Thursday, August 28, 2014

august 28-29

Please follow Mrs. Elisan's lead.  I'll be back on Tuesday and we will reboot.  Apparently we have a lot to learn.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

august 27

Hey!  I forgot to post the agenda yesterday.  Hope everyone continued their work from Monday and that you're all catching up.  There are some truly wonderful comments, literature analysis books, and Big Questions appearing on the course blog. 

If you haven't yet sent me your blog URL and/or begun posting to the course blog, please prepare a hard copy portfolio that I can collect when I see you next Monday.  The first grading period will end before you know it.

Here are journal topics for yesterday (August 26) and today.  Please continue completing the work that's already on your plate.  If you've finished all the assignments including Literature Analysis #1, please review "Young Goodman Brown," "White Buffalo Calf Woman," and the piece about the author watching someone read his book.  Tomorrow or Friday I'll post the prompt for a comparative essay.

Journal Topic: (August 26)
Please reflect on your independent work process.  Are you getting stuff done?  What about your working environment is helping you achieve?  What's holding you back?  What are you going to do next in order to succeed?

Journal Topic: (August 27)
When we read we make connections between the text and what we already know.  Sometimes we find ourselves surprised when a book calls to mind an old memory we haven't thought about in a long time.  What are your earliest memories?  What makes some things impossible to remember and other things impossible to forget?

Monday, August 25, 2014

hack to school night













(my t-shirt from OSCON)
 
To be clear: the word hack has been associated with definitions ("sharp cough, "cut with unskillful blows," & "illegal/unauthorized computer access," e.g.) that do not describe what we do.

We make connections and facilitate conversations that help people learn.   We build, evaluate and modify things to make them work better.

You know how they say, "[So'n'so] just can't hack it?" Well, we can.

So, at Back-- er, Hack to School night, we are at it again. Get here whenever you can. Bring whoever you want. Offer them the benefit of what you know and find a way to learn from them too. Share new ideas about technology and how you can use it to get ahead in life.

Here is the program:
1. Learner-led conference (see below)
2. Periodic "Intro to Digital Life" presentations
3. Sign-ups for "friend of the course" events and "digital drop-in" nights

Here is the process:
1. Think about these questions and your answers to them;
2. Bring an interested adult to Hack to School Night;
3. Have them ask you these questions, be suitably brilliant in your replies, and demand that they take notes so that you know they're paying attention;
4. Turn in their notes to me, get your extra credit, listen to me brag about you briefly;
5. Go home and finish your homework.

Here are the questions:

student led conference script

august 25

The first couple weeks of this course were a mad dash.  Since I'm off campus this week, it's a good time to slow down a little and cross some things off our lists.  Please take a moment to reflect on those things you started but haven't finished, and those things you haven't started yet, and make a list of what you need to accomplish this week in order to get caught up.  Feel free to comment to this post with your list.  Your exit ticket today, which you are required to hand to the substitute before you leave, is your list with a status report on each item.  In other words, once you figured out what you needed to do, did you use the 50 minutes to do it?

JOURNAL TOPIC:
What do you need to do in order to catch up?  Here are a few possibilities (if we talked about something Friday that I forgot to mention, please add it in the comments:

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Get up to date

HW:
1. Document how well you achieved your catch-up goals.

young goodman brown questions

Please answer the following questions in a post on your blog entitled,
YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN: Q & A

(questions after the jump)

Saturday, August 23, 2014

thanks for feedback on "learning networks"

Thanks to everyone for your observations and questions yesterday-- I'm grateful to be in your network!  Below is the Prezi, please feel free to peruse and add any comments.  Mark's contact information is included, so if you're interested in Cal Poly, architecture, or in collaborating with his students this coming winter & spring, please feel free to drop him a line.  I'll be online all week, see you in person a week from Monday!


Friday, August 22, 2014

august 22

JOURNAL TOPIC: [today's tunes: "You Talk Too Much" by Run-D.M.C.; "Communication Breakdown" by Led Zeppelin]

So many phrases say the same thing: Talk is cheap. A picture's worth a thousand words. It's not what you said, it's how you said it. Since words are so easy to create we tend to mistrust them. We use our intuition to "read between the lines" and determine what someone really means.  Describe how we listen, read, and learn without depending on words.

