We struggle to balance teacher- and student-guided learning.

The authors of platform proposals testify publicly before elected representatives (figure 1.4, sample video), answering questions, sharing additional research, and advocating for legislative reform

The process whereby students craft policy begins with a brainstorming phase

These activities seed students’ creation of public policy in six topic areas: justice and equity, arts and culture, human development and welfare, environment and health, economic policy, and community revitalization and social entrepreneurship

Under what conditions might a multifaceted civic platform validate schooling while embracing nascent priorities and pathways? How might related trajectories of civic engagement meet the needs of students and communities?

A civic platform also facilitates expression and engagement, or pathways

The Michigan Student Caucus (MSC) is a civic platform representing the interests of Michigan’s K-16 students

With such increased understanding, we might more e%ectively minimize the problems stemming from those changes while also maximizing the positive potential of participatory politics to provide, in Barber’s words, “the pleasures of participation, the fellowship of civic association, and the autonomy, self-governance, and enlarging mutuality of continuous political activity.”

survey

And while it is clear that engagement in interest-driven activities is related to engagement in participatory politics, the causality is somewhat less clear.

The survey asked youth about their engagement in a set of eleven indicators of participatory politics.

One area of concern is that loosely organized groups that avoid the negativity of electoral politics may not provide su&cient incentive for youth to negotiate di%erences of opinion that inevitably emerge when taking action that has impact on others.

bias and credibility, including the insu&cient vetting of misinformation and the creation of “echo chambers” or “!lter bubbles,” in which people choose to attend to only like-minded perspectives (S

Just as the cultural is being blended into the domain of the political in the digital era, the political may blend into the domain of the cultural in unexpected ways as well.

hey also o%er new pathways into political participation, thereby requiring us to re-conceptualize the developmental pathways into civic and political engagement available to young people.

the battle now includes individuals who produce and consume media, ‘the people formerly known as the audience,’

undocumented youth are increasingly using digital media to produce and circulate their stories of coming out as undocumented through movement art and user-generated videos and documentaries, a practice they identify as “participatory storytelling” which “allow[s] immigrant youth a means for self-de!nition and spontaneous messaging, a form of communication, which diverges from tightly controlled movement ‘framing’” (

the power of gate-keepers is much reduced in an era where people are highly networked, the tools of circulation and production are readily available, and it has become a norm to share our thoughts, activities, and information regularly with a wide network of friends, acquaintances, and strangers.

With the resources of “participatory politics” increasingly available, we see growing opportunities for youth--and for civic actors broadly-- to exert agency in the public sphere, both as individuals and within communities of practice. By circulating content, they can in"uence what others are exposed to. When

shifting dynamics associated with participatory politics in a speci!cally digital age, th

Investigation. Members of a community actively pursue information about issues of public concern.

What makes participatory culture unique is not the existence of these individual acts; instead, the increasing access to tools supporting circulation, collaboration, creation, and connection and the consequent increase in the prevalence of these acts is changing the cultural context in which people operate.

connect

nhierarchical, in

ple, workers in a factory will coordinate their actions on the shop "oor to slow down production, thereby resisting a speed-up by management. This localized act of resistance is meant to challenge corporate power. While not a formal political or civic act, it has political implications in terms of the balance of power (see, for example, Fung and Shkabatur’s discussion in this volume of “countervailing power”)

Following this de!nitional clari!cation, we delineate the speci!c set of practices that constitute a clear subset of online political activity, and which we are designating “participatory politics.”

individuals whose activities reside primarily outside of gatekeeping institutions are pursuing greater voice and in"uence in the political realm than the hierarchical political infrastructure has traditionally provided them opportunity for.

(2) online networks support both structured interactions among people and more open-ended participation in a range of activities;

“New media” periodically transform the nature of communication with broad consequences for civic and political engagement.#Fr

Foreducators and designers, the framework points to ways in which we can help young peoplelearn connected civicsno matter where they start—be it peer culture, interest and affinity,or civic opportunity—by cultivating experiences that connect these spheres of activity

Our use of the term “interest,” then, is not meant to signal an individual or innate qual-ity; we see interests as cultivated through social and cultural relationships and locatedwithin what we call an “affinity network” of commonly felt identity, practice, and pur-pose.

