Family History, Public History and Digital History. Oh my!

So earlier today I tweeted that I had talked to Jeff McClurken about an idea I have for an individual study. My family is fairly interested in our family history and various members have taken the time work on genealogies, recovers photos, and record other things. For some time now I wanted to create some sort of online depository to collect memories, photos, videos or whatever to create a kind of family history. A few weeks ago I started wondering if I could possibly work this into some sort of individual study. Although I knew it didn’t seem like the typical 400-level class idea I had already had a taste of one class that was quite unusual in our department, so I thought I’d give it a chance. As a side note, have I mentioned how lucky I am to be a major in a department that has someone like Jeff as the Chair? Well, I am because he entertains my craziness and has already pointed me in the direction I need to go. Being an amateur historian I still need that guidance and I am very thankful to have it.

First things first I need to figure out the methodology I will use to tackle this project. Obviously I couldn’t do this just about my family history, there needs to be some academic rigor involved with this too. One of my first tasks will be to research literature to assist me in my project. I will have to find text on family history, public history, and digital history so I can create a bibliography for this project. I will probably be enlisting the help of UMW’s very knowledgeable reference librarian Jack Bales, who has already helped me so much in my history research. I want to find some way to weave together what was going on in my ancestors lives and what was going on in the world too. There are so many questions I want to explore I don’t even know where to begin. A big component of this project will be the structure of the actual site and more than likely I will be using Omeka (oh, how I’ve missed thee!) and with a little help from Patrick Murray-John I’m sure we will kick code butt. There will surely be many more posts on this in the future.

One of the purposes for this project is not only to create a cool site for my family but, that I will create documentation so that others can create these sort of family collections and have my site as a sort of model for those interested in doing something similar. The internet has made doing family history research so much easier and because of that people have been increasingly interested in family genealogy and tracing roots. I would hope that whatever my project turns into that it will in some way enable others to do what I did so that they too can create a place to record family history. One of the greatest joys I’ve experienced during my time at college is knowing that some of the work I have done has been beneficial to others in some way.

This is still more to say about it and I’m only at the tip of the iceberg here. But I am excited to see where this takes me and if you, my dear readers, have any suggestions about anything I’d love to hear them.

Ya Down Wit’ O-E-C? Yeah You Know Me.

There are so many reasons why I want to attend this years Open Ed Conference. There is the fact Ken Freedman is going to be a keynote (I have been a fan of WFMU for a couple years), there are also many edtech people I “know” from the internet but have never had the chance to meet and also the awesome opportunity to do a presentation with the Reverend. So what can I bring to the conference?

Well besides props and costumes for whatever crazy presentation Jim and I put together I hope to bring a student perspective on the design of openness. Now I don’t know a lot of students who attend conferences like this (I’m guessing there aren’t a ton) but, I imagine that a lot of these student perform well academically. Let me be honest, I am not a very good academic student. So not only do I feel the need to represent these students but my twisted mind also wants to prove that even those of us who aren’t academically minded can still be interested and care about open education. I think that all students can be impacted by these new ways of containing and distributing content, if only they were shown the way. If we truly believe that open education in its many forms is the future of learning and higher education we need not only faculty to participate, we need students to take hold of it too. In addition, if we believe that open education has implications far beyond the walls of educational institutions it is imperative that students (the vast majority of  whom will not work in higher ed) are able to grasp what this all means and how it can fit into their lives as (hopefully) life-long learners. I do not bring the expertise of many of those who will be in attendance, I’m only 2 years into this “world” but I believe that because I am a part of the generation of students currently in college (I refuse to use the term Net-Gen) it is important that we find our way into the conversation sooner rather than later.

Along the same lines one of the critical issues facing me around open education is how do we begin to and continue to cross the gap between edtech, faculty and especially (at least for me) students? Students all to often passively and tacitly agree that whatever the professor has them do in class through whatever medium is just fine. Most students just want to know what hoops they need to jump through whether its a paper or creating new media. The ideas of open education and the application of those ideas in tangible ways has potential to be more than just a new “tool” in the classroom. I believe it has the ability to change the way we view education and if this is to happen we need to have as many people on board as we can and in order to do this there needs to be a open conversation. At Open Ed I know I can find a group of people who care deeply about the implications of open education and are unafraid to discuss the possibilities, limitations and future of open education.

