Finding a Voice

I am probably one of the biggest advocates for being able to develop social skills using a more online environment and other means of interacting that step away from face to face interaction. While we certainly need to learn how to socialize across both platforms, those not comfortable with face to face can find a voice, which will likely lead to easier time communicating face to face through exploring other mediums. For starters, everyone, no matter what age, will feel more at ease expressing oneself. Overall it will open up many new possibilities for education. How we learn and building upon what we learn will be key. The many mediums we now have access too will also allow for more learning. And all of it will spill into the classroom where students will be able to more effectively communicate with instructors since they have already developed the skills of communicating with adults online.

I’ve touched lightly before on the huge benefits to children in allowing them to learn responsibility online. As we dove deeper into Henry Jenkins’ Convergence Culture this week, my eyes were opened to a whole new realm of how the digital age can help the children of today in the art of learning. This method of learning though stepped away from the typical pedagogy ways of “old school.” Through digital media, an entire new world in which we can learn (and teach) has been created. Certainly, this is a crucial part of socialization, from how we can learn to ways this new way of learning encompasses socializing.


I found this video on YouTube that I feel perfectly describes the many, many ways we learn in the 21st century. It was of particular interest as it showed how we learn in both the digital and print world as well as in the classroom. To me, all the ways we learn come together and build on one another.



Upon starting Jenkins’ chapter “Why Heather Can Write,” I doubted yet another influence of the Harry Potter mania that has drawn so many. I’m not a fan (sorry, Dr. Platt), and I couldn’t even tell you the title of one of the books. However, I kept an open mind. Loving English and Shakespeare and all the other “yucks” of high school/college English courses, I’ve never really “gotten” how everyone else cannot feel the same much less dislike it so much. But in this Jenkins’ chapter it all clicked. Hamlet is a passion to me like Harry Potter is to others. If an individual is engaged in reading and writing willingly, does it really matter if it’s Shakespeare or Rowling that provokes it?



This takes us to the social side. I know for me, unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of people I could converse with when I was growing up about writing or reading and certainly not Romeo & Juliet. I can’t imagine having an outlet like “The Daily Prophet” or “The Sugar Quill!” As Zsenya, the webmaster of “The Sugar Quill” was quoted in Jenkin’s:

I think it’s really actually an amazing way to communicate... The absence of face to face equalizes everyone a little bit, so it gives the younger members a chance to talk with adults without perhaps some of the intimidation they may feel in talking to adults. And in the other direction, I think it helps the adults remember what it was like to be at a certain age or in a certain place in life.

Once children and younger adults are more comfortable with communicating with adults, a shift will be seen in the classroom. A student, who has been receiving coaching and feedback from an adults online, will find it much easier to communicate face to face with instructors. More questions will be asked by the student and the student will also be more open and accepting of feedback.

Returning to Jenkins, a paragraph later, he discusses the term scaffolding. This is how new skills build on those mastered. I think it is important to note how much is being built. While the creative juices are flowing and these individuals are becoming better writers and thinkers, they are also building the foundation of how to communicate properly in society. Not only are they learning how feedback is a gift with others critiquing their work, but also how to communicate at different levels from the level of peers to those that are older. One of the best ways to learn social skills is by watching and mimicking those who have already (or are close to) mastered them. This is one of the best ways we learn. I can’t help but to think of James Gee and his idea community of practice:

Within a community of practice all members pick up a variety of tacit and taken-for-granted values, norms, cultural models, and narratives as part of their socialization into the practice and their ongoing immersion in the practice. Tacitly accepting these values, norms, cultural models, and narratives (in mind, action, and embodied practice), and sharing them with others, is just what it means to be a member of the community of practice. This, by and large, solves the problem of critique.

Sure, Gee proposed this in 1987 and more for the purpose of teaching, but I can’t help to think that it was glimpse into the future. To me, it perfectly summarizes what we must move toward as well as try to incorporate it into the web world, many outlets to grow our different social skill sets.