Mapping My Learning Ecology
The spider-web of learning
Understanding terminology often requires breaking down a word. When defining the word “learning ecology” one can understand learning as retaining knowledge about a specific topic or concept. That then leaves Ecology, meaning a relationship between things or the impact of the environment. Therefore when combining the two it would meaning understanding in the environment. How is our knowledge formed based of the environments that we live in everyday and how does our understanding change when our environment changes? What is the impact of our surroundings on our comprehension? As life progresses our understandings change, our perceptions change, and we also learn new point of views or new literacies. Which then brings into question, what are new literacies?
Evolving Literacies
New literacies are literacies that have evolved in some format. Another word to describe new literacies could be remix. As studied in class, a remix is a rendition or a change of something. A new literacy is a change in something. Content gets remixed therefore teaching us newer concepts and ideas. For example, I personally find out new literacies through means of social media such as Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Phrases or trends that are popular are also known as new literacies. The idea of liking someone’s post or sharing a video is in itself a spread of content and literacy. In our day, it is much easier to gain access to new literacies and literacies are evolving every single day. New ideas are presented and old ideas lose their value. Social media defines what a new literacy is because it spreads trends and spreads textual literacies that you wouldn’t use in everyday life such as hashtags and emojis.
Media literacies are literacies that can be built onto another literacy making it easier to understand and comprehend the other literacy. An example of this in my personal life is Grade School vs University. School from K-12 taught me basics about topics such as Math, English, Science and Social Studies. School also taught me the basics about programming and Computer Science. As a university student, I’m majoring in Computer Science. Initially when I started, had I not taken basic coding classes I wouldn’t have even known what computer science is. Not only did it give me exposure to one type of digital literacy, programming in C language, but it became much easier in college to dive deeper into the literacy and learn newer concepts. Same thing with programming languages. The structures are the same within each language, however ,there are different aspects to each language therefore making it so that each language has its own literacies.
Discourse can be broken down into communication between individuals either pertaining to similar interests or just general communication. Communication through a new media environment has brought people together in the tech age that probably wasn’t possible back in the day. When individuals share common interests and teach each other about their interests we call this participatory culture. An example of participatory culture is writing a fanfiction for a fandom that you are a part of or remixing a song of your favorite group that you may stan. For me personally, I like to teach my friends and family about my interests in the realm of Pokémon, Naruto, Harry Potter, and K-pop to name a few. Sharing some of the literacies that are used within these fandoms raises awareness to my family and friends around me giving them an idea of the type of person I am. In all honesty, I don’t spend a lot of time on stan Twitter for this very reason:
Throughout my life I’ve noticed that my learning ‘brokers’ have all been interconnected. Even the things that you wouldn’t think are connected in one way or another end up connecting to each other. I like to break down my learning into four categories, professional, spiritual, personal interest, and social. Coming from an immigrant family there are some ideologies that we follow that others wouldn’t. However, the benefit for me is that I am aware of both of those ideologies and where both sides come from. For example, in traditional American culture the idea that if you don’t have any money or scholarships then you have to get a student loan or not go to college. However, in my tradition its the parents’ duty to give the child an education and loans are very uncommon because of religious restrictions. Our culture focuses heavily on family. These small comparisons between the two cultures gives me a wider spectrum of knowledge on what aspects of culture are logical on one side and what aren’t. Learning about my ethnic culture comes from my family, our cultural media, and our out-of-country experiences. Learning about American culture comes from friends, media, and news outlets. Another key aspect to my life is my religion. I learned the basics through family but when expanding my knowledge I had to learn through religious scriptures and medias such as YouTube. Religion too can be considered as a part of my cultural learning. Academically, as mentioned prior, I learned basics through school such as English, Math, Science, Social Studies, History, etc. However, as I grew older I began to realize that it wasn’t just the education system that brokered by knowledge when it came to academics. It was also the different connections I made through professors and networking with individuals that were a part of my field of study. On the topic of networking, networking has taught me a lot of social practices. Networking has taught me how important communication is, what types of things aren’t normal to say, how physicality is important in a conversation, how to start conversations etc. Networking isn’t just limited to professionals. Social practices I learned through my friends and family got me through a large chunk of my life and still continue to. As far as Civic duties go, I learned once again through my family and through the educational system. Learning through news media about injustices around the world has also motivated me to work harder to bring that justice or that small change. School has always taught me that even a tiny change can be considered a huge one in someone else’s life. Doing your role in society is important and shouldn’t be something that you neglect and you determine that role through the various mediums of learning. In fact currently in China there is a genocide happening in the area of Xinjiang. Earlier this year, I created this video to spread the message and rare awareness since a lot of people aren’t wary.
The internet has become a big place to learn and has become a better broker than some parents or teachers these days. I, as well as many others, have learned more through the internet than we could have through teachers and parents. Not only is the internet a good source to learn, it presents us with entertainment and communication too. You can learn a lot even through entertainment mediums such as movies and music. Something I find myself learning from are Korean dramas and variety shows. Although I have been on and off with studying the Korean language I feel that I have learned a lot just by hearing the repetition in the dramas and shows. I consider myself to be a visual and hands-on learner so reading subtitles has helped my vocab immensely. Social media has also been a huge asset to learning. I learn a lot about different cultures and traditions through online communication with people around the world. It’s also become much easier because of the internet otherwise I used to hear stories about writing letters that would take days for the other person to receive. My learning ecology can be seen as a tree where each branch is connected to learning in some way or to each other. Sure, there are traditional ways of learning like school but the internet is also a huge place for me to learn. An individual’s learning ecology can be so variant in this age and I think that’s something that sets everyone apart.
