Connections...

I'm reading an interesting article right now that gets me thinking about 2 demos we saw in SI today...the article talks about "connection code curriculum" a space where...digitized knowledge, networked environments and critical understandings of relations among ideas are valued. I saw some interesting connections today as we explored our notions of poetry, it was present as we looked at how to use Skype to annotate and re-familiarize ourselves with spaces in and around campus. Both experiences have me thinking about the circulation of knowledge. Both moments give me ways of thinking about how the creation of content for sharing means more than just producing and distributing this knowledge...it's pushing the boundaries of our practice. This pushing of boundaries gets complicated when the institution of school attempts to "hold on" to antiquated, print oriented ways of being. During a conversation not related to this post, a colleague mentioned that, "It's up to us to change things if we see that they are not working." I'm taking his thought and placing it here because I think his advise relates in that the amazing work and thinking we've seen/engaged in over the past two weeks is giving us all a chance to think more about how to change, re-see our practice.

Response to comments...

My last blog post has elicited some interesting comments...most of them supportive of a perceived emotion and/or intensity "read into" the blogger's (my own) words. As most of my audience knows (or has come to know) I tend to wear my emotions/frustrations etc. on my sleeve and my blog post was an attempt to address the way I was thinking...in that particular moment. In a "you get what you give" sort of moment...I got sympathy and a little empathy (compassion) when I presented the emotion of frustration with a level of intensity.

Zen blogger
       enlightened
By compassionate readers

What I wonder about...

What do I wonder about...do you really want to know...not be serious?? I'm not sure I can...there's no time to NOT be serious...there are deadlines to meet...meeting to be had...readings to be read...writing to be written...THAT'S WHAT I WONDER ABOUT!! How to fit it all in...get up...yoga or Spin...get ready for...whatever...school...SI...some sort of training to fly off to...it never seems like it's just...get up. From "there" the paths are as diverse as the day is SHORT...there are NEVER enough hours in the day to get to it all...I try...GOD knows I try...I try all the time. So...that's what I wonder about...when I wake up...how in the hell am I going to "do it" today??!!!

Revision=re-seeing...

Having the space to "play around" with revision strategies is always one of my favorite SI experiences. It gives me permission to be different...there's something about having the ideas right there in front of me...in handout form...that makes me more conscious of them. Why do I not see them when I'm sitting and composing? Is it because I am so fixated on what I think I should be doing that I forget...how do I balance between "staying really close" to my work and knowing when to "zoom out?" As I sat and participated in yesterday's revision session...I thought...as a writer...I'm always revising...I cannot just "dump stuff" on the page...I tried it but it didn't suit me...and to know that it does not suit me is a HUGE step in my evolution as a writer. The handout that we used yesterday may not be physically in front of me when I write but "it's all up there...in my head" engaging me in an internal conversation as I write...I may not be able to "name" what it is that I'm doing while I sit there but what I do works for me...it's meticulous...it's slow...it involves reading...re-reading, inserting, omitting, coding, commenting, Skyping. Maybe being more mindful of what is happening is the balance that I'm attempting to grasp at here. Hmmm...

Connections...spaces...enabling...constraining...

One of the cool things about NWP SI is the fact that there so many opportunities to make connections about the spaces we inquire into...if you are willing to "go down the rabbit hole." Case in point...the awesome stuff that we've been doing for the past few days is setting itself up to become a really cool connecting point for the inquiry I am going to engage in with my #unccwp peeps in just a few minutes. A way of tracing the social...what is happening within the E-Anthology 2.0 Day in the Life forum. Can't wait to talk about all of this!

2 hours for 2 minutes...

Yesterday during Day 3 of SI...I spoke with a colleague about whether or not it would be important for me to put together a video of my life as a writer? The participants of this experience are being asked to do and the fact that I just labeled "them" as participants puts me in the awkward position of being something "other" than that yet...I am participating...aren't I? Anyway...my colleague and I decided that it would be a good idea for the both of us to put something together. I'd just shown her some cool thinking I was doing in a digital space I'm using to put my dissertation proposal together. After listening to me babble about things, my colleague encouraged me to put "something quick" together about what I'd just shown her and to "just go for it." I shook my head in agreement...not knowing about the digital vortex I was about to jump into. When I home...I went about trying to figure out how to get a screen cast application (a way of video-ing what is happening on your computer screen) to work. When I couldn't figure out how to use it...I Google'd it. It was here that I found out that my computer already had the capability to do such things WITHOUT PAYING 6 bucks for an application! Yeah me for learning something new! So...I decided to go with the application my computer already had. It took a while but I figured out how to use it. Then...my next problem was trying to figure out how to layer audio over this masterpiece. I needed another program...iMovie. I've used this awesome tool a few times and my experience with it last night reminded me that like all things new...the only way you get better...is to keep using it. In the span of 2 hours I re-taught myself the difference between a new event and a new project...how to drag a video into the event...then to the project...how to layer audio over the video and how to finalize the whole project. I also learned that I'm not very good at just talking off the cuff while video is running. I ultimately needed my daybook to write a short script to help me through the voiceover. Even then...it took me 14 times to get it close to sounding like I wanted it. 2 hours for 2 minutes.

UNCCWP Day One: Location, location, location...

So we are only 90 minutes "out" of the first day of UNCCWP's Summer Invitational and I'm thinking more about the seamlessness of the day...how it all revolved around ideas related to location. Today's session was very helpful to me and what I'm thinking about with regards to my own research...which is an inquiry into what happens when teachers and students use different types of technologies (digital=blogs, analog=daybooks) during literacy instruction. I could see my students using the Writing Timeline that Sally had us create to trace a path of their own usage of their daybook or involvement on Kidblog (a blogging platform). I could see my students using Mapping experience I led the group through to think more about the classroom...how literacy circulates in that space. Even the Sacred Places experience that Lacy and Steve helped us with late this afternoon to literally "zoom out" and think...over a defined period of time...how literacy circulates in the different spaces (places) they occupy. The Mapping experience I lead may even help me...as a note-taking/making "tool" while I do my research. Hmmm...