Blogging in a Living Room in Cuba

Yesterday morning, NPR ran this story about a woman in Cuba who has established a school -- she calls it a blogging academy -- in her living room.

Twice a week, Yoani Sanchez transforms the living room of her small Havana high-rise apartment into what she calls the Blogger Academy. About 30 students cram inside to learn how to use WordPress, Wikipedia and the other tools of a digital revolution that Cuba's government views warily.

Her desire to communicate, and empower others to communicate in politically difficult circumstances is so great that she has a system for doing so without an internet connection of her own.

It made me think of what learning can look like where there is something really at stake.

You can listen to/read about the story here.
And here is a link to her blog.

Anthropology of You Tube

It's simple: just watch!

Extreme Collaboration

 

 

The New York Times has a nice piece today about a group of elementary school students who played chess with an astronaut on the International Space Station.

After their game, and after he returned to Earth, they all met to talk about the experience.

Now, that's extreme collaboration via technology!

Unofficial, metaphorical history of classroom 2.0, Part 1

Once upon a time (so we are told by those of us inspired and beguiled by Web 2.0) some people talked and others listened, passively.

Maybe it was those ancient Druids who made sun cakes for one another in the middle of winter to beg the Sun to return. Maybe it was those

Or maybe it never really happened. Picture this: a mistral wanders into some Middle Age village with his voice, instrument, and whimsy. He begins to sing and, we are led to believe, bring some sunlight into the lives of the downtrodden peasants that fill our mental canvases of the time. Did these hard working people sit quietly to some collection of songs? Or did they, as any patron of a bar (or coffee shop) for that matter, "interact" with the singer. Perhaps they sang along. Perhaps they asked for a favorite song. Perhaps they threw rotten veggies.

In is that moment of interaction between performer and audience, I believe, that the collaborative expectations of Web 2.0 (if not the actual technology is born). We could call it the heckler theory. From pies in the face to Facebook.



(The first of a series)

User created art

Speaking of giving students a voice, this week the new NPR news show The Takeaway did a piece on some art installations that directly involved the voices of the audience.

One of the exhibits is an installation in Queens.

... visitors to Olafur Eliasson’s "Take Your Time” exhibit at P.S. 1 in Queens can don cellphone cameras and document their movements through the exhibit, in turn becoming part of the show’s online element.

The others mentioned also were very creative in involving the audience, blurring the line somewhat between who is the creator and who is the audience.

These piece move me because it makes me think about what's possible in a classroom.

It may seem strange

I just saw this commercial for Cisco (well, I saw the English language version, but YouTube only had this Italian version).


I don't care that much about Cisco and I don't care that much about skateboarding. But I do care about the possibility of using technology for collaboration.

Now, as you are watching, replace the skateboard with ANYTHING from our curricula or learning environment.

What happens when our students are given a voice?

Engagement

Geekymomma had a recent post about 21st century learners which was definitely worth reading.

Here's part of what she said:

The difficult part is where teachers have to come out of their comfort zones. I've taught a few classes for some local college "education technology" classes and the instructors usually ask me to teach their students about the "stuff" we have and how to use it. I'm often invited to schools to speak to faculties and mostly they want me to demonstrate some of the "stuff" we offer in our district and how to use it. So, through no fault of their own, even the instructors and the adminstrators don't always "get" that if we can teach people to think differently and to teach their students SKILLS (duh!) and use some cool tools at the same time, then there will be some terrific success. BUT WE DON'T START WITH THE TOOLS! (Do you pick up a hammer and ask yourself what you can build today?)

Here's part of my response on her blog:

I use a lot of technology in my middle school (7th and 8th grade) life science classroom. My students have used a classblog, a wiki, GoogleDocs, created podcasts, created Flash animations, etc.

All of it (all of it) has been incredibly useful and productive, for both my students and I.

I have come to believe that engagement is the issue (just like in the video) and not the technology.

Unfortunately, the cottage industry of technology tool providers would have us believe otherwise, in the archetypal "silver bullet" for education.

I so want those of us using technology to beat the drum for engagement, engagement, engagement.

I would also like to see the next, natural outcome, which is student ownership of their own learning and for the learning environment as well.

Her post also featured this video, which was very cool.

People Power

An ongoing question for me continues to be: "What happens when people are given a voice?"

I ask it often of myself about my students in a middle school science classroom. But the power of the internet to allow for easy, free collaboration and networking takes the question to an entirely new level.

This week, NPR's series On the Media interviews Clay Shirky, who has just published a book called Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. The interview was (for me at least) a discussion about the question I have been asking myself.

You can listen to the interview in the player below. You can also go to the On the Media website for a transcript. According to the site, the transcript will be available as of the afternoon of Monday, March 3rd.