Convergence Culture

Convergence culture can be described as the collision of commercial media production and amateur media production. Today, mass media has to compete with and / or integrate the production of amateur produced projects which arrive via web 2.0, cell phones or other capture devices. The implications on todays education process of this convergence culture is becoming greater everyday. Today's students and educators are not only consumers of the mass media but also producers of their own forms of expression and technologies and often the blend the commercial with their own amateur (or rather non-commercial, as often many self produced productions do border on the professional) productions. Exposure to, and use of the internet and other tech devices is inevitable for todays students. Preparation of the student to understand the implications of their use of technologies is critical to allow for their responsible use of such. Schools necessarily need to limit access students have to devices, internet of other media until they demonstrate they have the intellecual capacities and responsibilty to use this participatory culture in a meaningful way. Fortunately for schools, tools such as parental locks, and content managers exist which can aid in limiting what students can participate in or view. Although, I am no fan of censorship, of course an instructor can not predict what a student's parents may want them exposed to and thus a degree of limitation is needed.