Mixing the Remix

The very idea of remix sounds like taking a good idea and making it better or taking someone else's idea and making it your own. This thought just kept circling in my mind the entire I was reading this chapter, which led to this quote as my chapter quote..."Whenever we comment on a film or a book and discuss it with others we are taking the original author's creativity and remixing it in our own life, using it extend our own ideas or to produce a criticism." (Chapter 15, Page 312) What a deep and profound statement when you compare it to the rest of the chapter and what others are saying about borrowing or stealing intellectual property... this quote would propose the ideology that unless you are having an original thought then you are borrowing or stealing someone else's intellectual property... ridiculous right??? Yet under further scrutiny and processing of information, that is to say, comprehension we are indeed by the very nature of it remixing on a constant and continuous basis. The fact that I am writing an original blog post about this topic of this specific chapter, fifteen, is remixing the author's remixed ideas of other authors, yet is in No way the first time that has been done nor the last... fact is this chapter will be remixed and remixed as many times as it read because as Lankshear and Knobel point out at the end of each chapter by assigning credit to the other authors in the "End Notes" they is writing their thoughts about other's work as it relates to their's... original part "mix" understanding  of other's work, "remix." While leaving room for still more others (readers) to formulate their understandings... mixing the remix???

Chapter Sixteen understanding research literacy from the DIY perspective, but as soon as I read the word, Newfoundland, I was immediately transported back to that bitter cold island nation where I spent a year while serving in the US Navy. It was easy for me to understand the idea that the participants would have grouped themselves in that homogeneous grouping based on where they were from... though a not so larger island its regions were very different and in some cases so remote they were only accessible by float plane or boat. Then I thought how most people are like that too, while in some cases we will venture out to meet new people when we are tasked with learning and working together we prefer to work with people we know or have worked with before. There is this certain feeling or familiarity that people like to have when yoked with others... team building... this holds true when we are engaged in building that deeper understanding that Lankshear and Knobel cite Gee talking about... I know that when I am trying to understand a new concept or searching for that deeper understanding I seek out individuals that I trust... and that trust come from past interactions... and by way of integrating information from chapter 15... when remixing thoughts that might become your new understanding it needs to come from a trusted source. Gee and Rogers seem to align very close on this idea ... "...it is necessary to move beyond "learning about" and, instead, to focus more on "learning to be"... deep learning requires that learners be "willing and able to take on a new identity in the world..." (Chapter Sixteen, Page 335) I think both would agree that this task requires courage, trust, and desire for deeper understanding... that employs authentic literacy.

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

Ratings, Reviews and Changes in Consumer Literacy?

Even after reading the chapter and thinking about the implications and ideas put forth, I come back to what is written in the beginning paragraphs prior to the Introduction. It is also fair to say and worth noting here that I have a "healthy dose" of extreme curiosity in epistemology, meaning I really want to know how others (and myself) really come to know what they believe in and value. While I can fully support the reliable research findings that many scholars and others have put forth as it relates to this subject of epistemology citing culture, geography, and formal education as key factors I am equally confronted with the "Nature VS. Nurture" argument. This puts this quote right on target for me... "... with the idea of "digital epistemologies" - ways in which, and the extent to which, phenomena like hits and ratings come to constitute indices of "truth" and "value" alongside, or in some cases in place of, more conventional epistemological criteria." (Chapter Thirteen, Page 262) This says to me as I apply it the chapter content as well as content previously discussed in Chapters 11 & 12, the consumer has developed, through various modes of input, a new literacy skill to meet the demand for attention. This new literacy skill relies heavily on the information supplied by unknown individuals that offer their opinion that certainly contain bias with or without malice. That is to say a review filled with complete or near complete satisfaction will be based solely on that experience and is likely to be free of any underlying motive (No malice), but an unpleasant experience will likely yield a malicious tone and both of these types experiences are viewed as if they did in fact occur without any needed proof by the "third party" consumer. This lay the basis that I find to be the most interesting and goes directly back to my quote... how does this new literacy have so much instant acceptance and credibility in the market community, but Not the "wiki" community. Consider this thought... many people will make a purchase based on what someone they have never met has said about a product, but will not use information from a wiki because an unknown and un-trusted individual may placed unproven information on the wiki site, in both cases the persons meet the same anonymous criteria, yet one is deemed credible and other Not. The chapter goes on to offer a scoring system that applies to both the product and the reviewer as a potential way to build consumer confidence, while also effectively creating a quick marketing tool that the consumer uses to assign attention capital. As mentioned previously... in the information market the demand is for attention... and that attention in this consumer model is based on number of reviews (positive and negative) and the credibility of those reviews; understanding that some instant credibility will be assigned to website... IE "Ebay" and "Amazon" enjoy a certain amount of instant credibility based solely on name recognition and reputation that have grown those brand names into synonymous usage like Band-Aid or Kleenex, which defy definition to the point that even children are taught to blow their nose with a Kleenex and put a Band-Aid on a scratch. This ratings game has as described by Knobel and Lankshear also offers a model for understanding how to effect change in institutional systems, in that, through attention deficit demands, quality information can be easily identified based on predetermined criteria, not just word recognition algorithms.

