Apple iLife Winners and Kajder

Kajder’s chapter on personal narrative and digital storytelling proves that film is a genre that belongs in our ELA classrooms.  In many ways, telling a story through visual media is the same as telling a story through the written word.  Basically, the elements of a good story remain the same: clear voice, good pacing, economy of meaning.   Although the finished product will  be different, the process of making a short film is very similar to the process of writing a short story.  Students need to do a considerable amount of prewriting, which includes thinking very deeply about the nature of a good story, and how a story might be structured.  Students also need to research the particular aspects of their stories, which if historically based might include investigation of a time period, and the gathering of what Kajder refers to as “artifacts.” 

The winners of the Apple iLife contest must have had some very clear guidance on the way to structure a short film because the results were inspiring.  Grass Born To Be Stepped On was not only informative, it was a work of art.  I can only imagine the satisfaction those girls must have had as their project moved from conception to actualization.  As I watched the fantastic editing transitions from girl to girl as their faces morphed into one another, I thought about the excitement these students must have felt having that idea, and making it a reality.  

Chasing Metaphors  shows us that a good story doesn’t need to have a lot of bells and whistles to be breathtaking.  The way each metaphor builds upon the previous one, as if trying to one up what came before, creates more anticipation and satisfaction than the newest Star Wars movies, which isn’t really saying much.  There really is so much our students can do with seemingly so little.   If we are able to provide a structure and form for our students to work within, as Kajder so beautifully lays out, our students will more often than not be able to find the creativity, inspiration, and motivation to produce stunning works of art molded from their own experiences.

Smart mobs vs. blind mobs

The most important idea I took out of the Rheingold reading was the enormous potential  for both cooperation or tyranny as a byproduct of new technology.  Mobile communication, in the total sense, is  allowing human beings to collaborate in ways that could not have been conceived of thirty years ago.  As this new technology continues to develop, the big question is whether humans will become the masters or slaves of their own creations.  As information becomes more and more easily accesible, will we be able to maintain our privacy?  Will governments use the ability to gain personal information as a method of control, or will the people’s ability to spread information serve as a force for democracy?  The fact that Joseph Estrada was ousted through the use of mobile technology might be a harbinger of things to come.

I find great satisfaction in the fact that many of the moral dillemas that characters faced in the science fiction world of the 1950’s are now becoming real moral dillemas.   The fundamental question of many of those books concerned the relationship between humans and machines: and the greatest danger to humanity was often characterized as the inability of human beings to evolve as fast as their technology.   Books like 1984, Asimov’s Robot series, or any one of Arthur C. Clarke’s books might be excellent choices for classes which want to focus on issues relating to the development of technology, and how humans might use that technology for either the benefit or detrement of the culture at large.  As our smart mobs become smarter, will we be able to keep pace, or become blinded by the enormous technological power we have unleashed upon the world? 

A Whole New Mind: Yearning for humanity

I really connected with Daniel Pink’s book (the first five chapters) on a number of different levels.  First of all, I agree with his assessment that human beings innately want fulfillment in their lives beyond money and status.  We are not simply souless machines satisfied with earning money and being entertained.   Once our basic needs, such as food and shelter, are met, we still suffer from an existential problem that all people have suffered from since the dawn of human conciousness: why am I here, what is my purpose on this earth, is there anything more?  How can I make my life have meaning?  It is not surprising that Pink has found evidence that people who consider these questions, and act upon them, are moving into the majority and are having an impact upon the jobs and professions in the global economy.  How beatifully obvious!  There is demand for more humanity in the marketplace because, as much as we don’t believe it at times, we are all still human, and crave positive personal contact with other human beings in just about everything we do.  Now if only we could get this idea across to our President, who just vetoed a bill on healthcare for children!  I guess he would be more left brain oriented- or perhaps just no brain oriented. 

Shape shifting: Oh, how Darwinian!