Lastly and unrelated to anything of any real importance it should be said I love spontaneous dance parties, just saying.

Critical Engagement on Both Sides

This is my third Faculty Academy (I can’t believe it!) and even in the three short years I have seen a progression and trend in thinking.

I see both professors and students thinking even more critically about the integration and intersection of technology and pedagogy. There is classroom implementation of amazing projects and idea in all disciplines and students are responding in awesome ways; it is making my head spin. There is bold experimentation, failures and successes, creativity and numerous other adjectives that can describe the work Mary Washington faculty, staff, and students are doing. This is a wonderful place to be and I feel incredibly lucky and honored I get to learn from and be a part of such a wonderful community.

It gives me great joy to see professors being so thoughtful and innovative. It gives me even greater joy to see students come to a new understanding of their learning and actually caring about it.

The Week Long Experiments

I have this strange idea in my head and I’m throwing it out there to hear what you guys think and too see if you have any ideas.

Ever since I watched the movie Hard Promises (a bad 90s romance film) I identified with the male lead, Joey, who can’t deal with doing just one thing and his wander lust takes him to jobs all over the country. I knew that was how I felt about doing jobs. I’ve always been interested in learning a mile wide and an inch deep; I always wanted to move on to the next adventure.

In order to quench my insatiable urge to learn about a wide variety of things. I am instituting for myself the week long experiments experiment. I will spend a week learning about something and learning about it through what ever methods necessary. For example what is it like to be a vegetarian? I would probably spend the week as a vegetarian and researching the history of vegetarianism and asking all sorts of other question too. Naturally I would blog during the week about my experiment. There are a myriad of possibilities here and  I want you to help me think of more ideas. Hopefully once this project gets off the ground you could also help me form my research into each subject. I would also encourage anyone who would want to participate to try it out too, the more the merrier right?

So as of right now I have a few ideas for week long experiments, but I’d love to hear from you. So leave a comment (or multiple comments!) this experiment depends on help from you guys. If everything works out I would start this project during the summer when I have a little more free time to experiment.

Here are some ideas are I have so far: Learning about photography, Buddhism, week as a mute (crazy I know), practice parkour. Again anything and everything that you think would be worth investigating or maybe something that is just wacky and would make for an interesting week.

Teach Me Meaning Making

“We’ve got information in the information age. But do we know what life is outside of our convenient lexus cages?”
-Switchfoot ‘Gone’

All of this is a plea, a desire, a timid question, and confession.

Why has it taken so long for school to teach me meaning making? The how of pulling at information and weaving it together in a deeper understanding.

I have grown up in a world that is over-flowing with information and has taught me few skills on how to filter it all. Maybe I was born at an inconvenient time, a point in history where the world is working out what it means to have almost the whole world at our fingertips.

Through years of excessive information I’ve grown an intolerance and my palate for the rich taste of knowledge has grown dull. Yes, there can be too much of a “good thing”. Even when information is served in a unique way I’m often too jaded to savor it or care. This is not intended to be an excuse or a whining cry of a “net-gen” student, but an attempt at an honest confession by one 21 year old. I’ll admit to being an under-achieving student, the bane of some professors existence and yes I do regret not working harder in some classes. I’ll also admit I often don’t care when a professor tests me on pure information, on my ability to regurgitate, because those tests are almost always easier than other options and require little engagement from me.

How do I reconcile my belief in education and real school and my praxis that seems to rarely reflect that? Why do I even care when I could slide by? Why do I want to take the “long way around”? It makes no logical sense in the setting of school. I do not play by the rules of the game and suffer for it.

I do not want to conform to the patterns of this world, I want to be transformed through the renewing of my mind through a different model of thinking and learning. Teach me meaning making and I can go forth and do more than just be a passive observer. I can’t do this on my own though, this adventure was never meant to be a solitary journey. I am meant to be a caravanista traveling through time with you, measuring time and being measured by it. I want to do something of value in this short time span we call life. Is that too much to ask for?

Am I Paying Attention or Reading Facebook?

There is often debate around whether laptops should be allowed in the classroom. While I am no expert, I can share my experience with laptops in the classroom.

