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Hanging Out, Messing Around, Geeking Out - Meet August 11, 2010 Online to Discuss

We have a winner - let's see what our students actually have to say about how they use technology - Hanging out, messing around, and geeking out : kids living and lear... -  The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. I just picked it up from my local library.

It's also available online at http://www.scribd.com/doc/21928365/Hanging-Out-Messing-Around-and-G... - you can read it for free!

We'll meet online Wednesday, August 11, 2010 at 7pm EST - http://tinyurl.com/participateMSP2 - put it on your calendar!

Here are the reviews from Amazon -

Review
"Mizuko Ito and her team have put together an extraordinarily perceptive series of essays about what it means to grow up in a digital era. They cut through the myths that cloud our conversations about 'kids these days' and what they are doing during long hours online and on mobile devices. Every parent, teacher, and librarian should read this book cover-to-cover. This is crucially important research, presented in clear and accessible prose."
—John Palfrey, co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University, author of Born Digital

"This is a beautifully written and extraordinarily rich account of perhaps the most important challenge cyberspace gives us: understanding how it is changing our kids, and how it might change our understanding of literacy. We've had clues about both before. But this is a critically important and deeply informed contribution to this essential subject of learning."
—Lawrence Lessig, Center for Internet and Society, Stanford University, author of The Future of Ideas and Remix

"Mimi Ito and her colleagues present a wealth of empirical research and scholarship that is quite breathtaking in its scope and diversity. They provide a range of rich and engaging descriptive case studies, but never lose sight of the broader themes and critical issues at stake. This book sets a very high standard for future scholarship in the field: it will be the inescapable reference point for many years to come."
—David Buckingham, Institute of Education, University of London, UK

"Finally a book that provides a deeply grounded and nuanced description of today's digital youth culture and practices as they negotiate their identity, their peer-based relationships, and their relationships with adults. Then, building on this rich and diverse set of ethnographies, the authors constructed a powerful analytic framework which provides new conceptual lenses to make sense of the emerging digital media landscape. This book is a must for anyone interested in youth culture, learning, and new media."
—John Seely Brown, Former Chief Scientist, Xerox Corporation, and Former Director of Xerox PARC

Product Description
Conventional wisdom about young people's use of digital technology often equates generational identity with technology identity: today's teens seem constantly plugged in to video games, social networks sites, and text messaging. Yet there is little actual research that investigates the intricate dynamics of youth's social and recreational use of digital media. Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out fills this gap, reporting on an ambitious three-year ethnographic investigation into how young people are living and learning with new media in varied settings—at home, in after school programs, and in online spaces. By focusing on media practices in the everyday contexts of family and peer interaction, the book views the relationship of youth and new media not simply in terms of technology trends but situated within the broader structural conditions of childhood and the negotiations with adults that frame the experience of youth in the United States.

Integrating twenty-three different case studies—which include Harry Potter podcasting, video-game playing, music-sharing, and online romantic breakups—in a unique collaborative authorship style, Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out is distinctive for its combination of in-depth description of specific group dynamics with conceptual analysis.

This book was written as a collaborative effort by members of the Digital Youth Project, a three-year research effort funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Southern California.

Tags: book, club, digital, natives, revolution, youth

Views: 17

Replies to This Discussion

I also read through the intro and had "flashbacks" to dissertation writing! I think it looks like an interesting collection of studies that will for me, point out some pluses of this irreversible culture that I am not aware of and could potentially capitalize on as both a teacher and a parent.
Mary L
I've read the first chapter, Media Ecologies, in which the book's format is justified and explained. The three domains of messing around, hanging out and geeking out are also described and distinguished, which I found insightful and helpful. Some things that caught my eye: p. 37, teens use their multiple media forms to craft multiple identities and employ different identities depending on the context. So I thought: that's good, they can craft a good student identity too, as they engage with on-line content and collaborate through media, with other students on academic pursuits. But it also has me wondering if I ever really know my students, since I do not participate in on-line social exchanges with them, and that is a MAJOR part of their life and identity.
I found it reassuring to learn some teens regard the rate my friends feature in social network sites as dumb, and that they are mostly uncomfortable talking with someone on-line that they have not met in person. Many teens find it weird to not first talk in person before conversing on-line. I had the perception, many teens found no problem with friending and conversing with virtual strangers-that there was a safety net in being on-line. Further, on p. 112, the idea that social status can be achieved only through social bookmarking is a myth. Rather like wearing the right clothes and listening to the right music, social status as manifested in social networking sites, complements already existing real-world social status. Teens are using their media to do what teens did before these things existed: gossip, joke, and hang out. However the gossip and jokes have the ability to spread much faster and further than before. I wondered though, if the original gossip tends to be well preserved, due to copy and paste, and forwarding features? In contrast to the idea the rumors get distorted and inflated when passed by word of mouth only.

Mary LeFever said:
I also read through the intro and had "flashbacks" to dissertation writing! I think it looks like an interesting collection of studies that will for me, point out some pluses of this irreversible culture that I am not aware of and could potentially capitalize on as both a teacher and a parent.
Mary L

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