Freelance Techie

Well I have good news today. My second attempt at advertising for the class I’ll be running was successful. I got the max amount that I’m prepared (supply wise) to handle. A total of 6 people. The turnout was surprisingly but awesomely diverse. From someone in Elementary School, to someone who’s the mother of one of the other students, and that student happens to be 24.

Tonight was only an “information night” kind of deal. I found a group of people, all interested. This is pleasing news to me, because that means this project won’t end in my opinion prematurely. The first class itself, will be held this next Monday. The only true reason, is the IT Dept. There’s a machine downed and of course I don’t know how they want to configure it anyways. As well as the rightmost and leftmost machines still need the management software “Deep Freeze.” Which means I can’t exactly ‘manage’ them or anything. Which prevents me from adding in the much needed dose of Open Source Software that those WinXP machines need.

I also decided that I’ll refer to this class as, “Introduction to Multimedia Arts.”  Reason being is I’m going to be covering a wide range of different media based technologies. Which increases the possible exposure for each student to a different field and possibility which I think is important. The nice thing about having a small class size is, I can work more towards the needs and wants for each attendee.  That way everyone can possibly get what they want out of the class by picking and choosing.

I also place my to do list here. By priority for those who might be wonderin what my priorities are at the moment. Or better yet, ever. Blogging is almost always on the low end of my to do list. The reason being is I’d rather spend more time doing stuff than talking about doing stuff. Replace stuff with whatever you’re talking about doing to make that last sentence make sense.

That’s my explanation for the lax of posting either here or Students2.0. I do intend to come back to Rome soon enough though. I made one of the secret underlying points in my last post. Prize to anyone who can guess what it is. Except if it’s Clay; who already knows what it is indirectly. =)

That’s all for now. Speak to you again in a week, unless random questions or something comes up.

I’ve found myself this week thinking a lot about one topic. Two actually. Now I’m finding myself trying to tie these together. One of which… Has perhaps been bothering me without any real concrete understanding of what it was since 1st Grade. It’s no surprise, that I of any individual, get involved into the inner workings of schools the way I do.

Another Brick In The Wall, Pt. 2 is regarded as one of the greater songs of Pink Floyd. A satire on the workings of schools. Describing the teachers and the ultimate destiny of the people, the purpose, of the schools as an unneeded wall in the way. Perhaps this is true, perhaps this is not. Certainly, I see some hint that some of the other thinkers in the edublosphere can have some sort of sentiment with this all around. Often referencing “The Wall” in some way whether it be for marketing or in the form of some other analogy…

Like the Titanic. I quote from the book, Why Schools Fail. The passage I am taking, is after the Author… Bruce Goldberg describe the president of Harvard’s study of the High School Public School System, declaring it a success. That was in 1959. Before this passage, it brings up the fact that a third of new teachers at the time quit the profession, and there was a 25% dropout rate. As well as mentioning the issue of the psychoactive drugs to make students… “Manageable. “

“… Facts like those have led some observers to conclude that if the system can be said to be working, it is doing so very poorly. Within 10 years of Conant’s [Comment: 1969.... The year Herbert Kohl, another author I find profound in his works in education wrote the book "The Open Classroom"] optimistic study of high schools, there were calls for a complete restructuring, or even abandonment, of formal education, and the bestseller list featured such titles as “Crisis in the Classroom,” “The Underachieving School,” and “Deschooling Society. ” The central question raised by those and other works was, Why is the system not working anything like it was intended?”

The way it was intended to work was decided in the 1840’s during the Transcendentalism period in United States History. By Horace Mann, whom has and will be continued (in most regards to the ’system’; which of course makes such decisions) to be revered as the father of Education. If perhaps, only for establishing the mandated attendance form of the public school system that many states adopted. As well as lobbying for a nation wide adaptation in the legislature.

Bruce Goldberg puts a satire on this figure, for whom of which, if he never existed and did what he did… None of us here in the edublosphere could rightly say for certain, that we would indeed be here where we are today. (The book was published in 1996… The latest I have next to Adam Fletcher’s Meaningful Student Involvement.)

The system is not working the way we intended it to work for a numerous reasons. The larges of which is, the way a school, or the system itself should, should is relative. We all have different vying views and perspectives of the roles of school in our society. All of which are chaotically based upon one’s own view of how an ideal society should be implemented. In other words, there’s no unity, so consistent results should never be expected.

That, and we’ve lost track of the meaning of a school. We’ve degraded the “students” person over time and treat them as if they were lesser beings. They feel this way. They’re stricken by the narrow mindedness, the tunnel vision, that we have of how society should be rather the promotion of autism. Which, like the word school itself, has been in it’s vernacular form stricken of it’s true meaning. Belief in oneself, working for ones own needs and desires.

