mark lipton

Knowledge Futures Forum, Emory University, October 20-21, 2011

Goizueta Business School, Emory University, Boynton Auditorium, Room  E130

Re-Generation: Envisioning New Relations to Media, Civics, Work, & Learning

This Knowledge Futures Forum considers the impact of generational differences for learning, working, and being civically engaged in the 21^st century.

Thursday October 20^th

4:00  Opening Remarks by Benn Konsynski and Provost Earl Lewis

4:30  Positioning the Idea of Re-Generation Debra Vidali (Anthropology, Emory University)

5:30  Media and Civic (Dis)Engagement: Generational Divides and Prospects

A discussion on the connections between media &  civic engagement.  How do various media formats and forums both hinder and enable civic engagement?   Is the media-democracy relationship broken?  To what degree is the ‘decline of serious journalism’ a reality, and how might this issue play out differently among different generations, or in different international contexts?  What are the promises and prospects for using new (& old) media for renewed civic engagement?

Panelists:   Mark Lipton (School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph, Canada); Mark Bauerlein (English, Emory University); Sam Cherribi (Sociology, Emory University); Sissel McCarthy (Journalism, Emory University).   Moderator: Hank Klibanoff (James M. Cox, Jr. Professor of Journalism, Emory University)

8:00  Film Race to Nowhere: The Dark Side of America’s Achievement Culture

Friday October 21^st

8:30  Welcome & Overview

9:00  Media Education, ICTs, and the Cultivation of Engaged Citizenship Mark Lipton (School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph, Canada)

What forms of knowledge and what kinds of competencies are required to use media in the 21^st century?  Technical know-how is not enough.  How do people learn to use media and new communication technologies in intelligent, informed ways as resources for learning, expression, and connection?  The field of media education has extensive curricula aimed at helping young people to develop these capacities.  Based on his research with elementary and secondary teachers, Lipton examines some of the obstacles and opportunities in media education approaches for the cultivation of engaged citizenship.

10:15  Talk’n Bout Re-Generation: Disruptive Patterns in Work and Learning

An overview of generational workplace considerations, followed by a lively discussion among business professionals representing Millennials, Gen Xers, and Boomers.  What are the significant cross-generational interactions and challenges?  What are the new prospects and opportunities that emerge from the changing face of the workforce?  Topics include: communication styles, feedback and assessment, use and adoption of technologies, and work/life/career expectations.

Panelists: Chad Thayer 11BBA (Goizueta Scholar; Summer Associate, Kurt Salmon Capital Advisors), Dan Pious 12MBA (formerly with New England Financial; $1 million winner, The Amazing Race 16), Renu Kulkarni (Founder and Executive Director, FutureMedia, Georgia Institute of Technology; former Vice President of Technology Partnerships, Motorola), Chip Gross (Client Partner, Razorfish; former Marketing Manager, UPS), and Gail Norris (Director, Industry Solutions Division, Siemens Industry Inc.).  Moderator: Andrea Hershatter (Goizueta Business School, Emory University)

11:45  Collaboration and Creativity in the Remix Era: Knowledge Futures for the University of the 21^st Century

A discussion of how disruptive technology might be used to revolutionize higher education.  How do technological advances afford new possibilities to experiment with the very shape, structure, and content of the university?  What are some of the diverse and possibly competing visions of higher education in the twenty-first century?  What does generation mean in this context?

Speaker:  Richard DeMillo, Director Center for 21^st Century Universities (Georgia Institute of Technology).  Respondents:  Rosemary Magee (Vice President and Secretary, Emory University; Chair, Creativity: Art and Innovation); Steve Everett (Director, Center for Faculty Development and Excellence, Emory University); Benn Konsynski (George S. Craft Professor of Business Administration, Goizueta Business School, Emory University)

12:45  Concluding Comments Kevin Corrigan (Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts, Emory University)

Location:  Goizueta Business School, Emory University.  Boynton Auditorium, Room E130.  This event is free and open to the public, but guests must register online by Wednesday, October 19.   For more information:  Halle Institute for Global Learning and  RE-GENERATION Initiative on Facebook

Sponsors: Claus M. Halle Institute for Global Learning ● Goizueta Business School ● Re-Generation Initiative ● Film and Media Studies ● Office of University-Community Partnerships ● Center for Faculty Development and Excellence ● Division of Educational Studies ● French and Italian Studies ● Emory Critical Media Literacy Group ● Hightower Fund

“Facebook as a Functional Tool & Critical Resource”

Watch for my latest article about teaching with Facebook in R. Trebor Scholz’s newest collection entitled “Learning through Digital Media: Experiments in Technology and Pedagogy.”

Despite much controversy, I have taken up Facebook as a digital tool in my large lecture halls for a variety of reasons using a number of pedagogical approaches. I challenge myself to consider the social media world from the point of view of today’s students. The aims of this short essay are to identify my motivations for using Facebook, describe methods and practices of this classroom use as a functional tool and critical resource, then to discuss current pedagogical challenges.

As a faculty of media, it is important to teach both about and through digital tools. Teaching about Facebook includes contextual information about its social, cultural, and historical dimensions; teaching through Facebook includes the praxis of using this tool (along with or in conjunction with others) to both process and distribute information. Kirsten Drotner (2008) reframes this discourse about digital media pedagogy by asking whether digital or multimodal literacy should be “defined as a functional tool or as a critical resource?” (182). Simply put, my answer is both.

On October 23, 2010 the Association for Media Literacy hosted a conference at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

Invited Speaker Mark Lipton (University of Guelph and the Media Education Project) explains how teachers can use social media as functional tools and critical resources to support their professional learning networks. Teaching ‘about’ media and ‘through’ media, teachers can negotiate the barriers and benefits of media literacy in the classroom, as well as develop student’s 21st Century learning skills, such as collaboration and connectivity.

Check out his interview with the Association for Media Literacy:

Video also available from the Association for Media Literacy’s YouTube Channel.  Thanks to Paul Baines for conducting this interview and his work for the Association.

Who’s in Boston for ACME & NCMR? ACME begins Thursday April 7th, 2011. The National Conference for Media Reform begins the following day.

The Action Coalition for Media Education is a national media education organization working to promote independent media education. ACME is the only national media education organization that does not take money from corporate media. This is ACME’s sixth national conference. Others have been held in New Mexico, California, Vermont, Tennessee and Minnesota. ACME conferences are exceedingly involved in activism for media reform; thus, Mark Lipton will also participate in the National Conference for Media Reform.

Mark Lipton is presenting as part of the Technology Track; Session four, (Thursday April 7th 2011) 2:15–3:30, in the Winthrop Room of the Boston Park Plaza Hotel.

Twitter, Facebook and Social Media Literacy: Equity, Pedagogy and the Use of Twitter to Build Professional Learning Networks

21st Century Skills can be defined as the capacity to engage in lifelong learning (i.e., self-directed and collaborative inquiry) and connectedness (i.e., communication and collaboration with experts and peers around the world). As teachers begin to adopt the latest technologies as part of their teaching practice, social media becomes both a critical resource and a functional tool. For example, Facebook can be a classroom management tool as well as a way to provide lessons about online privacy and behavior; Twitter can provide a backchannel for class participation while functioning as a resource for professional sharing and collaboration. To these ends, this presentation first reviews approaches to media education that weigh the differences between media access and digital equity, then outlines current research describing teachers’ barriers to media integration and finally considers such examples by addressing pedagogical models and examples. Ongoing research suggests that nearly half of freshly minted teachers leave the profession within five years; the goal of this session is to add value to any teacher’s learning networks.

Follow Lipton’s presentation here: