Activities Four and Five

In the spirit of what Purpos/ed stands for, I’m going to put responses to both activities on here.  I can’t seem to write anything coherent this week (after many attempts to do so), therefore, also in the spirit of this blog (which is to be experimental), I am going to respond to the articles in what can best be described as a series of vignettes.

ACTIVITY FOUR 

Alexandria, Virginia is not what it once was.  When I was growing up, kids used to play in the streets until their parents called them inside for dinner (the suburbs are so stereotypical) – they rode bikes, they explored neighboring ‘foreign’ streets, they gathered in the old widow’s backyard to tell ghost stories during twilight.  I was one of those kids.  Some of my first memories involve riding my tricycle around the triangular pavilion in front of my old house for hours.  Back then, being educated meant you knew the most scenic route to get to the creek in the woods, you knew the exact moment to cut through your neighbor’s backyard to avoid the growling dog, you knew how to navigate the entire geographical location that was ‘the neighborhood.’        But Alexandria, Virginia is not what it once was.  When I return home to visit my family,  rarely do I see children outside using their driveway basketball hoops, dusting up the kickball pitch at the park, or even sledding when it snows.  I’m not anachronistic about this, although I do still believe in the social value of being outdoors as a child, because I know that the new generation of kids in my neighborhood are navigating the world their own way – with their fingertips.

I love Purpos/ed because it resolves to educate people about the differing views of education – it’s like suddenly becoming conscious of one’s own consciousness.  We know it’s there, but perhaps we don’t contemplate it – in and of itself – as much as we should.  In my humble opinion:

1) Education is multi-faceted; you can be ‘street’ and/or formally educated.

2) Education is having an awareness and understanding of the world around you – and the world not around you – and knowing how to navigate it.

3) Education is realizing the value of life (all life) and actively doing & creating things that engender a higher quality of life (for oneself and others).

The fact that the two men behind Purpos/ed chose the Internet as the main (but not only) ‘voice’ for their educational endeavor says something.  What it says is:  the Internet is a powerful vehicle for the mass publication, contribution, and distribution of important ideas.  And they are probably right.  At least in terms of the Western world.  But I wonder about people who don’t use the Internet (whether that be because they have no interest in using it or because they don’t have access to it) . . . their opinions are just as valid as someone who does use/have access to the Internet — how much are we missing, and what are we missing, by excluding their voices? . . .

In Charles Crook’s section of ‘Education 2.0′ he says that, when directed at learning, the Internet influences four areas:  the social areas of collaboration and publication & the cognitive aspects of literacy and inquiry.  In relation to Purpos/ed, whose purpose is to encourage people to think and learn about education, I think the founders hit the nail on the head for all four of these subjects.  The website itself makes use of publication and collaboration – the founders actively publish others’ opinions and provoke other people to share their opinions on blogs – encouraging people to use tags so that others can find their blog posts in the cloud.  I’m not entirely convinced that the Internet promotes literacy in general, but this site does get people to think/inquire about their own views on education as well as read/comment on other people’s views.  All of this is suppose to spark intelligible debate between thoughtful individuals.  They even have a link on their website that gives an example of how not to respond to other blogger’s comments.  The question is, does it evoke debate?  Once we understand the views of others, what are we suppose to do with them?

“You should never let schooling interfere with your education.” – Mark Twain

*                         *                           *

ACTIVITY FIVE 

I don’t consider myself an optimist, nor a pessimist; I call myself a realist and I think that entails allowing yourself to be both positive and negative at any given moment.