“Transitions are consequential when they are consciouslyreflected on, often struggled with, and the eventual outcome changes one’s sense ofself and social positioning

The process of connecting learning across settings is not a simple matter of acquir-ing generalized knowledge, skills, and frameworks that an individual can “transfer”across diverse settings of life

Culturalstudies scholars have a long tradition of locating politics in popular culture, taking specialinterest in the subcultural engagements of youth and the civic and political activities ofyoung people who’ve been marginalized on the basis of race, class, and gender

Commentators bemoaning youth apathy worry that digitally-mediated, expression-based forms of civic activity will make young people less likely to take part in institutional-ized politics (such as voting

1. Byconstructing hybrid narratives, young people mine the cultural contexts they areembedded in and identify with for civic and political themes relevant to issues of publicconcern.

closing the participation gap may depend as much on ensuring equal supports for media literacy education and for opportunities that support desired use of digital technology for civic and political purposes as on equalizing access to technology

Given the increasingly digital nature of civic and political life, it is fundamentally important that we enact policies that close both the digital divide and the participation gap

Media literacy is also far preferable to relatively hopeless efforts to prevent youth from engaging with digital media.

young people are digital natives who have little to learn from adults

Thus,while few youth reported exposure to “echo chambers,” it appears that many youth are in “empty chambers” where they are not exposed to any perspectives on societal issues

We also found that young people’s politically driven online activities werestrongly and positively related to their exposure to diverse perspectives and that friendship-driven socializing had no impact one way or the other

Where once users might have begun with a website dedicated to one topic and followed the links to different places, the increasing trend toward using “apps” may discourage this sort of intellectual roaming

The Internet enables users to control what news and perspectives theysee, causing some to worry that the Internet will lead many to enter echo chambers–isolated enclaves of like-minded individuals

we believe educators should develop ways to create participatory cultures around aspects of the academic experience

participatory culture

Often, we believe, the opposite is true.

online communities distract youth from real world issues

These four studies provide an early look at the ways online participation and media literacy education may influence both on and offline civic activity and development

opportunities associated with video game play

equality of civic and political participation

udge the quality of information found online

online spaces are increasingly used for recruitment

convenien

The Internet is often where young peoplehear and voice perspectives

civic and political life has moved online.

“not at all” interested in campaign news

as the learning is not based on games, but enhanced by them.

GAMIFYING CLASS

classics relevant

TIME IS THE BIGGEST BARRIER

MindShift Guide To Digital Games + Learning\ Page 31 of 41STATE STANDARDS AND TEACHABLE MOMENTS“It all starts connecting,”

Fourteen percent of teachers reported that lack of administrative support when it comes to games in the classroom.

Twenty-nine percent of teachers reported that an emphasis on standardized tests makes using digital learning games difficult.

Forty-five percent of teachers reported that insufficient time is a barrier to implementing game-based teaching strategies.

Design their own games.

enres of games. 

Long-form gamestend to be more open-ended and intricate.

Don’t allow the game to tell you how to assess, make sure it strengthens your current practices

Players are intrinsically motivated to identify and succeed at understanding the game’s mechanics.

A great literature curriculum considers the particular students in the class and chooses books that are simultaneously fun to read, academically challenging, and provide important canonical touchstones that can help contextualize future learning

but finding support remains difficult

Play is exploration

Graphite

it still feels like shopping in a department store:

it also teaches those students to associate screens with refined cognitive skills

It needs to happen carefully

How young is too young for screen time?

non-commodified

And 30 percent of the teachers said the games are equally beneficial for all students

real-world

he game-based formative assessments address the needs of both students and teachers for reliable and valid real-time actionable data within a motivating learning environment.”

in context, as part of a system

teachers create project-based units where completion, or the demonstration of mastery, is what allows the student to move on

hese are the areas of the brain “crucial for spatial navigation, strategic planning, working memory and motor performance.”

The introduction of video games in the classroom does not need to mean the end of books.

we divide the world into what’s cutting-edge and what’s obsolete.

playtesters is that this role also requires them to articulate what makes the game fun, engaging, and meaningful, helping them develop critical thinking and metacognitive skills

The game could be digital or non-digital

sandbox-style

including video tutorials that show how to roll out a game in the classroom, manage its gameplay, and assess student learning

We know from research, however, that doing far outweighs both showing and telling when it comes to learning.

