The first, the difference between brand and branding. He eloquently alludes to a brand as emergent from conversation, as organic through interactions over time, an image, and it is over time that these interactions shape our image of something – in this case a brand. That brand management is the process by which an emergent brand image is influenced – not controlled, and the role of public, private enterprises in this.

The second, the emergence of brand image. Brands have always been emergent, emergent over time in our minds in how we think, interact with and talk with others about them. However now with growing user-generated social technologies from Facebook to YouTube, Twitter and blogging platforms, a brand is not just emergent in our minds/perceptions or between other of our immediate social circles, but increasingly emergent from a partnership between public-private enterprises and the wider community on a mass scale. A brand is emergent from community conversations, community interactions, a social web of people bought together by their interest and/or action about a brand.

The third, the importance of brand community. This view of a brand emergent from community lends itself much to the the thinking of Albert Muniz and Thomas O’Guinn in their (2001) paper on Brand Community. Wherein a community sharing similar rituals and traditions, history and moral responsibility form a community around a brand, what they term a brand community. A community that regulates and inspires the brands meaning and in this can also harm the brand image.

And lastly, how everything communicates. Everything we do, say, share and cocreate communicates – be it the image of a person, place, organisation, movement, idea or product. These interactions cocreate meaning over time, something not new to social anthropologists interested in media and social research. However, today social and search technologies play an increasing role in their aggregation for search, retrieval and mass sharing.

As everything communicates, and social/search technologies give greater emphasis to the communities of conversations, with this comes new mindsets and digital social literacies. Literacies not just for professionals in organisational communication who attempt to ‘manage’ brand image (and more often than not think they own the brand and thus try to control it), but also the digital social literacies of personal-professional communication across most industries and professions – teachers, artists, politicians, nurses, doctors to name but a few.

In summary, this an interesting example and philosophy of emergent branding through/from community, using the example of Rebranding Greece. Here is the video. Please share.

Smiles

Kelly

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My coauthor, Professor Mark Uncles (UNSW), and I have for a long time been interested in how we consider and regard usage of digital media, wherein penetration, access, usage and engagement strongly differ and also have parallels. We have also been interested in how those with and without website design experience differ in their perceptions of what is and isn’t digital media participation and what is of value in its consideration. We developed a paper exploring these issues. In this we consider how the professional context within which we work, shapes and guides our understanding of digital media participation and our own participation. This lends insight to the importance of decision making teams drawing from differing backgrounds in digital decision making – that is, creatives, digital designers, marketers/communications personnel, community members/audiences and other stakeholders. We have written a paper on the subject, that is currently in-review. The abstract is provided below.

The Complexities of Digital Participation: Abstract

Digital media participation is central to the process of marketing communications planning and digital media management. In this paper we discuss the characteristics and dimensions of digital media participation, differentiate it from digital media penetration and as an example, specifically examine the influence of two user characteristics on digital web participation. In this example, we examine the effect that user web site design experience and perceptions of web usability has on digital web participation. Hypotheses are tested on two web user segments: web users with (n=1177) and without (n=900) web site design experience. Findings show that perceptions of web usability has a significant impact on digital web participation, but these effects vary depending on: 1) how digital web participation is defined and measured; and 2) if a user has or has not got past web site design experience. The findings help in our understanding of the complexity of digital media participation and the usage-context within which it is socially constructed. The characteristics and dimensions discussed in this paper are important bases for understanding users across differing categories of digital media participation and differing digital media contexts.

Source: Page, K. L. and Uncles, M. D. (Under Review). The Complexities of Digital Media Participation.

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In June this year I was asked to write a commentary about the use of Twitter in organizational communications for

@drkellypage the power of #personality on #twitter

With the growth of the digital technologies such as Twitter, organizations are increasingly adopting corporate and employee Twitter accounts. Seen as an alternative channel to the corporate website or customer call line Twitter is often mistakenly used to only push press releases, company news and customer service information into the ether in a wild attempt to build a twitter network. However, the social web is not about a traditional one-way mode corporate communications, it is about conversation, participation and social brand equity. It is about engaging with the communities within which your organization coexists.

