It should come as no surprise, if you read my previous posts about the 20time projects that I am interested in, that I have chosen to take on a stop-action animation short film to work on this summer. I regret that there isn't enough time to also do bicycle repair and I hope that someone else pushes me towards this in the near future as well. But given that there is only so much free time during the summer and there are so many assignments to complete for this program, I will choose to focus my efforts on my filming interests in hopes of creating something which is both fun and inspiring for my students.
As a side note, underlying my motivation, I have always enjoyed writing and have secretly wanted to pursue an MFA. I feel that I need a good kick in the pants in order to write the next great American novel, or at least a story with a beginning, middle, and end. Will parodying Gone With The Wind in claymation form ignite the creative genius in me? I can only hope so, (though, I have not fully committed to a parody-it remains an interesting possibility) or an original production, or an archetypal adaption. The possibilities are endless! Whatever comes out of this process, I will be anxious to share the 20time process and outcome with my cohort. I am grateful for this opportunity. I think we need more of opportunities in life where we are told to pursue our passions. Also, it helps that our grade depends upon it. Seriously, otherwise we might keep making excuses for why don't have time or why we strive for perfection instead of taking significant steps towards doing what we should be doing all along. Thank you for your feedback and encouragement.
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I can see the help wanted sign: Google seeks employees-need a "big and small ego," the ability to gain and apply knowledge by any means, and finally not assume that traditional avenues of success will unlock this career. In short, Google is upending the "type A personality" fantasy and sense of entitlement. For this I applaud them wholeheartedly. I am, I must confess, a "type B" personality-not that I've ever put much stock into these categorizations which always seemed to inflate the already over-inflated "type A" ego.
Yet, what comes out of Silicon Valley is more than a vendetta or Revenge of the Nerds plot line. When I think about who have made the greatest collaborators in my own life and work, they have never been the know-it-alls or colleagues who feel the need to constantly celebrate their own accomplishments. Rather I have always worked best with people who have enough of a sense of humility and are open minded enough to accept the input of their like-minded colleagues. I work best with colleagues who are resourceful enough to look beyond their university degrees to make what needs to happen, happen. And on the flip side, I cannot collaborate well with the all-too-meek either or with someone is not ready to challenge some of my ideas or contribute any of their own. I need a healthy push and pull in order arrive at my best work. And I feel like Google is finding the algorithm for the type of person that we all need teaching and leading our schools as well as our tech industry. So as I prepare my students and ten year old daughter (who in the near future will be one and the same with my students) for cutting edge of careers, I realize that it is no longer only a matter of GPA's, test scores, and Ivy League Schools-previously the forte of Type A's. We must prepare students to be resourceful, to work well with others, and to have a clear understanding what it is that they want to learn and why. If we can say that we prepare students to be ready for Google careers then we can probably say that they are ready for almost anything else the future may throw at them. Resources Friedman, T. (2014, February 22). How to Get a Job at Google. Retrieved June 23, 2015, from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google.html?_r=2 I think that I've already made up my mind to pursue idea one for this class. However, a close second learning project that I would like to take on (and I will still learn this at some point in the near future) is bicycle repair and maintenance. I am the type of person who doesn't like to be at the mercy of repair people who are versed the esoteric world of tools, gears and, and oily liquids and use this knowledge against the lesser informed. Also, as a bike rider, I have found that it is necessary to learn how to do on the spot repairs when you crash or pop tires. So I've been wanting to learn bike repair. Trust me, it's more complicated than it seems. I can change the oil and starter on my car but I can't adjust the cables on breaks or gears.
