Week 2 - Digital Youth / Service Learning

Diving into Ito

Ito’s report looks at how today’s media impacts youth. The introduction acknowledges that “today’s” youth is the same as “yesterday’s” youth. The difference is that today’s youth has “new worlds for communication, friendship, play and self-expression” (Ito, 1). While children may be able to call and text and IM and email and chat and update their Facebook status all night long, they are still youth. This means the lion’s share of this communication will be of the self-consumed, hyper-social “Do you think she likes me?”, “Can you believe I have a pimple?”, and “Can you believe what she wore today?” variety. The same conversations and coming of age experiences that we all went through are now playing themselves out through electronic communication instead of on the playground or at the mall or in the hallways of school. My contention is that the what hasn’t changed, but the where has. Brian summed it up like this: “The change is in the space where these things occur.”

While I appreciate what Ito, this report and this research are trying to do, some of the comments are weak. “Some argue that new media empower youth to challenge the social norms... in unique ways” (Ito, 4). While accurate, this reveals little. Yes, now students can complain to their teacher about class rules or the amount of work they have via email - with email being the unique way to do something all students throughout time have done. Youth questions authority. It’s what they do. Before students stared out the window or daydreamed or doodled in their notebooks. Now they have technology to distract them. Sit in on a high school class and see the number of students that have surreptitiously strung their headphones up the sleeve of their shirt so they could listen to their iPod during class. Note the number of text messages sent or received during class. Students used to pass notes, now they send text messages across the room. Same stuff, different day.

Ito contends that “the digital world lowers barriers to self-directed learning” (Ito, 2). While I could argue that picking up a book is a relatively low barrier, I will agree that this new media provides an opportunity for education in ways previously unknown - especially when compared to traditional classroom learning. “The outcome emerges through exploration, in contrast to classroom learning that is oriented toward set, predefined goals” (Ito, 2). This is a commentary on the way we teach more than the technology itself.

One aspect of the report that I found interesting was how marginalized groups can meet others like themselves. But even now this is changing. When I went to high school, there were no openly gay students. If they were, it wasn’t advertised by them or anyone else. Today, you would think these groups would be ostracized or ridiculed. Not true. While students today can use the internet to find others with similar interests, there seems to be more acceptance of this in general.

Service Learning

After taking Trey’s class last semester, I had an idea of what I was getting into with this class. Granted, it was just an idea. There is always an element of faith (or trust) that things will work out the way they are supposed to anyway. Despite any concerns I may have had about this class, this article proves that this is not just one of Trey’s wacky ideas. And I say that with the utmost respect for his wacky ideas. (And sorry Trey, but some of them are wacky.)

One student in the article described service learning as a “win-win” situation. Based on what I’ve seen and read so far, I agree. Students get “real” experience as they focus their energies on their community. Students learn from the world, and the community benefits from their learning. The work is not simply academic or a trial run for the one day that it means something. It means something now, and it means something to the organization which you are helping.

Service learning aligns with my view of what a teacher should be as well: a guide, a coach, a resource, and a mentor. I reject the idea that students are empty vessels eagerly waiting to be filled with the teacher’s knowledge. Here, both are participants in an exploration with largely unknown outcomes. While I’ve always believed that teachers need to bring the world into their classroom, this model has the teacher bringing his/her classroom into the world. It’s similar, but different in a fundamental way. Bringing the world into the classroom is still an academic exercise; the world exists as “other” - something out there that can be analyzed, dissected and studied. With service learning, there isn’t that separation of other. In the hummable words of Quincy Jones, “We are the world.”

The “real” experience sought is no different than what an internship offers. The whole idea of an internship is that it’s not academic learning. This is how it really works. This is where all those theories you learned come into play. This is where you get to test your “book” knowledge. In our dichotomous thinking, we place “book smart” opposite “street smart.” The reality is that this is a false construct. What does it matter if you studied or even know the “right” way to do something if you don’t actually do it?

I did find the “seduction of empathy” comments interesting, but I liked their reality check even more: “even if you’ve studied it, you can’t understand another’s life experience.”

Another part that caught my eye was the warning that it’s easy for students to get involved with projects that are too large. This was the motivation for some of my comments in last week’s class. Pat Freid needs to provide a wish list. As a class, we need to assess that list compared to where our interests lie. We also need to keep an eye on what is deliverable in a semester’s timeframe. It sounds like Pat has enough work to keep three classes busy for three semesters. We need to honestly determine what we can finish for her - a half-finished project is of little use.

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