Economic breakdown, what I'm thinking now.

When I have time, I often watch video podcasts from the TED conference (technology, education, and design). If I taught older kids, I’d probably reference them all the time, but I teach 3rd-5th graders and most of the ideas are a too complicated. Anyway, earlier this month, the James Surowiecki TED lecture from 2005 showed up in my podcast feed, I had the chance to listen to it today on the train from Boston to NYC.

Sourawicki has famously written about the blogosphere, the changes in journalism and the wisdom of crowds. I was interested to listen today because in light of the economic crisis, I’ve been thinking about group speak (a not so good thing) vs. knowledge of networks (a “good” thing). I mean, until recently pundits have been telling us our economic system is strong and resilient, using this flawed model to predict prosperity into the future. Since reading Marx in college, and exploring sustainability over the past few years, I’ve thought that our consumption based economy is more likely to breakdown than survive.

Sourawecki speaks about this too: explaining that networks have a tendency to encourage “group speak”, and that, as a network develops a voice, it re-enforces it’s own ideas, shaping views of the individuals within it. There’s a psychological re-inforcement loop: as people participate, they get more attention if they draw attention to the ideas that the network values. Thus, networks are not simply the component of their individual parts, they are something more; propelling their valued ideas further and further along.

dreamix project

The dreamix project is over, it was intense.

Friday afternoon preview: listen to rapper's delight and "good times" identifying that much hip hop music is made with samples.

Day 1) Morning: history of hip-hop. recap rapper's delight, listen to The Message, watch the video, deconstruct the lyrics. Watch clip from Style Wars: 4 elements of hip-hop: Mcing, Djing, breaking and graffiti. Each child writes note in notebook, creates a tag.

Afternoon: talk about fair use and citations. Begin experimenting with garageband and sampleing old records

Day 2) Morning: Eyes on the Prize, awakenings, recap history of Africans in America. Emancipation, plessy vs. ferguson, Jim crow laws, WW2, Brown v board, civil rights movement. Watch eyes on the prize video (pbs.org) comparing Malcolm X and Martin Luther King's ideas. discuss.

Afternoon: Watch video of Malcolm's return from Mecca. . . what has changed? emphasis on white and blacks as part of "human family" . Teach quicktime pro, students extract audio from clips for use in final piece.

Day 3) Morning: MLK I have a dream speech, watch it twice, stopping to explain the metaphor of cashing a check. and the historical context. talk through vocabulary beforehand:

Score: 20 years
Emancipation Proclamation: the law that made enslaved Africans free citizens, marking the end of the civil war.
Decree: an order or law, to make an official announcement
Seared: burned
Captivity: being held a prisoner
Manacles: metal rings that hold a prisoner
Poverty: state of not having enough money
Languishing: to undergo hardship as a result of being deprived of independence
Promissory note: a signed agreement
Inalienable: not able to be taken away
Default: the failure to meet an agreement
Insufficient funds: not enough money
Tranquility: to induce calmness
Desolate: empty, solitary, and joyless
Determination: a fixed purpose
Legitimate: real, well reasoned
Devotees: a dedicated member of a group
Persecution: suffering felt by a group of people
Degenerate: to develop into a situation that is worse than before.

Afternoon: extracting audio from I have a dream speech placing into garageband and adding music.

Thursday: Morning: talk again about citiation, use handout to show how to cite sources. Talk about creative choices in how to mix music and words and images.
dreamixing, work day, kids work on final piece.

Friday:

Final day checklist: dreamixing
check a box when you finish each item:

Citing sources: did you correctly identify:

Your records?

Your images?

Your videos?

Photograph your tag (to start your podcast)

Fix sound levels so voices are audible.

Export to disk: open in quicktime: export from movie to quicktime movie.

Put quicktime movie to agardner’s drop box (so I can put it into final movie)


make movie and show to others.

I just went through my records

I just went through them and pulled some gems to illustrate what digging through the crates can do for you.

I will definately need to begin day 1 with hip hop history. Jazz and hip hop only american developed art forms, representing a culture.