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Discuss Paul Auster piece
2.5 Vocabulary
3. Introduction: Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown"
4. Guest speaker: Cal Poly Architecture Professor Mark Cabrinha

 HW:
1. Read "Young Goodman Brown" and post to your blog (title: YOUNG GOODMAN BROWN) with first impressions and at least three questions/observations.
2. In a comment to the vocabulary: fall list #2 post, please suggest vocabulary words from the story for next week's list.  Choose the words that will help you understand the story most.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

august 21

***Since Preston's off-campus today, please use your time to catch up.  
Here's a list of possibilities.***

  • Journal topics
  • Course blog/email Preston URL/Twitter
  • Comment to "Will this blog see tomorrow?" and "Big Question" posts on course blog
  • Comment to "Literature Analysis #1 sign-up" 
  • Read your Literature Analysis #1 book if you have it
  • Read the text from last night's homework and comment to August 20 post
  • Post to your course blog with Reflections from Week 1
  • Post to your course blog about the "Right to Your Opinion"
  • Design and post to your course blog to make it awesome/r
  • [What am I forgetting? If you can think of something please comment to this post.]


Wednesday, August 20, 2014

literature analysis #1 sign-up (period 7)

Please comment to this post with the book and author you chose.  Mahalo.

literature analysis #1 sign-up (period 3)

Please comment to this post with the book and author you chose.  Mahalo.

august 20

JOURNAL TOPIC: [today's tunes: "Wankatakiya" and "It Is a Good Day" by Spirit Nation]

Since the words of these songs are unfamiliar, just listen to them as part of the music for now.  It's a good time to think about tone and moodTone is the author's attitude toward the characters, the subject, and/or the audience.  Mood is the emotional state of the reader.  How would you describe the tone and mood of these songs?  How would you describe the tone and mood of White Buffalo Calf Woman?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Recap: diction, syntax, blog audit, your opinion
3. Literary elements in White Buffalo Calf Woman
4. Introduction to Literature Analysis
5. Vocabulary quiz

HW:
1. Choose a novel for your first Literature Analysis (the class is depending on you :)
2. Please read the following text, comment to this post with any first impressions, and come to class Friday prepared to discuss:


auster reading

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

learning is our living bridge

I used to think learning was an individual capacity that each of us builds for our own purposes-- now I see it as something bigger, something we all participate in and steward for the next generation.


At the end of the commentary on "White Buffalo Calf Woman," after a white buffalo calf is born on the Lakota Reservation in apparent fulfillment of her prophecies, Chief Joseph Chasing Horse characterizes the event as an omen of home and optimism.  In his words:


"Mention that we are praying, many of the medicine people, the spiritual leaders, the elders, are praying for the world," says Joseph Chasing Horse. "We are praying that mankind does wake up and think about the future, for we haven't just inherited this earth from our ancestors, but we are borrowing it from our unborn children."


  

august 19

JOURNAL TOPIC: [today's tunes: "The Logical Song" by Supertramp; "Argument" by Monty Python; "Think" by James Brown]

Why do people argue?  What factors should determine who wins an argument?  Describe a time when you won or lost an argument.  Did the experience change your mind?  If it did, why?  If it didn't, what would have?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Old Business:
  • "The Right to Your Opinion"
  • "Richard Cory"
3. New Business:
  • Literature analysis
  • Vocabulary review
  • Mini-Socratic seminar: "The Right to Your Opinion" (featuring an introduction to rhetoric & early American literature)
HW:
1. Recover: bring your blog up to date.
2. Reflect: post your notes from today's class to your blog.
3. Prepare: for Friday's vocabulary test (>15 minutes each day).
4. "White Buffalo Calf Woman"
  • In a post to your blog entitled ANCIENT STORIES, answer the following questions:
    • How is the language in these texts similar to and/or different from the language you use in everyday conversation?
    • Because it began as an oral story, "White Buffalo Calf Woman" can be found in multiple text versions.  How important is it for a story to be repeated word for word?  Is meaning embellished, distorted, lost, or enhanced in the retelling?
    • [BONUS] Find your own early (pre-writing/1492) American myth and compare it to "White Woman Buffalo Calf Woman"-- come to class Tuesday prepared to discuss.

Monday, August 18, 2014

august 18

JOURNAL TOPIC: (today's tunes: "Learning to Fly" performed by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, and "Learning to Fly" performed by Pink Floyd)

What did you learn in this class last week?