That making learning irresistible can provide a context enabling young people to survive and thrive?

ngagement is an absolutely critical condition for learning?

Jordan Shapiro

an act of faith that invests the gamewith special meaning

goes beyond the configuration of a classroom.

problem of pedagogy”

multiple tracks of engagement that emergefrom players’ diverse perspectives

isparate activities that partially define the currentlandscape of work around games and learning.

As to gender:

without the personal payoff

This view of the mind is obviously one way to spell out what it means tosay thinking and reasoning are “situated.”

How are good video games designed to enhance getting them-selves learned—learned well and quickly so people can play and enjoy themeven when they are long and hard

the video-game in-dustry makes as much or more money each year than the film industry.

We eachhave a core identity that relates to all our other identities

socialachievement

Cognitive science has taught us a great dealabout thinking as a mental act taking part in an individual’s head

psycholin-guistics

(1)enculturationintoasharedsetofnormsandpracticesand(2)acommunityofknowledgeproductioninwhichplayersareexpectedtogeneratenewknowledgeandcontributetothesharedknowledgebase

Althoughthereisvarianceamonggame-playingcommunitiesandcom-petingnotionsofwhatgamesareorshouldbe

today’stechnologiesenabledeep,multifacetedmodesofcollaboration

Thepotentialeducationalbenefitsofsuchtechnologies,particularlycommunicationtechnologies,arebecomingwelldocumented

Studentsarebring-ingmoreandmoredigitaltechnologies(suchasiPhones)withthemtoschool,creatingdisruptionsbetweenthesocialorderofthedigitalworldandtheprint-basedoneofschools.

just-in-time

Within each discipline or grade level at a single school, there are likely not enough of us to make a dent in the status quo, but together across these contexts, we start to look a bit more substantial.

earning isn’t somehow magically exempt from the influence of this technology.

isolated

communicate and collaborate

saw an opportunity for megachange in education

in the world” is especially valuable

self-directed learning

it is software that is really capable of empowering the majority.

access to powerful tools

grassroots action

participants are expected to fill narrow predetermined roles rather than take active roles in learning

“Why, through a period when so much human activity has been revolutionized, have we not seen comparable change in how we help our children learn

cosntructionism—

Logo and its later variants and derivatives

system of education created for good but often doing evil,

thrust

We hope they pass a simple and honest test for validity,

bove all we seek to faithfully represent the diversity of participants and approaches taken

all outcomes the abstract affordances of mobile technologies provide, but with how individuals and groups can interpret mobile technologies to achieve a higher degree of self-determination in the learning they create or engage in.

handheld

The kind of MML we are talking about is somehow supposed to be about more than the usual formula: school + mobile device = learning

active interpretation of mobile technologies to enact the ideals of progressive education: learning as a meaning-making activity, self-determination as a goal and value, learning that is co-constructed among its participants, and learning that happens through making new connections

theme that guided the first MML book.

designers

normal

classrooms, parks, museums, summer programs, an international program for girls and a creepy asylum

Humanities and the Sciences, politics and architecture, and even honey bees

general purpose mapping tool

Connecting to Classrooms

fter Shool and in the Summer

latforms -

This action, or practice— oriented, approach positions students as presently capable of, and already, engaging in the civic fabric of their community

fostered new interactions with people and places in the community and provided opportunities for student to engage in public discourse and express their opinions

choice and ownership

tudents conducted interviews and user surveys;

initial brainstorming session aimed at generating potential topics

not new

Rather than focusing on an academic pathway that he doesn’t feel serves his interests, Louis sees the apprenticeship and mentorship of the media-production program as a compelling alternative

mine

fter much trial and error, and learning through a variety of online tutorials, he began to hone his craft

2007

rowing up in a working class suburb of San Francisco

Connected learning represents a framework for understanding and sup-porting learning, as well as a theory of intervention that grows out of our analysis of today’s changing social, economic, technological, and cultural context.

ower barriers to access for knowledge and information

more motivat-ing than her writing classes at school

she jumped at the chance to connect with others who shared her interest

equi-table

ngoing

lets me know why I'm here, doing what I'm doing

I used to consider the listener. But now I'm in a space where if I'm not inspired, I can't really do the music

best rapper alive