By Vanessa Vartabedian on September 27, 2011 3:16 PM
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NML and PLAY!
Project NML has been involved in some exciting new endeavors
since our move to the University of Southern California last year. As a part of
USC's Annenberg Innovation Lab, the new media literacy play (the
capacity to experiment with one's surroundings as a form of problem-solving)
has become central to our current work in the field of digital media and
learning. After partnering with the non-profit RFK Legacy in Action (RFK-LA)
last fall, we began piloting a series of programs at the new Robert F. Kennedy
Community Schools in Los Angeles under the umbrella of PLAY!, which
in addition to being an nml, is also an acronym for 'participatory
learning and you'!
NML's guiding principal for a participant-centric approach to
learning maintains providing ample opportunities for gaining expertise in the
new media literacy skills and competencies. However, since branching out from
working with individual educators and schools into the larger realm of
professional development (starting with our early adopters program with the NH
Dept. of Education in 2009), we've recognized the value of giving teachers
permission to play the role of "participant-learner" (as opposed to
"expert") before asking them to try new approaches with their
students. By examining the ways educators took-up this challenge, our team was
able to identify five characteristics of
participatory learning that have come to frame our
current research for PLAY! Please take a moment to click on the link above to
read more about them.
To get a sense of the direction we are taking with our
current work on the ground, I will outline the programs we are piloting with
the Los Angeles Unified School District below, which explore participatory
learning practices, new models of professional development and
the Playground tool.
