Copy of Copy of The New Knowledge Economy

THE NEW KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

The Changing Role of the Student

CONSUMERS PRODUCERS

"...reshape the conditions under which

young people engage with media and

culture, moving from positions as media

consumers to more active media producers"

(Lange & Ito, 2010 p.193)

As young people use the resources

provided to them by online sites and

software tools to mimick, create, edit, and

critique media, they move from being seen

as "passive" consumers of media (which

they are not, because consumption is an

active skill requiring comprehension and

analysis) towards being recognized for their

skills, talents and creations that allow them

to record, develop, store and create media

images and messages relevant to their needs

and existence.

The Changing Role of the Teacher

LEARNING CONTROLLER LEARNING DESIGNER

"teaching increasingly moves from being

the talking profession to an online

documenting profession" (kalantzis & Cope, 2010 p. 204).

With the changes in the learning environments

for students brought about by the access and

autonomy provided by media creation and

development tools and sites, and the shift of

students from consumers to producers, teachers

need to shift as well to stay relevent to the needs

and demands of their students. No longer will

teachers hold all of the knowledge to be parcelled

out to students, students can instead search for

and find the knowledge they need and deem as

necessary. Consequently, teachers will have to design

learning tasks that will allow students to maintain some

autonomy and control over their learning and enagegment

with the curriculum.

MEDIA ECOLOGY

"media works are now embedded in a public

social ecology of ongoing communication"

(Lange & Ito, 2010 p.196)

In discussing the shifting understanding of

what constitutes "creative" media productions

(which now includes the recontextualizing

and reinterpreting of works) Lange & Ito

note that the primary driving force of personalmedia creation is the sharing of this media with others. For through the sharing of media works, creators gain valuable feedback,

affirmation of their efforts and solidify

friendships.

CLASSROOM ECOLOGY

"Belonging to learning is founded on three things: the learning ways, the learning content and the learning community...and the learning community question is: Do I feel at home in this learning environment? (Do I feel sufficiently motivated to take on the learning tasks required by this

environment as my own)..." (Kalantsiz & Copr, 2010 p.206)

Through the questions posed above Kalantzis and Cope articulate the need for and benefits of a learning environment whereby the student sees the teacher not as an authoritarian but as a support, guide and co-creator in the development and redevelopment of curriculum. And although in the media ecology as outlined by Lange and Ito the primary sharing

partnerships are between friends, if the role of the teacher shifts, as recommended above, then the possibilities for a positive shift in relationship between the student and the teacher is also possible.

Curriculum Relations Social Relations

"...media networks enable youth to reach out beyond their given social relations and to engage with intergenerational interest groups and forms of creative production and economic activity that give them a role in the adult social worlds. (Lange & Ito, 2010, p.76)

Where traditional curriculums and pedagogies focused learning on the classroom and teacher knowledge, learning now has shifted, because of the autonomy of the student and the greater relationships they can make to others, to the importance of social relations in helping students make sense of the world they live in as well as engage in that world more-often-than-not, on their terms. Focus then of learning shifts from age or subject centered bases for relationships to interest based (regardless of age, nationality etc) relationships.

Curriculum Driven Student Driven

"Such a learning environment opens a window onto student identities and helps teachers and fellow students to determine their prior learning and figure out what makes them 'tick'" (Kalantzis & Cope, 2010, p. 215)

By asking teachers to focus on the needs of the student before and as a part of their focus on curriculum, student driven approaches will speak to the ecology already being created in environments outside of the classroom, which, if teachers are not careful, they can be left out of and so become irrelevant or inconsequential in and to the learning needs of students. If social media outlets are being driven by the relationships that students develop, often with other interest-minded adults, who they may see (just by the nature of their age) as "authorities", teachers then need to work and shift their focus to meeting the relationship needs of the student as a genuine means to enter into curriculum delivery.

Bibliography

1.“Creative Production,” Lange, Patricia G. and Mizuko Ito, in Hanging Out, Messing Around, Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media (Ito et al.), p. 243-293. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2010.

2.Kalantzis, Mary & Cope, Bill. (2010). The Teacher as Designer: Pedagogy in the New Media Age. E-Learning and Digital Media, 7, 3, 200-223.