Week Five Reading Critique: Moving Past Fear

It has been an interesting week in America--and a tragic one.  As I reflect upon the course readings, it occurs to me how very much our entire culture has shifted away from hope and toward fear.  Several weeks ago, I had the privilege to speak at an education conference.  As so often occurs at conferences, the speakers enjoy a pre-conference dinner and the conversation shifts to the various themes each of us will explore.  As educators and innovators, the group I was with lamented that we have so many possibilities and yet in our schools, we are so often discouraged from even attempting to maneuver away from very traditional ways of doing things.

One educator, and a coordinator for the entire conference stated, "My district is light years away from adopting any of these practices."

And then I recalled what a district leader in my own district had said to a group of principals, "This district can absolutely do nothing for the next 3-5 years and it will not jeopardize our accredited with distinction status at all."

As I was sitting with my fellow presenters, it occurred to me, we have all begun operating from a position of deep fear.  We fear rocking the boat.  We fear a negative evaluation. We fear engaging deeply in innovation and design thinking.  We fear change.  It is simply easier to maintain the status quo than to explore anything new even though it has profound possibilities for expanding our ability to share understanding and to re-conceptualize our work in new contexts.

This is shameful.

I read each of this week's readings and as I was reading, I could hear the voices of the status quo ring in my ears:

"But, if students do this, they my be exposed to information the district has not approved."
"We cannot take on this kind of liability."
"What if parents complain?"
"Parents will object to this."
"We'll lose control of the scope and sequence."
"Our system is not set up for this."
"Our teachers/staff/IT department cannot support it."
"This violates our curriculum review policy."
"This is not in the standards."
"We don't have time for this....we have to use every waking minute to prepare for PARCC!"

And, I wondered how we are ever going to open the schoolhouse doors and trust that our students and staff can 'manage' the ambiguity that is the world we live in today.  The old paradigm has become less and less responsive to what our students are facing and yet, within our schools, there are few acceptable structures to even have the conversations.  This seems counter intuitive to what our schools should be doing.

So, in our school, we will be engaging in the Dear Future President exercise--and truly engaging in the political process, debating each other, engaging in a meaningful conversation and discovering what it means to be a participant in the process.  Because until we are fully engaged participants, we are not fully engaged citizens.  And this week, in America, it seems to me that we need to use every space we have, whether it is in a brick and mortar building, a public street or a digital condensed context, we must start engaging, conversing, and creating meaning for our lives which constructs mutual understanding and cultural awareness of the very different lives we each experience.

So, while this may be less of a reading critique this week--and maybe a critical commentary on the general state of our world--as educators, don't we have a responsibility to propel our students forward with courage rather than to operate from positions of fear and self-protection?  It seems to me that we do.

Mashup: Hermione's Nightmare

This week's mashup assignment is inspired by my eleven year old daughter who is actually typical tomboy by day and clearly a mad scientist by night.  She received her owl letter as expected on her eleventh birthday and caught the train on track 9 3/4 just recently to attend Hogwarts.

By the looks of it, she's giving Hermione a run for her money especially in potions class where Willow clearly understands the need for protective eyewear and a smock to cover her robes.  Maybe Willow's parents are not the muggles they appear to be?  Maybe Willow has latent powers which are only now being nurtured.  Whatever it is, clearly Hermione is jealous and more than a little half-blood peeved that Willow is at Hogwarts and excelling!

What provoked this mashup?  We revel in all things Harry Potter and really are kind of nerdy.  As I was playing with the mashup assignment, Willow was lurking and playing around with it too.  As happens so often with digital media, this assignment quickly became a family affair.  And it occurred to me that as I work through this class, I am really also demonstrating how powerful risk-taking can be for my young daughters.  They watch me work through using programs I am unfamiliar with.  They hear me cussing at regular intervals--and then cheering myself on when I manage to pull off something new and satisfying.  They are learning with me that trying something new is important and a way of growing even when it is difficult.

And, it can be fun.  It can be amusing.  It embodies a sense of satisfaction and learning new things can make us laugh even if the process is frustrating at first.  There is something to be said for humor and being silly in our creativity.  That makes it worth it.

