Blog 3

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Blog #3 Social Literacy

I’ll begin by analyzing these aspects of Social literacy on a single basis first…

Play- All of my resumes and cover letters for teaching positions have always included the actual word “play” and “fun”. The stress-hormone-free brain of the learner is the primary place where I insisted I must work. Including it in my list of demands has probably cost me a load of employment opportunities, but if employers couldn’t abide by it, then I didn’t want to educate in an environment that excluded the most obvious of necessary conditions under which learning could take place.

Performance is an aspect I hadn’t given much thought to until now, though I have been trying to “run simulations” of myself as a student without my prior knowledge while analyzing it from my normal p.o.v. I guess if it’s listed as one of the new literacy aspects, I’ll need to look into it more. In some ways I think I may have been considering it as I was incorporating a metacognitive reflective tool within my research project.

Simulation- this has me once again, and while I’m more convinced that simulations work for trainings and learning, I’m still a little (disturbed?) something about avatars, metaphoric idols (heroes/characters) that are not “cartoonized” versions of the human user. This takes me into serious metaphysical realms which may not be appropriate here, but I guess if they’re not appropriate in my own blog, where would they be? (Kuthrapoli on karma and reincarnation on The Big Bang Theory) And I can’t help but draw the obvious correlation between SL avatars and Halloween, and wonder if the creators understand what they are revealing about themselves, (probably.) and if not, how would they react if it was pointed out to them? But perhaps, like the fabled sleepwalker, it is best not to reveal that to the doer.

Appropriation- this one has me thinking. Did Warhol start it all by his multiple images of Marilyn Monroe in Technicolor? It wasn’t original, but he did it. Rappers are notorious for sampling music into something else. We’re told “those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it” or something like that- in other words, take prior knowledge and build upon it. Would Aerosmith have made a comeback if not for RunDMC’s lack of fresh material? I think appropriation is another way of a student’s learning something. It is a lens through which they are interpreting what they see/hear/experience and synthesize it. Should the student then be able to profit by the learned experience? I hope so- my whole philosophy is based in Bloom’s Taxonomy. And I want to be compensated for my creative brilliance at interpreting his work into a new thing. But copyright infringement…

Multitasking. A 12 letter word. Kill it. Kill it now. It is the Edsel of productivity.

Distributed cognition- While I’ve used distributed cognition (unknowingly) for years (envision popcorn, Skittles, pillows and warm cookie smells in the classroom for teaching, I’ll continue to become as creative as possible while transitioning into a virtual teacher. Thank you for reading this.

Here’s a treat.

On Collective Intelligence, in his book Here comes Everybody, Shirky (2008) illustrated several excellent examples of collaborative efforts resulting in an increase in collective intelligence, but even more importantly, resulting in cooperative action. Since I am building a social network, I am giving more reflected thought into the collaborative aspects, trying to facilitate end goals, but leaving them broad enough- through a new appreciation of chaos theory through a social lens. (Fun illustration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe5Enm96MFQ ) Point being: no outcome is completely predictable.

Judgment- this is an interesting topic that seems to be emanating as a by-product of large scale social networks. What is right, good, best interest, wrong, ill-gotten, self-serving, etc. Can I tell you why I think this or where I got it from? No. But it is very interesting this assimilated understanding of how to judge and the merits necessary to do so.

Transmedia navigation- another aspect of my thesis- I am particularly interested in reaching students who can navigate through various media, but are “at-risk” in a new way.

Networking- still learning more each and everyday; mostly from people who are younger than I am; interestingly enough, they are the generation raised by people like myself- who were raised by the people who put up the Berlin Wall and indoctrinated the separationalist agenda.

Negotiation- see above.

Art- The creation of all things creative, originally designed and outputted through synthesis. It’s a beautiful thing. You’ll have to watch for upcoming blogs to really grasp my philosophy fully on this. It is the inverted pyramid’s foundational building block.

Speaking, presenting, formatting and storytelling: mortifying, creative, exquisite, and doable- all in that order for me. But all elements that I’ve incorporated for years in my teaching anyways.