AGENDA:
**COURSE BLOG AUDIT/SET AGENDA
1. Journals
2. Observations on Week 1/feedback on journals & assignments so far
3. Vocabulary
4. Poetry
5. Review "The Right to Your Own Opinion"
5. Creation myths and the beginnings of American literature

HW:
1. Read "White Buffalo Calf Woman" and this commentary on the story
2. In a post to your blog entitled ANCIENT STORIES, answer the following questions:
  • How is the language in these texts similar to and/or different from the language you use in everyday conversation?
  • Because it began as an oral story, "White Buffalo Calf Woman" can be found in multiple text versions.  How important is it for a story to be repeated word for word?  Is meaning embellished, distorted, lost, or enhanced in the retelling?
  • [BONUS] Find your own early (pre-writing/1492) American myth and compare it to "White Woman Buffalo Calf Woman"-- come to class Tuesday prepared to discuss.
2. Now that you've had a chance to use some digital tools and think about how we'll use them, answer the following questions in a post on your blog entitled REFLECTIONS ON WEEK 1
  1. Are there any factors that you think are going to affect your participation or experience in this class? (Access to a computer, cell phone, transportation? Family that can help or hassle? Friends that can help or hassle? Scheduling factors that can help or hassle?) 
  2. Think of an awesome (or the best ever) learning experience (or an experience where you changed) What was it you learned?  Where were you? What happened? Who else was there? Did it teach you anything about how you learn (or pay attention... or think?) How did you know what was happening? 
  3. What are you most [excited/concerned] about in this class? What do you look forward to in learning?  How do you think it can/will make a practical difference in your life?

vocabulary: fall list #1

Quiz Friday, August 22.

adumbrate
apotheosis
ascetic
bauble
beguile
burgeon
complement
contumacious
curmudgeon
didactic

fox in sox deadline extended

Some of you did a wonderful job reading Fox in Sox.  I'm extending the deadline: you have until the end of the day on August 31 to post your video.  Mahalo.


Friday, August 15, 2014

august 15

JOURNAL TOPIC: [today's tunes: "Little Know It All" by Iggy Pop and "Words (Between the Lines of Age)" by Neil Young]

Consider the following image (courtesy of the fine folks at BoingBoing). What issues/problems/challenges in your life once seemed HUGE but got smaller as you gained a greater perspective on things--as you learned? As you reflect, step back and "watch" yourself go through the process of remembering; how does the way you tell yourself the story reinforce ideas and feelings: how does it teach you? [Update: Watching students, re-reading this and thinking the topic needs more seasoning: a) How does gaining a greater perspective motivate you to make the world a better place; and b) when is it appropriate to use words that have an emotionally cathartic effect?


















AGENDA:
1. Journal/turn in
2."Richard Cory"
3. Socratic seminar: "The Right to Your Opinion"
  • What is a right?  What obligation/s do entitlements create?
  • How does asserting the right to an opinion affect the search for truth?
  • In 2 weeks when I'm in London, if I watch another American look the wrong way for traffic and step off the curb, does his right to an opinion mean I'm obligated to watch him die? 
4. Q&A re: catching up over the weekend: blog, Twitter, assignments, prep, etc.

HW:
1. Launch your blog and email the link to dpreston.learning@gmail.com
2. Create your Twitter account and follow @prestonlearning
3. Catch up on posts and comments.
4. If you aced "Richard Cory" you get to pick our next readings. Have a look at these sites-- Native American Culture, Native American Myths of Creation, and American Folklore-- and then do your own research to find other sources that may have better choices. Identify your top 3-5 and comment to this post or email to dpreston.learning@gmail.com.
5. If you did not ace "Richard Cory" (or you weren't called on, in which case you should be ready Monday :) you can go double-or-nothing. Get two As--and mad respect-- by reciting Jimmy Santiago Baca's "Immigrants in Our Own Land" as soon as you're ready. This is a poem we'll all get to in Spring; if you learn it now you can teach it then.  I will also be inviting Jimmy Santiago Baca to join us, so if you know the poem you can be the expert.
4. Think about the week in this class. Reflect on where you felt strong and where you felt like "[gulp]." Think of something you need to work on and change. Think of ways your colleagues and I can help. Post these ideas to your blog. I'll plan to read by 8:30 Sunday evening.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

treasure hunt

Think you know your classmates?  See if you can find the people who described themselves this way:

