Media, Granddaughters and Learning

I confess that I have skipped a week in my posting.  Morgan and I were in Colorado at a family reunion and time slipped by…. Five granddaughters contributed to the delicious distractions and opportunities for some new learning. It won’t surprise anyone that the world of young girls consists heavily of media use, especially texting and Facebook–and movies played on the computer.  Making sense of this brave new world is challenging at best.

Our granddaughter Keely is a sophomore in communications and design at CSU, Chico, and was able to shed some light from her own understandings of this media world.  In a recent course, she learned to find her own voice (how useful is that!) in writing a blog; in fact, the final was to write a post on a given topic. It is reassuring to know that identity may not get lost in the shuffle. (Three other granddaughters there are also interested in the uses of communication, design, language, marketing.)  Another concept that Keely told me about is “pancaking,” or thin layers of knowledge gained in short visits to Google sites.  Now pancaking deeply concerns me, although I have faith in the mind to synthesize and create knowledge and patterns from disparate fragments of information.

Two concerns regarding this media world pray on my consciousness: FIrst, the attention given to texting while the world around is glistening with drama, life, conversation, music.  The failure to be in the moment. Life can pass us by so quickly when we don’t attend. What must the effects be on the human brain when “now” is elsewhere?  What about the Power of Now?

Secondly, on arriving home I read David Brooks NY Times article (7/9/10) about the Medium is the Medium and leaps in learning by disadvantaged children when given 12 books for the summer.  Dramatic results. David suggests that what matters most is the way people think of themselves…and thinking about yourself as a reader means self-identity as an educated, cultivated master of significant things.  The challenge he poses is: how to build an Internet (I would add Media) counterculture that will better attract people to serious learning. I don’t think we are there yet. Yet it is highly encouraging when granddaughters enter into reflective conversations about the effects of the very medium that captivates them and their peers.

Further, I was gratified that when I gave book talks on Cairo Diary: an Egyptian fable and Women’s Ways of Leading at Salida’s charming bookstore, Bookhaven, last Tuesday all of the granddaughters were graciously attentive. No texting in sight.

More on Monday next….

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 10th, 2010 at 4:27 pm and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.