Twitter accounts are managed and used by people (or persons) and it is these individuals that give a Twitter handle (e.g., @drkellypage) their personal conversational tone and personality. People follow, friend and connect to people, not press releases or automated twitter services. It is this personality and digital social skill that make for the best twitter accounts to follow. It is how an individual uses tone and their own voice to converse, that is to Tweet, Reply, Retweet (RT) and direct message (DM) that grows followers and friends and gets your Twitter handle listed. Importantly, it is also the mindset an individual managing a Twitter account and their organization have in how they approach the notion of conversation and sharing with and about others not just themselves, that helps build sustainable and sticky social networks.

Individual personality is important, so to in corporate contexts is the need to be professional and responsible with regard to what, whom and in what way we Tweet. Twitter is a public space indexed by Google, searchable and retrievable by Twitter. In this anything you Tweet can be RT by others and cited in other channel contexts. For those considering or currently managing either their own individual or a corporate Twitter account, I’ve listed a number of elements important to consider for the development of healthy, social and sustainable Twitter networks

Communication style

Twitter is about listening, sharing and conversing with others, not shouting or promoting. Think – listen & share with others don’t think talk & tell to others. Listening is important. You don’t have to tweet all the time, a RT is a good way to ease yourself into the conversation and slowly build your Twitter network.

Approach

You can either adopt a mind cast, life cast or combination approach to Twitter (and the social web). Life casting is more personal about what ‘you’ are doing (e.g., getting the train, having a coffee). Mind casting is a more professional tone associated with what you are doing, thinking and believing associated with your professional activities (e.g., Launching our new brand design today). As people follow people often a combination is more often better to develop social bonds within a social network (e.g., had a great meeting with Simon about the new branding design today).

Communication Tone

Develop your own tone and voice in synergy with the organizations values. But be your professional self. Be approachable and friendly. Consider ‘would I say or share this to one or a room full of people’ on behalf or in association with the organization.

Private Twitter

Use direct messages (DM) for private, sensitive information such as phone numbers, email address and time/location for meet ups. Remember Twitter is Google indexed.

Twitter Reach

Remember not everyone is on Twitter or even knows what it is, let alone how to use it. So although corporate partners might use it, individuals in the wider community might not. So don’t default to Twitter as your main point of contact. Twitter, email and office number are the best contact options to be accessible to all.

Internal Communications

Twitter is not just about external communications, it is also a useful channel to find out what else is going on in other parts of your organization. Follow other employees and departments in your organization.

Followers

Think about whom you would like to follow in terms of what conversations you want to be part of, learn about or think you should be involved with. Start by looking at your email address book and the professional association or organization partners in your industry.

Creating Lists

Lists a useful ways to organize who you are following into meaningful categories. It makes sifting through the large volume of tweets you receive. Developing lists of key people, organizations or association in your industry of interest to you, your organization and to share with your followers.

#hashtags

#hashtags are a useful way to categorise a stream of tweets about a specific topic. The more often a specific #hashtag is used the more popular or ‘trendy’ the topic. #hastags are also used around events to organize tweets from the event into one search stream.

Sustainability

Twitter is a not about short-term gain through campaign-led communications approach. It is about ongoing development and growth through dialogue. Take your time to developing a few Twitter habits, these are important for sustained activity. For example, when, where and for how long you use it a day? Which platform you most like to use to manage your account (e.g., Tweetdeck)?

Most importantly, be real and use your best judgment in what, how and to whom you converse.

Smiles
Kelly

* Cardiff News is the newsletter for staff and friends of Cardiff University. It features news and events, latest research, staff and student achievements. You can download

Source: Page, K. L. (2011) The power of #personality on #twitter, Cardiff News, Vol. 17 (7), p. 6.