Rather, such a concept of autism is regarded as a disease of the mind. That’s where we pushed it since some psychologist decided that children displaying less interest in others and more so on themselves were lesser intelligent forms of life and called them outcasts that needed special attention and thus segregated for being instead of celebrated for diversity. Which only, concentrates beyond a comprehendable point the segregation schools have amounted to over the last 160 years, starting first from Age… Then to Elitism, Racism, and now various forms of Beliefism. (Hey look, I’m Shakespeare. I made a word up. Now I’m either going be shot for not using ‘proper English’ or revered as a saint in the literary arts. Get your coins for flipping and bets ready folks. )

School, the word, originally meant “leisurely learning. ” Now it describes an institution of the enforcement of pushing ideals, thoughts, fact, beliefs, skills, definitives, and a medley of a bunch of other possible understanding and comprehensions at varying and sometimes contradictory craftsmanship levels. How, could in the world, could such an institution, change so drastically in meaning? Don’t point out to me that it had 1,600+ years, roughly, to do so. I am quite aware.

I challenge that the Titanic ever hit an iceberg.(the analogy, that is) I’d say it comes more from the people abandoning a ship that hasn’t yet made it to a cold, Artic Ocean. A ship with no passengers is just as bad as a ship that’s sinking in the case of which the analogy is used. I see lots of support for Distance Education… I would say, for the sake of diversity in the understanding of multi-media based communications it would be good for the “students” who do not experience this daily to understand this. Coming from the border of Generation Y and Generation Z, literally depending on which classification you look at… I have a mixed perspective, or you would assume. It’s these generational gaps, and stereotypes, that cause the largest problems. While it may be well done to use these for the purpose of understanding, don’t use it to flaunt the individual value and mindset of any sentient being.

It’s time to change how we acknowledge the roles of schools in our great nation, and perhaps around the world. It’s time to stop trying to break the wall down, undermine it by looking for it’s holes or walk around it… It’s time we scale the wall. If we, or anyone else hopes to advance as a person this is the best choice. This is by far, a bigger challenge than shattering people or ignoring their state as a human being. I refer to the staff of a school.

Though at the same time, the wall needs to be built strong enough to support your weight. The weaker teachers… Need to be not trodden on, rather made stronger and reinforced. Either that or when your weight crushes the brick under you, be prepared to fall. A student who comes out with nothing from the school system, has no one to blame but themselves. They will be met with challenges, some harder than others.

However, even if it is made so the system sees you as a failure and you decide to accept such a label, then you’ve no one to blame than yourself. You’re the one who has accepted that status, society may frown upon the fact that you’ve been labeled by the schools as such in quality… But that certainly will not, and should not prevent you from prevailing and meeting your dreams. Bill Gates never finished Harvard afterall. Some of the greatest thinkers were either out of place in the system, or didn’t ever attend ‘formal’ school.

I take this twist to strike one clear point: We learn best when we’re challenged. Failure is the easy way out. To go by the system, to cheat the system, to undermine and challenge the system is to make the wall that much higher. You don’t escape society, no matter how hippie like you may try to become. Society is still there. Watching. Perhaps mocking you from afar in your little commune. Perhaps pitying you…. At a loss of words. It’s all relative.

The school system, publicly, shall and needs to remain intact. The tying glue presently between young people and older people. The only thing that needs to change, is our understanding of these social reactors. I see many teachers, with inflammatory policies. Perhaps not understanding the significant role they have for about 120+ young people per day. More so in the High School setting.

Where… If lucky, you’ll spend perhaps an hour per day in the presence of these adults who determine and shape your future. Due to their role in deciding your destiny, it may be troublesome that the only relationship you may hold lesser than with most of them, is the equivalent to the relationship you hold with someone you’ve yet to meet.

The school is a social system. I’ve seen many challenges to the system regarding it as a business… If it is a business, then it’s poorly derived one that sells nothing and serves dissatisfaction. Others much like Mr. Drake(warning: This post involves a heated argument involving Arthus Erea.) bring up the point of school being Politics. However, if it were I’m sorry but the “Democrative Dictorialship” will end soon enough. How it ends, depends on the people, the students, and their dissatisfaction rating and how they choose to take care of the problem. Whether it be through the ideal of violent revolution such as those idealized by Mao ZeDung, or a progressive civil disobedience much like the kind Henry David Thoreau suggests.

School is the definitive tying rope of our society. It’s where the young people come and grow up, spending 6+ hours typically per day in the hallowed halls of the school building. Perhaps it’s time we learn the inner workings of society… Politics, Idealism, Religion, Technology, Economy(Business)… We use something called PIRATES at Capital for analyzing historicle events, facts, time periods, ect. The S is Social. I spelled PIRATE for you already. Perhaps it’s time to recognize that Social is the definitive of Society. The aspects in PIRATE defines Society, social is almost worthless. Other than you can tag what is excluded from PIRATE into Society. By using the S.

You’re probably thinking by now I’m schizophrenic. With no tunnel vision laser guided pin pointed topic. That’s because the concept of Society is broad. This is the ultimate challenge to Rome… And perhaps the Rubicon. It’s time we recognize who we are here in my nation, and perhaps the the rest of the nations of the collective world as well.

It is this, the tunnel mindedness, combined with the efforts or ideals to cross the Rubicon as much as the Republic fails to adequately meet the needs of the people for whom it serves that will prevent Rome from being built as a long standing feasible solution. We are to ununited, to narrow minded, and too ignorant as we stand here today to accomplish such a task of Rome. Everyone who reads this, will not be a part of the party that truly, truly should be reading this. It is the people whom do not listen, do not care, cannot find this, or look out for some other party person or reason rather than the overall well being of all stake holders… That hold the power to make Rome a possibility.

