Beyond Coding: Using Critical Computational Literacy to Transform Tech

Educatio

Participatory Politics

An examination of the mix of face-to-face and digital methods that young people use in their experiments with civic engagement. Although they may disavow politics as such, civic-minded young people use every means and media at their disposal to carry out the basic tasks of citizenship. Through a mix of face-to-face and digital methods, they deliberate on important issues and debate with peers and powerbrokers, redefining some key dynamics that govern civic life in the process. In Participatory Politics, Elisabeth Soep examines the specific tactics used by young people as they experiment with civic engagement. Drawing on her scholarly research and on her work as a media producer and educator, Soep identifies five tactics that are part of effective, equitable participatory politics among young people: Pivot Your Public (mobilizing civic capacity within popular culture engagements); Create Content Worlds (using inventive and interactive storytelling that sparks sharing); Forage for Information in public data archives; Code Up (using computational thinking to design tools, platforms, and spaces for public good); and Hide and Seek (protecting privacy and information sources). After describing these tactics as they manifest themselves in a range of youth-driven activities—from the runaway spread of the video Kony 2012 to community hackathons—Soep discusses concrete ideas for cultivating the new literacies that will enable young people to participate in public life. She goes on to consider some risks associated with these participatory tactics, including simplification and sensationalism, and ways to avoid them, and concludes with implications for future research and practice

Participatory Politics

An examination of the mix of face-to-face and digital methods that young people use in their experiments with civic engagement. Although they may disavow politics as such, civic-minded young people use every means and media at their disposal to carry out the basic tasks of citizenship. Through a mix of face-to-face and digital methods, they deliberate on important issues and debate with peers and powerbrokers, redefining some key dynamics that govern civic life in the process. In Participatory Politics, Elisabeth Soep examines the specific tactics used by young people as they experiment with civic engagement.Drawing on her scholarly research and on her work as a media producer and educator, Soep identifies five tactics that are part of effective, equitable participatory politics among young people: Pivot Your Public (mobilizing civic capacity within popular culture engagements); Create Content Worlds (using inventive and interactive storytelling that sparks sharing); Forage for Information in public data archives; Code Up (using computational thinking to design tools, platforms, and spaces for public good); and Hide and Seek (protecting privacy and information sources). After describing these tactics as they manifest themselves in a range of youth-driven activities—from the runaway spread of the video Kony 2012 to community hackathons—Soep discusses concrete ideas for cultivating the new literacies that will enable young people to participate in public life. She goes on to consider some risks associated with these participatory tactics, including simplification and sensationalism, and ways to avoid them, and concludes with implications for future research and practice

The digital afterlife of youth-made media : implications for media literacy education

La era digital ha reconfigurado las relaciones entre productores y usuarios. Las acciones en red son potencialmente reinterpretadas por otros usuarios. La intención de los productores mediáticos adquiere su sentido en este contexto que denominamos «el más allá digital». En este artículo analizamos cómo ha influido este fenómeno en las implicaciones de los medios y los jóvenes. El estudio se lleva a cabo a través del análisis etnográfico de las actividades llevadas a cabo por un grupo de jóvenes que trabajan creando productos mediáticos de gran impacto en una radio en California (Youth Radio). El estudio de caso que se incluye en este artículo se centra en una iniciativa de periodismo de investigación dentro de Youth Radio: una serie transmediática sobre el tráfico sexual infantil producida por un joven de 21 años con la ayuda de editores más veteranos. El análisis desvela la forma en que los medios «juveniles» dejan de serlo una vez que se convierten en un producto digital en sí, cuyo contenido se reproduce una y otra vez en manos de adultos e instituciones con su propia historia, organización y economía política. El artículo concluye identificando dimensiones clave de alfabetización que los jóvenes crean y emplean a través de su experimentación con los medios móviles y sociales, entre otros: el descubrimiento, el análisis, la movilización en red y la programación de plataformas.The digital age has fundamentally re-configured the relationship between makers and users. Every networked action by a user has the potential to be reinterpreted by other users. The original intentions of media makers emerge from this process in recontextualized form that I call the «digital afterlife». The phenomenon of digital afterlife has striking implications for youth-made media, which I explore in this article through an ethnographic analysis of behind-the-scenes activities among a group of young people working with Youth Radio, a California youth organization, where they create high-impact media. The case study examined here centers on a major investigative reporting initiative within Youth Radio – a transmedia series on child sex trafficking produced by a 21-year-old reporter in collaboration with veteran editors. The analysis reveals the ways in which youth media ceases to be «youth media», once it moves into its digital afterlife, given the extent to which the content gets re-produced, again and again, by adult institutions with their own histories, agendas, and political economies. The article concludes by identifying key dimensions of literacy that young people invent and deploy through their experiments with social and mobile media, including: discovery, analytics, network mobilization, and platform programming