(Period 3)
  1. I've been an model, actor, and rapper
  2. I have a fear of helicopters
  3. I like animating
  4. I hate scorpions and snakes (2)
  5. I love Chelsea FC & Guadalajara
  6. I hate worms
  7. I got run over by a car in Mexico
  8. I hate seagulls
  9. I'm terrified of bees
  10. I have anger issues
  11. I hate feet
  12. I love learning new languages
  13. I am ticklish everywhere
  14. I make my bed after I get home from school
  15. I hate cats
  16. I build computers
(Period 7)
  1. I don't like it when people don't wear socks; I have "feet phobia"
  2. I used to live in LA
  3. I love Pomsky dogs
  4. I was born in El Salvador and came to the U.S. three years ago
  5. I am an actress who does ju-jitsu
  6. I'm picky about who touches my stuff (Which brings this clip to mind. -Ed. *NOTE: the coarse reference in the clip is designed as satire of ignorance; it is not intended by the movie's creators or by inclusion here to be insulting or offensive.)
  7. I don't like wearing short-sleeve shirts
  8. I color code the shirts in my closet
  9. I love to sing and write music, and I have a baby [brother or sister] on the way
  10. I met a professional author and I'm going to ask him to help me write a book
  11. I hate sharks
  12. I do MMA and I've been fighting since I was 3 1/2
  13. I cut hair
  14. I have 5 sisters, 5 nieces, 3 nephews, 7 chickens, 1 cat, 2 dogs, and 2 goldfish

august 14

JOURNAL TOPIC: [today's tunes: Fela Kuti's "Teacher Don't Teach Me No Nonsense"]

What is your favorite music? How would you describe it to a deaf person?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. "Richard Cory" LIVE: shift, voice, theme, genre
3. Treasure hunt

HW:
1. For tomorrow: "The Right to Your Opinion" and "Richard Cory"

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

"i never learned to read!"

You know, as much as we talk about reading, it's easy to overlook the fact that some of us didn't grow up with books and occasionally have a hard time with the basics.

Consider poor Wayne:




So, how do you know how well you can sound out words and get through a text without mistakes?

Here's how:
1. Watch the video below;
2. Get a copy of Fox in Sox by Dr. Seuss;
3. Set up a phone or a camera (or get a friend to help);
4. Read the book as fast and as well as you can;
5. Record your time and the number of mistakes you make;
6. Compare your numbers with mine.  Don't forget to count my mistakes--I just learned that I've been mispronouncing the author's name my whole life!
7. Post your video and your stats on your blog under the heading I CAN READ!

UPDATE: In reply to questions from the email bag...
  • If you're having trouble finding the book, here is the text without the pics. 
  • My reading was a one-take job, but yours doesn't have to be.  You can practice all you want before posting your best effort.
  • To earn course credit you must post I CAN READ! by 11:59 P.M. Sunday, August 17. (Bonus for add'l. renditions with friends/relatives :)


Tuesday, August 12, 2014

big questions

Our minds are naturally inclined toward associative and interdisciplinary thinking.  We connect the dots in all sorts of ways, often when we don't fully comprehend the experience (and sometimes when there aren't even any dots).  

We have questions about the nature of the world: our experience of it, our place in it, our relationship to it, what lies beyond it, and everything else.  When we're young we ask questions all the time.  We are insatiably curious.  It's like somehow we intuitively understand that the more we learn the better we get at everything--including learning.  We don't worry about curricular units or standards.  We have no test anxiety.  We test ourselves all the time.  We love risk and we don't care if we fail.  It's always somebody else who's saying, "Hey, come down from there, you're going to get hurt!"* [*Often, they're right.  In any case they're probably more experienced in estimating the odds of that was fun didn't hurt vs. itchy leg cast for a month outcomes.  But sometimes you just KNOW you can do it and it's frustrating to be told you can't.  Pushing the edge is what learning is all about.** {**As a teacher/responsible adult I must explicitly remind you to do this (i.e., learn/push the edge/create new neural pathways in your brain that actually change your mind) in ways that will not break laws or harm any sentient beings-- most especially you-- or offend, irritate, annoy, upset, or anger your parents.***} <***If you think this is a lot of footnotes, or whatever we're calling the blogger's equivalent, you should read David Foster Wallace (especially Infinite Jest).  In fact, this is the perfect time for you to consider his commencement speech (which doesn't contain footnotes, but does contain the sort of wisdom that more people should hear while there's still time to do something about it.).  At any rate, if you're still following this sentence you'll do fine in this course.>}]  Not only do we love climbing learning limbs when we're young, we know it's what we're best at.  Most of us learn whole languages best between the ages of 5-12.  Our amazing brains manage the torrential inflow by creating schema

