Search results matching tag 'techno tuesday'

I Don't Need Another #Chat Right Now

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:54:00 GMT

My mom calls to ask Christy a question. Something about pop corn in a bag. It didn't make sense - not because of her lack of description, but because of my lack of practical imagination. She says, four or five times, "I should let you get going," and though I tell her, "it's okay, nothing's happening here," she sounds rushed. It's not that she doesn't want to talk to me. It's that she's worried that she's imposing on my life. I can hear it in her voice. She's worried that I view this conversation as a burden or an obligation or a favor, when in fact I like hearing her voice.

I'm not sure when I sent my parents the message that I wanted more space. Perhaps it was high school. Or maybe it was the implied message of an introvert who liked to read and write and escape into my own mind.

I crave space. Mental space. Physical space. Emotional space. I crave the chance to create a world that exists in my mind or at my finger tips - worlds of sketches and word sketches and poems that meander around me. For me, technology enhances this world. I can tweet and count the retweets. I can post and check the comments. I can create something and interact at arms distance with the world.

Sometimes I go to the famous painting of Michelangelo and remind myself that it's possible, in trying to reach for the perfection, to lose my humanity. I'll live up in the clouds and miss the terrestrial reality around me.

Truth is that I need people. I need them deeply. I have a string of friendships I couldn't maintain because I allowed the physical distance to create relational distance. I haven't talked to my mentor in nearly a year. I miss him. And though I see my mom every so often I'm actually looking forward to the summer, when she'll visit once a week.

I need people who know me. The real me. The me who once was an awkward teenager with food stuck in his braces. I need someone who knows my story. The whole story. Not the stories I spin into novels. Not the highlight reel that makes it into a blog post.

I love technology, but I need less space. I need close proximity. I need a front porch. I need a pint with a friend. I don't need another #chat.

Coloring Books or Canvases?

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 02:03:00 GMT

My son colored ten pages in his coloring book. He improved in shading and in understanding the colors of shapes. Beyond that, though, he didn't learn much. It was a decent escape and a lot of fun, but it wasn't particularly creative. Most of the deeper thinking had been manufactured in advance.

Yesterday he drew monsters: hairy monsters, angry monsters, lonely and misunderstood monsters. Some had three eyes or four eyes and one had none eyes and had learned how to see by feeling the temperature of things around him. The monsters had names and stories and occasionally a setting or two. Mostly plot, though. The monsters were actively engaged in creating and destroying and saving and losing. Joel shifted from creative thought to analytical thought in a constant ebb and flow that simply doesn't happen on a coloring book.

The monsters weren't as pretty as the coloring books. I guess monsters aren't supposed to be pretty, so it's okay. They were raw and honest and unfiltered. The coloring book felt like Celine Dion. The monsters felt like Iron and Wine.

* * *

My friend Javi asked his class last year to brainstorm a list of social issues within the Maryvale community. Students began tracing their hands, drawing big bubbles and trying their best to remember how they were supposed to brainstorm. A list would have worked well. What he didn't need was a bunch of hands or bunnies or boxes. "They were recreating worksheets, John. And that was the problem. Teachers had heard about graphic organizers, so they started trying to find as many as possible and so many of them were simply worksheets. Nothing that engages the learner in actually thinking. The creative and critical thinking had been done for them."

I'm not against graphic organizers. However, the litmus test of a graphic organizer should be:

Does it provoke students to think deeper about the subject?
Does it enable students to organize their own thoughts without having to learn a new structure?

If the answer is no to either question, I won't use the graphic organizer in my class.

Sometimes I think the most hyped-up technology seems to be a computerized version of a coloring book. Xtranormal videos are neat, but sock puppet theater might actually provoke deeper thought. Wordle has its place, but asking students to analyze word count on a spreadsheet might force them to be a little more analytical. Prezis can be pretty, but if there aren't the right inquiry questions, it simply becomes an online version of a poster board. It's not that any of those tools are inherently bad. However, they often fail to lead to learning, because the the program has already done the thinking for the students.

