The myths then become a way to denounce Somalis as potential renewers by insisting on their status as guests, and specifically as recipients of charity, burdened by the gift of humanitarianism

There can only be one dominant central culture: American.”

Reports in the paper of car accidents involving Somalis always provoke a slew of comments that they should not be allowed to drive at all.

The dol report also did not include the time Somalis donate to the city, through participating in the numerous focus groups of researchers and other organizations, giving (uncompensated) presentations to local organizations and schools, and vol-unteering in support of other city projects

Less than 15 percent of the Somali population is on welfare. If you look at old Mainers, more of them are on welfare! We’re see-ing second- and even third-generation Mainers who are on welfare!

When non-Somali clients whose tanf benefits are re-duced or denied because of household changes blame Somalis for their loss of benefits, he patiently explains that “everyone is getting exactly what they’re eligible for and Somalis don’t get any more than anyone else.” He is frustrated by the accusations that somehow Somali eligibility impacts the eligibility of other Mainers, and when I suggest it may reflect a perception of a zero-sum game—t he more they get, the less there is for me—he replies, “It’s not about the division of resources. It’s about prejudice.”

They don’t know. No one’s ever explained it to them....[Our mu-seum visitors] didn’t have any idea they spent time in refugee camps and how horrible it was. They didn’t know about the war, about the loss, the horror....Viewers never realized how hard they had it in their country and why they had to leave. Genocide was never on their radar. Rape was never on their radar.

When did maine become the welfare state to house and feed the worlds misfits.

Areas that used to be decent to live in are now infested with them. Seriously, find twenty people in Lewiston who are glad they are here.

If a group of friends meeting to sew or craft in a house share copyrighted patterns, there is little public concern. If the group of friends meet and discuss and share their work (and patterns created by others) online, questions of copyright infringement and fair use come into play.

As types of activity and practice move from one domain to another, we also see transformations in the relationship of political activity to social and cultural spheres.

Since online interest-driven participation similarly cultivates skill development, and in particular the skills of participatory culture which translate directly into success in participatory politics, we may expect online interest-driven participation to provide a significant developmental pathway toward participatory politics.

In this volume, Beltran describes how these young activists use social media as a “space of confrontation, creativity and self-assertion,” thereby wresting control over the immigration narrative from an older generation of activists.

Political leaders are now speaking in front of audiences where their every utterance can be captured on a cell phone camera or digital recorder and then circulated online among a much larger audience

Across the literature, the concept of participatory politics designates forms of political action that seek to advance peer-to-peer forms of organization and to evade elite dominance in politics, regardless of what the partisan affiliation is of those elites

Those who engage in agenda-setting, opinion formation, and action-taking through methods like the ones described above participate in “participatory politics.”

f sources. They also often check the veracity of information that is circulated by elite institutions, such as newspapers and political candidates.• Dialogue and feedback. There is a high degree of dialogue among community members, as well as a practice of weighing in on issues of public concern and on the decisions of civic and political leaders. This might include voicing one’s perspective at a meeting, discussing politics with others, commenting on blogs, or engaging in other digital or face-to-face efforts to interact with or provide feedback to leaders.• Circulation. In participatory politics, the flow of information is shaped by many in the broader community rather than by a small group of elites. This might include sharing information about an issue at a meeting of a religious or community organization to which one belongs or posting or forwarding links or content that have civic or political intent or impact.• Production. Members not only circulate information but also create original content (such as a blog or video that has political intent or impact) that allows them to advance their perspectives. • Mobilization. Members of a community rally others to help accomplish civic or political goals. This might include working to recruit others for a grassroots effort within one’s community, or reaching out to those in one’s social network and beyond on behalf of a political cause

Investigation. Members of a community actively pursue information about issues of public concern. Participants seek out, collect, and analyze information from a wide array

Our analysis of youth activity in a political domain that we define broadly has made visible clusters of practices that are analogues to those identified as constituting participatory culture. T