Drake brought this up as well in his post to Students2.0 almost immediately after the launch date. (He also mentioned not to ignore some of the big problems, many named here. Some suggested by Diane, but then Sylvia suggested to stay away… So we’re at a fundamental loss in ideals. However, quieting things is a bad thing, as seen in previous blog entries of mine and then it’s just a big circle of double standards. ) Now, I have a challenge to you if you’ve managed to read this far. Spread the word, but not to your best friend who agrees with you on everything just about. Show your school administrators. Show some contact in the local news. Show a politician. Show a lobbyist. Show the parents… Show the people what is out their. Open their minds, rather than sit where you are and discuss the possibilities. Take the extra effort to spin the cog that pushed the machine to go.

Let’s involve everyone in solving something we all seem to find a problem, or some need of some sort of improvement. Collectively, and only through collaboration, may an answer arrive. Without communicating, how do we hope, to make such a drastic change in Social Order? The simple answer, is by sitting here we cannot. I have not blogged, adequately, since before my Winter Break. A lot of my plans, my goals, are in the process of being completed. Several projects, a lot of time. I don’t have time for blogging unless I force it into my schedule. However, I see some people daily blogging. About what can be done. Will Richardson, while I don’t actively read his blog. Often brings up the point of how people should get up and just get to the doing, and use the blog to provide primary sources upon what they have done, rather than what they will do.

I see many people bring this point forward. Few follow this philosophy, perhaps it time… We do so. The blogs, the conversations, it’s a good thing. However, there comes a time to step up, or step out. That is why I make the challenge I have today, because I’m curious how many people will read this and take it and run with it. For a lot of our goals, require business skills and political reasoning. Which is no surprise since we do deal in society, so we can’t isolate one or the other. We have to look past short term profit, and we have to look past the by-partisan system. It’s time to take things to a personal level, decide what is truly the best to bring about the best change in our society.

With problems ranging from Ageism, Adultism, Racism, Climate Change, Bullying the list goes on. School is an institution where many of the beliefs and values of the previous generation are passed to be repeated seemingly indefinitely. We need to look at what those are, and ask ourselves, are we truly accomplishing progress? As it stands now… I don’t think so. Even something as seemingly beneficial as using the clause of the seperation of Church and State on schools is, due to the lack of understanding and recognition of peoples religious beliefs it often causes and increased form in such discrimination and seemed to twist the trend around from what the social norm was 200 years ago.

It seems we’ll gladly trade one form of discrimination for another, or promote an ignorance for the sake of hiding past mistakes and misunderstandings to try and prevent discriminative values. However, we’ve not once managed to prevent that, and perhaps never will. However, the time has come we need to try a different process. Status quo does not cut it anymore.

I talk to my friends, acquaintances  at school and it’s a shame to hear how they’ve come to accept many of these problems as what is normal, right, and how things should be. Which is sad looking to the state of business, as it’s one counter to why our school system set up the way it is. That’s the explanation for the hierarchy I’ve presented in the past, is it’s a reflection of our business. Yet, in another country across the sea, they’ve flattened that hierarchy… And have become a world competitor economically. That country Japan… Even out of the ruins of World War II.

People asked me for what I view for Rome, and as it stands I believe the duty of a teacher, not the job requirement, but the duty of a teacher or another staff member at school is to enrich the students ability to learn and comprehend on multiple intelligence levels and help them find themselves as well as their idea of success. More often than not, we throw our values and ideals at people to try and force persuade them to coincide with ours. People look to what power they have, rather than what they can do. Sounds contradictory, but in nature they are to separate things.

What I can do, is I can be different. And I am. The long haired freaky person who is only such for that sake. I haven’t, really, formally introduced myself, who I am, what I do, I’ve just come and mentioned a few noteworthy events in my life on this blog. My name is Dillon Decicio. To put who I am in the most rudimentary form possible, I am myself. Who that is, definitively, is relative and I’ve no intention to try and force persuade that to anyone. I know who I am to myself, and that’s all I need.

The Tu Ha’ Buts Learning Center Project I have going has more goals set than just being some 17 year old teaching a course. I’ve already taught at age 16, but with more limited powers.. And technically, I’ve taught sooner to anyone who’s learned anything from me. Intentional, or not. Active Learning requires no definitive teachers or students.

With the project going, I’m making my own curriculum, and taking a different approach and going to go so far as to propose it in the form it is to the system as it stands. It’s a non traditional form of approach. The classes haven’t started yet, largely because the chaos of which is our society. It’s good, it hasn’t started yet. There have been… Too many complications of authoritative forces, that have stricken me to a point where my time is vastly limited and I can only manage so much. At the end of this week, that will change.

At the end of this week, there will be a class that’s set to start the following week. I never mentioned the nature of this project at the beginning, and if it goes through as planned there will be a comparative to my form of teaching to the standard I’ve seen and been through already up to this point. If it seems beneficial and successful, the findings will be presented to my tribal council for a request of support of expansion.