Sometimes a shared document, a podcast, a from-scratch video (using cameras) might look a little less flashy, but they empower students to take ownership of their own learning. Something as uncool as a spreadsheet can be powerful, because it reduces the time spent on rote skills and allows students to analyze data. A concept map might not buzz and beep and talk to the students, but it mirrors the way we make mental connections.

Ultimately, the question guiding all technology integration should be, "How does this change the way students think?"

If the organizing and creating are all prefabricated, it's a worksheet and a coloring book - sometimes a very slick version, but still a coloring book. If, however, the medium allows students to think deeper about life than it's worth using.

The Cost of Netbooks

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:58:00 GMT

One of my breakthroughs this year involved the story of science. It was the notion that students needed science to make sense out of character and setting and conflict and plot - even the themes (though many scientists scoff at science getting into that dangerous place of why instead of how). The blending of subjects has been a beautiful, messy process.

A kid pointed out the class taking all of our recycling bins and how they looked so proud and how we all pad ourselves on the back for recycling and yet we never ask why we had to consume so much in the first place. He said that sometimes his family goes out to McDonalds and there's more wads of paper and pieces of plastic than there is food and he wonders why it has to be that way if the food has so many preservatives that it would last for years anyway.

He pointed out that our class had almost no paper and he said it with a smug grin. Then he looked at our netbooks and our lack of paper and said, "It's scarier when you never see what's been destroyed." He asked me if we could find out how much energy our netbooks actually use. I told him he could choose it as an enrichment option, but after he tried to look at all the variables, he gave up. Sometimes it's easier to stop thinking than to pull yourself into the messy contradictions of reality.

Was it science?
It definitely had observation.

Was it social studies?
It connected to civics

Will it be on the test?
Nope.

Are these the vital questions students need to make sense out of a tech-shaped world?
Yep.

Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons - davipt

connecting

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:14:00 GMT

"What is one item of technology that the world would be better off without?" I ask one morning for Bell Work. It feels like a soft ball question, but a few students struggle with it.

"Let's get to work," I implore two boys.

"I'm sorry, I'm thinking," one answers.

"I'm sorry. Go ahead and think. Sometimes I confuse the two. Working and thinking aren't always the same thing. But after a few minutes, I want you to take a stab at it."

An ELL student calls me over, "What is he going to stab?" I remind her of idioms and she says she will try and use it. She later says to her teacher, "I'm will stab you at the lesson."

It sparks a surprisingly intense debate, first on our blogs and then in class. One boy answers, "I think nuclear power. We found something so small we can't even see it and then we use it to destroy people in seconds."

"That powers our city," another students responds.

"Yes, and then we leave the waste for future generations. It's the loan store of energy."

"I think television is the worst, because it makes people lazy and unable to think."

"I think the microwave is the worstest. No one cooks anymore. Everything we eat is fast, but it sucks. Nothing tastes right."

One student says, "The world would be best without cell phones. No one talks anymore. Go to a bus stop. Who is talking? No one. They are all texting instead. We're becoming cyborgs."

"I think the people at the bus my actually have it right," a student explains.

"Can you explain why?"

"Cell phones connect and cars divide. It's why computers are better than TV's."

Students generally agree with this principle and begin offering their own examples of connecting and dividing. Finally, I point out, "I know this might shock you, but I don't own a cell phone because I think it's a trap. I think it's a web that people think will connect them and then people build their own cocoon of isolation. I think that's a trick of technology. It sometimes promises to connect you and really it is dividing you. It's why I only watch one or two TV shows a week. I need to connect with the shared pop culture, but I know that too much of it will leave me isolated and I'll miss my family."

A student responds, "What if it's both? What if all technology divides and connects? Take writing. When you write on paper, you aren't really talking to anyone. You can end up alone. Maybe you need some alone time, maybe you don't. Maybe you need to send a letter to someone and it becomes something that connects you. Maybe you write a book and people share thoughts through long chapters. Or a car. We can say it divides us, but I would never see my abuelita if we didn't have a car."

shaking the dust off a vapor existence

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:40:00 GMT

A man with an unrefined voice and a slightly hick accent stands before the crowd and offers his thoughts on the universe. How did this ever go viral? How did he ever attract these outcasts? Where are the three points? Where are the fill-in-the-blank answers.

