The Understatement of the Year

"Students who are living and learning with technologies that generate dynamic forms of content may find the current formalism and structure of scholarship and research to be static and “dead” as a way of collecting, analyzing and sharing results" (Johnson, Levine, & Smith, 2009).

References

Johnson, L., Levine, A., & Smith, R. (2009). The 2009 Horizon Report. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium. Retrieved February 22, 2009, from http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2009-Horizon-Report.pdf

A Dangerous Presumption

I know a five-year-old who is intrigued by the way things work. He can tell you all about the mechanics of any number of things and is especially enamored of trains. Although he prefers to explore the history of their development and their technical specifications, the extent of the train offerings in the children’s section of local libraries tend to be limited to Thomas the Tank Engine. I know another child who has developed an interest in astronomy. Of course, the only information his mother can find in the local library insists that Pluto is still a planet. I am also acquainted with an eight-year-old who can engage political science professors in discussions of political theory . . . in Asia. That same eight-year-old is fascinated by string theory and fractals. However, after perusing the shelves of the children’s section of the local bookstore in search of high quality, conceptually rich, factually accurate materials that would provide him with a solid foundation in the key ideas behind the theory (such as the String Ducky video from Discover Magazine’s String Theory in 2 Minutes or Less Contest), I discovered that they don’t exist.

Meanwhile, books ostensibly written for the “average” non-scientist adult are so full of text and mathematical equations and so lacking in pictures that they are basically incomprehensible–even to a highly educated adults, unless they happen to be physicists, of course!

My point is three-fold. The first is that the proliferation of information and the speed with which it can be disseminated has resulted in an increasingly acute need for students to leave schools equipped with the cognitive flexibility to adapt to rapid change, the creativity to generate innovative solutions to complex problems, and the transliteracy to create and interpret meaning across cultures, genres, and platforms. Yet, there is little in the children’s sections of our local libraries and bookstores that would build the interest, understandings, or skills from which future innovations in traditional fields could be leveraged, much less in fields like design, environmental sustainability, photonics, or quantum computing. The second is that the majority of teachers lack even basic digital literacies (which might explain why so many of the tools critical to developing them are banned or blocked in most schools) and are therefore ill-equipped to guide students toward suitable alternative resources online. The third is that the presumption that children’s interests are narrow and that their capacity for understanding is limited is a very dangerous one. What’s more, it is often untrue.

In The Little Prince, St. Exupéry lamented the inability of grownups to understand anything of real consequence. I suspect that many of the children I know would heartily agree!

An Aesthetic Feast

What do multiple literacies look like, feel like, and sound like? What happens when you layer aesthetic, conceptual, discursive, emotional, intellectual, rhetorical, and visual elements using mixed media? Take a look at Dave Werner's Portfolio to find out.

The design of the site and the thinking that it reveals are intriguing to me—especially as you explore pages like the reflect/respect page (be sure to watch the video and click on the process images). Note the multiple paths to navigation, the mix of non-linearity and linearity on every page, and the convergence of inquiry with social activism, community engagement, and arts-based education. I also liked the way the site invites you to interact with it, and in the process, helps you to establish a relationship with its author, its content, and its form. You can see and hear Dave's mind at work (and come to understand more about HOW and WHY it works as it does) as you explore it.

The portfolio is a good example of many of the values of the iGeneration—inter-tainment, identity, individuality, information, innovation, interactivity. It engaged me in considering how our representation of content gets tangled up with our values, and how that influences the ways we choose to represent ourselves personally and professionally. I also couldn’t help but think of the research on cognitive flexibility, complexity, design, engagement, perception, multiple representations, and visual thinking as I was exploring this.

It would be interesting to show this to educators and teacher candidates and ask questions such as:

• What do these ‘products’ reveal about what the person who created them understands? What do they reveal about what he may not have considered? What do they reveal about him professionally? What do they reveal about him personally?

• What kind of experiences could prepare someone to create such products? What kinds of experiences would preclude the development of the skills required to create such products?