We have every incentive to accelerate and amplify our learning as we age.  Our future is increasingly complex and uncertain.  Our culture and economy favor those in the know.  Learning is increasingly your responsibility as individuals.  You're becoming more independent; in about a year you'll be heading off to college, where your professors may not know you exist and definitely won't care how you organize your binder.  As if all that isn't motivation enough for you to get your learning on, it turns out that not learning may actually be bad for you.  We form new neurons and connections in our brains when we learn.  Scientists are investigating whether the lack of new neuron formation is a cause for depression or an interfering factor in recovery.

When it comes to thinking for yourself in the traditional high school setting, though, there are constraints.  Inquiry that doesn't "fit" in the classroom is too often seen as insubordinate.   By definition, individualism and divergent thinking don't regress to the mean or conform to a one-size-fits-all syllabus.  We will have to find ways to gracefully lose arguments and compromise.  In addition, a culture of fear of punishment or embarrassment can lead the smartest and most successful learners to surrender and play the game.  When this happens, motivated learning in the presence of no opportunity dies the same death as a fire in the presence of no oxygen.  The authors of "The Creativity Crisis" say we ask about 100 questions a day as preschoolers.  We quit asking questions altogether by middle school. 

In his book Orbiting the Giant Hairball, Gordon MacKenzie describes visiting schools to show students how artists sculpt steel into animals:

“I always began with the same introduction: ‘Hi My name is Gordon MacKenzie and, among other things, I am an artist... How many of you are artists?’
The pattern of responses never failed.
First grade: En mass the children leapt from their chairs, arms waving wildly, eager hands trying to reach the ceiling.  Every child was an artist.
Second grade: About half the kids raised their hands, shoulder high, no higher.  The raised hands were still.
Third grade: At best, 10 kids out of 30 would raise a hand.  Tentatively.  Self-consciously. 
And so on up through the grades.  The higher the grade, the fewer children raised their hands.  By the time I reached sixth grade, no more than one or two did so and then only ever-so-slightly—guardedly—their eyes dancing from side to side uneasily, betraying a fear of being identified by the group as a ‘closet artist.’”  

Richard Saul Werman (the man who created the TED conference) said, "In school we’re rewarded for having the answer, not for asking a good question.”  School was designed back when things were very different and oriented around mass production; that's not the way things work any more.  You can't just prepare for a job that may not be around by the time you graduate.  It's not good enough to follow directions.  You have to be able to find your own.

In the age of the search engine, there is no real point in learning facts for their own sake, especially since so many of them eventually turn out not to be facts after all.  You have to develop the critical thinking, problem-solving, oppurtunity-seeking, and collaborative skills that will enable you to CREATE a role for yourself in the new economy.  (Don't worry.  If you're not an entrepreneur by nature or inclination these abilities will help you do whatever else you want to do more effectively.)

Our first mission is to reclaim the power of the question.  Everything you ask has an interdisciplinary answer.  Show me a cup of tea and I'll show you botany, ceramics, and the history of colonialism (for starters).  Wondering why your girlfriend doesn't love you any more?  Psychology, poetry, probability... you get the idea.  And no matter what the question or the answers, you're going to have to sort the signal from the noise and determine how best to share the sense you make.

What's your Big Question?  

What have you always wanted to know?  What are you thinking about now that you've been asked?  What answers are worth searching for-- would make a difference in your life, or in the community, or in the world?  What do you wish you could invent?  What problem do you want to solve?  This is not a trick and the only limits are those of your imagination.  Please comment to this post with your question and also please post it to your course blog (title: MY BIG QUESTION).  You can change or add to your question at any point.  If you need some inspiration, check out this year's Lit Comp Big Questions or the Class of 2013's American Lit Big Questions.

august 13

JOURNAL TOPIC: [today's tunes: "Positive Mind" by the Expendables; "Seven Nation Army" by White Stripes; "All My Life" by Foo Fighters]

There is a story about Thomas Edison in which one of his assistants said something like, "We've tried this a thousand ways and it doesn't work! We've accomplished nothing!" Edison reportedly replied, "Nonsense. We've learned a thousand ways it doesn't work." What's the moral of the story?  What is your perspective on the idea?

