We argue that to better capture the range of civic experiences of young people in America, the future of civic education scholar-ship must engage more forcefully with youth agency, critical perspectives, and digital forms of expression.
This seems a central point here. One question is how to move young people from screen to action (and I know both Nicole and Antero will have examples of this and both are deeply involved in this).
Online courses are prone to cultures of surveillance.
Clarify: Online Courses sponsored by universities and organizations .... Do open courses have this issue and concern, I wonder?
diversity
Maybe. Maybe not. This act of diversifying is tricky across all sectors.
interface design shapes learning
So important ... design shapes so much of our interactions and we rarely think about how the design was determined (planned or unplanned)
Place is differently, not less, important online.
Different in that we are grounded not in physical space but in the shared, collective ideas of space, right? I wonder how much we misinterpret the places we think we are connecting in ...
We who have signed this letter
Anyone here sign the letter?
digital citizens
The "loaded" term .... both too nebulous to make much of a different and filled with fault lines ... even if the underlying intent is the right move (ie, we all have an obligation to each other)
We are builders at heart
Maker Movement reference here.
We must protect and nurture the potential to do good with it.
Always .. although this sometimes collides with "business models" of private industry, where much of the innovation takes place. This is the conundrum of the tech world: companies seeks to maximize profits while users seek to find new ways to make their lives better. Richer, but not in monetary terms. Is the answer that governments invest more in technology? (seems doubtful that would work in this day and age).
The Copenhagen Letter
Curious as to the origins of the letter itself ... where did it originate from? Who "wrote" it? What's the context here?
Reflecting on our research, the American Muslim youth we encountered were struggling to balance the benefits and risks of public expression. Determined to tell their stories and challenge existing stereotypes, they have turned to new media platforms and practices as a means to circumvent perceived roadblocks. As traditional advocacy organizations have sought to censor open discussions within the physical space of their local mosques, the youth have sometimes moved these discussions online, forging a potentially supportive peer-to-peer network. As stereotyped portrayals of Islam obstruct the development of a diverse and realistic understanding of their actual lives, American Muslim youth have used digital media tools to collect and share more authentic stories. As concerns over government surveillance have grown, the youth have harnessed humor to acknowledge and ultimately alleviate some of the resulting strain. As more conservative Muslims have slammed young American Muslims for transgressing Islamic norms, the youth have sometimes turned to each other for support. Sometimes. At other times, the youth have withdrawn and chosen silence as their supportive networks faltered under pressure.
This paragraph contains some key findings here ...
While the American Muslim youth we met certainly thought about top-down surveillance and anti-Muslim sentiment, many more were more worried about “friendly fire” from other, more conservative community members. Some of these critiques came from elders concerned about young people’s safety. Others came from youth with very stringent notions of what behavior is acceptable in Islam.
This addresses my query above ...
Such social surveillance can come from both inside and outside the Muslim community. Muslim peers and elders may dismiss and critique material young American Muslims share online.
I guess there is always cultural conflicts -- from within as well as from without
many of the youth-driven storytelling efforts we observed moved away from the “good” versus “bad” Muslim binary to express more complex, diverse, and morally ambiguous (yet still nonthreatening) American Muslim experiences.
Interesting ...
Some of the interviewed youth actively contributed American Muslim stories by creating, appropriating, and remixing content. Others were aware of such efforts and had circulated stories across their networks. Whether they told their own stories or shared others’, these expressive practices have much to teach us about the ways storytelling bridges cultural experiences and political concerns
I wonder, was there pushback for this kind of social media/cultural appropriation and remix from elders? Is there a line where this work might bend into inappropriate? (I guess there is always a line)
The stories Ali and Tariq collected contributed to, and also inspired others to join, a growing but dispersed storytelling movement that seeks to counter stereotyped perceptions through the circulation of narratives about the lived experiences of diverse groups of American Muslims.
The power of story to change our minds and combat stereotypes ... excellent!
Young American Muslims’ ongoing use of new and social media as a way to connect, share, and debate topics that may not be explicitly political builds “latent” capacity to mobilize toward political goals should such a crisis arise. Such circulation prepares the ground for those “monitorial” moments when, as Hurwitz explains, “politics comes to life” because of “great dissatisfaction with a current state of affairs and finds expression in ad hoc protest movements.” While often organizationally “ephemeral,” Hurwitz’s monitorial citizenship relies on “volunteers who foresee some national … crisis” (108). Functioning as crucial nodes, these volunteers not only “monitor” situations, they are also connected to networks that allow them to respond quickly, often bypassing more established organizational structures.