• What kind of technological pedagogical content knowledge would be required in order for a teacher to facilitate the development of such products or skills?

• What implications might this have for the kinds of things we do in our classrooms and for the kinds of assignments we give to students (PreK-12, undergraduate, graduate, doctoral)?

• What might this mean for the future of education, as well as for cultural, economic, political, and social contexts?

• What questions should we, as educators, be asking that we currently are not?

Of course, there are many counterarguments. (Incidentally, it would be interesting to see a visual representation of some of them.) There will be many who will find the site overwhelming and who will argue vociferously that it has nothing to do with education, literacy, the future, or the challenges inherent in those endeavors . . . .

For me, however, it is the happiest site I've encountered in a very long while--an aesthetically, conceptually, emotionally, and intellectually pleasurable experience.

The Roots of Things

For awhile now, I've been fascinated by the realization that the behavior of light, heat, energy, sound, color can all be described and represented, to some extent, in terms of waves. Because (at least at this point in my life) I believe that truth is consistent across contexts, and that the observation of similar patterns across contexts is a sure sign that something fundamentally important is at play, I started wondering about the potentially important truths embedded in that phenomenon.

As I explored, I discovered that light is cropping up as an important theme in all sorts of unusual places--Appliance Design magazine regularly contains articles that refer to light-based innovations, including the use of blue light to reduce bacteria in the mouth that causes tooth decay, the use of light to weld certain plastics, etc. Other articles in science magazines talk about things like quantum dots, the use of light as a mechanism for storing information, or the influence that light has on children's ability to learn (in one study, full spectrum lighting improved test scores by something like 67% . . . but replacing flourescent lights with full spectrum lights is expensive . . . so we continue to default to alternatives like attempting to use standardized testing to coerce change in student achievement).

All of these ideas seem to have a couple of things in common--a relationship to electromagnetic fields and, more generally, an association with quantum mechanics. Naturally, I wanted to know more about that. Unfortunately, math and I have not always been on speaking terms,
though, and I found that as a result, I didn't have the mathematical background to understand the answers to the questions I was asking. Fortunately, a friend of mine who is a theoretical mathematician, among other things, spent the better part of a year convincing me that math is a part of daily life, and that if I could live life, I could understand math. Through our conversations, coupled with a number of diagrams and three dimensional demonstrations, I learned about fractals, Julia sets, Mandlebrot spots, vanishing points, harmonics, vectors, pivot tables, and a host of other interesting things that I never knew existed and that I never could have guessed I would find so incredibly compelling. I suddenly had an appetite for things mathematical, and, more importantly, the confidence that I could digest them once I had consumed them.

Since then, I have been relying on sporadic, fortuitous contacts with physicists and mathematicians that life in a research one university affords, and their patient and good-humored explanations, to slowly fill in the gaping holes in my understanding of many of the fundamental principles that govern the world.

During one recent conversation of this nature, another friend suggested that I consult a book entitled, The Roots of Things: Topics in Quantum Mechanics for answers to some of my questions that were written for a lay person with only minimal references to math. Although I have to say that his definition of minimal and mine certainly differ, I have made it to page 63--pretty impressive for someone who finds that somnolence overcomes her the minute a mathematical equation crosses the page!

So, my next few postings will be an attempt to make sense of some of the things that I'm reading.

Textbook Transformations

Ads Coming to Textbooks

We've seen start-up companies change the face of a variety of industries, so the idea that a start-up company could exert sufficient influence on the markets to pressure textbook conglomerates to change is not unimaginable. However, the vignettes about textbook industries who have tried ad-filled textbooks and rejected the model is amusing to me in the sense that it epitomizes the one-chance-one-strategy-at-a-time, top-down, business model sort of approach (the most important people are the professors who decide what texts to use) instead of a more creative, flexible, imaginative approach that demonstrates an understanding of the "real" target audience (students), the pressures at play in the system (including the inflexibility of textbook conglomerates), and uses a bundled set of strategies to leverage change at multiple points in the system. I wonder if the textbook publishing industry will pay attention, or if it will wait until it finds itself scrambling to keep market share. I think in the digital age, it is dangerous to assume that the old models will continue to work, that bigger is better, that those with the most money will be the most likely to succeed. There are other kinds of capital besides that of a financial nature, and people are starting to figure out how to use it.

