Running into Jamie Smith this morning (and want to talk about some great teaching, check out what Jamie’s been doing with his students this summer) reminded me that I’ve been remiss in putting notes from some of the interesting NMC 2009 Summer Conference sessions I attended.

Ruben Puentedura’s session on “The Infinite Canvas Reloaded: Digital Storytelling, Webcomics, and Web 2.0” (slides in rather large PDF form) was particularly interesting. Using Scott McLeod’s concept of the digital space as an infinite canvas for creation, Ruben explained—and shared examples of—characteristics of the infinite canvas and what they meant to storytellers. Following are my slightly cleaned up notes taken during the session with the all important links to examples and more information… they can’t convey Ruben’s obvious love of the topic and the medium, but they might be a good place to start in considering this important aspect of storytelling. [My personal interjections are in brackets]

Central question: how does the change from the bounds of paper to the infinite canvas of the screen effect the mechanics and conventions of comics?

The "infinite canvas" in 200 words or less…

Example: use of vertical orientation, space beyond what’s possible on paper (note the falling panel) – Scott McCloud’s Zot

Changes with the infinite canvas:

• In a traditional comic, each panel is a "beat" in the story– with the infinite canvas you have as many as you need… pacing is minimally constrained.
• Opening up the "meter" allows the equivalent of pianissimo to fortissimo – dynamic range isn’t (or at least is far less) constrained
• In printed comics, spacing between panels is relatively uniform and constrained… in the infinite canvas distance (can) equal time

A (sometimes) related characteristic: use of groupings/proximity [looks much like the poetic line/stanza] that are conceptual in nature, not dictated by physical requirements.

Example: Scott McCloud – Porphyria’s Lover – note the trails, which are functional and ornamental – one way to indicate when not following standard lexicographic order:

Storis can unfold incrementally (literally). See Demian.5 ’s When I am King. This really looks more akin to film… or a flipbook. Incremental, gradual development of the story, figuratively and textually.

Technique: establish a dominant direction which is then purposefully manipulated [much like using form and meter] to create and then divert/thwart reader/viewer expectations.

Drew Weing – Pup – New comic authors are often purposefully experimental. Note the disappearance and reappearance of panel (frame):

[How have I missed these great comics? I guess the same way I spent so long not seeing graphic novels. But the affordances of digital presentation has some really radical effects!]

Use of visual space to establish time [and a format that resembles instant messaging/texting] – Eros Inc: The Third Degree.

Daniel Merlin Goodbrey – 24:Three (a 24-hour hypercomic):  Excellent design implementation. Experimental in directionality, multiple points of entry, fracturing of the story. Still uses trails, but adds interactivity that carries the reader along the chosen path and zooming for emphasis/de-emphasis.

John Barber – Vicious Souvenirs – some would argue this is less "pure" as an infinite canvas – example of overlays –

Question: why do we (educators) care? Why does this matter?

One reason: infinite canvas provides a rich complex of possibilities [image above, moving really fast here]: image assembly (such as Five Card Nancy) narrative sources; narrative constraints- sequential art: Comic Life – pictorial vocabulary; narrative transitions; text/image integration – moving image Center for Digital Storytellying (CDS) Seven Elements [and CDS Cookbook (PDF)], montage structures- interactive media, Pachyderm narrative structures; narrative flows- interactive fiction, Inform 7 ludic elements

Resource: Puentedura – "Digital Storytelling: An Alternative Instructional Approach" – Slides (Slideshare) and Text (PDF): 

Second reason: Powerpoint, which is so commonly used, has so many intrinsic constraints and default (if not solely available) structures (see Tufte – The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within, 2nd ed.)

Toolkit:

1. The Tarquin Engine (Example: Icarus Tangents)
2. InfiniteCanvas (Mac Only) -  (but no longer being devloped, buggy)
3. Infinite Canvas (microsoft) – example Brad’s Somber Mood (Scott McCloud)
4. Prezi [am I going to have to change my prezi position?] – designed to be an infinite canvas, but not positioning it that way in marketing terms because that scares some people – Prezi still has purposeful constraints, so it’s not just a blank screen, empty page, white canvas – can import flash INTO Prezi – important aspect: the frame acts like the frame around a comic.

