Key ideas of levine and buckhingham

1. Key ideas of levine and buckhingham Field experience and youth media literacy

2. Key idea # 1: “institutions work better when many people participate” • As stated in one of the opening pages of Peter Levine’s article, “A Public Voice for Youth” • Relation to field site: • - Kids and group projects create more focus in the work area • - More peer participation equals more desire to complete the assignment • - Example of Victoria Justice homework assignment from a previous visit to Mighty Writers

3. Key idea # 2: “Social outcomes are more likely to be justwhen participation is equitable” • More ideas come out of the children when they work together on homework assignments and writing projects • Less time is used to solve one particular problem when more than one person is involved • Kids seem to have more fun when the assignment involves their peers. • They realize that they need to speak up if they want to help out

4. Key idea # 3: “Young americans are heavily represented in innovative online activities such as blogging and wikis” • Example of Nayyir when he was trying to show off using Twitter and Facebook from a previous Mighty Writers visit • More kids can be technologically represented in the present day than many years ago with other generations • The advantage of online activities is it allows people to express themselves in more ways than just face-to-face • The disadvantage of this representation is it also allows people to hide behind a computer screen rather than deal with people and real world issues in person

5. Key idea # 4: student creations in the media world • Example: Opposites Attract by Sinead, Richard and Siobhan • Kids didn’t know each other from the beginning, but through the guidance of their media tutor, they formed a slight bond and were able to make a film together • Kids on movie day at Mighty Writers • Originally were not really talking with each other, but after working together to choose and film and make seating arrangements, they were all very chatty and were able to enjoy the film together as friends

6. Key idea # 5: “it is difficult to see how one social group can change the opinion of another without using their voice to reach a large and diverse audience” • Kids usage of electronics/cell phones in the classroom compared to kids who do not use these items • The constant fight for computer time and how much of an influence some programs on the computer have on a lot of the children • The importance of social networking sites to today’s day and age sometimes cripples their ability to interact face-to-face • Development of blogging and the effect it can have on people even when it is not personal interaction ex. Blogspot, Tumblr, Twitter

7. Key idea # 6: “if students do not have much in common and do not belong to overlapping groups, then celebrity culture will attract most of their interest” • Students at Mighty Writers and the effects of the celebrity world that I’ve seen during my visits there • Nickelodeon, Musicians and Singers, and various artists or movies all bring the children together when the homework is unable to • The debate over which band is better during a previous visit shows that some of these kids do not have much in common with the other students at Mighty Writers, but they manage to interact with them through the usage of whether Big Time Rush or Victoria Justice was better. • Celebrities have a major impact on these kids and a lot of the students love to talk about them for their assignments rather than talk about something different

8. Key idea # 7: The overall importance of media in the classroom • The Articles discuss how kids using media for projects or media news and information or assignments can both be good and bad for the children and the classroom • Some kids in Mighty Writers who have done well and can successfully utilize the media world to get their point across for an assignment while others struggle to properly use these tools to succeed • Nayyir’s usage of the computer for an assignment compared to Nadia’s usage of the computer for an assignment. His consisted of going on a game website for Big Time Rush with no purpose or point, and her time consisted of looking up important media aspects to include into her creative writing, as well as time spent on a computer program that helps kids to improve their story writing and grammar.

9. conclusion • Lots of comparisons in these articles for Mighty Writers • The steps given in Levine’s article can directly relate to the field site in ways that will both teach and the tutor and teach the students in a more positive approach • The usage of media in Buckingham’s article compared to Mighty Writer’s usage of media for their own homework assignments and writing projects when it comes to productivity • Kids are hard to teach, especially when it comes to things that use electronics, technology, and subjects directly related to the media culture of our society