There is so much to be said.  And I have no idea where to begin because these issues are all so complex – I feel like so many thoughts become lost in the transfer from the mind to the screen, but alas…

Selwyn says that there isn’t much empirical evidence to support the notion young people are ‘inexorably drawn toward new technologies’ (p. 6), and I think this point should be taken seriously by educators.  There are just some young people who don’t care or want to use the Internet.  But I stand by the argument that just because young people aren’t interested in something doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t have to learn about it in a formal setting.  I would venture to guess that there are more young people (I will start using the abbreviation YP now) who have no interest in books, or reading in general – that isn’t a reason to not ensure that they are literate.  Increasingly, it seems, the western world is organized such that if you’re computer/technology/online media illiterate you might as well not even apply for a salary-paying job.  The point of web/online media education in schools should not be to force YP to engage with it personally (or outside of the academic setting), but to at least give them an awareness of what is going on in the world around them.  (Digression – I know not everyone in the world strives for a salary-paying job; I am not suggesting that a salary is a necessary tenet of success/happiness.  Rather, I am trying to imply that this type of education/knowledge is what society currently places the most monetary value on, and in a capitalist society, money is a gateway to living life the ways in which one most desires, whether that be owning five Caribbean condos or giving away millions to charity).  So, while I agree with Selwyn that we shouldn’t assume ICT as a ‘public good’ (p. 6) is universally desirable, we should also not ignore or downplay its important role in today’s world in school just because some YP do not want to participate in it.

Selwyn and other scholars have pointed out that IT firms seem to act as some neutral entity that simply provides hardware and software, when in reality they play a crucial commercial role in the production of the Internet itself.  This is obviously a very serious issue, so why not push for this to be taught in schools?  American scholar Henry Jenkins’ sees the “transparency problem” in light of the fact that YP do not critically engage with the Internet and Internet technologies in any formal education setting (in the States at least).  But how can anyone actually address the transparency problem when commercial interests inevitably become intertwined with political (power) interests, which are always intertwined with educational interests?  That is to say, at least in the States, if you produce the money you have control over the educational (and inevitably other) system(s).  And what benefit would powerful IT (or other) corporations gain if they advocated for the educational system to think critically about the things over which they have control and power (Internet tech/online media)?  This isn’t meant to be some rant about the pitfalls of capitalism.  But I do think any productive educational reform will include being critical of the entities which have commercial control over our lives – even if this type of reform isn’t realistic in the foreseeable future.

As much as I agree with Selwyn’s cautionary views, I feel like there are solutions to them.  I don’t have those solutions necessarily, but I know they can (and will) be achieved eventually.

To be continued… ???

Unsure

While I like the idea of an International Women’s Day, I can’t help but feel like it just reinforces the binary gender stereotype… and then I think… no, no Brittany, you’ve just been reading too many feminist poststructuralist articles lately, it’s fine… and then I think… well, doesn’t that train of thought have some merit?… and then I think… dunno, it seems a little contrived at times, too subjective, too political… then I think… well, aren’t most things contrived anyway? except for these hegemonic masculine structures that we all fall into without realizing it… then I think… I’ve been listening to too many of my friends’ pre-conference presentations… and then I think…

ode to s & v

Two of the most influential women in my life are two that I’ll never have the opportunity to meet (although I do currently live a four minute stroll from the house in which one of them spent most of her days):  Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf.  The way I feel about these women (and what all of their work means to me) can’t be adequately summarized by words, but their words often adequately summarize many things that I feel & experience on a daily basis.  I am forever indebted to those who can offer even a glimpse into the ineffable.  This post, Sylvia and Virginia, is dedicated to you.

SILVIA QUOTES:

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.

Apparently, the most difficult feat for a Cambridge male is to accept a woman not merely as feeling, not merely as thinking, but as managing a complex, vital interweaving of both.

But life is long. And it is the long run that balances the short flare of interest and passion.

Dying is an art, like everything else. I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like hell. I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I’ve a call.

How frail the human heart must be – a mirrored pool of thought.

I am too pure for you or anyone.

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my eyes and all is born again.

I talk to God but the sky is empty.

I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart. I am. I am. I am.

If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I’m neurotic as hell. I’ll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days.

Is there no way out of the mind?

Kiss me and you will see how important I am.

Nothing stinks like a pile of unpublished writing.

Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing.

The blood jet is poetry and there is no stopping it.

There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know many of them.

Widow. The word consumes itself.

VIRGINIA QUOTES:

Life is not a series of gig lamps, symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end.

A masterpiece is something said once and for all, stated, finished, so that it’s there complete in the mind, if only at the back.