AGENDA:
1. Journal
2. Blog How-To
3. Realism Personified: Theme, Narrator, Voice, and Shift in "Richard Cory"
4. Lenses & Bridges: Big Questions
5. Treasure hunt


HW:
1. Reminder: "Richard Cory" questions and recitation due Friday
2. Begin reading "The Right to Your Opinion" for discussion on Friday 8/15

don't take my word for it

the right to your opinion

It's such a simple way to end an argument: "Well, I'm entitled to my opinion."

Not according to logic. As author Jamie Whyte points out, one person's entitlement creates another's obligation. Think about it: if you are entitled to cross the street safely, I am obligated to not run you over in my car. But what if you're wrong in your thinking? What if we're in London, about to cross the street, and you look the wrong way and think the coast is clear? Am I obligated to watch you step off the curb and get crushed? This will be the focus of our first Socratic seminar this Friday (8/15). Make sure to gather and evaluate solid evidence; your opinion isn't nearly as important as (the way) you think.


The Right to Your Opinion -

blog instructions


As we talked about today in class, there are multiple benefits to expressing yourselves to a wider audience.  There are also multiple challenges in adopting new media.  In the next few weeks you will learn more about privacy, security, and how the Internet and its business models actually work.  This information will enable you to take full advantage of online resources without exposing yourself to unnecessary risk or embarrassment.  In the meantime, both to avoid any confusion and to ensure that we get off to a good start, please err on the side of caution and email me at dpreston.learning@gmail.com if you have any specific questions or concerns.

Here are the instructions for building your blog:
  1. Go to blogger.com and create a blog
  2. Suggested URL for your blog: [first initial][last name][rhsenglitcomp].blogspot.com (if you feel like being original, go for it-- but if you're on the fence about something creative, lean classy/professional)
  3. Suggested title for your blog: "[first name] [last name]'s American Lit Blog"
  4. Choose your own layout and template design features.  Don't be afraid to experiment and change these as you go
  5. Once your blog is set up, please email the URL to me at dpreston.learning@gmail.com so that I can add your blog to the Member Blogs page on the main course blog.
NOTE: Don't be shy about asking others for help if you need it.

Once you've set up your blog you're ready for assignment #1.

Write 1-3 paragraphs that explain:
  • your reason(s) for taking this course;
  • what you're excited about and what makes you nervous;
  • your goal(s) for this course;
  • how you expect your knowledge and thinking to be improved by taking this course;
  • why Richard Cory would never have surprised an Open Source Learning network the way he surprised the narrator and the readers of the poem.

august 12

JOURNAL TOPIC: (today's tunes: "Move on Up" by Curtis Mayfield)

Hunter S. Thompson observed, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."  How do you respond to challenges that arise from circumstances you didn't predict?

AGENDA:
1.  To be an Open Source Learning network or not to be an Open Source Learning network?
2. Journal
3. "Richard Cory"

HW:
1. Memorize "Richard Cory"-- due in class Friday, August 15
2. Why "Richard Cory" now, when most American Lit courses start in chronological order with creation myths and Colonial Literature?  Because Robin Williams killed himself yesterday.  Please click the link & read the article by the beginning of class tomorrow (Wednesday, August 13) and come prepared to discuss how literature reflects the versions of ourselves that only we know.

richard cory

Here is the text of the poem.  Please begin memorizing it (it's short, but Friday isn't that far away, and if you struggle tonight you can get help in class tomorrow).

For more on the author/background click here.

Richard Cory
by
Edwin Arlington Robinson

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich – yes, richer than a king –
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

will this blog see tomorrow?

It's an open question.  Think about today's in-class discussion, ask yourself what you really want out of this semester, and then comment to this post with your decision and at least one reason for it.  (NOTE: As Benjamin Franklin famously observed, "We all hang together or we all hang separately." We won't move forward unless all of us participate.

I've created an approach to learning in which students use 2.0 tools to create their online identities, express themselves, and show the public what they can do. 

