July 2010 Archives

I'm a long time lover of the journey and not so much the destination. The destination is the end; When fulfillment is actualized it's a type of death. You mourn, celebrate, and, if you're lucky, metamorphose it into something else.

But, it's the journey where things happen. As Shakespeare said, "The play's the thing." Or something like that. For a guy who lives most of his life in his own head, I like gerunds. Gerunds are verbs acting as nouns by attaching -ing to the end of them. This is me as a gerund: Running. Reading. Listening. Writing. Loving. Fighting. Growing. Reflecting.

At some point in the conference, it struck me that this is the best thing about eportfolios as well. Or the best part of having an eportfolio anyway is when you attach the -ing to it making it an action.

Helen Barrett, in looking at the near future, makes a connection between ePortfolios and social media. Not so much Facebook as portfolio but more of what is being done on Facebook and how that can apply to an eportfolio. I agree with her. In the sessions I attended that were led by people like myself phrases such as "flow" and "intrinsic motivation" were thrown around to describe what the good portfolio experience is like. In the session I attended featuring students from LaGuardia Community College's Making Connections program they used words like 'fun' and 'proud' and 'mine.' In fact, one of the best reasons ever for doing an ePortfolio came from a student who said she "did it for herself" and did not care if anyone else ever looked at it.

It brought to mind the Kerouac quote, "Write in recollection and amazement for yourself." That's what I think the eportfolio experience can be like. I'd only replace the verb write with create to reflect the new potentials of literacy and expression.

Normally conference keynote speakers are brought in to jazz up the audience. Their stage play is pretty script: They get the audience excited about being there, tell them about a specific challenge they face, then reveal how they already posses the power of change if they would just take the appropriate, prescribed action. In the end, we all leave feeling good about ourselves safe in the knowledge that we can do something without actually leaving our comfort zone because we already have what it takes, the right stuff. It just took the shamanistic magic of the wizened speaker to reveal it to us.

But this year's BbWorld keynote was different. If you've never been to a Blackboard Conference they are really unlike any other educational conference you'll attend. The trappings are lavish. The settings picturesque. The attention to detail paid to our creature comforts seem to know no bounds.

This year, amidst the glitz and glamor of a benefit rock concert, a man wearing an ill-fitting suit took the stage before us beautiful people and proceeded to tell us his story. His name is Greg Mortenson and his story is so incredibly simple and pure that one cannot helped be moved.

You see Mortenson's mission is to promote peace by building schools. One at a time. In Afghanistan. For boys and girls. He doesn't run the schools. He doesn't supervise the construction. He leaves his family in Montana behind for half a year and goes to a remote place in the world and finds the people who want to do this. Then he helps them make it happen. Then gets out of the way.

It is a holy story, really, about the better angels that exist inside our imperfect beings and what happens when we act on it. You can read about it here, in his book, Three Cups of Tea.

Mortenson's story moved me. Even worse, it made me think. I thought about the things I take for granted. And how I bitch about it when something interferes with my world. I thought about my values. Or what I liked to think were my values. And I thought about how out of whack my values and actions were in relation to each other. And then I felt small.

Now, the question is, what do I do about it?

I love modern art from its beginnings as the Art Nouveau movement at the dawn of the last century to the digital media culture of today. And, whenever I get to Chicago I try to make it to the Art Institute and their modern art wing. This time around, passing an afternoon there in between conference sessions, I was particularly moved by a piece of performance art by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, "Portrait of Ross in L.A."


The portrait as a blanket

From the Art Institute page:
"Felix Gonzalez-Torres produced work of uncompromising beauty and simplicity, transforming the everyday into profound meditations on love and loss. "Untitled" (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) is an allegorical representation of the artist's partner, Ross Laycock, who died of an AIDS-related illness in 1991. The installation is comprised of 175 pounds of candy, corresponding to Ross's ideal body weight. Viewers are encouraged to take a piece of candy, and the diminishing amount parallels Ross's weight loss and suffering prior to his death. Gonzalez-Torres stipulated that the pile should be continuously replenished, thus metaphorically granting perpetual life."
The piece was in the corner. The glittering milti-colored hard candy wrappers now lying in a mound in juxtaposition to the light oak-colored hardwood floor and start white walls. The first image that came to mind was a crumbling pharaoh's pyramid. The second was a pile of jewels from an overturned treasure chest.