I think the essential message of Young, Dillon, & Moje’s article is similar to Thomas Freidman’s: adapt or become obsolete.  This goes for English teachers as well.  If we do not keep up with our students’ 21st century needs everyone involved will lose out.  Our students will resist and defy our outdated notions of English instruction, and then be ill-prepared for the type of world which will require them to have talents other than finding the theme of a novel.  Shape-shifting is basically another word for adaptation.  The three students portrayed in the article, although of different ethnicity, class, and gender, all have proactively attempted to adapt to the world they live in.  In this new world, where information comes at us from every conceivable direction, students need to have a multiplicity of tools in order to navigate successfully- basically, without crashing.  As teachers, we need to develop students’ abilities to collaboratively analyze and synthesize information in real contexts, so that when they go out into the “real” world, they can have the best chance at success.    This requires us, as educators, to be shape-shifting- in the sense that we need to be creative, insightful, and dynamic enough to find the right activities in the classroom to facilitate this process.  The more we can make classrooms like the real world today, by involving our students in projects that adults get paid to do right now, or that adults volunteer to do for the benefit of humanity, the better they will respond, and the more we will help them to succeed in the future.

Just signed up for epals

Wow!  Another beautiful discovery inspired by Eng. 506.  What an absolutely brilliant idea.   I am going to have all of my students sign up for accounts today.  This website will help us enormously in our bead collection project.  Not only do we need 400,000 more beads, but we also need other schools to become involved in helping us string them.  The idea is to send beads to different schools through the mail, and have those schools participate in the project by stringing beads, and then mailing them back to us.  This will help raise awareness about the Darfur crisis, and is the kind of of activity that could receive national and international media attention.  My students will also potentially learn about what other types of progressive things students from around the world are doing in reaction to social problems, and become inspired to join their projects as well.

Convergence: capturing the zeitgeist

I think Jenkins’ essential point about convergence is that new modes of discourse emerge from conflict. This is very similar to the Hegelian/ Marxist notion of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. When ideas, institutions, and power structures (theses) are challenged (antitheses), the result are syntheses, or new patterns in the way people think, act, and believe. What is so striking about Heather Lawver’s experience is how she captured the zeitgeist of the Harry Potter phenomenon so innocently, and emerged as a focal point in a much larger debate. No doubt, the controversy surrounding Harry Potter only made her organization, The Daily Prophet, that much more well known and popular.

From a teaching point of view, the Jenkins article about convergence shows us that we need to pay attention to the times we are living in. Although many of us might not think that Harry Potter is literature, and worthy of study in school, our students happen to disagree. I’m not suggesting that we start teaching the Harry Potter series in our English classes; but what I am suggesting is that we allow our students the opportunity to be creative with their own interests, and see what happens. Lawver, who happened to be home schooled, was given the time and support to create a website that turned into a cultural phenomenon. Imagine what would happen if we gave our students the same opportunities to follow their interests in creative ways. We need to pay attention to what is happening in the world, right now, as our students might see it. We need to stay connected to the zeitgeist and find ways that our students might actively participate and shape their world, rather than simply go along for the ride.

Dewey in the 21st Century

I found it somewhat ironic that a giant of 20th century progressive educational theory, John Dewey, was given so much attention in the articles on Innovate (the journal of online education) .   Here we are, almost 100 years after Dewey, and the mainstream culture still doesn’t get it!  Relevant, experienced based education is the only real education that exists; worksheets don’t cut it and never will!  Every time we give our students an artificial assignment, with no real life application, we are shortchanging their futures.  This is indeed very serious business.

Chad Trevitte and Steve Eskow in their article, Reschooling Society and the Promise of ee-learning: An Interview with Steve Eskow, brilliantly point out that technology seems to have caught up with the ideas of the progressive educators of the last century.  It is becoming easier for teachers to help their students reach out into the real world through cyberspace.  As Nancy Charron points out, our students can now communicate with students from across the world, and learn about their lives and their cultures.  How much better is this mode of discourse than having our students fill out worksheets on how to write a letter.  Give students real assignments and they will no doubt take them more seriously, have more fun with them, and learn more.    My own students are living proof of this.   They have been contacting various Holocaust Museums around the country explaining our genocide awareness project (collecting 1.2 million beads) and enlisting their help.  You wouldn’t believe how much they care about the way in which they write these e-mails- from the content through the grammar and syntax.  I can’t believe that in the past I used to assign things to be turned into me alone.  Now things are beginning to make sense; when students used to say, “what’s the point?” all I could tell them was that they needed this knowledge for the future.  Now the point to my assignments are the assignments themselves; I no longer need to explain myself.