Almost any biographer, if he respects facts, can give us much more than another fact to add to our collection. He can give us the creative fact; the fertile fact; the fact that suggests and engenders.

Arrange whatever pieces come your way.

As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world.

Boredom is the legitimate kingdom of the philanthropic.

Each has his past shut in him like the leaves of a book known to him by his heart, and his friends can only read the title.

Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind is written large in his works.

Fiction is like a spider’s web, attached ever so slightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is scarcely perceptible.

Great bodies of people are never responsible for what they do.

Humor is the first of the gifts to perish in a foreign tongue.

I can only note that the past is beautiful because one never realises an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus we don’t have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.

I read the book of Job last night, I don’t think God comes out well in it.

I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse, perhaps, to be locked in.

I want the concentration and the romance, and the worlds all glued together, fused, glowing: have no time to waste any more on prose.

I was in a queer mood, thinking myself very old: but now I am a woman again – as I always am when I write.

I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.
—

(All of the above quotes were found at brainyquote.com).

‘My love for you allows me to pray to the spirit of eternal beauty and tenderness’

I really want to post something here tonight, but I can’t think of anything worthwhile.

Except for maybe one thing.

This weekend I spent a lot of time with a neighbor of mine, chatting for hours about this and that, but at some point during the weekend, the Love Letters of James Joyce came up in conversation.  If you have ever read a Joyce novel, or poetry, you will know how just how exquisite and avant-garde of a writer he was for his time.  Ulysses, The Portrait of The Artist As a Young Man – absolutely wondrous, beautifully written tales of fiction; I highly recommend them to everyone.  His imaginative mind, however, also produced some extremely… what’s the best word to use here?… vulgar love letters to his lover/mistress/eventual wife (I believe?), Nora.

I can almost guarantee reading them will make you blush more than if you were asked to give an impromptu 20-minute speech on current Hawaiian politics in front of 100,000 people.  Here they are – if you dare, but be fairly warned:  they are definitely not for the faint of heart.

At the end of the day, we’re all just so superbly human – regardless of nationality, gender, IQ, sexuality – aren’t we?

Silence your phone

There is a great website that I read on a daily basis called Thought Catalog. The post I read today reminded me of the articles we read last week about identity. Phones and other devices now follow us wherever we go, acting as extensions of our bodies. It seems more than obvious that society has increasingly become technology- and place-centred rather than individual-centred, but that never really made me sad until I read the following article.

silence your phone

Carneval

This past week I spent about 50 hours between Aachen and Cologne, Germany to celebrate Carneval – the equivalent to Mardi Gras in the States.  This 6-day-long festival takes place the week before lent, and those celebrating it dress up in elegant costumes and imbibe sinful amounts of beer.  And that’s the point, according to my Germany colleague who acted as tour guide for us on the trip – people stuff themselves with food and booze before the 40-day lent period.  While it was a beautiful and memorable cultural experience, it was difficult to really grasp the ‘spirit’ of the whole thing.  Mostly because none of us spoke a lick of German (save for our colleague) and none of us wanted to get hammered in a country in which we didn’t speak the language.  Nevertheless, Germany is a fascinating country and I look forward to going back to different cities some day.

Friends dressed as Underground tube stops.  Plus, our new German friend dressed as The Simpsons “comic book guy.”

A walking tour of Cologne.  Much too cold and rainy.

The Aachen Cathedral.  Absolutely stunning inside.

Partial remains of the Cologne city wall.  Lots of fascinating WWII history in this town.

HAIL

When you grow up in northern Virginia, you learn very quickly to become a Washington Redskins football fan.  Redskins memorabilia lurks at every turn and in every corner, especially between the on-season months of September through January.  And on Sunday and Monday nights, you can be sure to hear this song on the radio, on TV, booming out of the local bar, and/or your next door neighbor’s house:

‘Hail to the Redskins, hail victorrrryyyy…”

(I must admit the song still gets me pumped up every time I hear it.)

