“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).

Correct, except they forgot to include the “torture, sheer torture” part.  A colleague informed me that she has just had the *privilege* of experiencing the “we’re doing this for you–it is the latest technology” speech at the dissertation formatting workshop this year.  Dare I admit that I was comforted to hear that she also had to call on every ounce of willpower to restrain herself from walking out of the presentation on the spot.

It was explained to her that the dissertation formatting requirements were designed to ensure that all of her hard work would be preserved for posterity in *the* most state-of-the-art manner–microfiche.  “Just think,” she was told, “if something were to happen to all of the computers, someone could still read what you write by candlelight!”

In the first place, if I am having to read by candlelight, I guarantee you that someone’s dissertation will NOT be my biggest concern at that moment.  Secondly, have they ever READ a document stored on microfiche?  It isn’t a pleasant experience even WITH the right kind of equipment.  I, personally, view the speech as a desperate attempt to justify a refusal to adapt to new writing spaces.  I don’t hear very many people still trying to convince me that a scroll in a cave is *the* best way to store my data, and I expect that this argument will eventually disappear in a similar fashion.  But when I think of the meaningless hours I have spent on a task that has incredible potential to be rich and rewarding, but because of the way it has been framed has instead become nothing more than a meaningless hoop, it makes me physically ill.  And to think, once I finish my revisions, I will theoretically have the authority to inflict the same torture on others!  Woe to the student who comes to me eagerly anticipating conventions!

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

In transition? Clearly. But transition to what? While waiting, I’ve polished off a number of books, but so far, the nuggets I’ve encountered in them haven’t coalesced into a particularly coherent set of understandings. However, it occurs to me that many may prefer the raw data without the commentary anyhow. Sometimes it is safer that way too. So, think of what follows as random graffiti that various authors have spray-painted on the walls of my mind. As is the case with graffiti from time to time, at least some of these quotes have artistic qualities that extend beyond the functional purposes they were intended to serve within the context of the books in which they appeared.

“All educational growth is loss … teachers in higher education are pressured to construe their work in oppositional rather than relational terms, pitting teacher against student, separating knowledge and identity, and describing the world in black and white terms” (Stengel, 1998).

“Living matter and clarity are opposites–they run away from one another” (Gilder, 2008, p. 100).

“John had always been drawn to the invisible: more specifically, the invisible connections between things. As a child he had puzzled over the phenomena ordinary men take for granted in modern life: the connection between a flick of a switch and the sudden appearance of light, or sound, or image. He tore things apart–looking for the connections. But his interest went beyond the engineer’s obsession with mechanical cause and effect, with deconstructing and reconstructing physical reality: he searched for things that would leave him awestruck, things residing in mystery and obscurity. Invisible connections” (Graham, 2001, p. 106).

“Co-existence is not the same as communication or connection” (Montgomery, 2009).

“When two particles interact with each other, they exchange energy and/or momentum” (K.C. Cole in Graham, 2001, p. 98).

“It is a gift, you know, to see and to be moved” (Graham, 2001, p. 14).

“Schrodinger nodded . . . ‘And matter is like light,’ he said, ‘and it diffracts’” (Gilder, 2008, p. 89).

“Everything . . . starts with a fall” (Guedj, 2000, p. 17).

“I’m in a constant state of beta…perpetually reinventing myself…” (Adam Schokora)

Fleischman, Paul. (2001). Seek. Chicago: Cricket Books.

Gilder, Louisa. (2008). The age of entanglement: When quantum physics was reborn. NY: Alfred A. Knopf.

Graham, Janice. (2001). Sarah’s window. NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

Guedj, Denis. (2000). The parrot’s theorem. NY: Thomas Dunne Books.

Montgomery, Cherice. (2009, January 11). A random thought.

Schokora, Adam. (2008). 56minus1::

Stengel, Barbara S. (1998, Sept. 10). Review of Burbules, Nicholas C. and Hansen, David T. (Eds.). (1997). Teaching and its Predicaments. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. EdRev. Retrieved February 1, 2009, from http://edrev.asu.edu/reviews/rev37.htm

I find the conceptual implications of the above quotation (and the Wikipedia definition of entanglement) captivating. It comes from a book on the history of quantum physics which I am currently (if somewhat guiltily) enjoying. Like most non-fiction books, this one is also organized much too chronologically for my taste. However, the author has done a beautiful job of grounding the development of quantum theory in the daily lives of those through whom it was revealed to the world. She also does a brilliant job of reconstructing conversations from historical documents in a way that highlights the significant influence the scientists’ personal and social “entanglements” had on theoretical developments in the field of physics.