Important note about Prezi: the company "gets" the infinite canvas and will be rolling out more features that support this kind of creation.

***

Transitions are particularly important in the comics built on the infinite canvas – understanding the mechanics of panel-to-panel transitions will help clarify when viewing and creating them.

Four approaches to the page (Benoit Peeters): http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v3_3/peeters/

***

Some Prezi examples

• Nice example of almost a concrete poetry approach to using Prezi to convey a piece of Alice in Wonderland (http://prezi.com/56035)
• Second example (http://prezi.com/56151): reenvisioning of a powerpoint presentation, uses proximity and distance, not traditional lexicographic ordering

***

Infinite Canvas as Terrain – the infinite canvas is a terrain; we can apply concepts of mapping to it.

Resource/ToRead: How Maps Work – Alan MacEachren

***

Considerations on "restraints":

• OuBaPo: experimentation on constraints
• Matt Madden – Exercises in Style

Note: music is a better analogy for understanding comics than film– comics aren’t chopped up bits of story akin to chopped up scenes in film.

***

Contact Info:

• Ruben Puentedura (rubenrp@hippasus.com)
• Ruben’s blog: http://hippasus.com/rrpweblog/

1. In Monterey you could go whale watching, in L.A. you can go star-gazing… for Britney and Justin and…
2. In Monterey you get discounts for boating, in L.A. you will get discounts for Botox
3. In Monterey we have been fortunate to honor the man who invented the mouse, in L.A. we’ll honor “The Mouse”

NMC Fellow Recognition for Innovation, Creativity and Learning

Introduced by Lev Gonick and with Kristina Hooper Woolsey.

In 1964 Doug Engelbart presented a demonstration of ideas that would influence technology for the next 45 years (and beyond), and bringing to the forefront the idea of human capability augmentation. Without what he did much of what this conference—and the NMC—is about would not be possible.

[I never tire of watching the video of “The Mother of All Demos”]

The turning point for Engelbart came when he sat and asked himself what he should focus on and the answer that came to him was: how can I maximize the effect of my work to help all mankind? “Since the beginning of human history we’ve been augmenting ourselves. How much difference does that make? Think of the invention of the plow and what it did. …Which brought me to the idea of augmenting the human intellect collectively.”

“There’s an unexplored frontier out there.”

“I think of the way technology will change the way we think and communicate… and I don’t mean we’ll communicate via email, but how our symbols and context will be wholly changed. … people keep saying we’re there now. And then later we’re there now. No, we aren’t there.”

Engelbart introduced the idea of “Network Improvement Communities” (NICS). It’s a value system… when the networks connect us there is a possibility to truly augment the human condition.

Kristina Woolsey: “It’s an evolution… the poor dolphin came on land and then went back to sea… it’s on-going. There’s a lot left to do. The mouse is great, for me particularly, but Doug has a much larger and more important idea. The mouse is one part, but remember even in the beginning there was another chording/stringing machine, and many more ideas of how we navigate and explore information. Even with something as simple as a mouse we have only a tiny piece of the big picture, that is one way of many to think about this space. … This isn’t about machines, but about the way cultures change. Some people are scared. And when you’re the one being changed… another thing we don’t talk about enough: linking. The ability to have specific and non-linear connections. That was a big deal… the fact that it isn’t seen as a big deal is itself a big deal! Doug gave us the platform to begin. It’s easy to think of media as a thing we do or share, but that’s not what Doug means and not what we should mean either… it’s what we say and who can say it and how we can share it.”

At the core: NMC values experimentation. Every day.

There are so many extraordinary things going on that in a way the NMC Center of Excellence Award is a representation of the norm… but it is worthwhile to recognize some of the outstanding work. The award recognizes the very best of the institutions setting the standard for the work and values represented by the NMC.

Recipients of the 7th annual NMC Center of Excellence Awards are:

Abilene Christian University
“Recognized for their leadership in the use of mobile technologies across the institution.”

ACU Mobile Learning

Abilene Christian University had a vision of what could really happen with the embrace mobility and constant connection… beyond notifications, they asked: how can mobile technology transform our institutions and the teaching and learning within it?”