Although I feel this sense of loyalty towards the Skins, I started to wonder from where exactly it arises, and why … and more importantly, why everyone in ‘Redskins’ territory shares this fierce sense of loyalty towards the team.  After all my research, I still can’t answer that question.  Maybe because the Skins represent the nation’s capital.  Maybe it’s because the Skins have thrice seen the glory of a Superbowl victory.  I don’t know.  But my research did lead me to think about the Skins in a way that I never have before, and probably in a way most fans will never think about:  the fact that the Redskins are the SECOND richest NFL team in the league, with a net worth of $1.55b, according to this article.  This blew me away.  We come in second… second to our biggest rival – the Dallas Cowboys… second out of all of the teams that have either played in or won the past 20 Superbowls.  How are we really the second richest?  Well, for the most part this is because the Redskins’ franchise has an extremely loyal and proud fan base, who are all willing to buy as much Redskins logo-embedded STUFF as possible (guilty as charged over here – I own a Santana Moss jersey and the pen holder on my desk bears the famous Skins emblem).

But I started to think about all of this from an economic standpoint (and mind you I don’t pretend here to understand econ beyond a basic level), but, if a company is providing a service that is consistently inconsistant AND that doesn’t value its products (players) by allowing time for improvement (they fire and re-hire new players, especially quarter backs every year it seems), why am I still so loyal to the brand?  If any other company started producing a bad product, or, took away all of its good products in exchange for hit-or-miss products, I’d stop buying it immediately.  The Redskins haven’t even really been close to entering the playoffs since their third, and so far last, Superbowl victory in 1992.  Twenty years of a bad product, and yet, the franchise is still the second richest.  It makes one suspicious of what exactly goes on behind closed doors in the NFL.  My guess is that the owner has caught on to the fact that he can do as he pleases with the players and the coaches, because no matter what, people will still be chanting “HAIL TO THE REDSKINS” as long as they’re a team.  It makes me wonder… what would happen – what COULD happen if the fans stopped buying into this brand until the owner starts focusing on the important aspects of the game – like building a strong team that becomes better because they have time and proper training to do so.  It seems to me that the mentality is:  as long as money is coming in, despite the bad product, the franchise owner is disincentivized to ever make the product truly great.  That is to say, to make the game about the game, and not about the $$$.

Our football players are the ‘sons of Washington,’  yet those ‘sons’ are changed and exchanged out every year.  When it comes to the Redskins, there is no team loyalty — there is only fan loyalty.  And as much as I feel a part of that loyalty group I question whether it’s right or it’s just that I do.

All I can say for sure is that I was happy to see the New York Giants win the Superbowl last Sunday.  Hail.

Remarks on the Readings for Feb 6th.

Response to Neil Selwyn’s article:

Although I agree that educators need to be tactful in the ways in which they have students interact with technology and the Internet in the classroom, Selwyn emphasizes the negatives of tech/web 2.0 education without an in-depth consideration of some of the potential positive opportunities educationalists have to combat those negatives.

For example, in the section labelled ‘Enhanced participation and learning,’ Selwyn essentially argues that studies show that young people do not use social and online media (he cites Wikipedia and YouTube as examples) to their full potential.  To me this highlights an area that educators can use to encourage this type of involvement in the classroom.  Perhaps young people do not use it to their full potential because they do not know how to do so.  Perhaps educators should have a role in developing an understanding of how this can be done, should students have a desire to do so.  When I was an undergraduate in college, a history professor of mine made each student create a Flickr account (to display pictures of the monuments in Washington and to reflect on their architecture critically), and a Wikipedia article (mine remains similar to its original form, but it made me very aware of the dynamic process and flow of information on Wikipedia, and the amount of work authors/editors put in to making their topics of interest as accurate as possible).  These experiences wholly changed my perspective on what these sites can offer and how they can contribute to one’s understanding of a particular subject matter.