As I’ve said in the past, I hesitate greatly to release the details of this project publically. For if I did, I may make mistake by doing so. For the unfortunate problem of accredation. I’m not entirely sure who has the Intellectual Property Rights for the work I’m doing, since I am being paid to accomplish this task. It may very well be Tu Ha’ Buts. Either way, I’d prefer to keep it a more reserved level to colleagues or people who have similar experience in the field of technologies that I plan on covering.

I release this all to you, because I question my role in this society. I question Students2.0’s role in society. Comparative to what the preceding “Student” would be, and the idea of advancement from the Web to Web3.0… I see a static, “To be seen but not heard,” Evolution to, “Yell about what you think if you are a youth, and converse with those older than you if you so choose. ” Despite… The idea is in Students2.0 you’re student. I’m a student and a teacher. Have been for a while. So continue I will. Referring back to Sean’s post about the future of Students2.0…
(I find it unfortunate this conversation has ended, however.) As well as the Student Voice quality aspect of the organization…

What deems you allowed to be a ‘contributer?’ Do you not have to be a student? What prevents you from no longer being a student once you graduate? Will we have to wait for Students3.0 to acknowledge life long learning? As I’m sure, the teacher who are above us, are still learning and students in some fashion as well. Why do we have, such segregative ideologies of age separation anyways?

That and we may consider looking beyond blogginess…. Let ‘guest posters’ in to have their two bits to what’s important and valued. Let students… Of all levels speak in the manner they’re accustomed too. Break the tunnel vision, not the wall.

Now that I’ve finished by shooting my foot, I leave you, the reader, to contemplate, and digest what I’ve just stated… All several points of it.

Brick Wall Picture by ana_lee_smith is away

Titanic Picture by mando maniac

Today I finally spoke to the IT person from the Tribal Center. She’s gone over the information I need to use the computers, and offered a surplus Mac computer for the class. This is very fortunate, but of course I don’t know how old the computer is or anything. Either way it will be useful just for the sake of getting at a larger spectrum of technological diversity.

I wish I still had my old Inspiron 6000 Dell laptop, because then I’d put Gentoo or Ubuntu Linux on it. That would provide the entire array of the different operating systems that they may or may not encounter within the workforce or later in life. So altogether, that gives me 8 computers. There are 4 X-Blade(not that I ever heard of them till I came here) brand computers running
WinX, 2 more older looking models running WinXP, one computer coming in with one of the Mac OSes, then my laptop running OS X Tiger and WinXP.

Later this afternoon is when I’ll get into running all the software installs, and all the computers will be prepared. Since then I’ve run into a couple new Open Source programs that may be interesting to look into if you have enough time and are interested.

TimeTo, (I personally question the utility for this and the trustworthiness, but haven’t had a chance to use this one or SynFig enough to comment on their quality however. SynFig excites me, but isn’t quite up to full maturity. ) for WinXP. As well as SynFig. I don’t know the scale of their usability or intuitiveness, but I thought they’d be an interesting share none the less. Another fun thing is TiddlyWiki.(documentation and how to resources here) I wouldn’t rely on it for a strong plausible web based wiki. It has more potential I think as a local file for a notebook like it mentions itself to be. Or better yet, a digitally based textbook would be far more useful. Especially since it’s design can be episodic.

My next scheduled day to present the class to potential students will be the 4th of February. Hopefully this time someone will show up with what limited advertising is possible. Perhaps there’s a better way of doing this, and I should tackle MySpace for it’s use of Social Networking. Even though this seems like an odd method of going about things, the back-end guerrilla tactics would be valuable if I ask a friend for help.

So, no one showed up to the presentation at all for the presentation. Speaking to my employer the decision to be made to head further is to try again. I’m going to change my advertising procedure to something more interesting (hopefully).

I’m ready to go on most levels otherwise. I need to come make a serious blog update, but being ill last week means I have a lot of work to catch up on in school so I don’t know how immediate that would come. I’ve been managing to keep myself pretty busy with plenty of projects running concurrently though.

On a plus side my teacher, Scott Le Duc, is going to a conference with another teacher on the 1st. He’s going to show off a copy of an excel file that mimicked a method for competency based learning one of the teacher’s submitted to his old Learning Mastery website(actually it’s a wiki). I presently only have one done, in my quest to make a non-redundant episodic based curriculum. As I go through with the TLC class project, I’ll finish it and submit the model to the Shelton School District for accreditation.

I’m also interested in the idea of seeing how a non accredited class will work with this. To see how that affects the motivational factor at all. I also hesitate to release any of the actual products at the moment however, but eventually (preferably when all is finished) am considering my options for how to release the candidate.

Well I’ve been gone on vacation for a while, from December 19th-January 1st. I’m back now and trying to catch up on some of my work since there’s still quite a bit left to do. I have a presentation tomorrow at the TLC, and when I go there I’ll need parent permission slips ready, and copies of a class syllabus.

I’m prepared for the presentation, and can easily print copy of the permission slips. I still have to make a syllabus however. Google Reader says I’ve also missed 290 something posts in the blogs I read. As well as a large to do list.

My posts will become rarer, I’ll try to keep a weekly post going though. Other than the comment on my vacation, a short video clip that will be used to support tomorrow’s presentation is all I have on news. Other than I’ve gotten some new books to read.