• circulate(by blogging, podcasting, or forwarding links)• collaborate (by working together with others to produce and share information via projects, such as Wikipedia)• create (by producing and exchanging media via platforms like YouTube and Flickr)• connect (through social media, such as Facebook or Twitter, or through online communities, such as game clans or fandoms)

Our understanding of the “participatory” aspect of participatory politics borrows from and is rooted in Henry Jenkins’s concept of participatory culture (Jenkins et al. 2009). In a participatory culture, participation is significantly peer-based, interactive, nonhierarchical, independent of elite-driven institutions, and social, that is, accessible to analysis at the level of the group rather than the individual.

Scholars have argued that new media may be facilitating a broad shift in the form and focus of politics.

First, it acknowledges that many of the struggles to shift public attention to new issues or frames and to challenge the balance of power in public life take place outside of traditional institutions of civic and political life. S

, young people are frequently among the “every day innovators” who are appropriating digital tools to serve their communications goals, as seen in studies of teens’ texting practices.

We gather together the norms and practices that we identify as shifting the political landscape under the label “participatory politics.

(1) new technology and associated practices, facilitate networked, many-to-many, and mobile communications; (2) online networks support both structured interactions among people and more open-ended participation in a range of activities; (3) traditional barriers to cultural production and circulation are now much lower; (4) these changes are playing a pivotal role throughout the world, in developing as well as postindustrial societies, in democracies and in more autocratic regimes

.g., social network sites, blogs, video games, YouTube, and smart phones

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Conventional wisdom: video games are a distraction at best.While conventional wisdom has it that video games are largely a waste of time, distracting youth from other, far more meaningfulpursuits, some educators and developers view video games as powerful learning tools

Indeed, Americans under the age of fortywere just as likely to donate to the recent Japan tsunami relief efforts through electronic means (online, through text messaging, and through email solicitations) as through more traditional means, such as by phone or mail.

, “I don’t know. And I don’t care.

As a dimension of participatory politics, connected civics offers apowerful mode of learning and civic agency because it engages young people throughdeeply held identities and compelling cultural narratives, is driven by shared practicesand purpose, and is grounded in a robust but accessible networked infrastructure.

participatory culture civics”

A young person who is active on Facebook and Instagram, or who organizes agaming league or fan community, will likely not recognize these activities as relevant topolitical engagement

These studies have helped us to see how decorating the walls of a bedroom,or cultivating and sharing tastes in music, or styling hair in a particular way, can amountto potent forms of cultural production

meaning contexts that actively encourage members to make andshare creative products and practices that matter to them

young people todayare engaging in new forms of politics that are profoundly participator

Teachers see this motivation translating into academic performance too: 78 percent of teachers using digital games saw improved performance on curricular subjects due to gameplay and 71 percent saw improvement in extracurricular subjects

Civilization is sometimes criticized for not being historically accurate, but Gilbert sees that flaw as a teachable moment. “You can turn the things that might not be necessarily correct into learning experiences,” he said

He’s been using game simulations in his classroom since 1995, but when he started playing the commercial game Civilization IV for fun, he immediately recognized its potential to get 6th graders hooked on history

but do align directly with state standards

“Game mechanics” learn to adjust settings and manipulate the relationship between components within a particular framework

In fact, almost all games have an underlying puzzle structure.

When the answer is right, the penguin can move across the screen; when it’s wrong, he can’t. When informative feedback works, students are no longer motivated by transactional rewards. Instead, they are intrinsically motivated to solve the problems, not to pass the test

. Gamers remain on a long continuum toward mastery.

And the factors that influence a teacher’s comfort level are not necessarily the same factors that will influence the students’

When you engage with the game, you not only try to see the game from the perspective of your students, you also understand how the game presents the material.

both can reliably get you from point A to point B, but the Mercedes has a lot of luxury additions that make the ride smoother.