Wiki...  "How" "Pedia" "Media" "Leaks" the fastest changing prefix in the modern English language. (pun intended), but has simple roots and a story rooted in Hawaii. The story and background speak less to name and more to the intent of its creator... quick collaboration with the emphasis on the latter... Collaboration... a word that abounds in the modern classroom vernacular. Wikis  representing the new evolution in the web-based technologies from static to interactive pages or 2.0 technology also changes the sociocultural constructs or at the very least create a lateral "in-group" that exists crossculturally in my opinion. In that as identified social groups acknowledge certain literacies within the group as norms, this new interactive collaboration provides a venue for a global "in-group," which really isn't that new when considering online gaming.  This led me to my particular interest in how the elements of these new literacies interact within a set of defined parameters from the cultural perspective. The quote from this chapter is more the entire sub-titled sections "(a) "Let's see" Research,  (b) "Try it on" Research,  (c) "Educationally Applicable" Research, and (d) "A Research Program Orientation" (Chapter 14, Page 295-298), which may seem like a cop out to choosing a more concise quote, but this area of the chapter is filled with information that resonates with me as I think about culturally responsive teaching. In that all of this additional learning (graduate classes) has very little, if any, meaning if it cannot not be reflected back into the classroom... my education has always been predicated on the primary functions that seem to follow this analogy... if I cannot touch it, taste it, smell it, see it, or interact with it then it has very little value to me. The value is Not the same for everyone, but for me it becomes a new tool or new understanding that helps me become a better learner. The old adage of "working smarter Not harder" in No way implies that you should be lazy, but rather finding better ways to use your tools. The graphic representation I chose represents that idea because it is a more useful way to collaborate... working smarter... another goal of education!

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


Cartoonstock.com: mbcn3164

I'm So Poor I Can't Even Pay Attention

The title is just a catchy phrase that I have been waiting years to work into a conversation. Yet, on some levels it catches your attention and draws you into the conversation, both Lankshear and Knobel use the Title of Chapter 11 as a way to remind the reader that attention to content and details can be overlooked when you are not actively engaged. Rushkoff, in his book... "Program or be Programmed"...calls for a period of time when the individual turns off and tunes out... as way to recharge and step away from the constant bombardment and clamoring from those things seeking our attention. In an electronic age where constant interaction has become the norm it would be easy for many to become desensitized to number of interactions needing our attention. I am not a single thought individual, in that I'm regularly thinking and attending to any number of things at one time... that is unless I'm doing something that requires focus or at least the majority of my primary attention. Even while writing this blog post I'm considering all the parts of the reading I want to incorporate, while also reflecting on my past experiences with that content information, add the thoughts of future use of this new mix of information is also part of the cognitive process, which often leads to skipped or misspelled words... and sometimes these errors even go unnoticed in the proof reading because they were in my mind (my silent unspoken voice) when I am writing and therefore automatically superimposed into the reading when prooofing... it is Not until I re-read maybe days later that I pick up the errors that others may see on the first reading.   "Attention, unlike information, is inherently scarce." (Chapter Eleven, Page 213). Understanding the basic principles of economics is Not usually a topic that seems relevant in a digital literacy class, yet the correlation to defining and building a better understanding of scarcity and the "supply and demand" models are reflective of the marketing approach to information produced vs. information consumed. The student population that I have in the classroom is there for various reasons, but failing multiple classes is right up near the top of the list, Not failing because they lack ability or understanding, but failing because of attention. When I say failing due to attention I'm Not directly referencing ADD/ADHD, though some of my students have from mild to severe cases, but rather failing because they have Not learned how to prioritize their needs. Many of these students want to graduate high school, but have not learned how to make that their #1 priority. This issue even crosses into adult lives in that... we make time to do the things that are most important to us.... Believe me when I say "I'm Not judging," but if something is that important you will find a way to make it happen even against extraordinary odds. When something catches our attention or draws our attention away from the goal; then the questions that should arise are: Why is that earning my attention? or Why am I so easily distracted? The idea of "stars" and "fans" reminds me of the "doers" and the "watchers" or in this case those that create and those that consume... Andy Rooney spoke about an individual's "fifteen minutes of fame" a term that is now referred to as"going viral"... which has often caused me to ask myself this question... Why this and Why now? which takes you right back into the economics classroom, "demand" after all the secret to success is finding a product that consumers want and the ability to provide it to them when they want it. And they usually want NOW!