This took some work--but it was not impossible.  I used a photo of Willow taken at a science museum.  She was dressed for the part as she was working on an experiment which had the potential to be explosive.  In Pixlr, I uploaded this photo.  Then, I found a transparent photo of Hermione facing in the right direction and looking suitably menacing.  With a little work and practice, I managed to size it so that the proportions looked good and the two characters were placed at a distance from each other that worked well for the mashup.  The proportionality was the trickiest and required a lot of editing/re-editing to make the two characters appear to be sitting next to one another. I am not completely satisfied, but this works.

Best yet, Willow likes it!  She likes it well enough to want a poster of it for her room which means that as a mom, I scored!  So again, learning to loosen up and just have fun with the creative part of the course has been important.

Week 5: Story Critique: Blind Devotion | Jubilee Project Short Film

WOW! WOW! WOW!

This digital story comes about as close to perfect as any one I have viewed thus far.  It is charming and powerful in its presentation.  I stumbled upon it through the eyes of my thirteen year old daughter who asked me if I was looking for a tear jerker.  While my theme of change/transition/risk-taking has often lent itself to tear jerker narratives, this one is powerful, profound, and yet lovely.  It does not cross the line in to something overly saccharine and inauthentic.  But rather, tells a story of a profound life's transition for the two characters involved.  It is the second narrative I have used this course which tells the same story from two different points of view which I think can be a really great tool to understand perspective.

The overall look of the video really captures the story.  It uses subtle colors--almost black and white.  This really mirrors the story line of a woman who is slowly losing her sight.  The colors are not bright--but muted as if to echo what is actually happening in the story line.

This is a professionally edited story.  The video scenes are spliced together in a way that produces a cohesive, clearly told story.  The narrative is simple and clear.  It tells the story with minimal pathos which keeps it from being overly sentimental.  Yet, at the same time, I can identify with the anger and frustration of this disease process.  The soundtrack is subtle and yet it adds to the story --and even includes a back channel narrative which adds dimensionality to the story that otherwise would not be present.

The story may be about a huge life's transition for both characters.  However the theme is about love, tenderness, caring and nurturing a relationship through a transition.  It is a universal theme easily recognized by anyone who has shared some of life's more difficult moments within a relationship. This is long in terms of many digital stories--but as a viewer, it contains many of the story elements that could be found in a feature film.  It is skillfully rendered in a way that a complete, multi-character story takes on its own life and creates a sense of empathy for both characters.  Very skillful camera, lighting, and dialog work is clearly evident.

This story really spoke to me--not because it tugged on my emotional heartstrings.  It spoke to me because in life's transitional spaces, there is opportunity for relationships to grow closely together. This story illuminates those narratives in an eloquent and powerful way without feeling like the intention is to manipulate the viewer.  I think this is a difficult balance to strike especially with difficult topics.

Week Four Reflection: Blogging as an Act of Community

I have been mulling over this week's reflection for a couple of days now.  As I think back on the week's reading and activities, it all boils down to creating communities of practice.  I found it useful to go back and read through my annotations from the entire week and look back at my daily creates and consider how the different pieces all fit together.  It was easier this week to see those connections after I went back and read my work with intention--looking for threads of commonality.

It is interesting in the small groups to see how we are coming together in our posting.  I have responded to most of the members of my small group over the past couple of weeks.  While each one of my group members has a unique perspective, as we bounce our ideas around, it is clear that a sense of shared learning is coming together.  At first, I was not sure about posting to the private group because it felt small and limiting.  Now, I see the purpose in that.  In our very large class group it would have been much more difficult to create those shared learning spaces and a shared understanding of our different perspectives.  So, this is a shout out to Group A -- because as colleagues, you all rock!  You have broadened my thinking in many ways.

I have come away from the readings this week with new ideas about blogging.  I never really thought about blogs as anything but a singular experience.  Even in my own blogging experiences which can be distilled into two purposes: I blog to inform far-flung family of our activities; or, I blog as a visual journal for myself.  The first blog is open to comments because we have family members who really like to comment on how fast the kids are growing or how great the music recital video was.  The visual journal is not open to comments because it is definitely more personal--and while I know that others read it, I am not particularly open to being vulnerable enough to want more than a one way shared space with them.  

