New Media Literacies Project

Project New Media Literacies began in 2006 as a research project to find out ways that technology is changing students' learning, socializing, and participating in life. They hope for the outcome to be better educational and social institutions that can meet the needs of the present and future generations. Today's youth are actively participating in their learning, socializing, and culture in ways that past generations never thought of. They are creating media designs and sharing them with the world. They are connecting themselves to the world through affiliations like Facebook and Myspace. They are making videos and putting them on sites such as YouTube for anyone and everyone to see and comment on. They are working together to create new knowledge and posting their ideas to things like Wikipedia. They are influencing media through blogging and podcasts. There are many good things about this participatory culture, such as peer-to-peer communication and learning as well as skill development that is admired in the work place. These skills are part of the New Media Literacies and are ones that can be used in the classroom and in day to day life.

The New Media Literacies are skills that are needed to participate in this world of new technology. It is the educators' job to make sure that students are gaining these skills. There are some problems with this because some students do not have personal computers, but there are ways for teachers to help those students gain those skills at school. These skills are vital in students' success in the technology culture of today. Using those skills, most of the youth today have created some form of media such as a Facebook profile or YouTube video, so they are considered media creators. By creating their own works, students are in control of their learning and social development to some extent. By participating in creating things like this, they are learning to become more involved with others and less involved in just themselves while still being able to incorporate some form of individual expression.

The New Media Literacies Project hopes to solve some problems such as the participation gap and the transparency problem. The participation gap is the unequal access to experiences, skills, and knowledge that prepare youth for the new participatory culture that has developed. In order for all youth to gain the skills needed to succeed, they need to be taught how to participate in media creativity as well as the New Media Literacies skills. The transparency problem is young people's inability to see how media shapes the perceptions of the world. They need to understand how media, including their own creations, are affecting the world. The New Media Literacies skills, such as judgement, negotiation, play, transmedia navigation, performance, visualization, and multitasking, are all skills that will help students succeed in school as well as in their future work place. These skills will not only help with participating in a media dominated culture, but also help with day to day life.

You can visit the New Media Literacies Project website and find out more!