The trouble with STEAM and why we use it anyway

As an emerging field of theory, research, and practice, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) has received attention for its efforts to incorporate the arts into the rubric of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) learning. In particular, many informal educators have embraced it as an inclusive and authentic approach to engaging young people with STEM. Yet, as with many nascent fields, the conceptualization and usage of STEAM is somewhat ambivalent and weakly theorized. On the one hand, STEAM offers significant promise through its focus on multiple ways of knowing and new pathways to equitable learning. On the other hand, it is often deployed in theory, pedagogy, and practice in ambiguous or potentially problematic ways toward varying ends. This paper attempts to disentangle some of the key tensions and contradictions of the STEAM concept as currently operationalized in educational research, policy, and practice. We pay particular attention to the transformative learning potential supported by contexts where STEAM is conceptualized as both pedagogical and mutually instrumental. That is, neither STEM nor arts are privileged over the other, but both are equally in play. We link the possibilities suggested by this approach to emerging theories for understanding how designing for and surfacing epistemic practices linked to the relevant disciplines being integrated into STEAM programs may point the way toward resolving tensions in inter- and transdisciplinary learning approaches

The performance of youth voice on the airwaves

This paper uses the case study of a youth-led community radio station, KCC Live, to argue that community radio is not a cure-all solution for disenfranchised and silenced young people. Drawing on 18 months of participant observation at KCC Live and data from in-depth interviews with volunteers, I argue that, owing to institutional constraints by station management; college management; and the regulatory body Ofcom, young people consider the airwaves to be a supervised, as opposed to emancipatory, arena. However, in attempting to combat the restricting nature of the airwaves, young people find new, performative ways to communicate. This paper provides empirical evidence which goes beyond previous simplistic conceptualisations of voice in youth media production and argues that romanticised notions of youth voice preclude performance and creativity. This paper offers an important contribution to children’s geographies in finding that pretend play, characterised by performance, can be considered a ‘life-span activity’

Generación y recreación de contenidos digitales por los jóvenes: Implicaciones para la alfabetización mediática

The digital age has fundamentally re-configured the relationship between makers and users. Every networked action by a user has the potential to be reinterpreted by other users. The original intentions of media makers emerge from this process in recontextualized form that I call the «digital afterlife». The phenomenon of digital afterlife has striking implications for youth-made media, which I explore in this article through an ethnographic analysis of behind-the-scenes activities among a group of young people working with Youth Radio, a California youth organization, where they create high-impact media. The case study examined here centers on a major investigative reporting initiative within Youth Radio � a transmedia series on child sex trafficking produced by a 21-year-old reporter in collaboration with veteran editors. The analysis reveals the ways in which youth media ceases to be «youth media», once it moves into its digital afterlife, given the extent to which the content gets re-produced, again and again, by adult institutions with their own histories, agendas, and political economies. The article concludes by identifying key dimensions of literacy that young people invent and deploy through their experiments with social and mobile media, including: discovery, analytics, network mobilization, and platform programming.La era digital ha reconfigurado las relaciones entre productores y usuarios. Las acciones en red son potencialmente reinterpretadas por otros usuarios. La intención de los productores mediáticos adquiere su sentido en este contexto que denominamos «el más allá digital». En este artículo analizamos cómo ha influido este fenómeno en las implicaciones de los medios y los jóvenes. El estudio se lleva a cabo a través del análisis etnográfico de las actividades llevadas a cabo por un grupo de jóvenes que trabajan creando productos mediáticos de gran impacto en una radio en California (Youth Radio). El estudio de caso que se incluye en este artículo se centra en una iniciativa de periodismo de investigación dentro de Youth Radio: una serie transmediática sobre el tráfico sexual infantil producida por un joven de 21 años con la ayuda de editores más veteranos. El análisis desvela la forma en que los medios «juveniles» dejan de serlo una vez que se convierten en un producto digital en sí, cuyo contenido se reproduce una y otra vez en manos de adultos e instituciones con su propia historia, organización y economía política. El artículo concluye identificando dimensiones clave de alfabetización que los jóvenes crean y emplean a través de su experimentación con los medios móviles y sociales, entre otros: el descubrimiento, el análisis, la movilización en red y la programación de plataformas

Comunicar : revista científica iberoamericana de comunicación y educación

Resumen tomado de la publicación. - El artículo forma parte del monográfico de la revista dedicado a: Alfabetización mediática en contextos múltiplesLa era digital ha reconfigurado las relaciones entre productores y usuarios. Las acciones en red son potencialmente reinterpretadas por otros usuarios. La intención de los productores mediáticos adquiere su sentido en este contexto que denominamos 'el más allá digital'. En este artículo analizamos cómo ha influido este fenómeno en las implicaciones de los medios y los jóvenes. El estudio se realiza a través del análisis etnográfico de las actividades llevadas a cabo por un grupo de jóvenes que trabajan creando productos mediáticos de gran impacto en una radio en California (Youth Radio). El estudio de caso que se incluye en este artículo se centra en una iniciativa de periodismo de investigación dentro de Youth Radio: una serie transmediática sobre el tráfico sexual infantil producida por un joven de 21 años con la ayuda de editores más veteranos. El análisis desvela la forma en que los medios 'juveniles' dejan de serlo una vez que se convierten en un producto digital en sí, cuyo contenido se reproduce una y otra vez en manos de adultos e instituciones con su propia historia, organización y economía política. El artículo concluye identificando dimensiones clave de alfabetización que los jóvenes crean y emplean a través de su experimentación con los medios móviles y sociales, entre otros: el descubrimiento, el análisis, la movilización en red y la programación de plataformas.AndalucíaES