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Collaborative learning has a diverse meaning, from group or team-based working, to peer-to-peer interaction on shared tasks. With the rise in dynamic ubiquitous digital technologies has provided another rich layer to collaborative learning as the need to learn how to collaborate now coexists with the need to learn how to use digital technologies.

Digital Mediated Collaborative Learning

Given the growth in digital media and its functionality to support and mediate team-based activities, we are seeing a rise in the interest in the use of digital tools to support and mediate collaborative learning, called digital mediated collaborative learning (hereafter DMCL). This study explores the use of Wiki technology for DMCL.

Commonly termed a Wiki, like Blogs and RSS, Wiki’s have been dubbed ‘social software’ because they facilitate social connections allowing users to develop digital content, collaboratively and open to a public. The term became synonymous with collaborative website design after programmer Ward Cunningham pioneered it in 1995 to discuss software design that enabled community content co-creation. However, wiki use for/in collaborative learning is no easy task. It requires the unlearning of old models socialized in a mindset of ‘I learn’ to the learning of new norms, processes and mindsets of ‘we learn’. Couple this with complex digital tools and the landscape for learning becomes quite complicated for the even the most digitally literate.

Limited past research exists on the use of Wiki’s in the contexts of management higher education or management learning and professional development. In this study we therefore reviewed the literature of two relevant situated contexts for the use of Wiki’s to our research study, the use of Wiki’s in management practice and the use of Wiki’s education.

The dominant discourse in management practice is the use of Wiki technology for productivity gains in the achievement of organizational goals (e.g., reduce cost, time, increase security, access) in project management and information sharing. In contrast in education, the focus is on the people and group learning. In this, the evolving paradigm around Wiki’s in education is focused on ‘learning to write and/or collaborate’, on text and interaction and the promotion of deep learning experiences, both in and outside the classroom, not just on technology and/or productivity’.

Drawing from these studies, we devised A Wiki Way of Learning to curricular design and trialed it’s use in two cohorts of postgraduate management education students.

A Wiki Way of Learning Trial

In the academic year 2008/2009 I introduced Wiki’s into my 8-week MBA Marketing Research class of 52 students to trial their use as the students worked on research projects in groups of 8-10. I designed the entire learning experience to work with the Wiki’s, from the class room activities, the group project, my involvement as module coordinator and the Wiki’s functional design in coexistence. I didn’t just tack on Wiki’s to a group project and tell the students to go off and use it, I designed the learning objectives and the project around weekly Wiki tasks, monitored student progress each week, provided weekly feedback and offered incentives. The Wiki was not just part of the group project, it was part of every class lecture and discussion.

The feedback from the students was very positive receiving the highest student ratings across all modules on the MBA (i.e., 4.7/5), and qualitative student insights into how it contributed to their learning experience. However, what I couldn’t report was insight to two very important questions:

1. Did the use of Wiki’s have a positive or negative impact on their learning of the module content?
2. What role did student levels of digital literacy play in their learning and Wiki experience?

With this first years learning of how to design and integrate Wiki’s into a management class environment, in the 2nd year I empirically explored these questions.

A Wiki Way of Learning Study

In the academic year 2009/2010 I continued the use of Wiki’s in my 8-week MBA Marketing Research class of 62 students, but this year I explored the interplay of student digital literacy, knowledge and Wiki use on domain learning and the quality of the student learning experience.

Findings from this study indicate a significant positive relationship between Wiki use and student domain learning as evidence by student performance in a multiple choice revision quiz (in class) and essay examination. The more pages and lines students edited, the higher their overall performance during revision and examination.

Consistent with the literature on digital literacy and knowledge, the study also revealled significant differences in student digital literacy, knowledge and Wiki use between male and female students. Female MBA students self-reported lower levels of digital literacy and knowledge than their male peers, however from log-file data female report significantly higher levels of Wiki use during the project. So even though the female students might under report or have less confidence in their perception of their skills and knowledge with digital technology, doesn’t necessarily mean they will use them any less than their male peers. This poses an interesting question for how we measure and evaluate digital literacy.