Inspired by the debut of the iPhone, ACU innovators gathered together and considered what it would mean if every student had a computer in their pocket? How can it be more than just putting devices in the students’ hands? ACU wanted to transform the model of interaction and engagement and become a leader in investigating the use and integration of mobile technologies.

Some functions in student and instructor testimonials: using MyACU for navigation of the new campus, use of FlipBook to share images and facilitate peer feedback, provided a way to fit more into limited teaching time by providing instant access to links and media being used. And it provided a regular way for students to participate and contribute.

“Because of the community and peers surrounding this award, this is kind of the MVP of technology and teaching awards.”

The Center for Digital Storytelling
“Recognized for their global role and leadership in advancing the art and practice of digital storytelling.”

The Center for Digital Storytelling (CDS)

Even the brief snippets of stories are powerful: stories of a mother dying of aids and trying to figure out what will happen to her children, adopted children learning about their parents, oral histories…

CDS workshops aren’t just about technical training and creation of a product… they are about teaching participants how to transform their lives through digital storytelling.

A CDS instructor working with Alaska and American Natives: “When they find out what it is, students want digital storytelling and they want it now. For them it’s a way to finally have a powerful voice.”

A testimonial from a student storyteller: “It was a place I could explore things I hadn’t been able to explore before… and I learned that I could create these things I’d seen but never though I’d be able to do myself.”

Joe Lambert: “People come in and start making stories right now. Creating a story isn’t like writing about it… it’s about getting into it. … When YouTube went big, we won. It was a recognition that stories were important and broadly could be shared. … We are claiming the right to produce what we are—as people—and reclaim some ownership of our life process.”

Joe Lambert: “To everyone who is in the room—and who hasn’t yet created a digital story—it is our mission to see that everyone is able to get their story out into the world.”

La Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
“Recognized for their leadership in the areas of open educational resources and technology.”

La Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

NMC’s global reach wouldn’t have happened without UOC’s help, particularly their offer to translate the Horizon Report into Spanish, opening that report up to a large part of the world formerly not served. Following that came Catalan, and others… which opened a floodgate of translations including Japanese recently and Chinese and German in the next few weeks.

UOC has 47,000 students around the world, including 27,000 in Catalonia. The name of the university originally meant we were open to the people… now it means that we are open to the world. This award confirms that they are on the right track with continuing to innovate in openness and user-centered design with students informing the conception, development and operation of their virtual campus environment.

(Note to self: check out details of their document creation model, using xml + transformation.)

The recent Open EdTech meeting brings together leaders from institutions and organizations from around the world to attempt to bridge the technological, political and pedagogical issues faced by educators and institutions around the world.

Bronwyn Stuckey – Mashup for Quest Atlantis Teacher Community – Virtual world environment with a game structure for curriculum delivery. They’ve created a rich backstory for the “Atlantis Community.” Built on the ActiveWorld platform—only slightly similar to Second Life. Designed for the intersection of education, entertainment and social community. Different kinds/levels of involvement: questers at the center, then teachers, facilitators and “buoys.” There are facilitated engagements as well as “missions” performed in-world. For more info: bestucke@??  – to explore: http://atlantis.crlt.indiana.edu/public/pdInfo.pl

Jackie Gerstein – Creative Web Tools For and By Kids - “Technology and hands-on are our future” : unscripted testimonial from children participating in the activities. Doing before teaching. Students take on role of stewardship of their learning… so they can introduce themselves (and they do). Each student has a wiki page… and the first thing the kids want to do is to create their own identities. Students pick their own tools, Jackie facilitates the process. Learning goals are established by the students themselves… they find links to support their activities and investigative tools to analyze and synthesize what they’ve found. Kids-to-Kids. Then they produce a presentation to share what they’ve learned using a variety of Web 2.0 tools. Somem tools: wordle, ticlets, dipity, tikatok books, mystudio. Unintended consequences included making global connections.

Virginia Kuhn – Documentary is the New Black: Filmic Textbooks in the 21st Century Classroom – they have students who are not cinema students, despite it being a school of cinematic arts. These students do a multimedia thesis project in their discipline (biology, etc). See http://iml.usc.edu/. Course: IML 340 – The Praxis of New Media. Students could work on a small “seed” project that would inform or be part of their final multimedia thesis. Documentary project: Iraqi Doctors: On the Front Lines of Medicine… were looking at a way to finish the documentary, so they combined the IML 340 class with the documentary project. Students did research according to their areas of disciplinary interest to contribute to the project. See http://hurricane.usc.edu/iml340/ – Jerry Mander in the Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television argued that books were better than film because film was ephemeral and temporary and bounded/insulated. With new technologies, that is no longer as true. More skills are needed: editing, composition, etc.

Marie Carianna – Maya Language Learning from Guatemala to Tulane – Project based on a language course taught at Tulane. Q’amnil – self-paced, flash based, produced with native speakers, works in Spanish and English, online and in CD form for those without connections. Two units so far, each with multiple topics. Daily activities, writing dialogue and singing dialogue. Exercises include basic listen/hear/pick exercises + say the phrase, record and compare their pronunciation/utterance with a model. Production involved five trips to Guatemala in the summer, post-production in the Spring and Fall.  Crew of four people: two pedagogists, two videographers. Do a lot of work with local folks and local production crew members.

Li Zhu and Michael Beahan – Jones Media Center, How Do I? – Jones Media Center is more than just free access to Photoshop and scanners. Used media to promote the media center and help people understand what they actually do and what is available to them. Not just promo video, but instruction video for using the center and tutorial videos for equipment and facilities. Short videos (none longer than 90 seconds) deal with the same questions that arise again and again and help teach self-reliance. As a student/intern making the videos, Li Zhu learned the applications and equipment (and gained real world skills) at the same time as doing. Published using Dartmouth YouTube Channel and Dartmouth Facebook page. Recruit the next intern: “Get paid to present at NMC, Monterey Bay, California!”

Kate Borowske – Library on a Stick and On the Air – The stick isn’t just for food anymore. Works with MFA students writing for children and young adults… low residency programs, two months on-site per year. Provides intro to library services while on campus, but need/desire for more info on how to use the tools for creative and academic work. Created toolbar, online workshops and recorded workshops. IE (and Firefox?) Toolbar that provides access to databases, library catalog, state system information, WorldCat, ebooks and full text resources, lit crit resources, and direct access to library site. Created toolbars using Conduit, which is easy and quick to create and modify the toolbars, which are updated in real time. Created a series of four online, synchronous workshops (using Elluminate Live) based around the functions of the toolbar (because databases and the like all start looking the same after a while) using slides and web tours. Finally, recorded the workshop sessions (remember to start recording!), which are available on the library web site 24/7.

Larry Johnson – The NMC’s Hakone Project: New Life for Second Life – Where NMC was born: August 24, 1992 event (sponsored by Apple), senior executives from large media companies gathered in Hakone, Japan. The topic of the meeting was convergence: telephone + computer. At the time they predicted many new channels would emerge for sharing and purveying content. Also discussed the convergence of television and computers, interactive television. When they built a new home for their virtual conferences they chose to honor this early meeting by modeling the space after Hakone.

Paul Iwancio, Aaron Wiedele, William Shewbridge – Taking Digital Stories on the Road – Word had gotten around about their storytelling activities, so they were faced with a unique challenge: how to capture stories from a good chunk of 800 alumni at a conference… in two days. So they came up with the idea of a “story booth.” They were able to capture 60 stories in those two days. Logistic craziness. Things that helped: scouting the location and figuring out how to deal with what they were given. Brought in their own gear, including a backdrop. Created a schematized interview process with a signup sheet: but who would do the interview? Used undergraduates, who got a real-world experience and got to interact with alumni… they also had interviewees interviewing each other! Distribution: integrated into a rebuild of their web site, scattered around pages and in a central pool, distribution via DVD and YouTube. Future projects: homecoming, campus retreats, oral history.

Morgan Reid – Talking to our Computers? Transcribing Interviews 2:1 – Everyone told Morgan he was crazy to even attempt this. The problem: how to transcribe recordings for analysis. Could use a transcription service, but expensive. Looking for fast, cheap and good. 2006: Voice Wreckognition (Microsoft experiment). Tools: high quality audio, low-no noise. Simultaneous translation—revoice from a live recording. Compared live transcription with revoice. Live demonstration: test file, express scribe (any text editor), dictate 1.2.1, good audio quality in data file, good quality microphone, really good audio isolation. And the live demo worked! Accurate and fast. Sweet.

Jared Bendis – Teaching the Elephant to Walk Itself: Self-Generating Pachyderms – Digital Case, a digital library. In other words, an archive. A historical library. Almost no user interface in this archiving system. Tech people say: that’s not a bug, it’s a feature. So Jared “consulted the wheel of media solutions” and the winner was: Pachyderm. Existing process: 1. Log into your accvount. 2. upload your assets. 3. create your screens. 4. Publish. But users didn’t want to author at all… so how about using Pachyderm as an output standard, generating presentation from a database using design rules for the output rather than authoring. So authorship is in the curation of the collection… a good database makes a good presentation. What’s next: new rule systems to play with the database. And please, join Jared’s mob wars group on Facebook.

Mulling over what I heard, I keep coming back to a few points:

Risk Taking – Marco pointed out that one of the cool things about digital technology (both in music and, I think, in general) is that it more readily allows users to take risks. It’s hard to learn (create) without taking risks, something Marco literally demonstrated as he pieced together a soundtrack in Garageband. Of course taking risks as a learner involves trust in yourself and your teacher(s). Living that trust is no low hurdle… and then we have to consider the dangers of risk-taking. After all, there is no risk without danger. There are complex issues here involving experimentation and sharing, the value of creating artifacts and the import of the existence of those artifacts living on into later parts of a student’s life. The movement toward more open education, involvement of social networking, and the ever-present promise and specter of portfolio creation—ad-hoc, formal and de-facto.

Complexity – Marco made two related arguments that others have also made: 1) our media is more complicated than it used to be (the foundational idea in Steven Johnson’s book Everything Bad is Good for You), and 2) the rich community that is built around these complicated media and entertainment properties is a place of learning and creation (echoing Stanley Jenkins’ arguments in Convergence Culture).

The first point feels specious: is comparing Gilligan’s Island with Lost a fair comparison, much less a meaningful way  of comparing US culture today with that of the mid-1960s? Isn’t Gilligan’s Island more fruitfully compared with According to Jim or the like? The “infosphere” no doubt continues to grow exponentially and our ability to access that information greater. But at some point, as long as we know the basics of access, exploration and management, that growth is meaningless in the way that if you know how to swim you can swim in 5- or 500-foot water equally well. It’s the optional skills of deep diving where new demands are most felt. There’s something a bit too self-congratulatory in contentions of how much more complex and difficult our lives are than they supposedly were in the golden days of yore, when it’s really just a shift in emphasis. It might be complex to negotiate the terrain of social networks and ubiquitous access to information, but it’s not really significantly more complex than other aspects of daily life we now take for granted. Not to mention that, being the victim of a gall bladder bursting a few years back, it is likely that 100 years ago I’d probably be dead.

I wholeheartedly agree with the second point… the communities built around shows like Lost and books like Harry Potter are impressive, rich and complex. The convergence and cooperation of media around such creations contributes greatly to that richness. But the mere fact of engagement in such communities begs the question of what is being learned there. Certainly participation in the constellation of sub-communities built around Lost demands learning something of communication, negotiation, persuasion and other valuable skills. But the big question is how this translates to (more) formal learning activities. How do we use the skills learned in such arenas? How do we create that kind of community or duplicate some of its dynamics? What (and how) do those communities mean for teaching and learning?

Assessment and Conformity – Underlying all discussions of storytelling and media creation as a part of learning is the question of assessment. Gardner Campbell’s Fear of Art session ably demonstrated the complexity inherent in assessing new media creations that are built with and upon new literacies (and fluencies). As a philosophical discussion we can dwell on the unanswerable, but at some point assessments are—at least for now—required of us. Marco’s story of the brilliant young musician who couldn’t play in his school orchestra reflects this problem. On the one hand, it’s clear that the young man in question was very talented and the school probably had no idea what to do with him… but at the same time, orchestras have conventions and repertoires and specific demands to be met. But is it really an unfair of assessment to keep the young man out of the orchestra when he is described as not wanting to play the music that orchestra was playing? Assessment is in part about conformity… and not all conformity is bad (and some acts of non-conformity are misplaced). But it does bring into light the way our institutions evaluate and work with outliers like this brilliant young musician, and if we had to assign them a grade, it would be a low one.

An Aside: Musical Meaning – Speaking of music, Marco demonstrated that–even at a relatively simple level–music can have meaning (the example of the two-key music in Jaws was apt) and the tools to get started creating musical accompaniment are well within the grasp of even casual users. But it does seem that the musical elements possible in digital storytelling are often under-emphasized or totally absent from many storytelling activities. Not only is this a “teachable moment” for considering intellectual property and copyright, but a place to introduce or expand upon the whole idea of music as a part of a larger production and the very idea that music can convey meaning. Which can lead into discussions of genre and transformation which can lead to richer storytelling.

Grammar and Language – Marco’s phrase (one of many clever phrases Marco employed) “schools teach the grammar of math, not the language of math” resonated with many in the audience because it’s true. In fact this same statement could be revised to apply to many disciplines—we teach the grammar of X but not the language of Y—and is at the heart of the literacy/fluency discussion in many of those areas. But it’s also true that trying to teach the language of math without the grammar would also be an epic fail for all but a very talented few. So the answer isn’t to “teach language” but to “also teach the language,” a distinction I fear is sometimes forgotten.

Memory and Memorization – Related to the necessity of grammar and implied by the critique of teaching grammar but not language are questions of memory and memorization. I was troubled by Marco’s anecdote regarding discussing curriculum with a group of teachers and then asking them if “everything they just talked about could be found on Google” and questioning their teaching on that basis (at least that’s how I heard it). The value of memorization—at the basic level of rote memorization, at the higher level of “practice,” and as an important part of the even more sophisticated ability to actually know something and be able to use that knowledge to achieve a higher creative state—has been dismissed too readily as part of our contemporary emphasis on teaching as facilitation and avoidance of “transfer” teaching.

Learning Styles – I was intrigued by the notion of learning styles as they apply to creation, not just reception, which seems under-emphasized in learning styles discussions. I was more intrigued by the idea—which I had not heard discussed before—that we need to consider individuals who have particularly apt styles when it comes to receiving information that are different from their styles while creating. The assumption always seems to be that these are the same—if I am a particularly good auditory learner then I will be more suited to creating audio, etc—but the more I consider this assumption, the more I think it is questionable (at least sometimes).

I have to admit to knowing nothing (that I can remember) about Marco Torres prior to reading about him in this year’s conference program…

“It’s Not About It, it’s About What to Do with It”

Music is an aspect of multimedia that isn’t talked about enough… probably 80% of multimedia presentations he sees have copyright violations in their music/soundtracks.

He’s always loved that John Williams could convince Spielberg that two chords were enough for Jaws… just speed it up or slow it down.

“That’s the cool thing about digital technology… it allows you to take risks”

A nice way to dive into the presentation by demonstrating how simple sound elements produced with simple tools that aren’t super demanding to use can evoke emotion. Marco models iterative construction using layering of musical elements, building and rebuilding, playing and replaying, mixing and remixing.

Marco’s mother was an established photographer, and two uncles who made “the worst movies ever to come out of Mexico”

“I spent my childhood on sets watching professional wrestler’s solving all the world’s problems.”

“I’m fascinated with everything that story does, not what is done in school.”

A succinct message: stories give stuff purpose… the purpose isn’t the stuff itself.

Narrative produces meaning; the search for meaning is narrative.

I don’t know how often this is the case, but I think post-avant poetry, among other pursuits, demonstrates that there are ways to engage in the search for meaning without necessarily engaging what we commonly consider narrative.

When asked to tell stories, students always tell stories of what they’ve experienced, seen or heard… not things they’ve read.

Recapitulating in altered form the point Gardner was making yesterday—we are using assessments today based on media and technology of yesterday. But it’s no easy task to figure out what the assessments of tomorrow should or will look like.

Learners need to be producers, not just consumers. Learning styles are always oriented to reception. Many are auditory learners but visual producers or other combinations. We need application of “learning styles” for more than just the act of reception, but also that of creation.

This fascinates me. Very little discussion of learning styles directly addresses styles of creation, though it is often implied in motivations for activities like digital storytelling. But most interesting is questioning the assumption that our style as creators necessarily matches our learning style as consumer/learner. I need to think on this more.