FLTV Episode 2 - TLC Presentation

This second episode is simply a support video to go along with with a presentation I will be making to those possibly interestd in joining the class I’m going to hold at the TLC. It briefly shows on screen and explains the tools use and gives it a name. (for the software showcased anyways)

I should hire Sean to coordinate my BGM. I’m sure he could do better at least on the transition between it. This time it’s only 3:08 minutes long, more desirable than last time’s 14 something minutes. It’s really just a collage, and made for the purpose of having some sort of person presenting and explaining what’s going on.

Here’s the second episode.

John Lennon was a political activist as well as one of the greatest rock ‘n roll performers of all time. His songs were often times political statements that described present issues, problems, and mindsets of the time. Despite being from a time now passed, back in the 1970’s, I find it concerning some of the stuff he says has a ring of truth still today.

As such, I use his lyrics for two purposes. The first is to strike the emotional connection, secondly they were statements he made. I think ths will help the feelings spurred by one of the two very negative events that happened today I’m going to share.

“I’m sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocritics”

~John Lennon

“Ive had enough of watching scenes
Of schizophrenic, ego-centric, paranoiac, prima-donnas”

~John Lennon

(excerpts from Gimme Some Truth by John Lennon)

I’ve had a conflict with my U.S. History teacher for a while now. It started out good enough (conflict’s good, right? ) with me expressing that I’d rather go do something else than partake in a class discussion about the importance of why “Freak Dancing” should be allowed at school dances. (A better proposed topic was the Iraq War, however it was turned down by the teacher stating we had no expertise in the area… Which she can’t necessarily prove.) This was a mistake I admitted as well soon after, however it was filed under the offense of challenging authority. How you can challenge someone’s authority unintentional beyond me.

The fun part was where she sent me to the hall to ‘discuss’ the situation. Of course her discussion idea is where she reprimands you, and interrogates you expecting you to respond the way she wants you to. That’s a real fair discussion. I kept quiet, because I didn’t feel that she was within her bounds of power after a certain point of that. (including trying to force a discussion. ) As well as, it seemed kind of contradictory or fruitless to excercise your authority by fulfilling the person who you’re making an example of’s request. (having technically asked to go somewhere else, implied the hall, to read my US history textbook.)

The next school day, I was called out to the hall again. This time with the first request with this ‘discussion’ to be to let bygons be bygons… This was immediately contradicted by the meeting itself, and what she said next. Since her second request was for me to not, in her opinion, look ‘depressed’ in class. She called me outside this time after having said she was calling people to discuss their grades.

This implied I was failing. Which was proven when a student said that’s why I was called out when talking to me. I explained the situation to him, and we asked a friend why he was called out. For failing. Problem one here: She misled the class to think I was failing. Problem two: She disrespected several students privacy by making it clear who was failing and who was not.

The message in her second request was simply to protect her from harm, or make her conscience feel better about something… Or some strange never explained reason to me.

Two weeks later, magically how I acted constituted random mediation group and me pulled out of class for a period of three days without warning. (or a fair warning I should say. My Web Design teacher who acted as a mediary warned me of the coming danger.) My position in the class was threatened, however it was ‘resolved’ with the idea we would try to get along.

Then this last week I was called out for discussion (with other students) over a conflict. This contradicted the original reason for calling me out. It disrupted class greatly, because she had to do it in two waves. Choose the same ‘discussionary’ style. As well in my opinion, resorted again to a more drastic ‘punishment’ than necessary for the ‘disciplinary action’ required.

Can’t say I didn’t deserve some form of reprimanding that time, but I can say that it went over a line somewhere to carry it that far.

Yesterday, she only threatened to take me out in the hall after I jokingly ‘pwned her,’ for what reason she did this I’m not confident. She didn’t bother to release that information to me. She only asked me if she had to pull me out into the hall. An indirect threat. I asked her, “Does everything have to be a discussion?”

“No,” she says and goes to speak again. Feeling once more she’s abusing her power…

“Then there’s your answer.” Was my response. This was apparently the last straw somewhere in her mind.

Today on my way to sixth period, I was pulled out of a crowd and explained how I suddenly didn’t get credit for this core class required. Despite completing 4/5ths already. Brilliant huh? The good news was it didn’t effect my GPA. Most people agree with me on the matter that she’s not holding her end of the job, fair, and that this response is not the proper one. I’m told I have to make up the credit at a later time entirely.

The most concerning thing to me, is that this teacher being a newer teacher… Is how authoritarian she is. I noticed that’s seeming to become a trend though, with the newer teachers wanting as much control as possible. The method of attaining this from this instance, can be assumed for the purpose of establishing fear elsewhere. It allows more control, to use the ‘make example of’ method. Very Stalinistic.

Oddly the biggest concern on everyone’s mind was “How can he call a teacher authoritarian!?”

Guess that shows what we do for that training to make teacher be ‘highly qualified professionals’ nowa days for that No Child Left Behind Act thing.

A true challenge, that should be allowed, would be questioning her background and credentials as a teacher. However that’s a topic for another day.

Now I ask, why are our teachers degenerating back towards the 1960’s and before? Did we not learn the problems with authoritarianism yet?

Apparently not.

I mentioned it in a comment on Students2.0, but those are the thoughts (however mangled and scrambled they may be) I leave you with. I have to put too much effort into resolving these conflicts to worry about blogging much. Then I’m going to Texas for vacation on the 19th, and won’t be back to January.

Have a happy holiday season folks.

Unfortunately I was supposed to have a meeting between my employer, and one of the tech coordinators for our tribal government this last Thursday. (Ironically the day that the class should of started.) As a result the class likely won’t start until after the Winter Break. That however gives me a lot of time to work on the curriculum to get it accredited however.

I haven’t been active so much in the realm of blogging lately or updating this site’s other aspects because… I’ve been busy doing things more in life than taking the time to talk about what I’m going to do, done, could do, ect. The Students2Oh blog is up. I failed to help with the advertising unfortunately.  ‘Till now.

I can’t say when to expect to see much of me. My time’s being eaten up at an indefinite rate to make sure I get what I’m working for done.

Well I noticed an upstream amount of posts on this subject here. (note: the thing that caused the uproar is the video. Not the post. ) However I whole heartedly disagree that blogs are a ‘fad’ and going to die out any year soon, you never know though. IBM did say the world market for computers at max was 6 once. (So says Microsoft’s Mike Eagan) I took some notes as I watched the video, and I have some comments about a few of the things that I noticed were parts of the discussion. Though I must say they took a rather short period of discussion for rather broad topics that have details requiring specific attention.

The first note I have at 20:15 is that “Curriculum is bad. ” My response is simple, of course it is. Herbert Kohl would agree as so written in his book the Open Classroom. At least in the ‘traditional’ manner which his highly restrictive. In a way, just for the sake of having the necessary funds curriculum development is a big deal for meeting a state’s possibly non existent standards so that they adhere to the No Child Left Behind Act. (I’d put footnotes in this post, but I’m not sure how I’d manage that. There are no state standards for the subject of technology here in the state of Washington.)

This methodology and thinking about running a class under the strict guidance of a curriculum forces students to learn under one set linear path, and Kohl notes that’s not how learning works. It works episodically, or in basic language in brief periods of interest. As such, the near inflexible structure I see in most of the core curricular(and as should be expecting the basis word is clearly present here) subjects, i.e. the varying levels of Math, English Language Arts, the Social Sciences/Arts/History (I find myself disputing a proper generic universal title for this as with the English Language Arts in the United States context), and the branches of Science.

Furthermore, varying the levels, which continues on today, just in different forms. Ex. IB, Honors Society, AP, ect, of the subjects has been used to add in a new term that we must all learn when dealing with the education system, which is known as Elitism. Or that the more ‘rigorous’ courses with the varying names listed previously, are harder or more challenging, supposedly put those students on a social status above the others. Thus giving them free rights or advantages in the world of benefit of the doubt where other students wouldn’t necessarily get. At least at my school, there is a decrease in the ‘low level’ classes, and have been disguised as the WASL prep classes(they work at the lower rudimentary levels of the subjects they cover which ironically only includes pre-algebraic in math and then another type of English. The former rumored to not count towards graduation credits and you must take both levels before being admitted to Algebra. ) so that there appears to be just an ‘average’ on the ‘low level.’

The only thing [drastically] different in the accelerated programs [more often then not] is you’re spending more time on the repetitious and memorization tasks that the subject may require, going into some more detail on whatever you’re studying, and on the rare occasion [unless of course it's a class offered only at the above level] an entirely different subject altogether. Point: They spend more time doing the exact same thing. What kind of skill are they possibly getting out of this that will benefit them two weeks later when their memory degenerated 90+ percent of whatever knowledge they memorized or because of not using a repetitive skill over the first required period using it lose it?

Einstein said, “Never memorize what you can look up in books.” Now that we have the internet and a medley of resources, why memorize what could be at my fingertips in minutes, and possibly seconds?

Let’s start focusing on the real world. Memorization is a useful skill, but it is by far not the only skill we need. Life also isn’t tedious; let’s diverge and learn adaptation to more than what we are told to do by a teacher.

My second emphasis point was only three minutes later, and unsurprisingly so. As the subject was how to “guide students to make ‘valuable’ content.” Well my question is, how do you assess the standards of what is valuable and what is not? Naturally students and people in general have a tendency to move to the best of their ability towards what their superiors, forced or not, expectations are. Why? Why not instead establish what a student values and finds to be their standard? Quite possibly: the person who will hire them will be so specific in assessment of the character of someone that they will hunt down every piece of content ever posted on the internet of that person, every personal, public, and any other record there of, of said student and go into a cynical judgmental mode as they make their decision.

I think not. That ideology instills a sense of tyranny, paranoia, and fear in the information of which rightfully belongs to the soul creator of stated content. Don’t expect the worse to possibly happen out of students. One should look to suspend judgment mode, and say something good. If you never look for the good in something or someone you’ll never see. Simpler, applied to everything, as a few people already known me say, ‘if you don’t look; you will not see.’ Paraphrased as I forgot the exact wording, but the concept is still there. If you’re not openly looking for new possibilities and understanding naturally they will never come.

