MediaConnectingCommunities's Blog

The Expo!

mediaconnectingcommunities — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:44:47 +0000

Last week was our final class, in which we showed the projects we had been working on to visitors to our expo. We were not over crowded, but there was a nice showing of interested people. It was neat to see the breadth of projects that my classmates created. The projects addresses social needs of marginalized populations globally and locally, evidencing how my classmates thought about the best way to educate the people of the world. I had many interesting conversations at my booth, where I presented the School of Hip Hop, a hip hop based curriculum that encouraged critical thinking as well as writing, reading and math skills. The School of Hip Hop also includes a music component, allowing the students to have a creative outlet as well, which I find to be very useful in engaging youth. Anytime something smells of school work, they shut off. So I designed my website and curriculum to appear as far from that as possible. There is more work to be done. My greatest goal would be to have users of the program working on their projects outside of school, in more casual environments. If someone has a passionate relationship with the medium that they use to learn (like music for example) then their learning will be greatly enhanced. The only issue I had with the expo is many of the attendees seemed to be just as interested in finding talented engineers and programmers as they were in finding out about innovative strategies.
The class is now over and I think about what lessons to take from it. In terms of educational lessons, the strongest came in the beginning of the quarter, when we discussed how to create a proposal. Audience, Behavior, Conditions and Degree are all necessary concepts to consider when designing research or project proposals. Similarly Situation, Culture, Usability, Leaning Theory, Scalability, and Sustainability are all conditions in your project that should be investigated. I will use this teaching in my future classes and projects. We also did one day of review of learning theories, which though just a taste, was exactly what I came here to learn, and was glad to finally see.
The greatest takeaway from the class, however, was inspiration. Inspiration for one’s self, to help others, and know that education can be a route to bringing a brighter future to the oppressed people of today’s world. Dr Kim made it clear that it should be now, now that we are students that we should get to work on these goals of ours. Secondly, inspiration for those who are using the educational tools may be the strongest aspect to any product. When using your product, or curriculum, or whatever form your educational design takes, one should always look to inspire the student. That kernel of inspiration and motivation can carry them further than any piece of knowledge that they might gain. I will remember that rule as I move forward through this career as an educator, and a designer.

The World is Open-to whom?

mediaconnectingcommunities — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:33:18 +0000

We were virtually visited this week by Professor Curtis Bonk, Professor of Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University. He was animated, invigorated, and fun to listen to. Even though he was pixelated, frame jumping, and on a crappy speaker phone. He talked to us about the future of e-learning, and what a bright future it will be. But here we were, talking from two of the finer institutions in higher learning in America and our connection was severely handicapped, so when is this future coming?
More importantly, to my mind, is who is this future of openness coming to? With the exception of point #9 of his WE-ALL-LEARN system, which regarded mobile phones and portability, it seemed to me the rest of that system continues to benefit those with access to computers and time for study and the basic education that allows access. I am not sure how many of those people there are. Perhaps the marginalized cultures of the world will be coming into this digital future at the same rate as the rest of us, but I believe that they will need some assistance from those of us with the willingness to help them.
This is the most dangerous aspect to the culture of innovation that is over taking the industrialized world. Just as there is a large income gap, there is a large technological literacy gap. And the more “innovative” we get, and the more products and forward thinking solutions we come up with, the greater this distance will grow.
Is it possible that Prof. Bonk is overlooking this defect in the system? The world is open to those who can afford it, just like always. What can we do to open the world up all the way? Innovators need to focus on closing the digital divide as did the One Laptop per Child campaign. This campaign, though some question its effectiveness, is exactly the kind of openness we need to be focusing on.
Thanksgiving, instead of putting me in the mode of giving thanks for all that I have, (which is plenty and I thank whomever for allowing me to be so lucky), puts me in the frame of mind of thinking about those who do not have as much, and whether those of us who do have it at the expense of those who go without. The Pilgrims and the Indians writ large. I believe that Prof Bonk would have an answer however, and though I spent much of this post questioning his insights, now I offer a defense. If more doctors can learn their trade online, or through e-conferences or voice over IP chats to save the lives and improve the health of others, then the opening of the world is good. If more teachers can learn better techniques in addressing the needs of underserved communities, than the opening is a benefit to us all. Lets just make sure this is what occurs, instead of just opening the world, like country club gates, and letting in only those who qualify.

