Participatory Culture

Participatory culture! I'm torn between my "old school" ways and the newer "internet" or "technological" culture. I agree with the definition, forms, and benefits of the participatory culture. I also believe that fundamental/foundational skills can be developed by incorporating the technology into our classrooms. The issue for me is how to best integrate aspects of the participatory culture into our educational institutions. I am becoming a more frequent member of this culture, but I feel the need to hold on to the old ways, too. I enjoy face-to-face communication, although communicating through technology can be quicker. I like to hold papers of what I am reading, although I don't always get the library or a bookstore. PDF's are great for downloading, but I still print the document. I feel like I need the pages, to feel, to write on, and to carry them around with me. As a future leader in education, I am concerned with how we can use technology appropriately in our institutions. I am also concerned with the amount of inaccurate information available to our students. Educator levels of technological comfort and savvy are of the utmost importance. It is hard to incorporate and encourage participatory learning through technology if the instructor is not familiar with it and/or comfortable using it. I have too many examples to list!!
I really enjoyed the "what might be done" information at the conclusion of each section. This can directly apply to use in our schools. I plan to copy some of the ideas and activities and distribute to members of our staff who are tech savvy. So many great ideas!! I'd like to share with all of our staff, but I know many of them would be turned off, due to their limited exposure and knowledge. How do we catch these staff members up? How do we expose them without causing them to shut down? Can this be done through staff development? Can it be done through Professional Learning Communities? Do we have someone credible who could deliver this kind of training/exposure? Is an insider better than an outsider? Can the trainings be in smaller, more interactive groups? Perhaps by subject level- or even ability level? At least to start! I'd like to see more of our teachers using Moodle or something similar. All of our grades, attendance, assignments, etc. are already web based, but somewhat limited. Imagine a chat room for US History, or the International Club, Art Club, AP classes....so much could be done- even though I know the students have created similar sites, without the inclusion of the instructor. Imagine an instructor led site- here's the pedagogical intervention! What a way to mentor and role model online activity and communication. Imagine this at an early age- years before high school.