The Fall 2012 edition of USC Annenberg Agenda, the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism’s in-house magazine, included an article in which the PLAY! project was explicated. For posterity, as well as the benefit of clarifying this research, I’ve included the relevant segment below.
Young people are the focus of a multifaceted Innovation Lab research project referred to as PLAY! (Participatory Learning and You!), where children–as well as the adults who surround them–take part in the creation and circulation of media content within social networks that extend from their circle of friends outward into the community.
An important facet of this program takes place within the scope of the Lab’s partnership with the R.F.K.-L.A. media lab at the R.F.K. Community Schools, six autonomous Los Angeles Unified School District pilot schools located at the site of the former Ambassador Hotel. Focusing on the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem solving, students and teachers from elementary to high school engage in multimedia activities designed to encourage participatory learning and civic engagement.
“It’s meant to foster a more participatory culture where everyone has the skills, the knowledge and the support they need to participate in the community,” says Erin Reilly, managing creative director at the Innovation Lab.
“The journalism of the future is definitely about everybody taking ownership of their own public spaces,” Reilly continues. “If we encourage play at a young age–if we encourage experimentation and the willingness to tinker in our surroundings–then we foster the participatory learning that is at the heart of play, and we create a culture where kids will grow up thinking about how to be better citizens and how to voice their opinions in the public space (Fields, 2012, p. 15).
Additionally, our research was reviewed by KQED’s Mind/Shift, a column that examines culture, teaching with tech, trends in learning, and classroom strategies. This review, featuring commentary from Henry Jenkins and Erin Reilly, is entitled “How Can Teachers Prepare Kids for a Connected World?”