think:lab

Accessibilty is a 'Culture Design' Issue

Been intrigued by the backdoor conversation going on over at that dy/dan joint.  Meyer sparked it via a recent discussion re: kids having access to his cell phone # and the positive evolution of the text messages he's been receiving as of late.

Here's what crossed my mind as I read his post and followed the conversational thread in his comment funnel:

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As tempted as I am to leap into the r/w web debate or the "wow, my kids texted me" wunderlust trend here, I can't help but believe that all that Dan is speaking about hinges on a (re)formation of the "culture" of schooling. 

At the scale of one teacher

-- i.e. Dan's choice at the beginning of the year to define a relationship with his students that allow for kids to shift from pseudo low-level prank messages to a genuine desire to have Q's from class answered on the fly via their 'cellie' --

or at the scale of an entire school model

-- i.e. independent schools have historically allowed their students/families to have access to their teacher's home telephone #'s with an extra caveat that they be used appropriately from Sept-summer --

this is a 'culture design' issue.

As Dan's post reminds me, our ability to teach(and lead schools) in meaningful/engaging ways in the decades to come does not hinge inherently on 'expertise' or 'technology'.  Both good stuff, to be sure.  But ultimately, they are merely tools.

Culture (based on respect and legit relationships), on the other hand, gives us a fighting shot of remaining relevant.  And doing the right thing on behalf of our kids and communities in the process.

You Know This Kid. He's In Your Classroom.

DK/MediaSnackers' radar continues to unabashedly populate the thinking half of my brain.  A non-stop sugar-rush of future ideas, tech-play, and kid/student-centric manifestos over on his team's 'report'.  Daily.  As in all the time.

DK tipped my eyes towards this UK-based "cyberbulling" video.  Worth a watch.  Especially since 'this kid' is in 'your classroom' as we watch, wonder, feel. 

Continue to be impressed by the level of digital storytelling that continues to re-frame our collective ability to tell a good story:  advertisements, politics, basement YouTube uploads, classroom projects, you name it.  Seems unparalleled in terms of the multi-media opportunities to to tug at cerebral and emotional strings simultaneously.  Not enough to get all giddy that a cheap video camera can allow us to go 'global' today.  Whatever. Been there, done that.  What is impressive, however, is the opportunity we have to finally begin to return to 'epic storytelling' with a merger of intentional 'design' and 'editing' on the path to 'distribution' at the scale of 'one kid'.  Not sure what I mean?  In addition to the video above, head (back) over to dy/dan's use of a recent Radiohead video and you'll see what I mean.

Note to self: 

Gotta carve out time this summer to wrestle with how to unleash my own 10th graders next school year, allowing them to be as nimble as storytellers (via any/all media outlets) as they are analyzers of literary landmarks.  No reason why one of my own kids can't produce video content like what you'll see below.  Tools and techniques are in their grasp.  So is the compelling desire to say something that matters. 

Posters and PowerPoints are 'cute', I suppose.  But man, I'm just not satisfied with putting together yet another year of 'projects' that remain relegated to the construction paper inspired apple-bordered bulletin board.  Time to up the ante.  With abandon.

It Tastes a Lot Like...

In the "Dan Made Me Do It" file folder, I've just added the following 2 gems:

Item #1: Doug Zongker's "Chicken Chicken Chicken:  Chicken Chicken" PPt preso.  A classic by any definition, no matter your bullet points' best points. 

For those who love handouts enough to gafaw and gush over any speaker who so kindly printed out every slide for you in advance, you might want to print this bad boy preso PDF out to supplement Zongker's preso.  It'll make it much easier to convert to a spread sheet later on.

Item #2: For those who love a good idea when you see it, even if you can't quite figure out what to do with it, you might love integrating a "supercut" into your next 'digital storytelling' project du jour 2.0. 

What's a supercut?

Beyond being a terrific cheap haircut gathering spot, it is also one of the latest trends in the YouTube (et al) universe where fans and editing video montages of their fav shows, films, etc by deleting all or some dialogue/action.  Needless to say, you get a pretty gosh dang neat throwback to the French Surrealist film school guys this way.

Your kiddos will love that you've brought "The Hills" (see below) into class.

Mad adolescent street props if you can make this episodic "supercut" a legitimate part of a lesson on storytelling, digital literacy, or any other bad boy of the new media millennium or the old school 3 R's.  Here is a rarified Mtv-esque beauty that only improves the quality of storytelling with the utter lack of dialogue:

One final thing (call it Item #3, if you must):

Go check out Dan Meyer's analysis of a Radiohead 'message'.  Now! 

Good stuff that, both in terms of the original message and the way that Dan deconstructs the underlying glue that keeps it all moving:

Radiohead, Child Labor, and Visual Literacy from Dan Meyer on Vimeo.

Never Bored by "Charlie Bit My Finger"

Confession:

Blogging about education policy, theory, classroom practices, futurism, technology, buzzwords, he-said-she-said politics, architecture, digital-x-y-&-z, and all the rest of its accompanying intellectual cousins has lately begun to lose its spark for me. 

Not entirely, I must admit.  My brain is still in the hey-that's-edu-bloggable gear 24/7 for the most part.  Hard to shake that instinct when you've been doing it for this long.  But I'm just not sure that I'm still driven by throwing more semantic and link kindling on an ever-moving camp fire of just-in-time global edu-publishing just because I (or the collective 'we') can.

On the other hand, being a still-new papa means I get to put all that blogging energy into the kid's evolving story for his grandparents.  Somehow it seems more real to me than 3 years of "think:lab" edu-cha-cha-cha, if I'm honest with myself. 

And maybe that's telling me something...

Now, back to what caught my attention this morning:  the ever-delightful "Charlie Bit My Finger" home movie. 

Consider it a diversion from edu-talk.  Or consider it why we talk about education in the first place.  It's entirely your call:

If my Beckett ever has a younger sibling biter, we're definitely suggesting he start speaking with a British accent.

Why?

Even in pain, wee British lads sound both elegant & adorable.

If your funny bone ain't nudged a bit by this now-classic video, you ain't breathing.  Gotta love when wee Charlie begins to giggle mid-way through. The frosting on the proverbial cake, me thinks.

And there is no doubt my 10th grade English students will 'meet' Charlie in class when we first pull out Lord of the Flies next fall!