Performance matters because of audience perception… even if you know the content and understand the context, flawed delivery will lead people to assume you don’t know what you are talking about.

We exist in an age of ubiquitous information… Marco asks a group of social studies teachers: can your students look everything you are saying up in Google? The stuff is not enough. Albert Einstein: don’t ask questions you can look up.

It’s a good quote, but Einstein had an enormous stockpile of memorized facts and concepts. This has to tie to memory, which ties to memorizing and the debate about “rote” facts and practice, not to mention Connectivism and the like. Memorization is very powerful and, imo, necessary. It provides the material for thought and contemplation and conceptual connections.

iPhone as an example of tech mediation that changes the nature of discussion and dispute outside of formal settings for engagement.

How does learning occur outside the academy?

“We teach the grammar of math, not the language of math.”

Isn’t this a statement that could stand-in for much of our educational system? We teach the mechanics, the systems, the parts that are, in effect or actuality, literacies, but rarely approach fluency. It could also be said that we teach math literacy but not math fluency.

Our vision should be: school shouldn’t suck.

Using examples of Alton Brown and MythBusters. “In MythBusters you aren’t watching two guys teach you, you’re watching two guys learn.

As the audience for MythBusters we don’t care if they succeed or fail; we want to see the process, not just the result.

There’s great power in learners learning by observing and interacting with the learning teacher. Not “I see what you did” or even just “how did you do that” but “how did you come to do/be able to do that?”

Why don’t schools do more collaboration, the learning is so easy… what’s getting in the way is schooling. We’re complexing the holy shit out of the learning system, school is what’s complicated.”

“Schooling is reliance on institution, learning is you + your network”

It took a youth 30 minutes to explain “call of duty”—it didn’t take 30 minutes to explain Frogger.

Sophisticated fans are producers, they are influencing the show through use of technology, tv is more complex than it used to be. And there are layers of discussion and community and even applications build around shows like Lost. 

This is very similar to Stanley Jenkins’ point in Convergence Culture about the richness of participatory culture. Fans as participants and learners. And some Shirky Here Comes Everybody w/r/t evolution of media.

I can buy the argument about television being more complicated, but that a change in characteristics of overall culture, that things now are more complicated and complex than they were in the simple times of yore… shouldn’t Gilligan’s Island be compared with Two and 1/2 Men or something? Aren’t we patting ourselves a bit too hard on the back when we go on about how much more complex/dangerous/trying/etc our times are than those of our parents, grandparents, etc?

Shows funny “academic” list of questions about Gilligan’s Island, stereotypical of what might be asked in a class. “Lost fans don’t care about those questions.”

Really? Much of the community that he adores around shows like Lost exists to answer those kind of questions. The change is where those questions are being generated and the fact that the answering is happening in the open… which enables much of the rest.

People are deeply engaged in television, but engagement alone is just a characteristic that is a part of learning… though there are certainly media and info fluency skills being learned through that engagement.

“Evolution of technology in education” – back to people and purpose.

Back to?

Shows some cool, funny Star Wars music remakes in Mariachi(?) style made by students. That’s a great example of student production and the use of multimedia/music. The student who made them did so because he was given the tools that allowed him to express himself musically and with audio rather than just with text.

“David wasn’t allowed to play in the school orchestra because he didn’t play the music the orchestra played. We’ve all seen crap like that happen.”

Whaa? So he should’ve been accepted and allowed to play something else? I’m not sure what the lesson is in that statement. Not having an outlet or place is different from leveling every play to suit everyone who might want to be in it.

Some resources:

• torres21@mac.com
• http://sfett.com
• http://flickschool.com
• http://challengebasedlearning.com

I wonder if Torres’ frequent and heartfelt connections to Kathy Sierra’s presentation yesterday will help elicit and frame some of its more subtle depths. Just because someone is a dynamic speaker with a message they carry in much the same way from venue to venue doesn’t mean the person or the talk is superficial or inauthentic. If learning is self-help … or vice-versa … bring it on.

I can’t help but think this is in part directed to what I wrote yesterday about Kathy’s presentation. And I can’t help but clarify.