So here are the questions that I would address in this endeavor: 1, What tools do I need in order to make the work efficient and qualitative? 2. How can I do the job so as to be able to assure the safety of the rider? 3. Are there certain jobs that I shouldn't try to take on? 4. Is there a certification process that would verify my abilities? 5. How can I transfer my knowledge to my fellow bike riding students? 6. When to replace/when to repair? 7. How much money can I save by doing my own repairs? 8. How much money do I need to invest to do the job? 9. Where can I find mentors, both in person and online, who can coach me through the more complicated jobs? 10. How do I adjust my learning for different types of bikes? Asking me to learn something new is not a hard sale. I've tried so many different new hobbies and learned so many unrelated skills. For example, in recent years I have learned how to develop my own black and white photos, ferment foods and drinks, surf, snowboard, play guitar, shoot and edit videos, etc. The larger problem has been sticking with a hobby and being able to develop it with greater skill. I often feel that I am a jack of many trades, but master of none. With that said, I'm still constantly kicking around ideas in the back of my head that I would like to take on. I'll try to take on one of these this summer as a 20time Project. Here's my first idea. I have been shooting and editing films for a while and teaching students how to do the same. I am a fan of stop action animation and claymation and I have been hoping that some of my students would take on one of these projects in their free time. Unfortunately, I have been unsuccessful in convincing them to try this. I've been learning that students can be inspired by seeing the projects and processes of others. So idea one is to write, produce, film, edit, and publish a short stop action animation film. The questions I have about the project is: 1. How does one write a compelling script for stop action animation? 2. How can I manipulate lighting in order for the setting to look semi-realistic? 3. What is the best way to create a small setting for the action? 4. Is there an online community for these types of projects where I can get mentored? 5. What is a reasonable time frame to complete this type of project? 6. Is there an intersection between computer animation and stop action animation that I can adopt to make the project more efficient? 7. What types of character figurines should I use or make? 8. Can I package this project so that my students can also complete similar projects? 9. What types of stories are best told using this medium? 10. Where should I publish my work? 11. Would it be acceptable to allow my 10 year old daughter to assist me with this project or would it violate the rules of the class and child labor? I think this would be a very fun project to take on. Let me know what you think. "Schools were built on a fundamental premise that teachers and knowledge and information were scarce. That is no longer the reality" (Richardson 2012) We've all known for quite a while that education must radically evolve to meet the needs of the present. I have been reminded on various occasions that we are preparing students for jobs that don't even exist yet and that technology is the game changer. However, the only thing that we seem certain of is change itself. Where we're headed there is no road map. Or, as one of my colleagues explained, "We don't know what we don't know." So, how can one prepare students to face such uncertainty? How can we avoid becoming obsolete? Will Richardson's short book, Why Schools? cogently describes our predominately anachronistic educational model and offers an alternative approach. In an effort to distill Richardson's pearls of wisdom, I would like to break the text down into six takeaways; three "don'ts" and three "do's" (although the book offers many more). The don'ts are found in Part I of the book labeled "Old School" and Part II is where we find the do's naturally labeled "New School." Don't treat schools as if they are impervious to change Richardson explains that institutional change is almost everywhere yet the institution of school has remained substantially unchanged for nearly 150 years. While we may have brought technology into schools we often continue to teach in the same way that we did before we had access to modern technology. Don't view an education as sets of buildings and activities occurring between bells "a slew of recent developments, all in reaction to "anytime, anywhere, anyone" world of learning abundance, has begun to push a redefinition of how we stamp ourselves as "educated"" (Richardson 2012). In spite of this, we continue to think of education at that which only what happens in a school with a credentialed teacher who facilitates learning by utilizing approved curriculum. Students can and will teach themselves by seeking mentors and collaborators online. Don't think of schools as gateways to information The most apt metaphor that Richardson uses in order to describe this problem is that of a library wherein a student walks in, directly goes and sits at a table, and then waits for his teacher to deliver books to him. Rather than discovering the books and information surrounding him, he passively consumes only that which is brought to him. In this approach there is no discovery and often the information provided has little relevance to to the student. After describing the problem, Richardson then argues how we can better teach and assess. He breaks this down into "six unlearning/relearning ideas for educators that I believe we must all support" (Richardson, 2012). These six unlearning/relearning ideas are "1, Share everything (or at least something), 2. Discover, don't deliver,the curriculum, 3. Talk to strangers, 4. Be a master learner, 5. Do real work for real audiences, and finally 6. Transfer the power." Again, in the effort to further distill Richardson's pedagogy, and for the sake of symmetry, allow me to simplify his ideas into three do's, Do always approach teaching as a learner What this means is that a teacher's responsibility is not to empty the contents of his head into the heads of his students. Information is constantly changing, adapting, and being created. If we think about learning as analogous to computer hardware, it's not what's stored in our hard drive that matters most but how our CPU (central processing unit, or computer chip) is able to retrieve new information and integrate this into the challenges that we face. In other words, we need to facilitate learning by demonstrating our own ongoing learning processes. We can instigate and coach learning but student mastery is not in emulating a teacher but in personalizing learning. Do embrace the potential of technology It is due largely to technology that this dialogue of educational transformation is possible. Richardson quotes Michael Wesch who reminds us of "ubiquitous computing, ubiquitous information, ubiquitous networks, unlimited speed, about everything, everywhere" (Richardson 2012). Gone are the days when information was scarce and the tools to access this information were difficult to get to. As a result we should adapt to this new reality by no longer