What platforms (hardware) do you have available in your class? Is yours a BYOD (bring your own device) classroom, or do you have school-owned hardware to work with? Will games be a full-class activity or just one station in a room full of learning activities

brings the best early learning techniques together in one app.”

Just adding the alphabet to popular games like Angry Birds or Temple Run might make parents more willing to whip out their credit cards, but it won’t necessarily teach their children how to read.

Some moms and dads believe that screen time will ruin their children. Others see tablets as an exceptional parenting gadge

In addition, 53 percent of teachers find that video games foster positive collaboration between students. Anyone who has watched kids play

There are millions of individual games, hundreds of distinct genres and sub-genres, and they can be played on computers, consoles, hand-held devices and cell phones. Simply put, if one wants to know what the effects of video games are, the devil is in the details,

Cognitive benefit: Games have been shown to improve attention, focus, and reaction time

Students experimented with the digital model prior to doing an actual DNA extraction in the lab

An educator familiar with the social game Mafia

Such an approach to education doesn’t so much discount engagement as a condition of learning as erase it altogether

Students are encouraged to manage and reflect on their evolving identi-ties as learners, producers, peers, researchers, and citizens.

It creates conditions for an exchange of questions and expertise across a community of learners working on similar problems and leads to a natural engagement with learning about the issue at hand.

allow-ing students to gain the skills to act as full citizens within a networked, participatory landscape

The development of systemic-design think-ing is a core skill that Q2L students will continually develop throughout their tenure and will help them practice

ctions demonstrate progressive understanding and personal growth

Games are not only models for helping students think about how the world works, but also a dynamic medium through which to engage socially and to develop a deeper understanding of their place in the world.

Attention to well-being and social-emotional learning is as important as attention to academic learning

Participatory assessment requires that expectations, co-con-structed and delivered criteria, and documentation be “open source” for all participants

“What does a particular performance reveal about how students know and about how they reason with and use their knowledge?

.Assessment is situated in learning—located in the discourse, actions, and transactions of individuals, peers, and groups

and “telling him what to do when he can fig-ure it out for himself.”

driven as they are today by standardizedtests and skill-and-drill curricula devoted to “the basics.”

I am mainly concerned with the sorts of videogames in which the player takes on the role of a fantasy character movingthrough an elaborate world, solving various problems (violently or not), orin which the player builds and maintains some complex entity, like an army,a city, or even a whole civilization. There are, of course, lots of other typesof video games

Theclassdiscussionwasanimated,tothepointwherethevideocam-erasintheroomwhereunabletoreliablypickupstudents’comments.Studentsnowwereinvestedinparticulartheoriesandarguments.Inthisexample,fourgirlshuddledaroundatable,examiningtheirdocuments

Shedescribed,“Infact,someofthemmadeprettystrongcasesforthewrongthings.But,theymadeastrongcaseandtheytalkedtooneanother.Theywouldarguewhowasrightandwhowaswrong.Itwasexciting.

Thisprocessallowedstudentstoreadandinterprettextsingroups,encouragingthemtoexaminedatafromtheirprofessionalperspectiveandthensynthesizefindingsintheirgroups

hiswasbutoneexampleofgameplayleadingtoscientificargumen-tationthatengagedstudents’priorexperienceandevidencegatheredingame.Situatingthegameasafictionalizedbuthypotheticallypossibleprobleminvitedstudentstobringpersonalexperiencesintoproblem-solving

1)involvedissuescrucialtotheirlocalcommunity,(2)usedtechnologymotivatingtostudents,and(3)wascon-nectedtotheircurriculargoalsofteachingscientificthinkingandthewatercycle.Wearecurrentlyworkingwiththeseteacherstoredesignthegametobesetmoredirectlyintheircommunityandtobeabouttheirownlakes.