Bringing it Back

mediaconnectingcommunities — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:42:14 +0000

We titled our blog MediaConnectingCommunities, but besides our first post, we havent talked much about it. So what are the best modes for creating connections among people? My classmates have proposed websites, mobile phone technologies, computer programs and games. It is hard to say what would work the best, humans are so different in what appeals to them. I submit that any media, or mode of communication can work, but it all depends on the design.
As I am learning in my design class at the Stanford d.school, good design starts with the user. Defining who your user is, and what his or her needs are, and generating insights about them is the beginning of the path the dschool lays out. Insights can be something you find out about the user or his environment that they might not be aware of, or apparent contradictions in what they say and what they do. Good media addresses users needs that they might not have known they had. For example, Facebook, despite all of its add-ons and doodads captured the needs of a computer savvy population at just the right moment with just the right technology. They saw people becoming increasingly disconnected from one another, at their computers working all day, and sending massive amounts of emails back and forth. What if there could be a place where all of this communication could happen easily, and quickly? Facebook designed essentially a new media form, where you could feel as though you were connecting, and not take too much time out of your busy day, either at work or at the zoo, to do so.
What would be the equivalent for learning? What is the best media form for getting students to engage with their learning, and be motivated to dig deeper into their studies? I believe learning truly gets exciting when you find yourself in a class with your peers and everyone feels they are contributing to the discussion and learning together. Is there a way we can augment this or encourage it? I have seen classroom where all of students have access to the white board, or large computer screen, and that may be a start. In my experience however, teachers using this technology are still teaching in their same ways, just having their display larger or fancier. Perhaps there is a way to graphically represent the learning process, as it unfolds in front of our eyes, in a form that includes each student and their individual style of understanding and learning. Then create curricula that are able to refer to the learning occurring concurrently and use this group dynamic to teach more effectively.
Likewise, what would be the best mode for connecting communities? I tried a neighborhood internet radio station, and it showed promise, especially as the barrier to creating or consuming the media was relatively low. However one stumbling block was the inescapable feeling of being one website out of billions. Even though it was our neighborhood’s creation, and specific to our interests, the connection to the medium was not there. There needs to be something physical for the people to rally around. One thought I had is a neighborhood wireless connection. What if each neighborhood had a shared connection, and the home page could show news of the ‘hood? I like the idea, but now, as the dschool has taught me, I must bring it back to the user. So any thoughts?

The importance of bringing a prototype

mediaconnectingcommunities — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:41:45 +0000

This is a lesson I have been given in a couple of other classes here in graduate school. But its value was made strikingly clear in last week’s class. It is not a judgment, or value assessment, as the presenters were in very different stages of developing their idea. However, we were able to have a much more fruitful discussion with the presenter who was able to show us something tangible to bounce our ideas off of.
Our first presenter had a Powerpoint presentation-but this is not a prototype! After taking us through some of the facts and figures in his presentation, he unveiled his product. He showed us how it worked, illuminated some of the variables of the product, and then opened the floor to our ideas and comments. The discussion began and the input from the audience was nonstop. The presenters were ready with notepads, and took down lots and lots of notes. By seeing the actual product, at any resolution (this resolution was quite high), we were able to imagine ourselves interacting with it and responding with conviction. We were able to see clear aspects of the product and respond to them. At least from my point of view, it was a valuable give and take for both the designers and for us.
Then came the next presenter. She was at the beginning of her process, and therefore had very little to show us. She had some materials, but they were just there to be materials, not necessarily related to her presentation. She presented her background, the background of the city she was working in and then a general idea of what her goals were for her project. Then she asked us for ideas. Silence. We had nothing to go on, no tangible thing in our hands or on the screen, just a fuzzy idea of a direction to go in. We sat for awhile, and then tried to pull some comments out of the air. We got somewhere, but nowhere far.
Again, my criticism should not be taken as a judgment on the second presenter, or the goals which she hoped to attain. But in the presentation, she gave us nowhere to go. You will not get valuable feedback from an audience unless they have something to react to. Bringing a prototype, even of something analogous to her idea, or another solution to the issue would have allowed us to concentrate on the variables of the solution, and offer helpful feedback. It is not a matter of showing that you did work on the idea. A prototype lets your audience have something to hold onto and concentrate on and get specific with.
I first was introduced to this idea at the design school at Stanford. It is a strategy used at IDEO (the principles at this innovative design consultancy helped to start the design school). They explain it better than I-”The authors present three objectives related to prototyping that facilitate behavioral change within organizations. These objectives include building to think – creating tangible expressions of ideas enables organizational thinking to develop concretely through action; learning faster by failing early (and often) – making things tangible allows small, low-impact failures to occur early, resulting in faster organizational learning; giving permission to explore new behaviors – the presence of a prototype encourages new behaviors, relieving individuals of the responsibility to consciously change what they do.” You can read the whole article that the excerpt comes from here.
Mediaconnectincommunities says always bring a prototype!