My Final Thoughts …

This was a great study to conduct with my students, one of great learning for them about using Wiki’s to collaborate to cocreate a project, and for me on how we integrate technology into learning contexts. I think this is important to inspire not just the learning of a domain or module content, but the learning of and about digital technology through the situated practice of ‘doing’, as opposed to telling.

Digital literacy, knowledge and learning is increasingly critical for management students and professionals of today and tomorrow. As management educators in higher education, it is imperative that we explore, study and adopt new and differing methods for digital mediated learning in our curricular, designing the learning experience with digital media as part of it, not separate to it or an add on, to ensure our students have the neccessary knowledge and skills to participate effectively in a world of dynamic ubiquitous digital mediation.

Thanks

Many thanks to Shashank Garg and Jennifer Smith, postgraduate students at Cardiff University for their research assistance in data collection; and the MBA Marketing Research Classes of 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 at Cardiff Business School for their participation. We’d also like to thank Professor Emmanuel Ogbonna, Lisa L’Homme and Neil Wellard who direct and manage the Cardiff MBA for their ongoing support and assistance during these studies.

Smiles

Kelly

p.s. for a copy of the draft manuscript currently under review, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

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1. Do we know what we mean by Digital Media learning and participation and do we agree?

No, we don’t, and probably given the many number of disciplines from which DML is informed (be it education, literacy, languages, arts, digital communications, political science, psychology, anthropology etc), we probably never will.

• There are many sides to digital media and specifically, digital media learning in that we can learn a) about digital media (as in skills and knowledge of the technologies); b) from digital media (as in its impact on society); c) through digital media (in that it is a channel to share information); and/or d) with digital media in that it is participatory learning we do everyday as we use digital media and as through emersion in simulations of real-world situations.

• Digital media participation is another concept for interpretation. At DML 2010 we referred to participation with others and participation with digital media and in this raises the differentiation – is it just about behaviour and usage  OR a bigger idea of being ‘part’ of something, part of the digital media space. OR as raised by Sonia Livingstone, is it actually not about participation at all – but engagement with digital media?

In this can we actually have a concise definition or really should we define participation, engagement and learning … for fear it might constrain us?

2. What do youth struggle with, with respect to Digital Media?

I’d say a lot more than we actually know or can dream of ever knowing.

A number of issues were raised relative to race, access and resources – such as time and money accessibility and availability. But this was only on the surface of the issues of what youth struggles. What about their feelings as to what is expected of them in this space, to be more responsible and mature, to have the skills of what as been labeled a ‘digital native’. Rising societal concerns about digital access, digital divide, digital literacy, time, money and resources all paint an all but dark and confusing space of youth digital media participation.

Yet more often than not we see reports of how a great many youth are online? How their skills are more advanced than other cohorts given their emersion in digital media based on year of birth. And in this we ignore the socio-cultural conditions within which youth learn, use, talk about and engage with digital media.

I wonder, can we really look through their eyes, and paint a picture of how they see the world … or are we forever misinterpreting it with labels, themes, and our interpretation of their words and behaviour in talks and presentations based on our world view … and in this where is the child’s voice! Why are they not part of this discourse …

That actually was another notable omission from the conference – youth, as where teachers, parents … perhaps by being more inclusive next year we can see more of the picture as others paint it … through MORE video, audio, and their active participation in the DML2011!

3. What does the Internet add to everything in a childs life?

In this I think is an important question not just relative to traditional learning or educational formats, but what does it add in all facets of a childs life – be it socially, emotionally, education, fun and creativity, learning and social bonds …. It is possible it can add so much but in as much as it adds, it also detracts … but in this I don’t just think of children or youth. I think we should think of the many members in our communities … parents, teachers, researchers … for they too play a critical role in youth education, learning and digital media engagement.

But like the wide adoption of the many innovations, be it technological or not, often the benefits and negatives of innovation are often only realized in hindsight, through adoption, usage and reflection of societal, community and system evolution because of these technologies.

