Journal 9

The Kids Are All Right

Waters, J. K. (2009, March). The Kids Are All Right. T-H-E Journal, Retrieved April 7, 2009, from www.thejournal.com/articles/24104

Three years ago the MacArthur Foundation launched a $50 million digital media and learning initiative to expand our understanding of the impact of digital media and communications technologies on how young people will learn in the future. The foundations intentions were to see if new digital media tools might affect how kids think and learn in five to ten years but soon realized the future is now.

The first study was called “Kids’ Informal Learning With Digital Media: An Ethnographic Investigation of Innovative Knowledge Cultures,” studied into the texture and culture of youth life. This study is considered “the most extensive ethnographic study of youth and new media to be conducted in the United States.”

The study lasted over a three year period and interviewers spoke with more than 800 young people and their parents. They spent more than 5,000 hours observing teens on websites such as MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and other networked communities.
Researchers found three levels of participation in these online worlds that kids display. These three "genres of participation," are called "hanging out," "messing around," and "geeking out."

“Hanging out” is considered lightweight social contact. Where as “messing around” is a hybrid level, drawing from both hanging out and geeking out. “Geeking out” is the most intense. There is a high level of commitment, with media or technology. Students delve deeply into an area of interest, develop expertise, learn how to evaluate media content, and build reputations.

Good kids tend to be good kids, whatever the environment. The MacArthur researchers believe that this finding should persuade educators to see the internet as less potentially corrupting to students and to loosen the leash on students' web-based activities.

What is one of the most important thing educators should take away from the "Kids' Informal Learning With Digital Media: An Ethnographic Investigation of Innovative Knowledge Cultures," study?

Teachers and other educators need to find a way to be open and receptive to the things students are doing online on their own so that they can find a way to relate to their students and understand what is going on in the online world. Teachers need to come up with a way to stop seeing these networks as distracting from school, and to find ways to use them in the classroom.

If teachers and educators are unsure about online technology, who should they turn to for help?

One of the best things that teachers can do is to have their students teach them how to navigate the technology. When teachers are willing to change the power dynamics and learn from their students, trust is built.