A stone's throw away, a few religious folk scoff at his dangerous exposition of Scripture. A Roman guard attempts an easy escape into the fantasy world of battle victories, but the narrative gets fuzzy and he wonders about the son he hasn't seen in a few years. Farmers think of crops and sheep and worry about their ability to pay taxes and tithes and still manage it all in a bad economy.

So, this former construction worker tells the crowd not to worry about food and clothing. "Look at the lilies. They're not mustering up strength to grow. They're not following a program of buck-up and try harder and following these ten steps to success. Look again, guys, aren't they beautiful? Not even Solomon's temple can compete with this. And the birds . . . "

***

I read that passage while standing barefoot on the cold earth. I've only heard it preached inside, under tract lighting and amplified sound and within the drywall fortress of an air-conditioned sanctuary. I understand the need for sermons, but I'm not sure that the greatest sermon needs a sermon to explain it. I've never once seen a church member stand up and leave and take serious the command to consider the lilies and the birds.

I read it and re-read it and then Micah tells me, "Look daddy, that bird has boobs," and I laugh at my own mental picture. I'm not sure what bird he's referring to, but I glance over to the garden and watch the creature puffs its red chest out as we study it from a distance.

***

A day later, I'm in a classroom. There are no lillies or birds or windows to allow even a single ray of sunlight. The humming of computers provides a vaguely electric white noise that soothes the class as I begin to pose a question. True silence is too loud, but an electronic hum is like a warm blanket to the students.

We talk about digital identity and students write blog entries about their own metaphor. One boy compares it to the Emperor's New Clothes. A few use the Matrix as a motif. Most choose the concept of an Avatar (shocking, I know) and the way that we create a pretend reality online. "Second life might be losing popularity, but I feel like I'm living a second life when I get home. I start worrying about who commented on my wall and how many friends I have and if anyone replied to my tweets. Sometimes I want to walk away from it all."

I'm tempted to ask her to consider the lilies and look at the birds.

If I'm not careful, I find myself doing exactly what she describes. I search for quantifiable proof that I matter within the transgeographic online world. I count my subscribers and my blog followers and I look to see if anyone gave me a thumbs up on Facebook. I'd prefer a fist bump, but they don't offer it. Often I can feel an edgy anxiety about how I look in my ones and zeroes.

That's why I stand barefoot in the backyard as often as I do. I'm not recommending it to everyone (perhaps I am more neurotic than others), but I need a world of real tweets and wild flowers and dirt so that I can remember that the world is still round.

photo credit

congratulations, it's a blog!

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 09:43:00 GMT

I'm a big fan of NPR and their project "This I Believe." So, I thought I would explain a blog with a few belief statements:

I believe that fiction can be as true as fact and that satire can be as honest as a critical analysis. Thus, I go back to A Brave New World as often as I go back to Neil Postman or Marshall McLuhan. I believe in the power of story to make sense out of life and the power of metaphor and allegory to change paradigms.

I believe that progress is a myth. The world changes yes, both for the better and for the worse. Nothing is new under the sun. I believe that those before us were as insightful and intelligent as those around us and that their voice should be a part of current debates. Often the most relevant voice is from another era.

I believe that technology is inherently powerful. It is not simply a tool that we wield wisely, but often a hydra that has unintended consequences, a siren that beckons us into seduction and a gigantic wooden horse that presents itself as a gift and that attacks us in our most vulnerable places. It also has the power to connect people together, to save lives, to break down myopic walls and to help people think well about life.

