Pub­lic Ped­a­gogy — Instruc­tions for Par­tic­i­pa­tory Culture

10 points; due July 19 (11pm)
500 words (min­i­mum) + media (image, video, audio, links, etc.)

 
Prompt:

 
What can we learn from par­tic­i­pa­tory cul­ture about cre­ative prac­tices and social activ­i­ties?
How does dig­i­tal media instruct (“infor­mally”) through its very com­po­si­tion and its col­lec­tive con­struc­tion, cir­cu­la­tion, and exchange?
Demon­strate what you’ve learned from this “pub­lic ped­a­gogy” in your recent analy­sis and obser­va­tions — Exer­cise 1, blog­ging, group posit­ing — by pre­sent­ing instruc­tions for par­tic­i­pat­ing.

» The form is a “How To” guide, con­cern­ing one “genre” and using one exam­ple of dig­i­tal culture.

 
Imag­ine pub­lish­ing to a site like KnowYourMeme or Buz­zfeed; your audi­ence are not “spe­cial­ists” (just Web browsers, mostly “mul­ti­pli­ers” thus far). Although this is less a tech­ni­cal guide (e.g. com­pos­ing in software/platform), you should include exam­ples to illus­trate types of com­pos­ing prac­tices, cre­ative expres­sion, and social activ­i­ties spe­cific to this genre.
(The example/s could be one you cre­ate or find.)

 
The form can be straight­for­ward or humorous/satirical, mod­el­ling on sites like Instructables.com, Wik­i­How , How­Stuff­Works — or even the YouTube series IdeaChan­nel. (Maybe even a par­ody video or Buzzfeed-type list? Be cre­ative in your approach, con­sid­er­ing your “object of study” dis­cussed and your audi­ence!) Remem­ber, these are just mod­els for the form, not the con­tent or vocab­u­lary, for instruct­ing “how to par­tic­i­pate” and cre­ate dig­i­tal cul­ture (about whichever media form you choose).

→ Try com­pos­ing for Web audi­ences using writ­ing styles hybrid of both aca­d­e­mic study — using 3 key terms (min.) from 2 read­ings (min.) this week — and of the dis­course com­mu­nity of pro­duc­ers, shar­ers, and par­tic­i­pants (rather than the brand-consumer model of Web 2.0 as described by Jenkins).

 
 
» PROTIP: In pre­sent­ing these “media skills” for net­worked cul­ture, use example/s (images, videos, audio, links, etc) of the genre and of sites/platforms.
Plus, most impor­tantly, dis­cuss the sig­nif­i­cance and the poten­tial out­comes, using our crit­i­cal vocab­u­lary.
Be sure to con­clude with an over­all assess­ment and/or pre­dic­tion about “pub­lic ped­a­gogy” — con­cern­ing insti­tu­tions, value, mean­ing, cre­ativ­ity, com­pos­ing, com­mu­ni­cat­ing, tran­si­tion, potential/limitations or any other impor­tant top­ics.
(this exer­cise is a direct “warm-up” to Project 1 in this way)

 
 

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Cri­te­ria (from syl­labus)

Posted to per­sonal blog, these infor­mal com­po­si­tions illus­trate atten­tive read­ing of assigned texts, progress toward project, and engage­ment with class top­ics rel­a­tive to sched­ule. Credit is earned for

(1) sub­mit­ting on-time and with suf­fi­cient length;

(2) demon­strat­ing atten­tion to class top­ics, con­tent knowl­edge, and crit­i­cal think­ing, par­tic­u­larly by describ­ing insights and connections;

(3) pro­vid­ing thought­ful and rel­e­vant responses to prompts, through spe­cial­ized discourse;

(4) using spe­cific exam­ples from per­sonal knowl­edge and/or respec­tive readings;

(5) while extend­ing rhetor­i­cal knowl­edge and mas­tery of writ­ing con­ven­tions, prac­tic­ing effi­cient prose
(i.e. min­i­miz­ing /avoiding sum­mary, rep­e­ti­tion, digres­sion, and unnec­es­sary discussion).