Week 2 - Blog Posting #3 - Media Literacy

Lawrence Lessig's new book, Free Culture calls Media Literacy "The ability to read, analyze, evaluate and produce communication in a variety of media forms (television, print, radio, computers, etc.) (http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/media_literacy.php)."

This is different from Barrish's view. This is more of the act of creating media forms and understanding them. After reading this approach I am more inclined to believe in Henry Jenkins interpretations of community involvement. I look at his approach to play as that old saying, "give a kid a fish, he eats for a day. Teach him to fish, he'll become obese, or what ever it was." I think that is what play truly means. Teach them how to do it, and let them mess around with it. Let them make mistakes and learn.

I found an interesting video on Youtube about students who used Twitter and Jott to create their own realistic culture and helped create a live simulation of their world since 1450 AD. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgbfMY-6giY&feature=channel). This is huge because it incorporates so much of what we read from Jenkins. Simlulation, Appropriation, and Multitasking were implemented in this project and it really shows what can happen with a diverse amount of willing and able people set their minds to creating something.

Margaret Mead said "A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." This is what this project exemplifies. It is the accumulation of a number of people, creating a network of ideas, that will have to work together. Negotiation and proper judgement will have to be implemented and people with have to respect and understand the various ethnic groups in order to create a world worth living in.

Please take a look at the Youtube video and if you have the time, look at http://mediatedcultures.net/worldsim.htm. It is a world simulation worth looking at. Hopefully you will be moved.

I also liked the video Gever Tulley teaches life lessons through tinkering. I thought it was a novel approach to letting kids learn from their mistakes.