4. What does youth digital engagement [not participation] look like?

One view. In psychology the notion of involvement is discussed, wherein individuals have a differing propensity to being interested (or engaged) with a domain (e.g., football). With this individuals may be more or less enduring or situationally involved.

• Enduring: In that they love an area and thus talk about it, read about it, and participate in it often and with great intensity and attention. A professional football player or avid gamer might be an example.

• Situational: Where as others are influenced by a situation or context that may not be ongoing, but in arising influences the level of attention, interest and activity of that individual toward the domain. For example, a college student who only occasionally plays football when the summer tournament arises or the father who takes his son to football every Saturday not because he ‘loves’ football but his son does, or the friend who doesn’t really like a video game but plays it because his/her friend wants to.

In this the motives for interaction and participation differ with intensity and duration, but stem beyond  simple considerations of behaviour e.g., ‘how frequently they play football’ or ‘play a game’ to include a more wholestic view of an individuals involvement, feelings, perceptions, view and use of the domain – such as digital media.

In essence though this is but one view. Engagement is a much deeper and richer and in that more complex than participation, and in that more important to learning and the exploration as to what fosters digital media engagement in youth.

5. What is it we want youth to learn?

In this it is dependent on the perspective taken, the world view adopted and the domain of specific interest. In brief:

• Perspective: How is digital media positioned within the notion of learning? In this, they can learn from many differing perspectives – such as learning from, through, with or about digital media.

• Discipline/Field: From which disciplines could their learning be situated in (be it one or many): sociology, education, learning, literacy, psychology, arts, literacy, communications, anthropology, digital media, information technology … and I’m sure I’ve missed many more

• Domain: What is it we want them to learn about – privacy, security, social networks and social intelligence, emotional intelligence, behavioural skills, technical design, communication skills, creativity and innovation etc ….

6. Are we overestimating a child’s digital skills?

Perhaps we are overestimating a child’s digital skills and in many spaces not even considering the digital skills (as much) for other members of our community – such as young adults, teachers, parents, lecturers, researchers, business and wider community … we all being influenced and expected to use/interact or learn about digital media and therefore we all have digital media literacy needs and we are all connected …

7. Are we as academics in this space and digital media professionals advocate DM too much? Do we not have a responsibility and a need to be more critical?

Perhaps in this (similar to the doc com crash of the 90’s) we are focusing too much on the hype and promised opportunity of a technological innovation; our access to the plethora of data and subjects; and driven by the endless need to publish – due to institutional expectations – and stay informed and up-to-date.

With this comes normative behaviour to conform and to agree in order to survive and NOT to be left behind. These questions above and more critical questions we most certainly should be asking, not just of ourselves, but of the designers and engineers of the digital media space, and the markets/communities that adopt, use and ESPECIALLY promote them (i.e., the marketing and business profession), not just us that research and study them.

It is with this that the next post refers to why as a marketing academic in a business school I made the trek to DML 2010, to explore differing approaches and meet like mind colleagues, who although see the world through a different lense, can afford me the questions to help explore further why Digital Media Learning – and specifically knowledge, skills and literacy is critical for not just youth, but also for the business and marketing community of the 21st century!

Smiles
Kelly

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Following the chair’s introduction by Dr. Henry Jenkins, the opening keynote talk was delivered by S. Craig Watkins. Highly regarded for his research about race, youth and digital media usage and his books, The Young and the Digital and Hip Hop Matters. He was invited to join the MacArthur Foundation Series on Youth, Digital Media and Learning.

With this in mind and with no experience in this area I was looking forward to hearing the perspective from which he considers this space. Below is provided a few key insights I took out of his keynote talk:

• SCW Insight: The conversation around youth use of digital media and the digital divide as a racial ravine has changed. Black and latino youth are using technology and the degree of engagement has evolved considerably since 1998?

Here he poses the audience to reflect on what this conference might have looked like in 1998, over ten years ago in terms of race and usage?