Trick ‘em into learning

mediaconnectingcommunities — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:55:06 +0000

Learning theories…there seem to be more of them than stars in the sky. Some of them are so obvious (redundancy principle, signal design, contiguity principle) that it seems almost unfair that a researcher gets to attach his name to the discovery of it. Others are innovative and change the way teachers are teaching. Yet almost all of them seem to be after the fact-is there really value in identifying them?
Yes and no. It is important to know how we learn. As we create new curricula and training strategies, knowing what works well can only be beneficial. Being aware of successful strategies can help us design for different types of learners, and address those that are having difficulty. But if you have ever been in a public school you might agree that learning strategies are not the problem, its getting the students interested in the first place. Researchers should take out some of their time spent in figuring out how people learn and apply it to why people learn.
In my experience working with teens, the first mention of anything that resembles school work elicits groans and rolling eyes. Why is this? Is the style of teaching in school so boring that students cannot bear the mention of it? Partly. Or is there something more soul crushing about the school environment? I would postulate that it is the latter, and the culture that is created by this environment. The schools I attended, and more recently have taught in, resemble prisons more than anything else. The bell rings, you shuffle to the next holding area and are forced to take attendance. Is this a proper learning environment? When I think of my days in schools like this, I too groan at the idea of being involved in anything that resembles those days.
I believe the strongest asset that young people have is their creativity. Almost all young people are creative in some way, some in their art class, others in the science lab, others on the football field. This is the area of learning theory we need to explore. My favorite learning theory and one of the few that in my opinion addresses some aspect of why students learn is constructionism. Constructionism is learning through play and design. The student is able to invest in the process and the outcome of the activity. When a person designs something they learn the specifics of the idea and better yet, increase their metacognition of the subject. When they feel they are just playing (like on a football field, or a lab, or in an art class) they become focused and filter out other distractions or incorporate them into their work. This is not done more in schools however, because it is messy. Students may follow tangents that the teacher is not well versed in. The process is often not step by step. There can be some aspect of chaos. Yet to me, that sounds like the way children and adolescents learn. Researchers should focus on this strategy and find a way to codify it or structure it so it can be used by teachers in all subjects. Learning theories should address the strengths of the students and for young people it is this loose, creative style that suits them best. Lets create a workable theory that can be implemented across the globe. Of course, here at this blog we would suggest beginning by having the students create media to share with their schools and community. For a good example, though not in school, check out www.youthradio.org. Until next time-

Edison Learning

mediaconnectingcommunities — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:26:53 +0000