The "between the lines" part of this article is also interesting. The article begins with the premise that professors select textbooks because they are critical to students' learning. It continues to extrapolate that premise by suggesting that students who choose not to buy the texts must be missing out on the materials, and equates missed material as missed learning. If the initial premise was sound, the logic might hold, but . . . ;-)

The most interesting part of this model to me are the downloadable texts and iChapters. Convenient, customizable, economical, searchable . . . certainly likely to appeal to a generation of students who are constantly connected.

Cyberplanning & Virtual Community Development?!

So, I came across this article as the result of a Google Alert on light: A Red-Light District in the Comfort of My Own Home. I think American society is more influenced by childhood games like Red Light, Green Light than we might care to admit, for articles about "red-light" cameras and organizations getting the "green light" to move forward with some plan or other are quite pervasive. Just as I was ready to hit the delete key, however, I caught a glimpse of the annotation of the article and decided to give it a closer look. I was struck by the following ideas:

1) The "mapping" of cyberspace to the physical geography of a community. Sometimes I think we view them as completely separate, not recognizing how much our experiences in the physical world influence our expectations for and interactions with one another in the virtual one.

2) The issues the article raises regarding the growth and development of cybercommunities. Can you imagine a degree in "cyberplanning and virtual community development?" That is what reading this article evoked for me and it seems rather plausible in a weird sort of way!

3) How deeply entwined everything is with policy and how many questions about it are implied by this article. Who influences policy the most? Who makes final decisions about it? How many of the decisions surrounding policy are made behind closed doors before an issue even becomes a public one? Can the population at large really move policy in a particular direction? How much "public" would that take?

4) What makes the author think that a new "community of shadows" won't spring up in the "dark alleys and sewers" of the xxx district if it were created? People who wish to avoid scrutiny aren't necessarily going to hang out in the "approved for loitering" areas of a community!

5) The psychology implicit throughout this article is especially intriguing.

And Now We Outsource Even Our Play?!

To the Chinese, of course! Somehow, the esteem-influencing properties of "ascending the ladder" (be it real or virtual), combined with a chronic inability to defer gratification, now mean that we even PAY people to play for us?! What is MOST interesting to me about this article is what it says about the blurred lines between work and play . . . play has become work (and I don't mean for the Chinese, I mean for the Americans who are applying their conceptions of success that have always permeated the workplace to their leisure time).

What does that say about the values we place on production as opposed to experience, about American psychology, about the kinds of products Americans are likely to be in need of that enterprising folks could anticipate and provide as a result of the fractures in psychological functioning that this might indicate?! Yes—the economics of the article are VERY interesting, and business people and educators alike had better watch out—the tech has given individuals a lot of power they never had before and they are using that power.

Guiding young people in the use of that power will be even MORE critical than ever before, and leads me to believe that we have to relinquish the teaching of static content (a.k.a. facts--especially since they are outdated daily anyhow) and start teaching a conceptual curriculum that can accommodate flexible thinking, that promotes problem-solving, and that gives kids significant experiences with recontextualization and transfer. It has to be a curriculum of immersion in order for them to acquire the skills they need (and yes, the parallels to second language acquisition are purposeful).

Where the True Techies Live

Click here to see a map of where the "true techies" live based on the results of a survey reported in USAToday.com. Click on the county listings and the methodology buttons to see easily digestible info. that is really interesting. So what do all those counties have in common? Is it affluence? Is it access? Is it proximity to technologically-based business and industry? Is it social networks? Is it a particular perspective that arises out of the local culture? I found this very interesting and look forward to exploring it more . . .including the survey on which these results are based.