• SCW Insight: If we ask them [youth] if they use and access – it assumes they are not connected for a certain period of the day? They are in fact using social media ‘more’ than heir white counterparts.

He presents to the audience a number of emergent patterns about black and latino youth usage, which challenged historical views about black and latino participation in the digital media space:

1. Usage is mobile: Mobile phones are merging as the preferred platform. 92% own a mobile phone …
2. Usage is peer and Interest driven: They are ‘Living and learning’ with new media …  engaging their peers … peer interaction … peer informed spaces that drive their usage and interest driven genres (e.g., hip hop)…
3. Use digital media is the new town square: ‘Back in the day’ .. hip hop … youth always writing stories, carrying pens and papers, documenting  their stories about their life in poems and hip hop … today, the digital landscape is the new town square about hip hop … they go online to engage with their community, and engage in a ‘stunning’ critique about the world around them ….
4. Use digital media as a space of opportunity: Messaging & hanging around in digital media is NOT just wasting time, but they are creating gateways for them to create opportunities and engage with what they are love and passionate about … e.g., a young girl who used hip hop to connect with hip hop artists, but also to connect with her friends and record/tweet about her own hip hop …

He goes on to discuss the affinity between social media and hip hop (e.g., mobility, DIY, peer-based learning, participatory, view of them in their world) and summarises some key tenants of what they have learnt so far about black and latino youth in the digital media space:

1. Black youth capital is about – ‘keepin it real in the digital age’
2. Black cultural capital wherein “soft skills” and code switching in/between digital and real world is important. Soft skills he defines as the ways people interact with others, esp. how they talk … black and latino youth profiles in digital space, how they present themselves, their linguistic practices, these styles of behaviour suit their peers, but not perhaps the wider/formal view of the world (e.g., getting a job).
3. Creating and critiquing expression and peer-group connection: Digital media is the space where they grapple with their own fears and their own concerns and peer-group connection. He gives an example of New Orleans and Katrina and how a young boys digital media practices changed before (i.e., didn’t use/value Myspace) and after Katrina (e.g., place to express and reconnect with his peers, post evacuation.
4. Creating and critiquing the politics of race and place … public memorials, grieving and engagement with social issues… are engaging with differing skills and life experiences and these life experiences are shaping their interaction and participation in the digital world.
5. Creating and critiquing in any place through digital space … Black/Latino … more likely than white via handheld … more reliable than home access and in these places they feel ‘policed’, not so with mobile technologies … mobile becomes an empowered space in any place …

In summary, S. Craig Watkins poses some interesting insights into not just the usage of black and latino youth with digital  media, disposing the historical view of the 1990’s of the synergy between race and digital divide .. but also sharing his learning on black and latino youth in the digital space … their experiences, values and in his words ‘how they are in this world’ (S. Craig Watkins, DML-2010).

From this delivery I felt an additional area worth exploring:

1. In addition to how black and latino youth use, are, see, interact and participate in the digital media space, how does digital media make black and latino youth feel as part of this experience? This question comes from an exploratory study with MedisSnackers in the UK that I was fortunate to be part of entitled: The Web Makes Me Feel!

Smiles
Kelly

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Tonight in the Chair’s introduction to the DML 2010 conference, Dr. Henry Jenkins posed some interesting insights into what is emerging and what we are facing when it comes to Digital Media Learning …asking the delegates to consider more widely diversifying participation in learning communities …

From this introduction I tried to capture a number of key insights … a colleague and friend of mine, DK from MediaSnackers, a social media organisation specialising in engaging youth-based organisations, once spoke that he endeavours to make people either ‘think’ or ‘smile’ from his talks, meetings or conversations. Well tonight Henry Jenkins … most certainly made me think …

Below are a number of the key insights I took out of Henry Jenkins talk …

• HJ Insight: John Fiske noted in the 80’s and 90’s that we don’t control the cultural foundations of civilisation, we participate in them, but we don’t control them.