Chapter Twelve: two old school lessons and one slightly new lesson... the old lesson was that this little  folded paper book that was published by a very small independent preacher from near Terra Alta, WV (I think) filled with anecdotes and parables, which I would say fully meets the definition of a Zine. While his publications were cut, folded, and stabled the second old lesson reminded me of middle school fold-able called a "pop" booklet, which leads to the slightly new fold-able that I have students make that requires about six to ten sheets of paper and makes a nice little journal or lexicon. When I read and later re-read trying to decide what quote to use for the blog I was led to this rather unassuming sentence... "They very often subvert the cash nexus: zine purchasing currency is frequently a zine in trade or postage stamps." (Chapter Twelve, Page 237) Out of all that is said in chapter eleven and twelve, the recurring thought that kept banging around in my head was the human need to create and or be creative... Zines were never meant to be profitable they were intended to share a creative work... student want, dare I say Need, authentic and relevant interactions with subject content and a way to share their understanding of those interactions. Yes, sometimes those demonstrations of understanding will be tests or quizzes, but even those interactions need to have multiple ways for students show their DOK. Giving students the opportunities to use technology tools and some very basic parameters with the challenge of creating something original will lead to higher level thinking and far greater future success in problem solving. Cyberzines, Vines, Snapchat video, Instagram, Youtube Capture, GoPro, Twitter, and many more are a small sampling of ways for students create and demonstrate knowledge, which in some cases requires 10 second precision.

 







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

Case Study #2: When Technology Fails?

This Case Study depicts my interactions with two required course in my Graduate Studies, while pursuing a Master's in a Digital Media and New Learning Literacy. It is Not my intention to slander or defame the instructors or the Institution of Higher Education where these two course were offered. It is my intent to explore what I believe to be the errors of the Institution and those instructors for those courses. It would be fair to say that I do Not feel like I was treated poorly nor singled out for punishment or discipline, quite the contrary, I received good final grades, so this is NOT a vendetta or coming from a position of scorn.

Introduction:

In my case, the pursuit of my Master's coincided with teaching obligations as is the case with most educators pursuing a Master's degree. I didn't do a great deal of research on what type of Master's to pursue or where I want to get said Master's from, but I knew I wanted to enhance my understanding of the seemingly new mandate form state departments all of the country..."teachers must integrate technology into their lessons." This was enough for me to want to better understand the role digital literacy plays in the modern classroom and how I can best use this new understanding to help the learners in my classroom. Both the classes were "supposedly" designed around using new technologies in classroom; specifically multimedia design, web-based formats, opportunities to apply online technology tools. My usual approach to learning is building an idea of what I think the learning will be, reading the course syllabus (outcome goals), and then transitioning into my constructionist understanding of meeting the outcome goals as I understand them. This approach is generally filled with excitement, which is some combination of looking forward to learning coupled with a dose of fear of failure to understand and meeting the learning goals. The term many professionals are starting to use more fluently is "good anxiety," since anxiety by itself has such a negative connotation. It's very similar to the term "Flow," which is that dynamic of just the right amount of struggle to produce the determination and rewards of success vs. a struggle that produces too much frustration that ultimately leads to failure or quitting. Since both of these classes fall into the same category (my categorization) I will speak about them as if they we basically the same class and not make any real distinctions between the two, which in my opinion also has the instructors in the same category.