I agree with Selwyn in the ‘Enhanced equality of opportunity’ section that inequality is more rampant than equality in terms of usage and information generation on the Internet.  However, this also appears to me to be an opportunity and a reason for (as many) schools (as possible) to incorporate more technology and online media education into schools.  The more schools that have these resources, the more diverse the people using them and learning about them becomes.  In ‘Learner affinity and interest,’ Selwyn makes the valid point that not every young person has an active interest in using social media sites; a 2008 study of young people in the UK indicated about a fourth of them don’t use them or want to use them, and for various reasons.  But a quarter of young people is certainly the minority of this demographic.  And just because those young people have no personal interest in participating themselves does not mean that they should not have to be educated about these phenomena in general.  ’Web 2.0′ is a major part of the world at large nowadays whether one cares about it or participates in it or not.  What if a study showed that a quarter of young people have no major interest/desire in reading (books, magazines, or otherwise)?  Certainly  that does not mean we should not teach them how to be as literate as possible in the art of language and all of its components.

In the last section, ‘Freedom from proprietary constraints,’ Selwyn points out that educators tend to overlook the fact that online media content is owned by corporations who use data that ‘free-users’ give willingly, to then exploit them commercially.  My first thought is, though, why are commercial endeavors of this nature inherently negative (as the tone of Selwyn’s argument suggests)?  If people (of all ages) spend money on their physical, external appearance as a way of expressing their individual identities, and avatars are just extensions of our identities into online spaces, then why wouldn’t people be willing to be spend money on personalizing them as well?  (Selwyn uses the Disney game Club Penguin as an example.  It’s a free multimedia game, but if the user wants to personalize their penguin avatar then they (i.e. their parents/guardians) need to pay a fee to allow them to do so).  It was, of course, only a matter of time before corporations entered the Internet market.  Instead of thinking that this detracts from the benefits and importance of what online media have to offer in general, educators should actively teach students to critically analyze what it means that their personal online media content is owned and used by corporations for commercial benfits.  I would argue that making these issues transparent to students, rather than avoiding them, will give rise to a better understanding and awareness of commercialism on the Internet.  Selwyn himself seems to agree with this senitment as he states in the Conclusion that, “educators and educationalists should set about addressing questions of how social web technologies (re)produce social relations and in whose interests they serve – thus striving to challenge and problematise the dominant discourses of transformation and enhancement in current thinking” (p. 81).

Overall, Selwyn offers some compelling reasons why technology and media education need to be handled as sensibly and practically as possible in educational settings.  Indeed, if his reasons are properly and thoroughly addressed in classrooms then I believe new, and fundamentally crucial levels of understanding about these subjects will emerge in the minds of young people — whether or not they themselves want to actively participate and engage with them.

The Many Faces of Friendship; photo post

Today I transferred all of my 2011 photos from my laptop onto my hard drive, so that I could free up some space on my hard drive.  As I looked through some of them, I started to think about the idea of friendship and how it is such a diverse concept, in that for any one person, every single friendship that they have throughout their lives is so completely different from all of the others.  So many factors determine 1) what type of person one chooses to befriend, and 2) the specific type of relationship one has with that person.  Below are just a handful examples of the ‘embodiment’ of certain friendships in my life; they are certainly wide-ranging and dynamic.

This is my neighbor back in Virginia. When I moved to London last September he sent me this photo via KIK, a free chatting app.  He and my other two neighbors set up their living room as a real-life version of the board game Battleship.  They decided to turn this into ‘Beership’ instead and all wished that I could be there to play with them.  It was the act of inclusion – despite it being via text – that made me feel loved.

My best friend who lives in NYC started a travel fund to come visit me.  I was ecstatic when I received this photo.

One of my first friends in London invited me to a Champions League football game.  It was an incredible and visceral experience and I’ll never thank him enough for sharing such a wonderful, cultural event with me.

My coursemate and I had the chance to go see Episode 11 of Nevermind the Buzzcocks being filmed at the BBC studios last November.  She won the tickets and thought to invite me since we had talked about how much we enjoy the show earlier that week.  This is just another example of how unique cultural experiences bring people together – physically and emotionally.  We’ve been quite close friends ever since.

My great dane and my sister playing in the kitchen on Christmas morning.  Easily two of my best friends in the world.

Food and drink have a special relationship to friendships, I think.  A coursemate threw a house warming party – and as it turns out, she is an amazing cook and party hostess.  Everyone present loved her food and because it brought so many of us together we now frequent her house often.