It is interesting to consider the degree to which we are consciously aware of our “entanglement” with others, the relative strength of each of those connections, and how intensely the connections persist in the face of prolonged separation (due to death, the decay of a friendship, divorce, or simply increased absence from the realities of one another’s normal, daily routines). Have you ever spent time trying to isolate and unravel the “entanglements” that are most persistent in your life? Are there people who are no longer physically part of your daily routine with whom you continue to be deeply entangled (in terms of the influence they exert on your thoughts and actions)? Do you ever wonder why THOSE particular people seem to have such a disproportionate influence within your sphere of existence?

From an alternative perspective, have you ever wondered what noticeable effect your individual existence has on the rest of the world? Do you ever ponder whether the brief comments, insignificant interactions, or trivial activities in which you engage affect anyone else in deep and lasting ways? Have you ever thought about the degree to which the effect of those tiny expressions of self may be magnified by their absence in someone else’s life? Have you ever considered the effect that your unspoken musings would have on the world if you were to share “the real” you with more of the world? Conversations about the concept of entanglement merit a much greater investment than the time and space inherent in a midnight blog post. For now, I’ll suffice to say that the manner in which we live would surely change if we truly believed and viewed ourselves as connected to others and our environment in physical ways.

Friendwheel.

Gilder, Louisa. (2008). The age of entanglement: When quantum physics was reborn. NY: Alfred A. Knopf.

Fleck, Ludvig. In Smith, Barbara Herrnstein. (2005). Scandalous knowledge: Science, truth, and the human. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Gilder, Louisa. (2008). The age of entanglement: When quantum physics was reborn. NY: Alfred A. Knopf.

There is no question that the harmonies of my life and the tectonic plates of my world have shifted. However, in my case, the chords haven’t yet resolved, resulting in an internal dissonance that leaves me feeling just as unsettled as an audience.

References

Clements, Andrew. (2006). Things hoped for. NY: Philomel Books.

My student teachers are now, officially, my colleagues–and very deserving of that title, if I do say so myself! They bring a tremendous amount of creativity to the profession, as this parody about their internship experience based on the One Semester of Spanish Love Song will attest!They are also filled with initiative and enthusiasm, as evidenced by the fact that after learning about (and living) True Colors throughout the year, they had these shirts made!

For those of you who don’t know about True Colors, take the True Colors Survey. (It is only 5 questions long. Wait for all the flashing to quit, then drag the numbers into the circles.) When you have finished, mouse over the bar graph that will appear at the end in order to see a very basic interpretation of the results. If you want more details, take a few minutes to read through Jennifer Niskanen’s True Colors Pages. For additional information, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the color(s) that apply to you.

I like to use True Colors because I find that it offers useful perspectives on why relationships in the classroom sometimes break down. It also provides simple, telegraphic language that can be used to address those breakdowns and to sketch out potential solutions.

(This is a visual representation of some of the key characteristics of the various colors.)

Consequently, it was incredibly amusing to me when my colleagues appeared on the last day of class wearing these shirts, and then presented me with one of my own. It captures our journey together very poignantly!

(Team Advanced Low refers to the fact that student teachers are now required to demonstrate that they have achieved Advanced Low Proficiency in the language they intended to teach in order to be certified.)

And I guarantee that although golds may drive their teachers crazy, they make GREAT colleagues. So if you know of a school that needs a creative, enthusiastic, and very responsible language teacher, be sure to add it to our wiki: Job Postings & Job Search Tools!

The typical textbook takes life and decontextualizes it, divides it into pieces that are so small they are
almost unrecognizable as ever having been alive, dehydrates them, and then wonders why students don’t find them appetizing. Why are we so tied to textbooks anyway? (That was a PURELY rhetorical question!)

One of the many things about new technologies that has been particularly powerful for me is the way it has pulled me outside of my own paradigm. The more I play with it, the more my perspective about EVERYTHING changes–and especially with regard to the ways I think about knowledge, learning, teaching, understanding, relationships, and living. It isn’t always comfortable, but it has been SO worth it.

You can then access your account online, view your memos, and listen to a looping audio recording of them as you read the transcripts (which are available almost instantly). You can also share your memos with other users (so students could share the things they’ve recorded with their teacher.) Set-up takes about 15 seconds, the interface is beautiful, it is easy to use, and you can access it online or offline. I’m also intrigued by the promise of a visual component (as they are currently soliciting images that people are using as memory aids).

Aside from its obvious applications as a tool for personal productivity, I think it could be interesting to experiment with it as a way for ESL students to create private, online audio portfolios that they could use to self-evaluate their progress over time. (I tried it in Spanish. It records just fine, but cannot transcribe even the most Americanized Spanish, so you get a lot of gibberish in the written transcriptions.)

For additional ways it might be used both in and out of the classroom, see Liz Kolb’s blog post about it.

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!