So with those beliefs in mind, I have been writing another blog called Adventures in Pencil Integration. It is my first fictional blog and my only attempt to write a first person narrative taking place in the 1890's. I have been surprised how viral it has become on Twitter of all places and so I thought I'd let you know about it.

hour-glasses and e-readers

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:55:00 GMT

It's easy to confuse accuracy for truth, efficiency for effectiveness and novelty for innovation. Case in point: an hour glass is less effective than an atomic clock, but more effective than a sun dial. Yet, the medium itself manipulates people either way. If I set a stick in the ground, I might not have the minutes entirely accurate, but I at least remember that time connects to the earth. When looking at a sun dial, I can see the reality that 4:00 in Texas might be 4:00 in Alabama, but that, in reality, they are nowhere near the same. Time zones are just as inaccurate as sun dials - just in a different way.

If I look at an hour glass, I might not have a precise counter for minutes, but I am able to see that time is finite and that, in the end, it goes by slower. A lie of the digital clock is that time is eternal. The numbers 12:35 can't remind me that I'll never have this hour back.

***

My brother-in-law won't buy an e-reader, because he wants to see progress. "I want to know where I am in a book. Not by a page number, but by the feel of it in my hands. I want to feel the pages turn." True, reading is a mental exercise, but it is still temporal.

E-readers are inevitable, if for no other reason, than for the issue of economy. I imagine people lamented the death of calligraphy and the lack of continuity one had experienced in scrolls. Medieval Philosophers might have pointed out that people choose words less carefully when they are so economical. They might have complained about the dehumanizing nature replacing a scribe with a machine. Still, Luther could launch a Reformation cheaper with Guttenberg-inspired propaganda.

***

I read two really elitist blog posts recently. The first was from a man angry about the death of typeface and the acceptance of Comic Sans. I hate Comic Sans and believe that Ariel Bold is best for warning signs and Georgia works well for books and Helvetica always feels slick and yet . . . something about the anger over font type felt a little superfluous. The second blog was by a writer who says that he'll never buy a book that began as a blog, because it is sacrilegious to true authors.

Intellectuals hated the novel as an initial format. They mocked the magazine as well. Anything investigatory was deemed as "yellow journalism" (and much of it was). And yet now intellectuals lament the loss of the daily paper and the death of the magazine. The same type of people who once complained about type-writers replacing pen and ink are now growing nostalgic toward their old Smith Coronas.

***

I don't deny that we lose something and gain something when we change technology. Sometimes it is a Faustian exchange. Sometimes it is a bargain. Most of the times, it's a little of both. I get my electricity from the same technology that can blow the entire earth up multiple times. It's mixed. And on most days, when I push a button I'm forgetting that global annihilation is also the push of a button away.

So, that leaves me with the question about what to reject and what to accept. I still do not own a cell phone, but I'm tapping away at my laptop. I refuse to get cable, but I still own a car. Where do e-readers come into play? I have enough money in gift cards to buy a Nook and I'm seriously considering it. Yet, there is a part of me that relates to my brother-in-law (who is far from elitist) and that sees the concerns (albeit elitist in nature) from the intellectuals as equally valid.

I'll be releasing a few e-books for free within the next month. A part of me thinks about someone holding a black and white screen and pushing buttons and honestly, it doesn't feel the same. I'm not sure why, but I'd like to imagine people flipping pages and staining their books with coffee rings and perhaps, every once in awhile, underlining a paragraph or two.

iCrack

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:02:00 GMT

Intoxicated drivers are eleven times as likely to cause a car accident as sober drivers. People who text while driving are twenty three times as likely as those who aren't texting. I'm not surprised. I've had awkward conversations with people who bust out cell phones while driving and it might as well be an intervention with a drunk. Except, there's no vomit and slurred speech, so I'm the one who comes across as delusional.

Marx claimed that religion is the opiate of masses. Perhaps he's right, but I'd add this caviat. Technology and amusement are our religion. I'm not even sure it's an opiate. Perhaps it's a psychedellic drug, causing people to hallucinate and believe that what is inside their screen is "real." Or maybe it's more like meth, pulling people into a frenetic, ultra-tweet world where they lose their ability to reason slowly. Or maybe it's just a slight pot buzz and everyone thinks things are so much funnier and more profound and deeper when delivered in digital.