The love of friendship often manifests itself in strange ways, at strange locations, and at strange hours.  In this case, these are my friends I met while studying abroad as an undergrad expressing their friendlovejoy on the street in Reading at some early hour of the morning.

I am always fascinated when people share their text messages as screen shots.  I think it’s because it’s like a momentary, strategic glimpse into a notebook/diary that two people share privately, suddenly made public.  Before I flew home for the holidays, I captured this image of my friend joking around, or maybe not joking around?, because it made me laugh.

This is a very meaningful photo.  I took it of my best friend attempting to play a song on the piano for me.  A photograph is worth a 1000 words, they say, but sometimes what they evoke within is ineffable.

‘Only connect!’ -E.M. Forster

This morning I watched the State of the Union speech that my president gave last night.

As usual, I couldn’t help but agree with some of his points:  ”Washington is broken. Can you blame them [the people, the voters] for being a little cynical?”  And on the other hand I couldn’t help but disagree with some of his other points either.  Especially his arguments for new job creation.  That’s not to say that I don’t believe creating new jobs isn’t a good thing — of course high employment in a capitalist society is a sign of a ‘good’ / prosperous economy.  However, I’m not sure how aware Mr. Obama or Congress (especially not Congress) are of the new dynamic that is taking many business people over by storm.

A couple of weeks ago my friend sent me this article about the so-called “Generation Flux,” which is quite long, but certainly worth the read.  It succinctly explicates how the business workforce, at least in America, is rapidly changing (and how it has already changed thus far, but the author boldly argues that, “there is no status quo; only a process of change.”).  The author argues that the change is chaotic and that those who adapt to this new way of working life will be the ‘fittest’ economic survivors – not necessarily those who are the brightest or strongest.  Times are tough.  Many people aren’t settling for career 9-5 jobs anymore; they’re beginning to exploit the market for new opportunities all the time – constantly adding new skills to their repertoires (and ultimately their resumes).  Here’s one of my favorite excerpts from the article:

‘Chaotic disruption is rampant, not simply from the likes of Apple, Facebook, and Google. No one predicted that General Motors would go bankrupt–and come back from the abyss with greater momentum than Toyota. No one in the car-rental industry foresaw the popularity of auto-sharing Zipcar–and Zipcar didn’t foresee the rise of outfits like Uber and RelayRides, which are already trying to steal its market. Digital competition destroyed bookseller Borders, and yet the big, stodgy music labels–seemingly the ground zero for digital disruption–defy predictions of their demise. Walmart has given up trying to turn itself into a bank, but before retail bankers breathe a sigh of relief, they ought to look over their shoulders at Square and other mobile-wallet initiatives. Amid a reeling real-estate market, new players like Trulia and Zillow are gobbling up customers. Even the law business is under siege from companies like LegalZoom, an online DIY document service. “All these industries are being revolutionized,” observes Pete Cashmore, the 26-year-old founder of social-news site Mashable, which has exploded overnight to reach more than 20 million users a month. “It’s come to technology first, but it will reach every industry. You’re going to have businesses rise and fall faster than ever.”‘

If this last sentence holds any truth, then this is the real issue that needs to be addressed by the American government, especially if one of their main goals is to create more jobs.  Mr. Obama did say he was going to offer financial help for those who wish create their own businesses in America, but it frightens me a bit that if those businesses rise and then fall ‘faster than ever,’ then the government might seem more accountable for the failures than it actually is.  Conversely, it might get more credit than it actually deserves for the successes, as well.  Not that either of those things are inherently GOOD or BAD – my overall point here is that there seems to exist some kind of disconnect between the new business climate and what is happening in Washington.  This might have always been the case, but now it seems more pertinent to confront than ever before.

The question is, how does one help to bridge that gap?

Some political blogs I follow regularly:

http://pantslessprogressive.com/

http://letterstomycountry.tumblr.com/

http://think-progress.tumblr.com/

I don’t necessarily agree or disagree with the authors of these blogs, but they always provide an interesting perspective.