prioritizing the accumulation of information but rather the utilization of information in collaboration with colleagues throughout the world. Do venture into the unknown Don't only provide learning experiences for which you already know the outcome and end product. True inquiry and discovery happens when neither teacher nor student know where the path of inquiry may lead. Both the teacher and student have the opportunity to learn side-by-side. Venturing into the unknown does make teachers more vulnerable, since we may not always have the answer. However, this approach demonstrates our commitment to lifelong learning and authentic discovery. Will Richardson's book is definitely worth reading for the points which I listed above and many more as well. Richardson begins to shine a light into what 21st century learning should look like. However, he is not overly prescriptive, as that would run contrary to the argument he is making. All in all, it's an incredible read and well spent $3. Resources: Richardson, W. (2012). Why school how education must change when learning and information are everywhere / Will Richardson. New York, NY: TED Conferences. In theory, I don't believe that any modern educator would disagree Michael Wesch's premise that students should do more with their education than stock pile information wisely packaged by their instructors. Students should aspire to make their own meaning in learning as they seek out information from the near infinite well spring in their smart phones. They should then put this research into projects that have the potential to significantly impact our planet. However, this hardly seems to me to be a revolutionary point of view. Paolo Freire said the same close to 50 years ago in Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Freire describes the detrimental nature of traditional teacher-student relationships by explaining that: "Education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating, the teacher issues communiques and makes deposits which the students patiently, receive memorize and repeat." Freire counters this approach to teaching by explaining that, "Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through restless, impatient continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other." Freire didn't need ubiquitous technology in order to see that knowledge is derived through mutual interactions between students, teachers, and the world at large. The teaching paradigm is largely one defined by a hierarchical relationship wherein the teacher is expected to be an authority figure in both matters of classroom management and subject expertise. Knowledge is something that a teacher is expected to bring to the table rather than actively create in exchange with his or her own students. I believe that Will Ricardson better described the problem with this approach to teaching in Why Schools Must Change When Learning and Information are Everywhere. Richardson uses an apt analogy of a library where the student sits at a table and waits for information to be dumped in from of him by a teacher while neglecting the knowledge he could be acquiring on his own. Why should any student wait for this information dump when they can just as easily seek information more relevant to their own interests and problems they attempt to solve? Technology does facilitate these types of interactions but is not required to make them happen. What is needed first and foremost is a close examination of the beliefs that we've acquired through our own education and how we carry those beliefs into our teaching practice. Some teachers may put iPads or Chromebooks in front of students only to tell them which websites to visit and which end product to create. The message is the same while the tools have changed. The message is that I as teacher will tell you what is worth learning, which problems are worth solving, and what the solutions are. Freire implored for a different type of education in 1968 yet the institution as a whole remained industrialized. Hopefully technology is the game changer this time around. Resources Freire, P. (2000, September 1). Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 30th Anniversary Edition Paperback. Retrieved June 8, 2015. Richardson, W. (2012). Why school how education must change when learning and information are everywhere / Will Richardson. New York, NY: TED Conferences. Wesch, M. (2010, October 12). TEDxKC - Michael Wesch - From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-Able. Retrieved June 8, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeaAHv4UTI8 As a teacher in my mid-thirties, I am happy to learn that tech fluency is no longer being defined by one's age. I may be a digital native but I would rather be known as someone who makes conscious decisions which put me somewhere along a more sensible continuum.
And, if I'm being completely honest, I feel that I have been somewhat of a social media curmudgeon. My friends and peers quickly embraced so many new innovations, which I felt only allowed them to share "banalities" and self-promote more efficiently. In the past, every time I went on Facebook, which I would proudly say was no more than once a year, I would get my fill of puckered-faced selfies and pictures of what you had for dinner. Slowly, I have begun to embrace social media as a powerful tool (oh no, visitor terminology!) which can serve many professional purposes to the benefit of our schools and students. For example, I am currently seeking like-minded individuals who can collaborate with me, and increase my understanding of technology, law and finance in schools. In other words, you my MA Tech Leadership Cohort Two colleagues. This fledgling network has already taught me so much. I think that as we have these conversations and share our understanding we will arrive at a collective understanding which is so much more comprehensive than I could have had as an individual. In other words, I now embrace Will Richardson's "what we know" as opposed to "what I know" approach to learning. Social media, via our Google+ community, Blackboard, Twitter, and even these blog posts, allow us to capitalize on the learning of 20+ like-minded individuals. Hence, I find myself wanting to become more of an internet resident, or someone who would like to leave a trace on the internet beyond the shutting down of my laptop so that I too can help my network just as you have helped me. I would also like to grow a similar learning network at my school for both my staff and my students. I am, however, somewhat of a latecomer to the party. Please have patience with me as I work my way to the right of the continuum, past the puckered-face selfies. Resources Richardson, W. (2012). Why school how education must change when learning and information are everywhere / Will Richardson. New York, NY: TED Conferences. White, D. (2013, June 11). Visitors and Residents Mapping Activity. Retrieved June 7, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EyH-JZWtoI |
AuthorIn this blog I will share my perspectives of the learning and materials from EDL 680, already a very inspiring course that I am taking for MA in Educational Leadership Archives
August 2015
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