Affinity spaces are interesting that way.  As I look for digital stories, because of my interest in personal narratives, I often stumble upon very personal stories.  I shared one of those this week--about life, living and dying.  The author/creator of that story chose to remain anonymous, as I do in my journal blog.  Yet, he shared his thoughts in a very public space where people like me would have no difficulty finding his story.  It is one thing to share the story.  It is an entirely another to dialog about it.  In fact, it occurs to me that a story like this which does not allow for comments is a bit like one of the rules in a twelve step program.  You can share your story and you are encouraged to do so. However, the group norm is that you cannot engage in cross-talk.  Participants cannot ask clarifying questions or make comments.  The story is shared for the purpose of creating community--and creating relationship, or becoming a part of the affinity group.  It is not necessarily about creating a shared dialog.  Some blogs are like participating in twelve step.  You share.  That's it.

All of this serious stuff aside, my favorite part of this week was the 2nd daily create.  I stumbled upon it late Saturday night.  I actually dreamed about it.  Sunday morning, Ro-Po came alive in just a few minutes.  There is something inspirational about working in digital spaces for me which allows for really creative thinking which I have only experienced within this space.  Until I spent a lot of time working within this space, I never considered myself to be very creative.  I usually fall on the analytical side of things.  I am linear to a fault.  So, the daily creates have been somewhat of a challenge--and I have not particularly challenged myself mostly due to fear and some uncertainty about my ability to actually create something!  This week, it all came together and I just let go and had some fun with it.  I need to remember that I have that within me--and capitalize on it when it happens.  That being said, I think I'll keep Ro-Po to myself and not share it on the neighborhood FaceBook page where I am guessing they would not share my irreverent sense of humor!

Carry On--Week Five, here we come!

Week Four Daily Create: Signs of Suburbia

It is Sunday morning and I'm sitting in my armchair listening to  the roar of lawnmowers, a crying baby next door, and the incessant barking of the neighborhood dogs.  The noise is continual--and it is the cacophany which is suburbia on a weekend.

This is Daily Create #1636--create a hip acroname for your neighborhood.  So, this is difficult because to begin with, my neighborhood is not hip in any way, shape, or form.  I live on Rock Pond Way--a series of cookie cutter homes in a cookie cutter neighborhood where the moms pretend to practice yoga and stop off for $5 cups of coffee to kvetch about the neighborhood on their way home.  They drive mini-vans and store $500 strollers in their garages.  The kids wear Gymboree and Gap and the dads wear striped ties and blue blazers.  Creating a hip acronym for this neighborhood becomes a challenge because hip is not what we value or who we are.

So, I listen to all this noise this morning and realize, I cannot tell you a single name of a single person (or dog) who is a player in this neighborhood symphony of sound.--And, I think that's ok because my kids don't wear Gymboree and Gap; I brew my own coffee; I don't wear yoga pants or even pretend to practice yoga; I am an un-hip mama/grammy who wears faults and scars with more than a little humility and some pride.  I have the wisdom borne of marriage and motherhood--my doors are rarely locked and I still don't give a damn about being hip.  Though in this neighborhood of stepfords, I probably appear to be more bohemian than most.  

Oh...the irony that is Ro-Po.  

Blogging as Story Telling

This week proved to be a better one for me in the course.  I found the Davies and Merchant chapter to be intriguing primary because it forced me to look at blogging from a different point of view.  I am still not completely certain that I even view blogging as a form of digital story telling.  This may be because my experience with digital story telling has been about creating narratives--and stories about our lives and experiences.  I never considered the collaborative work we are doing in hypothesis to be digital story telling-or even story telling.  For me at this time, it is creating community around a shared work space which allows for multiple points of view and modalities to be shared, expanded upon.  Upon further reflection the concept of re-mixing from Week 3 begins to appear as a very real part of the work we are doing online.