John Fiske published Media Matters, one of his most important work, were he examined a series of political/media events to show how America was struggling with –- and against — becoming a multiracial and multicultural society.

• HJ Insight: We are participating today more than ever! Enabling people to grow and learn in many distinctive ways.

• HJ Insight: Participatory culture – Jenkins notes that a participatory culture and web 2.0 are often terms used interchangeably but that they are not one in the same. Web 2.0 is important but it ignores a culture older than the Internet

Particpatory culture is defined by Jenkins, et al, (2006) as:

1. With relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement
2. With strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations with others
3. With some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices
4. Where members believe that their contributions matter
5. Where members feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least they care what other people think about what they have created).

Jenkins, et al, (2006) notes, that not every member must contribute, but all must believe they are free to contribute when ready and that what they contribute will be appropriately valued. A great quote: “Participatory culture shifts the focus of literacy from one of individual expression to community involvement.” (Jenkins, et al, 2006)

• HJ Insight: Digital divide is not just about access, it is about social and cultural skills in human networks to enable proper participation …

Jenkins quotes Fiske who observed that ‘we now have new opportunities to struggle’ … noting that struggle has gone on for centuries … but with evolution in society and culture comes new opportunities to struggle …

• HJ Insight: Henry Jenkins concludes by calling the DML 2010 conference to be about .. asking questions, challenging approaches and viewpoints and in that the conference is inclusive .. including people not included before … from diverse cultures to challenge together … where digital media can go … and the future landscape of digital media learning ….

This last comment I welcome. I don’t come from specifically a media or education background, I’m based within a business school … but I research knowledge and perceptions (psychology) of digital media relative to adult users. The remit to explore how the knowledge and learning between more technically knowledgeable users/creators (e.g., designers) differs/informs a wider (and perhaps less technical) community of users in which they both co-exist with each other …

This last insight made me both think and smile:

• HJ Insight: The origin of LOL!?! Henry Jenkins also informed the delegates of the true origin of LOL – espousing it’s origin lies not in the Internet-based technologies … but in the evolution of a country-wide social network in the late 1860′s that became known as the Amateur Press Association … Food for thought!

In summary, an engaging introduction to what poses to be an interesting conference …

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Dr David Theo Goldberg & Dr Heather Horst from UCHRI opened the conference outlining the digital media and learning initiative Digital Media and Learning Research Hub that was launched over 4 years ago with the idea to bring together scholars, practioners and society with a focus on ‘education and learning’ through, with and about digital media technologies.

With this they pose a number of questions for consideration over the new few days:

1. Are young people learning differently because of digital media?
2. What does learning or what will it look like over the next 5, 10 15, years?
3. How will/does education  prepare our children for the 21^st century?

Interesting questions to reflect on, which I’ll no doubt revisit on Sunday, when the conference has come to a close, but the conversation will surely continue. But here I raise perhaps another question to ponder about when thinking of participation and inclusivity in learning communities to include ‘ALL’ learners:

4. How will/does education (about, with and through digital media) prepare us (adults, teachers, educators, parents) for the 21st century and esp. for (youth) community engagement and learning?

Learning and education does not stop when we move beyond a youth classification. I’m excited by this focus of the conference, but also will reflect in the context of all communities – youth, younger adults, formal, informal for ‘life-long’ learning. Developing skills, knowledge and dare I say it ‘expertise’ for participation in these diverse learning communities about, through and with digital media.

Why? So we can ALL participate in this emerging socio-technical culture that is influencing learning and education, esp. with youth and younger adults who are more deeply emersed and participating.

Be it from an education, government, public policy or business community – developing skills and understanding learning and knowledge of digital media in ‘adult education’ (e.g., higher education, ongoing professional development), also calls for consideration. For can these communities of learning practice be separated? Should they? Or in effect … what can we learn from each other?

This is the very nature of participation in learning communities … we are all learning and educating …  and sometimes we (adults) are the student, sometimes the teacher … esp. when it comes to digital media!

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