Rheingold.com

http://www.rheingold.com/

The Pedagogy of Civic Participation

A Lecture by Howard Rheingold held at the Gonick Amphitheatre of the NMC Campus in Second Life Sat Oct 21st 2006

“Education – the means by which young people learn the skills necessary to succeed in their place and time – is diverging from schooling. Media-literacy-wise, education is happening now after school and on weekends and when the teacher isn’t looking, in the SMS messages, MySpace pages, blog posts, podcasts, videoblogs that technology-equipped digital natives exchange among themselves. This population is both self-guided and in need of guidance, and although a willingness to learn new media by point-and-click exploration might come naturally to today’s student cohort, there’s nothing innate about knowing how to apply their skills to the processes of democracy.

We have an opportunity today to make use of the natural enthusiasm of today’s young digital natives for cultural production as well as consumption, to help them learn to use the media production and distribution technologies now available to them to develop a public voice about issues they care about. By showing students how to use Web-based tools and channels to inform publics, advocate positions, contest claims, and organize action around issues that they truly care about, participatory media education can draw them into positive early experiences with citizenship that could influence their civic behavior throughout their lives.”

– Howard Rheingold

see also:http://www.nmc.org/sl/2006/10/21/rheingold/
where you can catch an audio podcast of the event. (Oct 30th)