One idea that keeps reappearing in all the readings for me is this connection between creating identity through digital media.  From a developmental psychology perspective many of our students are creating identities and trying on new identities as they work to find out who they are in the context of their families and communities.  I have started exploring this idea of  identity formation through digital story telling and spent most of my week exploring research on this particular thread. This is a reoccurring theme for me as I really struggle on many levels with how adolescents form identity in a digital world where personas can be created and discarded--and judged by others.  The primary issue I have is that when the world is virtual and it is impossible to tell who is representing the best of their authentic selves versus those who are creating a persona or a new identity for themselves, can an adolescent use the judgement and comments of others to assist in identity formation as a real barometer or calibration for their beliefs and actions?

This is a question that comes up in the comments section of our groups hypothesis often--along with the blurring of public and private lives.  I was challenged by Remi's response to a comment I made about teachers being coached to keep public identities separate from private identities thaMy opinion is that such coaching - and even such policy - is a detriment to educator agency and prevents school from serving more democratic ends. "

I find this interesting--because in K-12 education, this has largely come about as inappropriate relationships have been formed -- often through social media--between students and teachers.   I know I have worked in districts where social media contact between students and teachers is a violation of district policies.  Those policies were designed to limit the opportunities for inappropriate behavior and actions between students and teachers.  Is there a happy medium in this?  I suspect that in my district, the use of hypothesis would be strongly discouraged if not forbidden altogether because of the possibilities for public annotations which could not be vetted before they were posted.  How do we balance those areas in our schools?

I am also very interested in explore the idea of Openness in our current system.  At this point in time, it appears that some districts maintain a very top down approach to what is available for teachers to use or employ in their classrooms.  I happen to have worked in a district last year where the IT department literally dictated what we could use and how we could use it.  The idea of using open resources would have been anathema to that department.  I found myself contrasting the situation I have worked in against the Becker article on open PD and really felt like I had experienced a situation where the IT department was driving what happened in classrooms rather than the student's needs driving what occurred in the IT department.  It feels very intuitive now to stop and think through things like an 'approval' process for open resources.  I am also more and more skeptical of corporate led professional development which seems driven more by a product than by student or staff need to solve a problem.  I wonder what possibilities might come to fruition if we intentionally engineered serendipity through letting individuals sit in a room together and see what percolates to the top in terms of design, problem solving and solutions.  We have missed the boat on this type of organic work that truly can change what we are doing.

Week Four: Digital Story Critique

This week I have chosen a very intimate and personal digital story to highlight.  In my own research, one of the areas in which digital storytelling is emerging as a tool is in healthcare.  There are a number of sites which highlight digital stories produced by patients and their caregivers.  These are both sobering and empowering, which in itself is a unique combination of emotions.

The author of this story is telling a very personal story in a very intimate way.  Delving into issues of life, living and death and dying create a vulnerability and an empathy which serve to draw the viewer into the story.  We all become participants in the universe through viewing this story and as significant as we may feel in our current place, there is also a certain insigificance when we consider the vast universes which lie far beyond where we are.  "You see more, You see further. "You see deeper."  

The literacy dimensions in this piece are perhaps not as sophisticated as in many other remixed pieces.  However, the writer has chosen a piece of music which really blends together with the story and with his story.  I personally enjoyed the analogy to images from the Hubble Telescope.  As a dying man, he is clearly thinking deeply about what he is learning in the process of dying and he is indeed seeing more deeply.  There is also a vocal quality which is strong and while the music does not overpower his narrative, it does enhance the strength and resoluteness of his story.  The written narrative is the strongest part of this story. It is actually a very simple story visually.  The author includes nothing personal in the visuals.  Every photograph is an image from the Hubble Telescope. There are no transitional elements.  

I am not sure that I would characterize this as a story brought to life. This is housed on the University of Houston Website for educational purposes.  This story is authentic  The photos are all still--with no video elements other than photos changing.  I am not entirely sold on this as I feel that they do not necessarily add to the strength of the story or the power of the narrative.  

This is such a strong story that could really rest upon its own power.  I honestly would have loved to have seen the story teller's face and watch him tell the story.  I would have liked to have heard the story from his perspective.  I did note that it is posted anonymously at the author's request.  Perhaps it is painful to share something as intensely personal as the story of one's perspective on one's own death. That being said, when you are looking at eternity in the face, photos from space and galaxies far removed from this earth also have a certain power.  I would have altered the visuals in this producti