I call the model Open Source Learning and I define it with a mouthful: "A guided learning process that combines timeless best practices with today's tools in a way that empowers learners to create interdisciplinary paths of inquiry, communities of interest and critique, and a portfolio of knowledge capital that is directly transferable to the marketplace."

Students use Open Source Learning to create a wild variety of personal goals, Big Questions, Collaborative Working Groups, and online portfolios of work that they can use for personal curiosity, self-improvement, or as a competitive advantage in applying for jobs, scholarships, and admission to colleges and universities.  You can see a sample course blog here, some member blogs here, and sample masterpieces here and here

Several members of the first Open Source Learning cohort made this video about the experience:



In an era when it seems like all you hear about school is how much it sucks, it's nice to see student achievement make positive waves.  Check out this Open Source Learning interview with students and Howard Rheingold, the man who literally wrote the book on The Virtual Community 20 years ago. 

The defining characteristic of Open Source Learning is that there is no chief; all of us are members of a network that is constantly evolving.  Another key element is transparency.  What we learn and how well we learn it, how we respond to setbacks, and even some of our favorite inspirations and habits of mind are right out there in public for everyone to see.  Readers will rightly perceive what we curate as the best we have to offer.

And all this is Open.  In thermodynamics, an open system exchanges substance, not just light and heat.  To us, the important idea is that the network can change in composition and purpose.  Every time you meet someone new and exchange ideas, you're not only enriching each other, you're changing your minds and contributing opportunities for others to do the same.  In other words, you're learning and teaching* (*one of the most effective ways to learn).

We're not limited to one source for curriculum or instruction.  We have a full slate of online conferences scheduled this year including authors, authorities on the Internet and social media, entrepreneurs, and others.  Last year a mother/daughter team presented a lesson on class distinctions in Dickens & Dr. Seuss online (I'd post & link if I hadn't forgotten to click 'Record').  Ricky Luna invited a champion drummer to talk with students online about music and its connections to literature and life.  If we read something that makes an impression we can reach out to the author.    As you get the hang of this you'll come up with your own ideas.  Testing them will give you a better sense of how to use the experience to your greatest advantage.

No one knows how learning actually works--what IS that little voice that tells you what you should've said 15 minutes after you should've said it?  How does a subneuronal lightning storm somehow account for our experience of being conscious?  We are not sure how to account for the individual experience and demonstration of learning.  We are also not sure what exactly the individual should be learning about at a time when factoids are a search click away and the economy, the environment, and the future are all increasingly complex and uncertain.

Maybe this is why learning still seems magical.  Maybe it shouldn't be.  Maybe if we learned more about how we think we'd be better off.  After all, how we think is a powerful influence on how we act.  If you think of your blog work as a list of traditional school assignments/chores, you will treat it that way and it will show.   Your friends will miss your posts and worry that you've moved to The House Beyond the Internet-- or that you're still at your place but trapped under something heavy.  At any rate you'll be missing the whole point.  This work should help you connect the dots between the interests that drive you, an academic course that derives its title from words hardly anyone uses in casual conversation, and practical tasks like applying for scholarships and college admissions.  The general idea is for you to: do your best at something personally meaningful; learn about how you and others learn while you're in the act; and fine-tune your life accordingly.  In addition to mastering the core curriculum, improving your own mind is the highest form of success in this course of study.

As you well know (Put that phone away or I'll confiscate it!), many people are worried about the use of technology in education.  They are rightly concerned about safety, propriety, and focus: will learners benefit or will they put themselves at risk?  The only way to conclusively prove that the benefits far outweigh the risks is to establish your identities and show yourselves great, both online and in meatspace.  As we move forward you will learn how the Internet works, how you can be an effective online citizen, and how you can use 2.0 and 3.0 tools to achieve your personal and professional goals.  You'll also learn a lot about writing and the habits of mind that make readers and writers successful communicators. 

Because Open Source Learning is a team sport, this is all your call.  You have to decide if you want to pursue this new direction, or if you want to invent another possibility with or without social media, or if you prefer the familiarity of the traditional approach.  There is admittedly something comforting about the smell of an old book, even if it's a thirty-pound textbook that spent the summer in a pile of lost-and-found P.E. clothes.  My perspective may be obvious but I'm just one voice.  Please add yours with a comment below.