Interesting insight. So, the social networking is more than just connecting. It is building a network in the belief that it will be needed, for some crisis, down the road, and when that comes (which is considered inevitable), the network will be the center of survival or cultural identity or support.
Sharing media, with or without political dimensions, was crucial to maintaining these networks. The media youth shared included news reports on current events (like Michelle Bachman’s accusations against Huma Abedin and other Muslims in government that surfaced in July 2012), religious materials (motivational quotes from the Qu’ran), faith-based lifestyle topics (photos of food during Ramadan), and popular culture debates (the controversy surrounding whether or not young American Muslims chose to watch Zero Dark Thirty; see Hussein 2013).
And it reduces the sense of isolation. We are not Alone.
the young American Muslims we interviewed shared their determination to navigate expression in a climate where the odds are often stacked against them. The media these youth created, the networks they fostered, and concerns they articulated have much to teach us about both the opportunities and challenges of participatory politics for an emergent, marginalized American Muslim youth community.
This is an important point of discovery and inquiry ...
Many of the American Muslim youth we interviewed shared experiences of anti-Muslim prejudice growing up in America, which confirmed the findings of other studies of this population.
Tragedy always exposes fault lines. That these young people feel like targets for racism is sad. Not surprising, though, and maybe that is even worse (that they would be targeted is not a surprise in this current political climate)
In fact, many of the American Muslim youth efforts we encountered were not conceived as explicitly (or even implicitly) political. Nonetheless, they often assume political meanings as they circulate and reach broader audiences.
This is part of the interesting nature of the Networked World, right? Sort of like the game of Telephone, except not only is the story changing as it gets passed along, so too can the context of the story, and suddenly a non-political parody, for example, becomes interpreted very differently.
In particular, we highlight media making and storytelling as crucial dimensions of efforts by American Muslim youth to express, poke fun at, network, and mobilize around identity politics.
And where is the line that they might cross between civic duty to make visible the strange world of cultural identity and nationalistic politics, and the world of having data gathered on you in legal settings? How many don't even bother to find that line but instead, remain silent?
he is caught in a bind: he constantly juggles his desire to connect with others through social media with the awareness that his posts may be viewed (and possibly misunderstood) by audiences far beyond his intended networks.
In this way, the networked narrative takes on multiple meanings -- both as connector points and as means for being overheard and perhaps, having one's words (sometimes out of context) used against you.
cultural problem
And the distance I feel when I read Trump this and Trump that. I'm over here, Oz land, she'll be right mate, no worries-land. Perhaps my ignorance of larger political plays helps me in this fog. Does change.org really change anything or is it attracting drone operators?
persist
Persistance! Resistance! Resilience! I'm thinking about these 3 words like the 3 words in the previous paragraph. I work in an 'outpost' campus and for over 4 years I still persist with the task of asking for Staff development, orations and other activities on the main campus to be shared with other places and even suggesting shock, that they be opened to the public. I meet with resistance many times but somehow this work resilience in my goal.
Thank you for reading.
Thank you for writing .... and letting us wander around the space beyond your words ...
In digital space we are constantly choosing. Click and sign. Send a message. Vote x out of the tent/chair/jungle. We have the illusion of elective power but none of the responsibilities of citizenship.
Interesting point ... well-taken
resilience
And maybe that means us, too, recognizing that our values are not represented by the majority of voters who elected Trump to the presidency. By "us," I mean us, the educated elite from the coasts. Or by us, maybe I just mean me. We need resilience, too. And perseverance.
Let’s remember that was the promise. Not the freedom to order white goods in the small hours, or to spit bile below the line when any liberal (especially non-white, especially female) person feels empowered to speak.
Yes, this gets lost in much of the shuffle -- the original notions of the open web and free access to information -- or at least, that was the myth that the web was built upon -- and then it became the commercial marketplace it is now. Not everywhere. But more places than one would feel comfortable about.
in a culture where everyone has access to values-based conversations, people above and below the median level of formal education are joining different conversations.
Here is a critical point -- we are missing each other in conversations. Do we even know the other is having a conversation?
chinks of light
Chinks of light / Could be hard and brittle / Like broken bottles / Revealed in morning sunlight. //
Chinks of light / Can relieve darkness / Hope given through shards, / Shades and the brilliant / Gift of colour.