It's a drug, though. Like all other drugs, it has side effects - sometimes ones we can't predict. I turned off my "Google Follower" option on the side of my blog, because it became important to me that I would have fifty. Seriously, I never could have predicted that. I know, I know, technology can make life easier and improve one's living. So can aspirin and coffee and beer - all of which have their place in one's life.

What concerns me is this: although I see alcohol as valuable but dangerous, I am too quick to grow intoxicated on technology without realizing it. While I wouldn't hand a two year old a bottle of gin, I let him watch a short video on YouTube. While parents would never allow unrestricted access to the medicine cabinet, many feel that it's totally fine to leave a laptop in a child's bedroom.

I mention all of this, because today my students will choose a metaphor of technology. I rarely get preachy, but I just might slip today and try and pull an intervention. I just might present my evidence about why technology is a drug. I'll sound like the insane main character of Brave New World and my students just might write me off as crazy, but for the duration of the dialogue, they just might be sober.

photo credit - my slide of the story's photostream on flickr creative commons

an unexplored area of bias

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:51:00 GMT

Recently I wanted students to examine if they could identify a fictional story on a website. I used one "neutral" website with true information. I then created two articles, one that was true and one that was false. In the first website, I created a very "professional" looking website modeled after government and corporate websites. These included real pictures, a fading, logos, etc. The second one included clip art pictures and simple HTML. I rotated it so that the first class had the "false" information in the professional style and the second class had the "false" information in the unprofessional style.

Next, I asked students to identify the bias in all three websites and then determine which website was false. Despite identifying the bias in the text itself, students were still duped by the persuasion of visuals. The results turned out exactly how I had predicted. In both classes, the 95% of the students identified the "unprofessional" site as the one containing false information.

We had a great dialogue based upon the following questions:

1. What does this say about how images and style manipulate what we think?
2. How does power and money influence the persuasive methods online?
3. How does font style affect how people view information? How do colors manipulate how people view accuracy?
4. Does identifying the bias in a text necessarily mean that we are able to determine accuracy? Or
4. How could we modify this?

Students offered interesting information on modifying the experiment. For example, some said we should compare online information versus text. Others suggested we should change the region. For example, would students believe something in London, England over, say, Jackson, Mississippi? Another student suggested we change the language. Still, another suggested we change the author's last name. Would the author's ethnicity make a difference?

I seriously considered modifying this, doing some research and repeating it and then submitting it to a journal. However, I have a hunch that researchers have probably explored these issues of bias before. Still, it was a really interesting activity for students to realize that they are manipulated by subtle issues of imagery and its connection to status, prestige and wealth.

computer class

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:53:00 GMT

My goal, at a technological level, is not to teach skills. Rather, I want students to become technologically literate. This means, they will learn to analyze how technology is used, evaluate its effect on society and blend it in creative ways. I'd like students to be cybergeeks, who are experts in using technology and technogurus who can criticize the dehumanizing elements of technology.With that in mind, here is how I organize my quarter-long class:

Weeks 1-3: My Life
A project where students create a blog telling their life story. They do a multimedia poem, a picture-based study of their geography, a slideshow presentation of their culture, a life philosophy, a "this I believe" blog post, a life narrative using the border as a metaphor and an ethnographic study of language in their life.

Weeks 4-6: My World
Here they explore an issue, create potential solutions to the issue (and engage in a short service learning activity with it) and develop either a socially ethical business or a nonprofit solution to the issue (on a website). They get into research, develop a website, create a video and complete a community Needs Assessment on a spreadsheet. In the end, they have to compare the difference between their charity or company and the charity where they volunteered.

Weeks 7-9: My Future
Here students do more research on potential careers. Someday I'd like to have a job shadowing element to this. They go through some personal finance and goal-setting activities as well.

Students also work on a bi-weekly article to go on our Social Voice website and they participate in our class social network (where much of the online interaction takes place). Each child has a personal and a class blog in addition to the three main projects and the four Social Voice articles.

What I'm trying to do is to get them to use all the technology tools in a cyclical way, so that they build upon what they used in the previous unit. My reason for posting this is that I'd love feedback on how I could build upon this or change it up somehow.