So, what have I used my laptop for in class? To take notes. To have readings for class handy. Look up an answer to a professors question. To look up answers to related thoughts that pop in my head.

But that isn’t all, is it? I’ve checked my Facebook. Have Twitter open. Google chat open. Check my Google Reader. Worked on work for other classes.

Do I ever get distracted to the point where I miss what is going on in class? Yes, but that is almost always intentional.

If I am staring at the screen intently am I paying attention to what is going on in the class at all? Yes, of course! I could be doing a myriad of things from taking notes to checking my e-mail. I know that professors hate the whole “I can multi-task” argument, but sometimes it is true.

How would I quickly summarize my experience with laptops in the classroom? It has been a process learning how to use it in a classroom setting and what classes necessitate a laptop and which ones just need a pen and paper. I’ve learned how to not get distracted and how to take notes. Most importantly though, I have learned how to use laptops to expand my learning in the classroom and that has been the toughest and most rewarding part.

Most students have not had guidance on how they can utilize their laptops beyond a FB checking device. My unscientific hypothesis is most students see laptops as a way to get out of the classroom while still being physically present, or, as a way to take notes and do other school work. Maybe students don’t realize the potential they have right at their fingertips because no one has given them the inspiration to see it any other way.

product

This product is processed on equipment that also processes other students, millenials, and tree nuts.

stuck in bar code by s.t.a.rk.

Chants from a Digital Native

Today Gardner tweeted an article by Christopher Scanlon, “The Natives Aren’t Quite So Restless”. Normally I avoid articles touting to understand what exactly a digital native is and what any of it means. But since it came with the Gardo© nod of approval I read through it. Right off the bat I will say it was one of the best articles I have read about Digital Natives.

The ending paragraph puts it succinctly:

If we are to equip students to navigate a digital world, education ought to be based on assessing students’ individual strengths and weaknesses rather than making glib generalisations that mistake using Facebook for technological savvy.

Thank you! This may seem obvious, but the way Scanlon goes through his argument is one of the best I’ve seen. While generalizations can be helpful in broad conversations it does not belong in higher education where generalizations paint with a broad brush over everything, obscuring important detail.

I probably know more people that have the characteristics of a “digital native” that by definition fall into the “digital immigrant” territory, than supposed “digital natives” that represent digital natives. The reason I even fall into the category of digital native now comes from knowing those digital immigrants who have showed me the way. Yeah I was good at the lower-level digital stuff beforehand, most people are, digital natives aren’t special in that. Scanlon points out that we mistake my generations use of Facebook and constant connection to the web as digital literacy and creating processing and thinking. So lets look beyond broad generalizations that work on the surface and start digging deeper for what is really going on. Its not as simple as native and immigrant, it never has been one or the other throughout the history of man, so why would the digital world be any different?

Begin Again

I’m sure thousands of blog posts about the Inauguration will be going up soon and are being published as I type. They will be posts brimming with joy no doubt, as they should be. Comments on Obama’s inspiring speech and inspiring it was.

But don’t forget that the hard work begins now. Our new President cannot do this alone and I urge us to take advantage of the sense of unity and love that overwhelms us all now. I challenge us all to think and speak out loud what we will do to make this nation and our world a better place. Not just fleeting ideas on how we have to do something about global warming or about world poverty, but concrete actions you will personally take. It doesn’t have to be anything large, but the small little things put together with others makes a difference.

So in the coming days I will put up what my plans are at the advent of this new administration. We all have different interests and passions, let others know it and tell them what you are doing and how they can help. Lets keep each other accountable about this and put aside fear about offending people when we call them out. Please call me out if I forget to blog  about my plan of action.

Lets make all those times we said, “Yes We Can” mean something!

The First

Happy New Year everyone! Here is the first post of 2009 on the first day of 2009.

Last years resolution to blog daily failed spectacularly around February I believe, but I got a lot out of it for the time I did. It pushed me to be creative and put those half-finished thoughts out there, make a mess.

I have more to say, but right now I am battling a cold that won’t let me go.  So there are resolutions to come and more thoughts that have been in pieces in my brain that I hope to get out there.

For now I am drinking my tea and watching old home videos. It is a good life.