The Beginning:
As a "New" teacher, I am always looking for ways to improve, work smarter Not harder, and reflect on my classroom practices. I was very excited to take these classes as they seemed to offer what could be some very useful information and tech tools to use use in the modern classroom. I was starting the year as long-term substitute in the JROTC program and as a Veteran I was looking forward to that experience, but before the first week of school was even over I was being moved by the administration to a more permanent long-term position in a self-contained BD/MI classroom, which was going to give a greater opportunity to work with students in a more academic setting. I was finally going to have my own classroom where I would be able to implement my ideas of classroom management and was going to teach three sections of math and two sections of science. Being a social studies teacher I was a little more than just apprehensive about the math, so the idea of having some graduate classes with exposure to technology tools and how to better integrate them into the everyday classroom was something I was really looking forward to, because I felt that's what I needed most to compensate for my perceived short-comings in math. At the same time college classes are starting and I'm beginning to build relationships with my high school students, I was made aware that my current position was going to be re-posted and there were a few candidates that if they applied would likely get the position ahead of me due to my "out-of-field" certification. This prompted me to prepare for certification in SPED MI/BD as well as apply for other jobs currently posted in county and surrounding counties, which I did. I interviewed and landed the position I currently hold. I also continued the certification process for SPED MI/BD, which I now have as part of WV Teacher Certification. A lot changed in those beginning weeks of the school year except for the technology courses, which I needed more than ever because my new job required teaching all four core high school subjects 9-12. To me this meant a greater need to have the use of technology tools to engage me as learner, while helping the learners in my classes.

The Classes:
The very first thing that would become even more annoying over the course of the semester was the instant navigation problems that existed with the content delivery. In that, the instructor had set up the entire course on the university's class access system, I'll call "ChalkBoard," which can and does have its own brand of problems. The system itself has many features that could be useful to learners, but can only be accessed through a single portal, which can become clogged if too many users are trying to access the portal at the same time. The other issues around the access system, centers around ease of use by both the instructor and the student, which generally translates into one of my main issues. If the instructor only know one way of setting up the course then the students are forced to access the entire course step by step every time they access the system.
Example One: begin the course by accessing "module one" by clicking on the course content form the
Main Menu > Module One > section one > section two > section three > Module Readings > Module Discussion > Module Assignments >
This sample of navigation is simple enough right? Easy to follow right? So. what's the problem?
The problem was that the way the instructor set the navigation was that every previous step had to be opened before the next step would open... after finishing with section one and moving on to section two, if you ended a session and came back you had to re-open all of section one before you could re-open section two, which just seems a little time consuming and petty on my part right?, but an online course that had multiple modules and multiple sections per module with an archaic navigation system caused a great deal of my excitement for learning to shift to questioning instructor competence. It would be fair to question that maybe that's just the way the navigation had to be set-up because of limitations of the ChalkBoard system... and that's a fair question, except I had previously taught classes using the ChalkBoard system, so I knew it was an instructor issue Not a system issue. This question of competence on the part of the instructors now becomes a barrier to learning (for me), which only gets worse. This brought me back to the quote I chose for an earlier post... "In the beginning was the text; to the New Critics is was wholly within the text that the meaning was located, and the teacher was the privileged holder of this meaning (Thomason, 1984;Probst, 1986)" (Knobel, Chapter 4, page 63). I guess at this point I was counting on the instructors to be the more experienced learners, yet they were Not and worse yet they still held all the power.