Presenters from Edison Learning‘s online division came to speak with us regarding their new K-12 online schools, now in session in a couple of different states. They had to go through a rigorous accreditation process and now these states think Edison’s schools are valid. Do you?
The systems Edison has put in place in their virtual schools is impressive. For every lesson (they called them modules) there are four different sections, increasing in difficulty and necessary student comprehension along the way. When a student has completed each of the four sections he should have full understanding of the ideas presented. What I found very interesting is that if a student is not achieving the assessment goals of the module (the quizzes at the end of each) a tutor who works with the student can look at each of the parts and diagnose the aspect of the lesson that the child is not understanding. The tutor can then help the student with that specific part of the lesson and not start from the beginning (unless that is where the student was mislead). If it works like they said it does, it seems like an improvement over teaching in brick and mortar schools. In the schools that most of us attended, our teachers would never be able to pinpoint where she lost each of her students but would have to guess using an average. Their method seems to be a great improvement, and if there were a way to adopt this method in the real classroom it could aid teachers and students tremendously.
The design of the school also is such that the student does not feel alone or without guidance, which would be my fear in an online school. The student is not left to do the work by himself or on his own schedule. Each student is assigned a tutor and a grader. Though these tutors and graders are responsible for many more students than in an actual school (in order to keep costs down, as this is a for-profit venture, by the way) the systems Edison put into place makes it easy for them to chart the students’ progress and check in with them periodically. It would seem that a student would not feel alone, left wandering in school cyber-space, but could sense that someone was watching his progress and hopefully encouraging him as well.
Since it is an online environment the designers added materials and challenges that lend themselves to the medium. There are games that the students can play to test their knowledge. Discussion rooms where students can chat about assignments. Perhaps most effective, there is an element of choice so the students can choose the path of learning that works best for them. Their tutor will help them to choose whether they want to study one subject at a time or many, and the rate at which they will do so. It is much better than in brick and mortar schools, were one is forced to deal with the material presented in the order the teacher chooses.
The innovations in online learning are impressive and carry some real value that would be excellent to add to our current schools. Of course there is an important limitation. There will never be a replacement for the social lessons provided by a school culture. Edison did have a solution for the social dilemma as well, saying that they organize field trips for the online students. But here we did see behind the curtain a bit. They cannot organize many field trips because they are not cost effective and for Edison, as much as they value education, there is always a bottom line.
As you know from my previous posts, I highly value “real world’ experience and the relationships formed in school are no different. I would posit that chat rooms and such cannot be a worthy replacement. Though I wonder if any students today value texting and online chat more highly than their day to day experience? That might be an interesting idea for further study, especially for us here at mediaconnectingcommunities…

An exciting day in class!

mediaconnectingcommunities — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 04:07:08 +0000

Today my classmates presented innovative digital strategies for aiding marginalized people throughout the world. There were mobile phone companies teaching English, research websites dedicated to preserving vanishing cultures, organizations helping the elderly use new technologies and many more. I am going to detail some of the projects that I found to be the most interesting and successful.

First of all, kudos to Jacob Klein for his thoughtful and well produced movie exploring a few projects that are trying to aid the Palestinian-Isreali peace process. He showed us Peacemaker, a web game in which you pick whether to be the Palestinian or Israeli leader and play the game in order to bring (virtual) peace between the two nations. It uses real events from history to challenge you, and gauges your response. I had to wonder how it was able to determine what would be the correct steps toward peace, but soon realized that was not the point. If you engage people in thinking about the peace process, you have done a good thing. Jacob’s movie also talked about an innovative web-series that details life in two small cities, Gaza (Palestine) and Sderot (Israel). I liked this project because it took an interesting strategy in bringing people together; showing the small details in their lives that they share in common. Perhaps not the exact same experiences, but demonstrating that we are all people living our lives, trying to feed our children, enjoying the weather, going through the paces of everyday life. I especially liked how Jacob’s movie described and interpreted the graphical interface of the site, which I agreed was very innovative and helpful to the results they were trying to achieve.
Mike Mellenthin presented a very innovative solution that on its face would seem to be totally out of place. He told us about 3dLO, a virtual reality architecture program from www.naledi3d.com that allows persons in rural Africa to design buildings and tools in order to better the functionality of the objects they use everyday. It seemed such a disconnect, for African farmers to be using fancy virtual reality software to improve their rudimentary outhouses and plows, but the genius was in the execution. When groups of men would gather to interact with the software, they would end up interacting with each other and sharing innovations that they had done to their own real life tools. They were sharing improvements that they had not shared with each other before. This idea really appeals to me, as a critic of social media and someone wary of its effects. Using the computer to bring people together for real world communication, that is good work in my book.
Lastly, the projects that Ashley and Amrita presented to us, mobile phone companies using their platform to teach rural Indian people how to speak English, were interesting and thought provoking. The companies were employing games and teaching curricula sent through the phones so people could learn on their own or to supplement the teaching that they were (or weren’t) getting in school. A valuable enterprise, and it seemed to be having some success. But there were some questions raised. It seemed that these projects might not be totally altruistic. Users had to buy their phones, and buy the programs. They would have to purchase their airtime from the company. If social advancement projects profit their creators, through earnings or access to audience, are they just as beneficial? Or slightly devious? We ran out of time in the class, because there were so many great projects to review, and we have run out of time here, at mediaconnectingcommunities. Fodder for thought, until next time.

