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Monday, March 31, 2014

Mental Wonderland: Inspiring Hope & Greatness




Before you scratch your head in perplexity, let me say this, "Give this video a chance!"

SEE. THINK. WONDER (Project Zero at Harvard Graduate School of Education).

Two singers rendering a foreign language song can be helpful as an instructional strategy? Yes, please give yourself permission to wonder (three words I'm borrowing from Philip Yenawine's book (2013) which my colleague Enoch Hale highlighted to me). Also, part of the effortful joy of learning new things involves the deployment of grit (Angela L. Duckworth, U Penn, has been conducting studies on grit), "the tendency to sustain interest in and effort toward very long-term goals" (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007, cited in The Duckworth Lab, University of Pennsylvania website, 2014).

Tell me what you see-think-wonder when you get some downtime to watch this lovely video. There will be different interpretations. For me, I've been watching this for months and here's an attempt at articulating my mental wonderland, briefly.

I had a powerful visceral reaction. I see two talented singers making beautiful music. I connected deeply with the way they emote the lyrical content. It doesn't matter that I couldn't understand what they were singing initially. Just google and you'll retrieve the lyrics and translation in less than a second (see link further down this post). This video demonstrates magnificently how non-verbal language (gestures, facial expression and tone of voice) can communicate ideas in a compelling way even when the verbal language is unfamiliar to us. The ability to take any topic and convey the the heart and emotions behind it with such intensity and delicacy is the mark of a skilled artist and communicator. And that these singers are.

In a class, I can envisage using this video to stimulate conversation and provoke students into exercising various thinking moves (Ritchart, 2002). Teaching about diversity, multiple modes of knowledge representation etc... This video is a tool with numerous thinking-rich possibilities. I also chuckle imagining how students will react when the lyrics are unveiled (see below)!

I think about a previous part of my professional life where I sang, produced and directed plays. I taught for many years in Singapore. I want to inspire hope and greatness again, something Eric Jensen wrote in response to Larry Ferlazzo's question about teaching. I want to work like that, live like that and ignite students with that. That passion.

I wonder what that pursuit might entail. For sure, there are a few major challenges. But I wasn't brought up to quit when daunted. I was raised to be Filiae Melioris Aevi in a crucible of excellence. (Loyalty to one's alma mater cannot be faulted surely!) Education fulfilled its promise in my life. How can I make that happen for other students?

For a long time, I've been ruminating over two big projects close to my heart. Staging my dissertation and publishing the narratives my participants entrusted to me. I've sat on these 2 projects for 9 months now. It is time to be a good stewardess of those stories my participants have shared with me in the hope that their voices will be heard. I will have to find ways to flesh out that trust.

Lyrics to song with English translation. What do you think they were singing about? :) Were you surprised when you finally found out???

References

Ferlazzo, L. (March 24, 2014). Response: Great teachers focus on connections and relationships [blog]. Retrieved from http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/classroom_qa_with_larry_ferlazzo/2014/03/response_teachers_must_connect_learning_to_students_lives.html

Pausini, L. & Fabian, L. (2005). La Solitudine [YouTube video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR0eXZQD10g 

University of Pennsylvania, The Duckworth Lab. (2014). Research Statement [webpage]. Retrieved from https://sites.sas.upenn.edu/duckworth/pages/research

Friday, March 28, 2014

The "Proper" Artwork in Office Space

Is an office setting an appropriate place to hang nude artwork? I've been asked by a colleague why I don't hang my own artwork in the office -- I do have a few pieces up. I didn't answer him directly because I've done mostly figure drawings of nude models. I hesitate to hang any of these pieces in my office.

The question surfaced again, today. Someone stopped by my office and looked around my office environs. He asked if I was an artist. I am not a trained artist but I would say I am one. As a designer, I'm an artist. As a hobbyist, art in various forms is my delight. The conversation turned to art pieces and what I'd done. I gave a quick sweep to the two framed figure gestures I had propped on my desk.

"I don't have more up because some of them are figure drawings that might offend some people if I have them in my office," I said. "Do you think it's OK to hang them in my office?"

"Well, I didn't even notice them when I came in."

