Think Piece

Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture:
Media Education for the
21st Century

This was an interesting piece to add to the other pieces we have read so far because it ties a lot of the previous concepts with its sense of credible information to show that the research is valid enough to consume some of this information. Henry Jenkins, director of the Comparative Media Studies department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, states new frameworks for literacy through the concept of participatory culture. Educators today confront an ever-shifting landscape when it comes to Internet technologies and their potential for expanding participatory cultures. Educators today are faced with different strategies when it comes to Internet technologies and their potential for expanding cultures. The faster the education system understands how much the youth is being influenced by the new genre of learning methods the faster our new generation can adapt and create. The piece suggests that the audience focus on participatory cultures rather than on interactive technologies. Interactivity is a property of the technology, while participation is a property of culture. Henry tries to get his concept across about participatory cultures and how the concept of affiliation, expressions, collaborative problem solving and circulations which is what attracts some of these sites. If we master these concepts and incorporate them in the education system and build