On New Media Literacies

Answering questions from the Great Blogger In The Sky Who Gives Us Assignments:

What do you think of the New Media Skills covered in this video (judgment, negotiation, appropriation, play, transmedia navigation, simulation, collective intelligence, performance, distributed cognition, visualization, multitasking)?

I think they're dandy. In previous posts, I've stood (virtually) on my (digital) soapbox and shouted (via typing, but typing super hard) about judgment, or being able to assess information you discover in the wild as useful, honest, and reliable. Multitasking, especially, is more important than ever, so much so than some people think we may in fact be reprogramming our brains to better multitask as an evolutionary function. Even appropriation, the sampling and remixing of content into a meaningful new product, is the same sort of informational synthesis employed in academic studies for decades ("sourcing," I think cave-scholars called it), but in a multimedia context.

Are they really the 21st century skills that will be needed to be effective artists, citizens, workers?

Perhaps. Certainly, anyone with these skills will have a leg up in society and in the workforce, by virtue of having developed a more nuanced and comprehensive skill set. But to be an effective artist? Well, that all depends on what kind of artist you mean, and how you can possibly define art as "effective." Art, by virtue of being art, is neither medium-specific nor goal-oriented. I don't think you can say with a straight face that "all effective artists of the future will be masters of transmedia navigation and distributed cognition." Unless you are a robot, and you talk like that anyway, and you cannot smile.

How many of these skills do you possess? Which ones? How will you acquire the others?

I'd wager I've demonstrated each of these skills to some extent before. Certainly, I can improve -- I could multitask better, that's for sure -- and as with any skill, it'll take practice with and exposure to new media applications.

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And speaking of practicing those skills, MIT'S Project New Media Literacies (NML) seeks to equip students with the "social skills and cultural competencies required to become full participants in an emergent media landscape," while redefining the commonly held view of whatit means to be literate in an international, interconnected world.

NML seeks nothing less than a paradigm shift: rather than adapting our methods of teaching certain subjects, we must reconsider what teaching means by taking ownership of skills fundamental to areas of study. We also must foster participatory culture in education -- for instance, by shifting the focus of literacy curriculum from individual expression to community involvement. For some interesting examples, check out this white paper.