Suffice to say, I didn't get a direct answer to my question despite some more chatter about it. It is a touchy one. I wondered if I had posed an uncomfortable question to my office visitor. I came home, thought about the question and wondered about the implications of posing that question. Lightweight research reveals these findings:

1. An Admissions Office in a university had refused to hang such an art piece. 

2. It appears to be a controversial issue. At first glance, it seems to divide the art folks from the non-art folks. By that, I don't mean to marginalize or be divisive. I regard nude artwork as tasteful because of my own frame of reference. But other people might be offended because uncovering the human body in public is alien to most cultures, including mine.

3. There is no right answer. It depends. The question raises more questions about difference -- respect for difference in upbringing, definitions about what is considered beautiful, artistic, tasteful, degrees of realism in the nude artwork (the more realistic, the more uncomfortable some folks might be when confronted in public about it), sensitization to the nude human form (are the models in the nude or "naked"), some people's pretentiousness, etc.

I had asked a question that challenged an individual to think about his/her assumptions. It is provocative I admit. But people's response to whether it is OK to hang a nude artwork in a higher ed office setting that doesn't have high traffic volume helps me to learn quite a bit more about the respondent in a short time. And it is not information that puts anyone down.

P.S. I'd add that sometimes, we need to deploy some humor when confronted with these sorts of questions. 

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Desiring to Learn is Not Enough by Itself

I've enrolled in numerous MOOCs and finished just one -- so far. I think I may have found another that I will complete: UQx: Think 101x The Science of Everyday Thinking. Up to 80,000 people are taking part in this MOOC run by the University of Queensland.

It's Week 2 -- the instructors organize the units into Episodes -- and I've completed all assignments (except one) in Episode 2, on the very day it was made available. I'm astounded by my effort. What is it about this MOOC that has me working so diligently?

Here's a reflective mindmap:


I have quite decided that four factors have probably helped make this MOOC a winner with me.

1. Affect.
There are many open-access courses and MOOCs available from several major players. Among those that I've been interested in, I've always tried to complete required readings, videos and quizzes. I typically drop out after 2 or 3 weeks despite the best of efforts and interest in the MOOC topic. The desire to learn alone did not see me through to completion. Yet there is something different about this course. There are interesting stories to hear. The content videos are not boring videos of talking heads. Nor do they last longer than 7-odd minutes. Phew! Authenticity and emotional engagement score.

2. Course Design.
I've mentioned the well-crafted content and reflective videos. Besides an understanding of user attention, the videos are filmed as conversations. People are talking to each other like in real life.

There are no long "required" chapters to read. I could "learn more" or "learn even more." Words matter.

3. Platform Design.
Hands down, EdX is one of my two favorite MOOC platforms so far -- the other is Stanford's NovoEd platform where I completed the Crash Creativity course. There are drawbacks to EdX (e.g. close-captioning is beside the video instead of being layered over the video), but the interface is clean. I like simplicity.

4. Content.
 Needless to say, how the mind works is one area that fascinates me. The course instructors have asked some provocative questions and revealed a bit of the findings. Apparently, 84 percent of some thousands of people believe that there are traditional and non-traditional health practices that are not being explored because pharmaceutical companies or scientists shun them (UQx course info, 2014).

Also, here are participant responses on what they think about, in one word:
On-campus participants took part in a survey like us and were filmed (and hence seen) in a short segment. I'm curious as to how this on-campus segment is going to run throughout the course.

Notice I've ranked content last because that alone does not see me till the end, always. 

To-Be-Improved

I believe we are always tweaking courses as they are being implemented. I hope they do something about the Courseware discussion board. It's a one-column design; it's not easy to interact with others when you can't read their postings unless you scroll up and down frequently. This is why interaction with peers hasn't contributed to my learning engagement as yet. In addition, we need a Twitter hashtag, not just a course Twitter account.

March 14, 2014: To clarify, there is a separate tab or section for Discussion where the discussion board has a different interface. It has two columns for easier interaction -- for reading and sorting of comments.

Still, I can't wait for Episode 3!

Monday, March 3, 2014

3D Browser

"... the prototype allows Web pages to display content across multiple surfaces in a room." Educational implications?