Though you should say something good, try not to be generic like ‘good job.’ Attach something individual to the students’ work and comment on it, and then throw that constructive criticism on how to improve in. Try not to be overly critical, Rome wasn’t built in a day nor was perfect to near perfect craftsmanship mastered. Looking for connotations, both positive and negative, is a skill that takes time to develop like anything else. I would know, as it was a cause of some melodrama that made me vanish for a couple weeks once.

Kohl and a peerage on the subject to myself, The Bass Player as he goes by on saying in his blog, would agree with the above statements. The latter, or perhaps both would likely state it in slightly less harsh wording, however. Students, like most people aren’t out here to poison the system, fight it, or cause mischief readily. If they talk about such a concept at all, it is likely for one of two reasons: the first is that they feel that may be what’s expected with them. Second, assume they just studied Mao ZeDung and his conquest for the Communist party in China several decades back. They may be pondering some of the ideas there, or parodying others such as the Russian Revolution, the Japanese Revolution, or something at least in the US a little closer to home, the United States Revolutionary War.

My next note, at 27:10 was talk about interdependence and collaboration. This won’t be as long winded as the rest. I just feel it’s noteworthy, as by now everything is interdependent and the world’s moving from the Authoritarian (I should hope to at least a decent degree) and assembly line structure of work and school function that collaboration is what the overall move is. However, for the sake of not being tokenistic I will not say that is the majority. It is just a rather steep prediction of where I feel the trend will inevitably move, it’s not necessarily a matter of if anymore. It’s a matter of when.

A good example of this process in a fair amount of success I would say I have to give credit to the GenerationYES company. That’s going only from personal experience. Though with the basis largely on Constructivism, it’s not a large surprise. One of Adam Fletcher’s many little booklets on Meaningful Student Involvement however references many more.

The fifth note written down is on risk taking and the fact that schools don’t budget a dime for research. This came about 34 minutes in. I have mixed feelings on this subject; there are too many stakeholders involved not to. From your parents, the administrators, the teachers, tax payers, to probably some guy in India who wants to be the tech support agent you have to talk to for that warranty on that computer in that computer lab. I’m sure they’re all lobbying on what we should take risks on and shouldn’t.

As Bassplayer again has similar view points, people fear change. People fear the risk of failure. And people fear it more when the risk is a LOT. In the case of education; all stakes are high. Higher than high. The quality of an education for a large many is at risk. Why wouldn’t you fear every decision that has to be made and how it may drastically affect those involved? However, never taking a risk and remaining constantly ’status quo’ is what brings down morale and will lead to a true ‘hitting the wall’ effect.

Research can help quell these fears, and can be free. Students themselves as noted by Adam Fletcher’s Meaningful Student Involvement booklets again can be quite effective. Why wouldn’t they? They’re the true end users and the ones that have to live with the product the rest of their life. Another method presented by Kohl; that I seen used by my old Physical Science teacher. Was rather than keep track of a rigid curriculum; (or perhaps he did and I never noticed somehow) he took notes on what happened day in and day out; to monitor what worked and what didn’t. By keeping records he could assess, change, and adapt as he felt necessary.

Two methods of highly effective types of research right there.

My semi final note on the video, came at 51 minutes in. To simply put the statement that was ear catching, as I wasn’t watching. I was listening as I cleaned my room. “Take action; stop talking. ” Right there, I feel is the statement that brought or would bring the small trend to talk that edublogging isn’t serving it’s purpose.

I disagree. Edublogging exists for the purpose of sharing ideas and conversing with our peers, talking about the various aspects of the trials and tribulations they are and discussing what the most probable and swift solution is. Plenty of us out there are preparing to take action, or have already take action. We perhaps don’t talk so much about what we’re actually doing. I know I probably don’t even though I should, but I like my ideas to develop and projects to mature a little before I rush head on into stating what’s up.

This, and a post out there by a librarian with a valid concern in her school district, well state, brought me to even analyzing this further than I originally did and ultimately to writing this post.

So to affirm why edublogging is a success and shall remain that way: We’re talking. We’re communicating. We’re sharing ideas. There may not be an active conversation necessarily in all cases; however that’s not the only point. If it was we’d use Instant Messaging or Skype. Both of which are too temporary, we archive and reflect on what we learn, what we do in some cases, and think so that others can look and gain valuable inspiration there from. Even if they’re silent (I myself tend to usually be the quiet observer) there’s still value. Just because the comments aren’t flowing in, doesn’t mean it’s still not web2.0. You’re still out there reading other user posted content, and you’re still writing your own.

Besides, this is wordpress. This is not a game forum, or a more casual social networking website(ex. GaiaOnline, general public of MySpace, ect. ), or IM client of your choice.

My final point is balance. A necessity to even live life. This came two minutes after the subject above. (yes, the important subjects I do feel jump around too quickly) Paraphrasing a statement that Dennis Harper said, and that I’ve said in counter to many of the things I disagreed with subject wise (example prompts of the state legislature trying to up the driving age to 18 for example), “If students are never given the opportunity to learn to be responsible, you can’t expect them to be. “

That needs to go past being on time, turning work in on time, and the basic rudimentary foundations of the ’system’ as you will.