Begin with video of The Message (I have it on tape): talk about what it's about. watch you tube video about making of it, Grandmaster flash got credit even though he didn't record it. talk about copywrite, etc.

Talk about breakbeats, watch a clip of Grandmaster Flash cutting together 2 copies of the same record, play some of Style Wars video (perhaps buy it on DVD for myself. (the clip with "the message" playing) then begin looking for breakbeats.

more ideas later

prepping IPW

So a few weeks ago I spent 2 days helping 4th graders remix MLK's I have a dream speech. I liked the project, so now I'm offering an improved and extended version for Integrated Projects Week. I would like there to be visual imagery as well, so we will use garageband to make podcasts.

This morning I sat down and began planning, I began collecting content to share with the students. I found a bunch of audio recordings of Dr. King and some great video footage of Malcolm X, but I'm struggling with how to download and manipulate them. I don't want to encourage copyright infringement, but I do think it's valuable to engage with media
and manipulate it. We're in the age of remixing, but how much can I encourage taking content without permission?

back in school

I've met with all the grade level teams now, and I'm confused about my new role as educational technologist. I do not have a specific role, though it's becomming more clear that teachers expect me to integrate for projects, not teach skills weekly, no surprise there. However, classroom teachers are pinched for time, they can't teach reading,writing and math, let alone create time for addition stuff from me.

I want to do learning portfolios, but I also want help and not burden. Picking the teachers to work with will be key.

Summercore

As a teacher transmitting values to students, this symbol (not surprisnigly) means a lot to Steve, so I thought it would be good to post it here! Hey Dad, it's used outside Harvard too! (taken from PAS intranet http://abbey.pas.org/sbergen/PA19.jpg)

So, day 3 of summercore, Steve and Lynne's computer professional development workshop is ova'. Today we talked about using Excel, which was good, because it's a program that I rarely use and don't know much about. I sat behind John Platt, while he showed how he uses it for grade sheets, and sat behind Steve and Aroline as she made a ficticious bribery column in her spreadsheet and wrote a function giving each child an extra point to their cumulative average for every 10 bucks they gave her. . . Ha! Brother Francis and I learned the pros and cons of creating columns compared to using 3 tabs and then he explained to me the difference between an abbey and a monastery (post a comment if you know!)

This experience is proving to me that I need to learn MS office suite much much better. It's the primary software on everyone's machines, and though I use them reasonably well, it's clear that I'm not comfortable enough to get in front of a group of teachers and explain how to do so efficiently. I'm a trail and error kinda guy, but that doesn't cut it in this environment. Now, if we were on Macs, and I was teaching ilife suite, it would be a different story. However, I still wouldn't be in autopilot/improv mode. I'm new to teaching teachers. It's a different beast.

However, now that I've sat through a few days, I have a more clear sense of how I can help Steve and Lynne on the next summercore workshop. Now that I've seen them do it, it's time to think a little about teaching Excel or Word. I'm sure I could develop a great lesson, and with a little effort, I could be a much more active participant.

Sooooo, what else have I learned to date? Well, since this is a PC based workshop, I'm learning a bunch of stuff about windows functionality. Like, for example, on a PC many keyboard letters have different functions when you press the function key (a little different from the keyboard shortcuts that I use on my mac). On the dell and IBM laptops we're using, those functions are written in light blue on the same key. So, when I press function and f8, I can select how I want to display the screen through the projector. Like all good progressive teachers, Lynne and Steve are going from structure to choice, providing the necessary guidance, and then creating time for more "authentic learning" by using the newly acquired skills through projects and constructive excercizes.

It's great to watch them, I love how Steve knows that everything needs to be repeated at least 3 times, so he kinda acts like he doesn't understand sometimes so that a participant needs to explain what is happening. And when Lynne systematically introduces everything about excel, not assuming that any student has had any exposure. She's super clear, and repeats herself so that they get it. Clearly they bug each other some times, but wouldn't you get bothered teaching the same workshop with your spouce for over 20 years? In general, I think the pacing and transitions could be a little better, though Steve began giving "5 minute warning" reminders today. .. I do think folks get frusters when it's just "stop and close yer machines." I'm probably more sensitive to that kinda stuff cause I have taught little ones for the past 8 years!

