Adjusting to New Times

While watching a live interview on C-Span this morning with Fredrik deBoer about testing and other educational issues in both higher education and general public education... a little further research yielded this bit of text: How's your "multi" Modality  (link) and in that was this parody, which is definitely worth the view:

Click to play Video

 I could Not believe just how true this really seems... or if you didn't know it was a parody you might be tempted to buy one.  The article is about defending traditional writing vs other forms of media in that there is great value in knowing how to write... on that I agree... I like the multimodal approach to assessing various levels of understanding particularly on Bloom's scale where creation and synthesizing information demonstrates a greater understanding. When I think of writing I think of it as a formal way to convey ideas or findings... I think of it as way to let the reader use their own imagination to view the story rather than the imagination of the author or a director. This idea is supported by thinking this thought... when reading a novel or short story for the first time... when the author describes the setting you begin to build your own picture based on your experiences with the information... raw and unrefined... or tainted and superimposed... by those experiences as they relate to previous texts. The tainted or superimposed images have real power to to eventually become the norm... like the case of "princess"... which Disney princess did you just think of or did you connect "princess" to the former Lady Dianna? Either way there is No going back to your own untainted imagination. To me this is what I was taking away from the reading... again the difference in how "Literacy" is defined... it usually comes from to simultaneous positions the "first" person understanding and the "third" person's perception of that understanding. I know (and I bet you do too) many people that really only have "functional" literacy skills and see themselves as well adjusted individuals...it is only through the "third" person's  "authentic" literacy views that there is a discrepancy or at least the appearance of a discrepancy or even a lack of value for the "system." Chapter Nine is easily relate-able to me and my personal experiences... that is to say I can identify with Jacques in many ways and made the decisions along the way that others viewed in the "third" person role (fair to say I was judged harshly) as Not what I should be doing with my life. As a very capable and very lazy high school student I engaged in what I wanted to and refused to do what I didn't (in the case or core classes that refusal came in the way of only getting the minimum required grade... in my house that was a "B" with the occasional "C"). Yet the comparison is more about value of education not how much education is valued... in that the formal education requirements placed on Jacques in the school setting did Not have the same value as the formal education requirements of the cultural classrooms. Therefore the effort or lack there of is based in cultural values... and cultural values are Not easily changed. Fortunately for me my cultural experiences placed a great deal of value on what true education is for the learner (lifelong learning) and hard work is a requirement for success, even when learning comes easy. My Quote for Chapter Nine... "effective teachers will always go beyond the standards and benchmarks to enact meaningful and richly conceived literacies in their classrooms." (which is likely the most popular sentence in Chapter Nine) Chapter Nine, Page 173. Connecting learning to the learner and finding what's valuable to the community will change the cultural value of education... Luis Moll gave the "Funds of Knowledge" and Eliot Wiggington gave the "Foxfire" series as examples of how to change the value of education in a community.

Chapter Ten the beginning of Part Three... This caught my "young eyes" almost immediately..."The rapidity and extent of change during the past 20 years has left many people who remain comparatively young in chronological terms out of touch with the tenor of the times." Chapter Ten, Page 187. As a recent graduate I can see both sides of this quote because on one hand I have been given insight into this "New Literacy" world, yet my chronological age puts me outside the digital natives... and I have to tell you.... these are exciting times to be getting into education. I look back on all the rich experiences I have enjoyed and use them to help me connect learning... but I am finding this new chapter in my life as the most wonderful discovery into new worlds and new ways to understand those worlds!!! It is a great day to be learning with new learners!!

Lankshear, Colin, and Michele Knobel. Literacies: Social, cultural and historical perspectives. Peter Lang, 2011.