Get in the Zone! (The Zone of Proximal Development)

mediaconnectingcommunities — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:07:15 +0000

Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? The ZPD is a description of the knowledge that exists within a group. If you take the knowledge and skills of the most expert group member, and subtract the knowledge of the most novice in the group, bang, you’ve got the Zone! Wikipedia states it a bit differently, in that the ZPD refers to an individual’s difference between what she can learn by herself and with the amount of learning that she will accomplish through collaboration. Coupled together, these definitions explain pretty well what the ZPD is. So what can we do with this Zone? We can use the ZPD to construct curriculum, and to aid in learning.

The first order of business would be to make sure the task that the group is working on be a “group workable” task. Some ideas or challenges are best left to the individual to learn or figure out. I say this, but am having trouble coming up with an example… perhaps something that requires kinesthetic learning? One could have lots of helpers and expert divers giving you tips on how to dive, or flip, but until you get the feeling in your body, or the bravery to go for it, you will have lots of trouble executing the Triple Lindy. In another case, maybe the learners all have the same knowledge, so the ZPD is small, and the learning they can do from one another is minimal.
If you can identify a group with a large ZPD, then your challenge is to create a task in which success is most likely if the participants are working as a group. A great example of this is the Jasper Woodbury series. Using videodiscs (it was the early ’90′s), fifth grade students were presented with stories involving some mathematical challenge, and they must use the information presented in the videos to come up with the solution. This is a great “group workable” exercise. Certain students may be better at math and can help move their group along, and thereby teach other students valuable math concepts. But a different student will be able to help the group find the clues presented in the story. By working together, they can be sure not to mix up information, which might occur with an individual who would not be as aware of mistakes he might be making. Not only might the ZPD be large in a group concerning math knowledge, but it may be wide as well, and so the students have a chance to learn other concepts and skills from one another. You’ve done it again, Jasper!

The ZPD is a large component of constructivist learning theory, which states that people have innate knowledge and we constantly reference back to it as we build our understanding of the world. Certainly seems to make sense, that learning is a process. One of my favorite results of this learning theory is a somewhat more recent theory proposed by Seymor Papert, constructionism. Papert writes that the principles of constructivism work best when a learner is designing, or working closely with something external from himself. If you design a computer program, by doing so you will gain extreme knowledge of computer programming, and dare i say metacognition? A brilliant learning theory, and one i plan to employ here at school.

Motivation=Education?

mediaconnectingcommunities — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 04:50:48 +0000

Let me start this blog post with a resolution-I resolve to make my blog posts directly after my “Web Based Learning Technologies” class on Tuesdays. Last week’s class was very stimulating and many thoughts were percolating in my head as I walked home. But now, on Sunday, after a day of hikes and another Indianapolis Colts win, the ideas I was so excited to explore are now the sediment in the bottom of the mug that is my brain. But I will look over my notes and try to get back in the zone…
We began the class with a quote from Micheal Kirst, essentially saying he does not like traveling to conferences, and loves blogging so he can get his message out to just those who are interested. He does make a point, in that only interested people will come to his site and there they can engage in fruitful discussion, and I suppose not everyone likes to travel, but he shows some real shortsightedness. How do we learn, if not from others? The most important thing we can learn is the differences and similarities between one another. We are quickly becoming a nation of shut-ins, making all of our connections on the computer, collecting “friends” and making posts about our lives, rather than living them. One might wonder how a blog entitled “Media Connecting Communities” can make such a proclamation? I believe there is a difference between the light, almost ethereal media that a Twitter (or dare I say blog?) post claims to be, as compared to a movie, picture or song that the creator spent time and energy creating, attempting to show her world view and the reality within. I am careful in positing such an idea, because there are many ideas expressed on the internet that might have no other outlet, and this should be celebrated. I only wish to say that the real world, with its trees, animals, and humans is more rich with opportunity for learning than the computer in your living room.