bservations.Atleastoneresearcherattendedmostclasssessionsdur-ingthe2-weekunit.Atleasttworesearchersobservedthe“fieldbased”gamesessionsandvideo-recordedeachsession.Fieldnoteswerepostedtoadatabase,wheretheycouldbesearchedandanalyzed.Interviews.Teacherswereinterviewedformallyandinformallythrough-outthesummerprogram.Teachersandresearchersexchangedmultipleroundsofe-mails,phonecalls,andWebforumcommunicationsduringtheunitplanning.Researchersalsoconductedaformalstructuredinter-viewfollowingthecurricularimplementationtofollowuponobserva-tionsandbetterunderstandwhatissuesteachersperceivedassalient.Documents.Researcherscollectedteachers’lessonplansandplanningdocuments,reflectionpapersthatexplainedteachers’designprocesses,onlineforumexchangesamongparticipants,examplesofstudents’work,inscriptionscreatedbystudentsduringgameplay,videotapesofstudentpresentations,andstudents’finalpapers.

Thelogicofthisdesign-basedinquiryinvolvesiterativelydesigningandresearchingcurricularinterventionsandthentheorizinglearningbasedonchangestothecurriculum

Thesetextsincludegamemanuals,in-gameencyclopedias,gameFAQsandwalk-throughs,andcomplextextsembeddedingames

Theyofferustheexperienceofleadingacivilization,beingaguitaristintheRamones,orbeingtheleaderofaguildconsist-ingofhundredsofplayersfromallovertheworld

Studentscanaccessonlinedatabasesofinformationtoidentifyproblems,leverage

23By making it far easier for people to collaborate across long distances, the internet has also altered the ways in which grassroots action can become broader change

learning with computers began to happen outside specialist circles

These are typically forces and means for assimilation that ultimately serve the system.

n the creation and promotion of many technologies to support learning, especially Logo and its later variants and derivatives

ut to explore how mobile enables us to make learning come alive in new ways.

Moral panics over the supposed loss of tradition, parental authority, and shared values accompanied the introduction of children’s comics in the eighteenth century, cinema at the end of the nineteenth, television in the twentieth, and the Internet in the twenty-first century.

Many have raised con-cerns about the decline in social norms and standards exemplified by young people’s social media use.

When the public educational system lacks a pro-active and well-resourced agenda for enriched and interest-driven learning, young people dependent on public institutions for learning are doubly disadvantaged

keep up with inflation has sharpened significantly in the last few decades.

we risk reinforcing an educational system that only serves the inter-ests of elites, breeding a culture of competition for scarce opportunities

She is an avid online role player and spends most of her time on her favorite site, Faraway Lands, with her two best friends, also role players.

Further, connected learning environments are generally characterized by a sense of shared purpose, a focus on production, and openly networked infrastructures.

igital media also threaten to exacerbate growing inequities in education.

new media literaciesshould be considered a social skill.

their families have to be connected or else they will fall behind, and,in many cases, never catch up

.This bottom up energy will generate enormouscreativity, but it will also tear apart some of the categories that organize the lives and workof media makers...

A focus on expanding access to new technologies carries us only so far if we do not alsofoster the skills and cultural knowledge necessary to deploy those tools toward our own ends

These forms are highly technological but use other tools andtap other networks for their production and distribution.

Fostering such social skills and cultural competencies requires a more systemic approach tomedia education in the United States.

a changed attitude toward intellectualproperty, the diversification of cultural expression, the development of skills valued in the mod-ern workplace, and a more empowered conception of citizenship.

more than one-half of all teens have created media content, and roughly one-third of teens who use the Internet have shared content they produced.

Encouragingly, these activities re fl ect those that researchers believe can build critical twenty- fi rst-century skills (Balsamo, 2010 )

e sometimes cited what he saw as a fl aw in a narrative as the spark for a movie of his own, such as bringing a favored dead character back to life. He also talked about watching and enjoying other stop-mo-tion fi lms including claymation.

has its origins in concerns about equitable access to tools, people, and ideas that support the development of techno-logical fl uency