A New Twist on Technological Integration

So, imagine my surprise when, while looking for images that depict the way teens are integrating technology into their lives, I come across this article in the MacDailyNews about iPod underwear. Yeah, if you click on the link, you can even see a picture!

So this is what we can look forward to as tech becomes more and more a part of our lives?! I must admit that at first I was puzzled by it, but then I realized if you like to listen to music and happen to do your relaxing in your underwear, then it makes perfect sense. Oh those shifting paradigms!

The implications regarding the things that Americans value and the ways that American culture is changing as a result of those values are worth noting, and make Lowell W. Monke's thoughts on The Overdominance of Computers important to consider. I found his comments regarding the unprecedented power that is now available to even very young children and the need for strong adult guidance right on target. Just because children have technological skill doesn't mean they have the wisdom to use it wisely.

Missing an Organ--Just Print It!?!

Okay, so maybe it isn't quite as simple as the title of this post might lead you to believe. Nonetheless, while looking for good headlines that show how future trends in technology that might affect the literacy skills required for students' future success, I came across this article about biological printers that "print" the components of organs onto special gel-coated biopaper and then allow cellular processes to take over to finish self-assembling the structures. Can you imagine having been on THAT research team the day the chicken cells started to beat . . . in synchrony!?

Yet in the name of preparing students for "the future," we still have them sitting in rows, completing avalanches of worksheets, and practicing for standardized tests! This article makes it clear just how "standardized" the future will be, along with the kind of thinking it will require! :-( I think Einstein summarized the whole matter very nicely in this little image.

Simplicity

I serendipitously discovered John Maeda's blog on Simplicity today and fell in love with this quote: "Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, while adding the meaningful."

I hope that will be one of the by-products of my PhD work . . . the development of a stronger intuition for the mathematics of research and, more importantly, of my life!

It reminds me of another powerful quote that a friend shared with me back in June from Brian Tol's Wiremine information garden. "I opened up bloglines today for the first time in two weeks, and had about 2000 items to sift through, including about 45 wiki-related items. At that moment BCP's quote of the week really rang true: 'Life is all about unbolding.'"

Back to balance and prioritization once again!

Blog Revolution

• Teens now are doing some very interesting things with blogs, and what's interesting is that they've pretty much done it in their own ecosystem - they haven't been told they're a smart mob, or that they're participating in a personal publishing revolution.

Quantum Dots

I just finished reading an article on Quantum Dots. It sparked a number of thoughts, including the idea that this is just one example of the kind of a world for which we are preparing our students. Of particular interest to me was the way that the following concepts were represented:

1) The exchange of capital – What if Bowers hadn't been willing to make THREE separate batches of dots for McBride? What if Associate Professor Sandra Rosenthal got irritated that he was using her lab, her equipment, her resources to make dots for some other student? Notice the fact that all the students were from the same lab . . . so the physical structure of the lab potentially intensified the interactions among the various students because they are all in closer, more bounded proximity. Wonder if, like atoms, as people collide repeatedly and with more frequency, it increases the energy between them, intensifies the momentum of their thinking? I think that could be part of the magic of the NFLRC . . . bounded space, intensified collisions of people and ideas . . . yields increased energy and momentum . . . plus there is always the issue of increased access to resources as a result of the pooling of people.

2) The concept of transference – The student who brings stuff from a completely unrelated context (parents' summer cabin) into the lab, which fertilizes another students' thinking and he begins to consider using the Minwax in a new way. Also, note that each student had different interests, but the lab provided a point of common connection . . . a physical nexus for the convergence of disparate ideas.

3) The concept of extrapolation – "Such a fundamental change could open up a wide range of new possibilities, such as making almost any object into a light source" . . . now consider the importance of light throughout history in a wide range of contexts, then extrapolate from the prediction above . . . if any object could become a light source . . . think about new applications, marketing, ART! Think if you could mix that stuff with your paint! Now, think about problems such applications would create (because every new technology comes with its problems—that law of opposition again) . . . and if you could anticipate them and begin working on solutions now . . . and think what a great exercise it would be for students to think about these concepts . . .