Growing up, we lived several provinces away from my Grandparents and if we were lucky, we would get to see them every few years. Computers did not yet exist let alone Facebook and YouTube, so we had to rely on the telephone and photographs of our dance recitals and school plays in order for our grandparents to participate in our lives and learning about other places and cultures involved reading about them in books. The whole new world we live in has made staying in touch and actively participating in each other’s lives so much simpler..
As Wesch described in his lecture, now with just a few clicks of a mouse or touch of a screen we can collaborate and participate with total strangers halfway across the world. We have access to information and to people that before would have been unimaginable. During the pandemic these platforms gave us a way to feel connected and to be with people when physically doing so was risky and at times, illegal. In our classrooms, software such as Kahoot or learning activities such as digital escape rooms provide an opportunity to use students’ fascination with participatory culture to our advantage as a tool to engage them in learning, but not all aspects of this new culture that we see in our schools is positive.
The ability to share information or snap a photo in seconds is all too present in our students’ daily lives and school culture.. When I was in school, if you did something silly or embarrassing it would be talked about for a bit and quickly fade, but now these events are immortalized on cell phones, posted to instant messaging apps and internet sites there to be seen by people around the globe for all time. One mistake can follow someone and affect their lives for decades, all because of the desire to fit in and contribute to this participatory culture in a digital world. As a parent of a young daughter, there is so much about the digital age and participatory culture that terrifies me. I don’t know how to protect her because even if we teach her about responsible use, some parents are not and so we will never fully be able to protect ourselves or our children. I can’t help but ask myself, are the positive aspects worth the risk?