The second example comes by way of course design and change, or lack there of, in that as technologies changed it seems prudent that the course material would change or at least be updated, but in the case of these two instructors, which created their course content and set the deadline dates for the course modules the only thing that changed was the dates and in many cases the dates were not fully updated. When the expectation is updated learning on new technology tools or new learning for new technology tools the minor problem of navigation is easily overlooked if those expectations are met, but when they further question competence it becomes harder to overlook even  minor details.
Example Two:
Since a shift from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 had come about due to technology advancements the promise of interacting with these new tools and teaching new learners how to interact with new tools was exciting. The problem was that the ChalkBoard platform could not accommodate these new interactive interactions, so the instructors chose to continue to use ChalkBoard instead of choosing a different course platform. This was accomplished by having the students create Web 2.0 work and then "screen shot" that work to upload on an assignment page in the modules. To further illustrate this point consider this project assignment: Step 1, Create a wiki based on any topic that you would use in a classroom as an assignment to your students. Step 2, Submit a screen shot of the wiki in the assignment / discussion box of the module. Step 3, Comment or suggest changes to at least three of your peers' wiki submissions as a reply to their wiki submission. Step 4, Respond to suggestions made to your wiki submission by your peers. This caused me a great deal frustration almost to the point of quitting, Not because I was unable to perform the task, but because the task had become worthless. My expectations of learning and interacting with the "New" technology tools had been rendered worthless, yet the cost to me in time, effort, and money was substantial. In the quote the author is planting the idea that the teacher shouldn't be the only keeper of the knowledge, yet there is this certain expectation that the teacher should be creating opportunities for furthering knowledge Not stifling knowledge theirs or their students'.  It would also be worth mentioning here that I was called out by one of the instructors for a portion of work I submitted as part of an assignment that required a grading rubric, in which the rubric I submitted was a rubric I created for similar type activities and knew it would be a great assessment tool for this assignment, so I included a link to the rubric. I knew the rubric had a creation date / last updated time stamp and because I did Not update the rubric (No changes needed) and it was something I had created months before this particular assignment the instructor accused me of Not putting the effort necessary for a good grade by just submitting previously used material. What a hypocrisy! Something I created and used for a previous activity, very similar to the current, assignment, which I thought was a good use of known and proven resources was suddenly dubbed lazy and unacceptable by an instructor that had not changed their entire course for more than 5 years, 10 semesters, and static submissions of interactive material... REALLY??? I nearly lost my mind with the overwhelming grip of frustration... then coupled with the comment that I had Not adequately responded to the suggested changes of my wiki screen shot... comments that were made in the last hours prior to the deadline... REALLY??? I would have setup alerts to posts if I had known I needed too, but wait... there is No way to set up an alert for those sections of ChalkBoard. My faith in the instructors was now dismal at best... please note that is Not to say I think these individuals are bad people, I'm sure they are quite lovely in their own pretentious ways... make No mistake about it I definitely knew I had to conform to their will and understanding because like I said, "they had all the power."

The third example comes by way of open ended instructions for an assignment, the final assignment of the course.
Example 3:
Create an assignment on anything that you could use in a future classroom even if that is Not the classroom setting you are currently in because some of you may Not be in a full-time position. So, this assignment should be something you can and should use in the future. This assignment will have a peer review component prior to final submission and your peer will assigned to you after you submit your draft to ChalkBoard. Note to peers... please be constructive with your comments and suggestions so your review can be used to help make the necessary modifications or changes if needed. I chose a social studies world cultures activity based on written language development, which also included a look at how modern cultures are still shaping and changing modern written forms of text. Remember I said the instructions were open ended and should be for any future classroom you might have... My peer, reviewing the proposed activity wanted me to send them a full copy of the finished product so they would have it to use because as a historian they loved the idea of early forms of writing, symbols and graphics, as they compare to modern forms of writing. In that this is a great way to connect students to they past and the present. I included in the list of activities for students a simple form of program coding called, "Scratch" where students would create a simple "Scratch" video. The instructor felt that this component of the activity was more for a computer programming class Not a social studies class and further more I listed in my class introduction profile that I was teaching high school and this seemed like a middle school activity, which it was, the instructor further commented that this activity did Not seem suitable for an online course... REALLY??? When was this course changed to "learning how to teach online courses"??? What? Did I miss something?

My frustration was beyond anything I had really had to deal with thus far in my academic pursuits and the biggest part of that was not simply with the instructors or the issues with navigating their outdated courses it was that I felt that I had been cheated out learning. Learning I so desperately wanted and felt I needed in order to be better prepared for my classroom. To me technology tools will work and fail in a classroom daily, but when learners show up at the door eager to learn and you fail them because you are not prepared, that cost is far greater than a few tuition dollars. The learning in the non-examples I received from those classes was good, but the learning of how complacency can kill a learner was priceless. Standing still is the same as moving backwards in this ever changing global environment and it is time experienced learners set about the job of helping other learners be the more experienced learners of tomorrow! I wonder how many students feel cheated out of their education by their "so called" teachers... turn to page 129, read the section and answer the review questions... REALLY?

My pics of the week:

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