The idea of “webinars” is getting closer to bridging the gap between virtual reality and the “real world”. I have never personally taken part in a webinar, but I would be interested to hear from all of my readers what their experience with the technology has been. Do you interact with the other “attendees”? Is the exchange of ideas free flowing, and from all participants? Is lunch served? Even more exciting, in terms of educating, or at least disseminating information, are “mobinars” (essentially webinars you can attend with your mobile device). This technology is exciting because as we learned in class, there are 4 BILLION mobile users (though only a third of them have internet access at the moment), and 60,00 new subscribers every hour. Professor Kim postulated that mobile technology may be the greatest equalizing force ever in history of mankind! If this were true, I would entertain letting go of my old world ideas that human to human interaction is the best way to communicate. With this many people in the world “connected”, the possibilities for education and other human benefits is astounding.

So if we could reach so many people in the world, what would we teach them? Using his example of the “1001 Stories” contest, Professor Kim proposed motivation as universally educational. An intriguing idea, and one I wrestled with the rest of the evening. But eventually I came to this question-what if the society and its institutions that one is in is so broken that no amount of motivation could free you? Even in America, “land of the free”, one could argue that an inner city youth have such an small opportunity for advancement that it may be impossible. Now what about other countries, where the economy is so broken, and the political climate so stifling? Motivation might not be enough in a place like this to allow for advancement, or even education. So in said country, if given the chance, what would you teach? Instead of percolating, I am going to get a French Press, and get back to you this Tuesday.

Here is an example of media connecting communities-

mediaconnectingcommunities — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:54:46 +0000

This radio piece comes from Red Hook, Brooklyn, from a youth led community radio station, RHI Radio. You can hear more pieces made by these talented youth at www.rhicenter.org/rhiradio. It is a perfect example of media bringing diverse elements of a community together.

Seventy percent of Red Hook’s residents live in public housing. Between the Red Hook Houses and the waterfront are approximately four blocks of small houses and apartment buildings in which most of the area’s middle class white residents live, the housing projects being mostly African American and Latino. There is not much interaction between the residents of these two areas and few places where they come together. The two sections of the neighborhood have very different needs and issues.

At the meeting detailed in the radio piece there were very few residents of the housing projects and the creators of the piece were some of the few minorities in the auditorium. In fact, prior to attending the meeting the youth had no idea of the issues surrounding the waterfront. Few of them knew exactly where the piers in question were, though they lived within a quarter mile of them most of their lives. On the surface it would seem that issues surrounding the waterfront mainly affect homeowners in the area and their real estate prices, but there are other effects to the community as a whole. Asthma rates are high in the area, due to the pollutants coming from ship’s smokestacks and the trucks that offload the products and deliver them throughout the city. As a “working waterfront” many of the stevedores do not live in the surrounding communities and their jobs have been passed down through family connections. Though there is value in preserving their jobs and way of life, diversifying the uses of the waterfront could provide other possibilities for employment for residents of the area. All of these issues were brought to light during the meeting and the youth attending became much more interested in the development of the waterfront and saw how they held a stake in the issue.

The radio piece was then posted to the site. It was played for people who came through the Red Hook Health Initiative, a non-profit center that aids residents of the Red Hook Houses in health, employment and social issues. Many who heard the piece were surprised to hear the decision from New York’s Economic Development Council, but not surprised to be left out of the process once again.

There has not been any change to the city’s plans for the waterfront. But there has been change in those that encountered the radio piece. Many of the meeting’s attendees noticed the youth recording the meeting and interviewing the speakers. Some inquired as to what the youth were doing, and were surprised to learn about the community radio. They had not known about the non-profit that sponsored the radio station, and were happy to know that there was good work being done there. The youth who made the piece were proud of their work and their contribution to the neighborhood. Likewise housing development residents that heard the piece were proud of their friends and neighbors for getting out there and getting involved with issues of the community. It did not matter whether they felt that the issue being discussed affected them personally. Seeing others getting involved and sharing their findings made them feel connected and created a desire to get involved as well.

Using media, whether it be video, radio, websites, music or otherwise is a powerful way to share ideas and inspire others. If there is no place to gather and not a community where activism is part of the identity, media is a gentle way to move people to action. Information is disseminated, experiences are shared, and interaction is motivated. We will explore this rich area more here at this blog. Come join us!