I read the description and took a piece of candy from the pile. A blue one just to the left of center because it seemed to speak to me. I unwrapped it and popped it in my mouth feeling joy at participating in Ross's rebirth.

Lately, the subject of identity has been a recurring theme wherever I go. It was prevalent in both spoken and unspoken ways at the International Conference of the Learning Sciences, ICLS, last week in Chicago. It saturated the atmosphere of the YOUmedia center of the Chicago Public Library and it's all over the work of Sam Richards and Laurie Mulvey, two dynamic people who I'm fortunate enough to work with during their faculty fellowship this summer.

For Sam and Laurie their work is all about fostering conversations, uncomfortable conversations. Laurie beautifully described what they do when she said they look to foster these "moments of grace" where through dialogue individuals come to realize something about themselves by talking to another who, on the surface seems to be their complete opposite. For instance, in their project on race, the Race Relations Project, where they bring together individuals from different cultural and ancestral groups to...talk. To each other. An Arab and a Jew? Let's bring them together. A white boy from the country and an urban black kid? Let's sit them down with each other.

The point being that through the process of talking they get to know each other. This leads to something even more uncomfortable, they get to know themselves. By seeing the other they discover something about themselves and, hopefully, their sense of who they are is fundamentally changed.

The really interesting thing is that the kids seem to love this. Their sociology class on race is always overbooked. They frequently end up with students from the class working on the project long after the class is over. Why? Why would these kids voluntarily put themselves in the very socially awkward position we're conditioned to avoid? I think it's because at the base of it all, learning is really the process of self discovery.

The same was true at the better presentations I attended at ICLS. Whether the subject matter was gaming, science, math, English, or the arts the common denominator was they all were about enabling the students to try on different identities to see how they felt. Some of the more poignant quotes were, "I wanted them to think like a scientist," or "think like someone who knows they can solve a problem, or, "act like someone who knows they are creative." What was striking to me was that, in each situation, the act of thinking of oneself in that way was the precursor to learning. In other words, you were a scientist from the first day of class. The teacher told you so. Again and again. It wasn't the grade at the end that determined your fate. It was the fact that you were there participating. 

The act of participation is the heart of what the YOUmedia center is all about. Their stated goal is to create an atmosphere where kids feel comfortable trying on new persona's. To see themselves beyond consumers to creators. While their focus is on the creative arts the life lessons are universal. It takes a lot of courage for a high school kid to stand in the middle of a room and perform a free-style rap.  

Thinking about it, the best teachers I ever had impacted me at this level. The subject matter was different, and certainly the methods were not the same but, what all the experiences had in common was their ability to have me challenge myself. To question who I am and why I am this way. Maybe that's what it's all about.

I'll leave you with a couple of links JoVie, from the YOUmedia center, shared with me. Each beautiful in their own right showcasing kids at different stages of their evolving identity.

Ankare "I Believe"
Miss Chevious EmCee


 

I had the opportunity to be part of an ICLS field trip to the Chicago Library's YOUMEDIA center over lunch yesterday. It's an amazing place run by even more amazing people. The gist of the YOUMEDIA center is this: It's a place for high school students to come and learn, play, and create with the latest digital media technology. The pictures below will give you an idea of the layout of the place but what really struck me was the quality of the people it attracted to work there.


YOUmedia center of the Chicago Public Library

Naturally these folks care a lot about and love working with kids. Combine that with their unbelievable talents and you have the making of something special. The center attracts singers, writers, film makers, producers, artists, anyone involved in the creative arts who enjoy sharing their talents and helping the kids find theirs. So more than exposing the kids to the technology the center opens up the opportunity for them to discover something about themselves by working alongside other highly creative people.

A recurring theme from the tour was how the center provided a safe environment for kids to try on various persona's to see how they felt. The kids are encouraged to explore the center, first by playing games like rock band. Soon they find themselves on the other end creating their own music, producing their own pieces. It was really interesting to hear that buy in from the kids really took off when their work was made public. Seeing their video on YouTube or having their music on their social networking site made a big difference in the sense of ownership and participation.

In addition to learning the creative end their also taught the business and management side of things. They've created a record label and are learning how to market themselves. I was amazed at the amount of life skills these kids were gaining by doing something they love--play. All they needed to take off was the right environment.