I'm working on a education & teaching question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.

Hi, this is a writing response of about 3 paragraphs.

Prompt and overview:

Wikipedia and other wikis are sustained by the collaborative contributions of many individuals. This week, we will take a slightly different look at how interacting in online networks and spaces can also support different forms of learning and culture. Much of the work in this area has been primarily focused on youth use of social media; however, as we saw during our exploration of wiki case studies, participatory culture also extends to adults of different ages and with different foci.

Our main focus this week is to identify how youth engage in participatory culture; we will experience participatory culture by working with Scratch.

1. Read Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture (pp. 3–11, Jenkins). This is a short piece on the ideas behind participatory culture by Henry Jenkins, who is a professor of communications in USC and among the first users of the term "participatory culture." PDF IS ATTACHED
2. Watch Mitchel Resnick: Scratch. This is a quick video featuring Profesor Mitch Resnick from MIT, who was key in the development of Scratch. IF VIDEO DOESNT WORK – READ DESCRIPTION OF VIDEO AND USE THAT
3. Read "Making Projects, Making Friends" (Brennan et al.). This is a book chapter that explores how making and participating in online communities is about relationships and interests. PDF IS ATTACHED
4. Play with Scratch and explore the community. I urge you to spend some time on this aspect! Play with Scratch as much as you can. Some of you may already be familiar with it, while some of you may be using it for the first time. Jump in, reflect on your learning, analyze the community, and then use your post as a chance to make connections across these readings and perhaps even to previous texts and ideas.

Please write about any aspect of the texts and resources that you found interesting. Consider the following questions:

1. What do you see as the most important aspects of participatory culture for learning and teaching?
2. How do you think the ideas behind participatory culture and new media literacies can be integrated in teaching middle school students (ages10-13)?