leaders and parents can take that will help. Parents, teachers, administrators and students must all recognize their responsibility in making their neighborhood school. This is one instance in which it does take a village to raise a child. –Diane

“Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.” The speaker, a sailor on a ship in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is surrounded by salt water that he cannot drink. In my previous post, I talked about the overwhelming amount of information that exists in our world and the challenge of culling from it what we need. We, as consumers of information, can be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information surrounding us and at a loss about how to take a drink from this salty ocean. My colleague Jack Dominic calls it the “drinking from a fire hydrant” phenomenon. Classroom teachers are increasingly leaving the textbook behind and searching for multimedia resources that allow their students to learn in different ways. While that exponentially increases the workload, the best teachers realize that it is a great way to light the fire of learning in young minds. CET, PBS and other public media organizations have created online collections of resources that cross grade levels and content areas and do some of  the work for teachers. CET brings many locally produced resources together in our Teachers & Students Web pages. PBS TeacherSource ties free lesson plans and activities to primetime programming with strong educational content. TeacherSource also connects teachers to professional development and other educational technology. So … feeling thirsty? –Diane

Here’s a follow-up to my earlier blog entry titled “One of Everything, Please.” An article about holiday advertising appears in the December 2006 Cable in the Classroom that is helpful for both educators and parents. It’s titled “I Want That!” and includes tips for activities and critical thinking (you will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it). Happy holidays!
–Patsy

Over the past three weeks I have been part of a wonderful arts education outreach project with two schools in Pleasant Ridge. Thanks to the organizational efforts of a zealous arts advocate from that community, Maria Kreppel, we brought together fourth and sixth grade students from TCP World Academy and fifth grade students from Nativity School. This was the first time these two schools collaborated on a project and it was a beautiful start to new relationships.  

After several planning meetings with the teachers and principals from the two schools our project began to take shape. David Kreppel, the Music Director from ACE – a wonderful new musical at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park – worked with the students over a three week period on discovering theatre techniques, learning music and reflecting on their life dreams. You might notice that both Maria and David have the same last name – they are indeed mother and son. Passion for the arts and education runs in the family. Over the years David has worked with children in various capacities in arts education and performance projects in New York City. It was so great to see the excitement grow as the students (96 in all) worked with David and got to know what it’s like to work on a musical. The experience will culminate in all of the students attending a performance of ACE this week.

During the second session with David the students were mixed into small groups so that Nativity and TCP students would be working in small groups together. We read through one scene from the show that takes place on the playground at school. At first the kids were kind of stiff and just reading through words on the page. But then David worked with them on what the character was like, what they were feeling, and suggested different interpretations to the kids. They adapted beautifully to his direction – it was fantastic.

In preparation for the last session the students created collages and visual presentations on their personal goals for their futures. It was interesting to see that even though the students were from two different schools their goals were similar. The career options were fascinating – the traditional sports dreams of becoming a football player, baseball player, basketball player, and there were the fashion models, actresses, and designers. There were, however, other more unexpected career dreams – accountant, veterinarian, and game show host. Each dream had a unique spin to it. 

Soon on CETconnect.org you will be able to watch an interview with David and see some of the work he did with the students in Pleasant Ridge.

-Lauren Hess, Arts Projects Manager

What do I know about television production? Not much. So why am I blogging on a public television website? Because I do know about education. As a teacher and a librarian, I’ve spent years teaching information skills to children. In our information age, the essential skill has shifted from locating information to evaluating and applying it in a given situation. Teachers at all grade levels increasingly find the need to teach information skills to their students. A recent article by Doug Johnson in Education World  laments the added burden of “the fourth R.” The media literacy skills we are striving to develop in our students will enable them to effectively use information delivered on any platform, including print, audio, video and the web. The Big6, developed by Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz in the mid-1980s, identifies the six steps essential in effective research. Over the years, they have built a website that brings together information, lesson plans and correlations to a number of national standards for teachers in grades K-16 and across the curriculum. As the old saying goes, information is power. –Diane Smiley, Director of Learning Services

Several of us on the staff and other guest bloggers will regularly post updates about what’s going on at CET, in public broadcasting and in our community. We want to provide a behind-the-scenes look at how your public television station operates, and we’ll provide information about upcoming PBS and local programs and special educational projects. While we are launching a new bimonthly member magazine with information about CET programs and services, our blogs will enable us to post the most up-to-date information and to answer your questions.

We hope you will find these posts valuable … please let us know what you think.

Susan Howarth

President & CEO