Closing Thoughts

New media literacies have opened my mind up to different ways I can engage and assess my students to help their learning and better equip them for the present and future. They demonstrate that not only can fun and learning coincide, but that fun can actually encourage and facilitate learning. Games, for example, facilitate learning because “humans think and understand best when they can imagine (simulate) an experience in such a way that the simulation prepares them for actions they need and want to take in order to accomplish their goals” (Gee 174). These games, thus, do not simply offer a pathway into learning; they are a method of learning in and of themselves that depends on the natural way that the mind consolidates information.

I have also learned the significance of pushing for the acceptance of new types of media literacies to reach out to students for whom the traditional school setting is failing. New media literacies are still very often seen as an addition—and aid—to traditional modes of print literacy. New media literacies are put behind an “achievement” wall, as if it were a reward for traditional schooling well done, rather than a means by which to help students reach their full potential, especially those who need more support. While curriculums are more amenable to the inclusion of technology in education, “people viewed as more educated or skilled… are more likely to have sustained access to the digital tools of production” (Smythe et. al. 762-763). Those who are already privileged in our systems are still more likely to have access to better, more multifaceted educations, whereas studies such as Smythe et. al. (2016) demonstrate that students who are not privileged in the school and socioeconomic systems are those who perhaps stand to benefit most from education informed by new media literacies.