As such, we may consider getting past the ‘age’ barrier someday that students cannot be equal contributors and partner in the decision making and other processes for a school to function on all levels. Quoting a passage in Adam Fletcher’s Meaningful Student Involvement:

“We can’t serve in Congress or as president until we pass age requirements; why should local government forgo the wisdom of this? Students need to learn respect and have life experience before taking a community office. “

A response in a magazine published for superintendents concerning the possibility of student representatives not only voicing their opinions to school boards, but some possibly even having a vote or two on the school board. The answer to this person’s question is easy. It is the students education. Let them decide what they want to see it as and shape it equally. They have several years of life experience, unless you’re insinuating they’re dead and not alive till they have a paper our lives rely heavily upon called a diploma. Assuming we’re disrespectful goes back to that expectations thing, and is quite rude.

Another meaningful quote I found, made back in 2003, the only hint to the identity of the person whom stated this is “Tolman.” Or rather, that’s as far as with my time restrictions I’m willing to look. This I think, is a tad more than a possibility to where Student Voice is going:

“Whatever the risks, there is no shortage of reasons for teachers and others to support young people’s [education advocacy] work… It may be uncomfortable when young people begin ‘to speak when not spoken to’… but their voices are too powerful, and their words too true, to be silenced for long. “

I would take that statement as a promise of what’s to possibly will come.

Unfortunately, there is no executive summary. Sorry for the rant, but I felt it was needed.

Alright, you knew it was coming. I warned you it was coming. And now it’s here! The first episode of my podcast is now up, which covers how to make a vodcast using a conjunction of Open Source Tools. The three main tools are CamStudio: for screencasting, Audacity: for audio editing, and WinFF: media file conversion. Other resources include the FreeSound Project for free Creative Commons licensed sound loops, and an educator’s guide to podcsating by GenYES.

This first vodcast goes through and shows how to use the above tools on a Windows machine to make a cost free (other than the computer that came with Windows XP in the first place, and your microphone) method to making a vodcast through screencasting. However, free still has price. As you go through the podcast you’ll find that there are a couple errors, or bugs. That’s the price. Beats paying for proprietary software in my opinion though.

This was meant to be a basic level introduction, and as a result I didn’t spend as much time as I could. With a production budget of basically zero though, what do you expect? Besides, I decided somewhere that by leaving in a few bugs it’d give the viewer a better sense of the process that you have to go through, and perhaps by critiquing mine they’ll have a better eye for looking out for little tidbits like the errors found in mine to make sure they get edited out.

Here’s the first episode on vodcasting.

Disclaimer: Rights of works created by other people are reserved by them. Examples of works in this that are not made by me are the programs: WinFF, Audacity, and CamStuido. The PDF file resource on podcasting is owned by the GenerationYES company. The works on the FreeSound Project are owned by the stakeholders in charge of the site and the loops found within are owned by their respective creators. Windows Movie Maker and Windows XP is property of the Microsoft Company.

Note: Please download the video before watching or subscribe to the podcast under the podcast blogroll to the right hand side. Either method works. I mean, you can stream the video, but it will be SLOW and more likely to be choppy.

Alright, even though I never mentioned it roughly since Saturday I’ve been gone and at the Western Regional Leadership Conference. Now I’m back, and playing catch up again. I’m not too far behind, but an update on some of the things I do. I’ve found what I like to call “The nearly free and nearly fully open source method to vodcasting” which I’ll reveal with my first vodcast. Vodcast= podcast + video basically. (Actually the Vod part means video on demand, but I find that to explain it it’s easier to explain what a podcast is then say a vodcast is just a podcast with video content.)

For some pre-reqruisites, I listed a program called WinFF in my list of elite Open Source Software list, and adding to it is a screencasting software called CamStudio. Makes a good combination, that plus a microphone is all you need to make a good technology based vodcast. Of course I get to cheat with my MacBook Pro a little if I felt like it, I won’t. I have Windows XP virtualized using parallels for a reason.

Just to share something fun, I found some  Jon Lennon style clip on sunglasses in a little souvenier shop. Being a John Lennon fan I couldn’t pass it up. It’s a little known fact on the internet, I’m near sighted slightly so I wear glasses when driving so it all works out.

At the leadership conference we did all sorts of crazy things. Being  a student store employee I also attended the Career and Marketing fair to get resources for new products, fund raisers, and other fun things for the DECA chapter as a whole. I also showed a Chinese foreign exchange student around because it was pretty cool. I say WRLC was a good experience, and the first time it’s been held in Washington in 8 years. Other states as far out as Arizona were there, and even Guam.

For those who aren’t part of DECA or never heard of it, it’s a national club for marketing students based on the principles of vocational understanding, civic consciousness, leadership development, and social intelligence. The last four things, yes I did steal from the actual website. There’s also competitive events to test your technical understanding in the field(s) of your choice.

I was disappointed though in the negative attitude some of the other attendees took. They complained about how it was a waste of time. Well considering they came in with that attitude; it’s no surprise they got nothing out of it.

Oh well, at least they didn’t manage to ruin it for everything else. One of my favorite Keynotes was from Peter Van Stolk, CEO and founder of Jones Soda. Reminding me I haven’t seen the Dave flavor in a while.