Here’s the deal: stump speeches aren’t bad things. I’m not accusing Kathy of being inauthentic. And not really even being superficial. And I’m certainly not saying she is shallow! I’m dinging her (and very slightly, really) because I expect more from a keynote than a stump speech. Stump speeches are for the regular campaign stops… a keynote should be, in my opinion, a place to share something new and/or something that has been considered for that particular audience or organization. Is that really such a high bar? I’d prefer a keynote to be more like Obama’s 2004 Democratic Convention speech and less like the one delivered in Peoria, the 4th in two days.

Perhaps I would feel differently if I were asked to keynote speak as often as Kathy Sierra. Or perhaps I would simply choose NOT to give such addresses so often that the only way to keep up would be to repeat myself so often. I don’t mind connecting dots. In fact, that’s one of my favorite activities. But it’s really great to have a few new dots to connect!

The second problem with the stump speech is that—and this critical in this context—is that it’s really hard to be particularly convincing or passionate about something that you’ve said and presented many times before. In politics that’s expected. I don’t expect the stumping politician to wow them at every stop. If one has different expectations for a keynote, perhaps the same logic works there. But not only do I expect more, but Kathy’s presentation is about passion and kicking ass. Am I crazy in thinking that she might demonstrate more of that in the presentation itself?

I’m reminded of the disappointment of listening to a band live that I’ve admired for a long time for their studio recordings. It’s perfectly ok with me that live performances are a different thing, and perhaps in some ways lesser than the careful recordings, but if there’s nothing in the performance to compensate for those shortcomings or to balance out the differences, it’s lackluster and a little disappointing even if it doesn’t change my love for the band.

I like Kathy Sierra a lot. But her keynote wasn’t a great performance, it didn’t take any steps toward anything new, and it didn’t demonstrate the concepts she was promoting as much as I’d have liked. That might be OK in a breakout session… it just wasn’t that inspiring (despite being very much in tune and agreement with her impressive ideas) as a keynote.

One of the more interesting NMC Symposium on Mashups sessions I attended was Brian Lamb’s wholly unexpected multimedia mashup extravaganza Confessions of a  Mashup Un-Artist. Held in Second Life (as you can see in the screenshot above), DJ Goldkey– as Brian is now known– put on a show you really have to listen to or watch. Any textual summary I could make would be useless. Also, Brian has provided some notes about his inspirations and sources in his blog.

What I loved about the whole thing (beyond the fact that it wasn’t another session spent watching slides pass by and beyond the content of the production itself) was the variety of reactions it received. While some just grooved to the sounds, putting their best avatar dance moves to use while peering at the video, others repeatedly asked if they were seeing and hearing what they were supposed to be, while a few were simply befuddled, mystified– even angered– by the whole thing.

I experienced a feeling very similar during this session to one I had during the opening night readings at Northern Voice– an exciting connection with the point, and product, and the why behind our use of these tools. I’m glad Jeffrey Keefer posted his thoughts about the session… not because he is wrong, but because he is in one sense completely right. Those who came to the session with certain expectations borne of a particular set of objectives motivating their attendance at the symposium– such as those expecting practical nuts and bolts of creating a mashup or those wanting to be told how mashups are useful in education or in their classroom– stood a good chance of being disappointed. And while I might not advocate for a whole conference of nothing but such performances (well, I might, but it wouldn’t really be a conference any more, which could be a good thing, and it would answer a generally different set of questions), having activities like this is a Really Good Thing. They remind us of what education is all about– not just the objectives, process and knowledge but also the product and expression.

Facts and instructions are not always– maybe not even usually– the answer. I compare this to the fact that when I’m struggling most with a vexing problem of technology, education and design, I most often turn to a book of poetry or put on some good music. I’d have a hard time coming up with a cogent theory of "application" of Coleridge to how to facilitate a class discussion, but I am keenly aware that for me there is a whole world of richness of expression and thought that ties into the way I live in and approach the world… and most of that world is in the dark, unseen and hard to quantify.

I enjoyed that Brian’s "presentation" was not to elaborate on the composition and details of a mashup and how they might be used, but to give the people attending his session a potentially powerful experience of a mashup for themselves… one whose "content"
centered on the foundational issues of culture, technology and education itself. It strikes me as a bit surprising that so many people there to learn about mashups were uncomfortable and surprised at being confronted by one, reminding me of the classic tensions between theorists and practitioners, and educators and students. Clearly we have a long way to go!