Great incentives yeild great results

Wow! $250,000 is a lot of money as a reward for developing cool and useful interactive technology; I guess the incentive worked.  The winners of this contest developed some very interesting websites.  I especially liked the website devoted to problem solving and advice: “How do I tell my parents I’m gay?”  This is basically free advice.  My only trepidation here is that one can get some really bad advice and follow through on it.

I really like the idea of providing financial incentive for ingenuity and creativity.  So many of our students don’t see the point in doing anything for school because there’s no direct payoff.   Perhaps a reason that many students are ill prepared for college is that there is no extrinsic motivation to be prepared.  Many colleges will lower their standards because they need enrollment.  Maybe  colleges and universities should raise their standards and  offer more financial incentive to reach standards- maybe more scholarships and financial assistance should be available for those who achieve more.   How  about the federal government  supporting this endeavor?  Billions of dollars spent on futile wars could be spent on giving tuition breaks to students who raise their academic achievement.

Bravo: schools and teachers on the cutting edge

I really enjoyed reading about the Lemon Grove Middle Schools, Crawford High School in San Diego, and the Virtual Schools.  These schools are willing to change, to take risks, to try new approaches to education  The e-pad seems like an incredibly helpful tool for students in all subjects.  The fact that students get to take them home must give them a real sense of importance, pride, and ownership.  The students interviewed in the article seem to take their education more seriously than the average teenager.  This might be because they have a very serious machine at their disposal; that they feel the educational community cares enough about their education to invest time and money into it.

 While reading about local schools battling high tech distractions, it made me think about the old adage, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”  Rather than fight a losing battle, create a win win situation.   Take the technology kids are using in their daily lives, and show them how adults use the same technology in other contexts.  I did something similar to this the other day when I had my students make professional My Space pages (without the kinds of sexual and drug related content on their personal ones) to use when communicating with outside organizations.  For example, in our bead collection project we are going to have to contact many agencies and politicans for help.   My students were very surprised when I told them to add Hillary Clinton to their friends list.  They had no idea that “serious” adults even had My Space pages.

Shift happens: What are we gonna do about it?

I love thinking about the future in relation to the present.  It makes me consider the old Buddhist idea that life is transient and nothing ever stays the same.  All of our possessions, ideas, languages, institutions- indeed, our very bodies, metamorphose into forms we scarce would recognize when we were children.  Shift happens.  This is the nature of reality, and to fight against it is like trying to make the earth spin backwards, which only Superman could accomplish.  The real quesiton is, what do we do with the world we live in?  What are the goals of humanity?  This might sound like philosophical, idealistic mumbo jumbo, but I believe it’s important to ask these questions.  If we do not, we are merely slaves to the institutions we live under, instead of masters.  If only there were some kind of common, agreed upon goal for the entire human race, then perhaps goals of education would make more sense.  I like what Freidman and Zhao say about how fundamentally lacking U.S education is when compared to China and India, but I dislike the fact that there is no discussion of a worthwhile vision, and end to strive for; besides gaining employment.  Of course, practically speaking, making a living is very worthwhile- but is this the best we can do?  What about educating our students to help change the world for the better: to inspire them to eliminate poverty and war: to become activists.  Zhao makes a wonderful case for using multiculturalism as a means of teaching kids tolerance and understanding, but what about doing more?  Schools could become institutions that actively transform global society instead of just learning about it.  We can use technology to create international reform movements, where people who are disenfranchized and alienated may come together, despite their different nationalities, and change the world they live in.  Of course most parents and politicians would throw a fit over this type of change in education, but once again, what is education for?  What is society for?  What are we trying to do with this world we live in?  Should we educate kids to survive in the global market, or should we educate kids to shape the world they live in, as they would like to see it?  Perhaps we can and should do both.