How does the project detailed in the video support research process that consistent with the kind of research people encounter in the workplace?
Workplace research is typically a broader based, collaborative effort than one will find in an educational institution. In education students are typically given very define parameters, and listing of resources. Very little independent thought is encouraged in traditional student research.
The entire project, which includes Deforest Action, is multi-level, collaborative and integrative. A group of concerned individuals have identified a problem and individuals and organizations are working collaboratively to find a solution.
Participants in the program, who traveled to the jungle performed various types of independent research to personally prepare for their journey. The success in the program was due in part to this personal preparation as well from the organized collaboration with outside sources such as Microsoft. It is likely, although not provable, that many of those who applied for the project began their independent research journey at Wikipedia. The value of Wikipedia is maginified in the hands of a person with critical literacy skills and for students participating in this program, critical literacy was a crucial skill.
In traditional school research students are challenged to find an end result that is already known to the instructor. In work place research the end result is most often a product of independent and collaborative research that began at the bottom, was developed, fine tunes, and explored as a collaborative effort with the final result being a true cross section representation of multiple parts.
The transitional aspects of Deforest Action, would not be possible without this truly collaborative process.
Side note: I love the folkloric reference to the welcome spider. Understanding the beliefs and culture of the people aids in research and comprehension.
How does this project support new literacies?
In the 1960s study of monkeys and sign language was revolutionary, now through 21st Century technology orangetangs are communicating via their lips and touch screens! This is just one example of technology integration.
When one thinks about the massive amounts of technology that is used to capture satellite imagery, provide it to students for analysis, their processes in analyzing and mapping and sharing that data there is no doubt that 21st Century Skills are at work.
Understanding that these technologies meet the requirements of new literacies is critical. Old literacy was using sign language, 8 mm film, and still photographs to aid in research. New literacy is using touch screens, digital imagery, and have observers who are separated by thousands of miles from the research subjects utilizing technology to maintain the connection.
The four common elements to new literacy: new social practices, skills, stragetiges, etc., new literacies are central to full civic, economic, and personal participation in a global setting, rapidly changing technologies, and new literacies are multiple, multimodal, and multifaceted. (International Reading Association, 2009). An extensive review of this terminology would aid in the discussion, but time does not permit an indepth analysis. However, a Wikipedia search of "new literacies" shows an indepth look at the term and practical analysis. The resources listed include a variety of relevant papers, including work by Henry Jenkins.
As I have told people about my degree over the past 18 months I have received alot of blank stares, or even worse, encouragement that is a needed field (from those who just don't really have a clue). It is this uneducated outlook that makes me realize that even as we have reviewed the various types of literacy (basic, information, new etc.) that a challenge facing educators is not only the education of their students, but the incorporation of those same literacy skills in the student's support system. The following quote was a part of the very long introduction of a course video: "Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time." - Chinese Proverb, but it speaks volumes about the challenges faced in teaching new literacies.
Jenkins, Henry. (2008). Educause Learning Initiative. What can Wikipedia Teach Us About the New Media Literacies. http://hosted4.mediasite.com/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=a3224ae765a64c70a8e33ee164992f511d
International Reading Association. (2009). New Literacies and 21st Century Technologies. http://www.reading.org/Libraries/position-statements-and-resolutions/ps1067_NewLiteracies21stCentury.pdf
International Society for Technology in Education. (2012). ISTE 2012 Wednesday Keynote Dr. Willie Smits with Christopher Gauthier. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7-qjllPCOo
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