I am not keen on continuing this blog.
First of all, personal plans are shifting at a very fast pace. I just got back from La Jolla with my daughter, scouting the living conditions and schools. I leave for the Philippines in a few weeks for work and vacation. Who knows? Maybe two years in Asia will get my projects soaring. Exploring Switzerland as another living and work space, the offer is good.
Good day to all. My twitter will continue..blogging..don't think so.
I find myself quite impatient blogging my thinking and actions. Somehow, the daily activities, conversations and embedded practices with others serve as challenge markers with the new space and time in 2009.
Twitterverse, Facebook and skype on my iphone seem to keep pace with my lifestyle. I am satisfied temporarily, as I am sure many of you, who belong to our type of reality manage. Even with our accessibility to others, I still interact with good friends who live in a space and time that must be physically concrete. My emotions are mixed. Impatience because I cannot text them and get a quick response back, yet, admire them for slowing me down.
Ahh, and those children/youth, in towns that have to walk miles to join a mini-community to share in laughter, while watching a fan-based program...or those that save on their snack to walk miles to an Internet cafe, just to connect to the world. Bureaucracy tends to speak for them. However, the personal voice is powerful. The desire to be socially connected transcends physical space...quite admirable, don't you think?
A little over a year ago, I immersed in understanding educational development and its relationship to poverty. The cultural differences in how a country, region, town, province defines accessibility to knowledge, poverty and technology. They varied tremendously. In a remote rural setting in a developing country, "low tech" could be defined as no electricity, using kerosene lamps for its energy. In rural America, "low tech" could mean, internet connectivity.
The internet is viewed in the U.S. as a road to educational and communication delivery. Most educational pedagogical projects designed and taught by progressive teachers focus on web 2.0 and the virtual community. However, most progressive teachers in rural and remote areas in developing countries hope for books and printed matter. Most often, if lucky, books and printed resources received are copyrighted in the 1960's. Sad to say, information is old. Educational Television, if their school is lucky, will have content delivered through cable, helping formal schooling communities to receive basic education, most especially if teacher -student ratio is 1: 100 to even 1: 350.
A common factor between these two distinct learning cultures is their perspective to how technology is used or even how learning is viewed. They both focus on the technology aspects and its use, rather than "seeing" the issue as an instructional issue for literacy.
Teacher Education programs in the U.S. focus on the technology and how it is used for learning. Sadly, most programs still focus on student teachers looking for resources on the web or how to make travel brochures to integrate "technology" in their social studies lesson. If they are lucky, their professors will meet them in Second life. A favorite meeting space for avatars to sit or float while listening passively to someone speak..again, nothing different from 19th century formal schooling, difference is in the setting, not in the learning. So, focus is still on information.
Fast forward, I enjoy observing the youth in every culture, somehow, they define the motivation and interests..if only we, educators would listen. One common element that defines their identity is music. Teens in developing countries, as well as those in the U.S. seem to know the latest music, the latest pop stars and create a fan base around one famous actor or musician. Teens would walk miles to sit in front of a television set or internet cafe, just to identify with their emotions and music. Teens in the U.S. would download their videos and music from itunes into their itouch, ipods or the new ipod shuffle. How can we take teen culture and turn it to a teachable moment?
For example, The incident between Rihanna and Chris Brown, spurred such interest in the teen community. it even became a catalyst for the Oprah show to focus on "abuse" and as of yesterday, an advocacy for the show. Surprisingly, most schools stayed silent. Why are educators so blinded with their own perspectives of how "teens" should learn? Why can't they shift towards how the culture operates now?
Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes is a community screening and dialogue on race, gender, and hip-hop. One of many communities of educators and artists that actually recognize the importance of reaching the youth through a participatory culture.
As 21st century educators, it is our responsibility to tie-in civic engagement into what and how we teach our Youth. Henry Jenkins posits that there is a new culture emerging from the use of participatory media. He continues, "These contexts places new emphasis on the need for schools and afterschool programs to devote attention to fostering what we are calling the new media literacies – a set of cultural competencies and social skills which young people need as they confront the new media landscape."
So, how can music and pop culture merge its way to bridging old and new literacies as an instructional method towards teen/youth participation towards their learning? What? You ask me about technology? Geez, technology is such a seamless convergence into one's culture, you have to start thinking way beyond that now.
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