Overall, I think the group is coming together. There is momentum building, between Steve and Lynne's unending energy and the fact that the students are recognizing their learning and the fact that Dan came in today and reminded everyone that there will be more projectors and that site licenses for new software is easy to get, I think changes may be happening here. That's the point, right?

More later,
Andrew

whats happenin' now.

it's strange how when you come back home you feel exhilarated, tired,
strange, sad, all kinds of things. After spending the last few months
thinking about sustainability, the environment and limiting my
footprint on the world, I come back to NY and I'm focussed on desiging
a kitchen andchoosing the right kind of counter. We were looking at
all these different brands, corian (made by dupont) Silestone, grantie
etc. I like the silestone, but questions arise. . . where do they get
their quartz, how do they manufacture this stone, plastic polymer?
Then I need to think about getting a new teak table for MV . . .
where does Smith and HAwken get the wood that's going into this table,
if it's from the rainforest, I don't want to buy it. . . but that
means putting my priority over the families need, and that's sometimes
considered selfish.

A few months back, I spoke with Frank, the professor from South
Carolina, about my thoughts on a good teacher. I claimed that I liked
a true eccentric, who may give me a biased, but at least meaningful
perspective on a certain subject. Is it good for a teacher of young
children to do this. I certainly would be criticial of religious
education, or strong rightwing education, but then again, I feel that
my job is political, and it's my duty to get the kids thinking
critically about what's going on around them.

Other than beginning to plan the kitchen, I've spent many hours
working to organize nanny's papers. There are probably close to 100
boxes full of old mail, and my job is to sort through the sweepstakes,
filled out but unsent petitions, political propaganda, and find those
unpaid tax bills, those 3 year old account statements and all the
other important stuff. I'm excited to get through it, get it
organized, and then actually get her an accountant to help her pay
bills and keep her organized. she is too overwealmed by her papers
and it makes her miserable, though at the same time gives her
something to do. It's sad to spend so much time there, she is
paralyzed by her inability to get anything done, and that makes her
sad.

Today is mothers day, I'm meeting up with her, Kerith and Jay and
Jeanne and Oscar for brunch. I'm hopeful that it will be a pleasant.

home again

Breakfast is better in Mexico. Oaxacan coffee is good, and they serve cut up papaya, pinapple, mango, apple, banana with homemade granola and yogurt . . . usually for about 2 dollars. Of course there are "hotcakes" and all sorts of Huevos, but the fruit usually made me happiest.

Zipolite and Mazunte are too hot in April. Though they are good inexpensive vacation spots, its hard to sleep there now. Probably perfect in February. Solstice, in Zipolite, has a fantastic Yoga teacher named Brigitte. She uses all kinds of props to align you, and give clear Spanish and English directions in her cute Dutch accent. I left feeling an inch taller. If staying in Mazunte, I recommend Alta Mira, privacy and unparalleled views. Also be sure to go to the western beach to see the sunset. Avoid Balamjuyuk, the French couple owners were not very friendly (granted I needed to cancel the 6 day reservation that I reserved). There wasn't much love in the breakfast.

suko and I were able to unwind together and actually talk out our future. She has been very lucky for the past few weeks. She got into Hunter for an MFA and yesterday was offered a job as the Visual Arts Curator or Chashama, a non profit arts organization. She also got 2 weeks of undistracted attention from her boy! Our fall will be busy indeed. Next Question is where we will live and for how long we will live there. Appently, my neighbor wants to expand and buy my place. hmmmmm.

Anyway, more about mexico, average income is about 6 thousand dollars a year, yet basic staples like gasoline and milk cost the same amount as they do in the states. After driving around with Colin and Carla, I realized there simply isn't the same car infrastructure. In fact, to take the highways, there are unafforable tarrifs. I think it cost over 25 dollars to get from Guadalajara to San miguel de Allende. Will that lead to a more sustainable future? Perhaps. Is there enough water there? Don't know.