Voyage of a Semester-Long Collaborative Project

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Cris

To introduce my class to our semester-long creative activism project, I shared Candy Chang’s poignant TED speech, “Before I Die . . . ” It’s a great example of how simple creative concepts can make a big difference in the life of a community.

The class was the first time out of port, the “shakedown cruise” we called it, for ECI 509, “Creative Inquiry Through Digital Storytelling.” Designing and teaching this course seemed the culmination of a lifelong obsession with the study of creativity and a recent inspiration from the infamous DS 106 open course .

The semester-long, collaborative creative activism project was designed to give students the opportunity to take what they were learning about digital storytelling and creativity to reach out beyond the course to the real world and make a worthwhile contribution in preferably the areas of sustainability and/or social justice. The challenge was to work with two others to design, implement, evaluate the results, and create a video documenting the project. The course was small — only two groups.

Steps I took to scaffold or support the assignment included:

1. Designing a “workshop/playshop” with lots of helpful resources, including a Creative Activism Tool Kit.

2. Developing a detailed rubric with criteria clearly listed.

3. Implementing a Feedback Badging System used by Cathy Davidson and modeled after the Stack Overflow system that asks peers to reward team members with badges for contributions to the team effort.

4. Assigning a two-week collaborative project, “This Creative Life Radio Show,” due at midterm to help familiarize students with the Feedback Badging System and give them a chance to rehearse their team collaboration.

5. Including the creative activism project on the midterm conference agenda. I meet with each student individually for an orientation, midterm, and exit conference.

6. Checking on progress with weekly tasks (Exit Slips) at the end of class with students tweeting responses to questions like “What’s your group’s topic?”

I had also originally intended to conduct the Feedback Badging System three times throughout the semester and actually meet with the groups to keep them on-track, but the first collaborative projects with the radio shows went so well that I opted not to. One group truly enjoyed working together and was very successful while the other did have one team member whose perfectionism (inability to trim her portion of the show down to the required limit) proved problematic for her group. This student did critically reflect and was eager to serve as a more effective group member for the next project. I was proud of her for thoughtfully confronting the challenges of perfectionism to creation as an individual and as part of a creative collaboration.

When the projects were presented, the concepts were commendable — “Promoting Graduate Student Tree-Planting to Celebrate National Arbor Day and Earth Day” and “Creating an Inner City Reverse Graffiti Project” with students cleaning away grime to write/draw art with positive social messages.

But the activism part was missing because neither group moved beyond our class to implement or promote their projects in the real world. The explanation given was the time crunch at the end of the semester and much complaint that not enough time was given for “implementation.” From the busy grad student’s perspective, the week given prior to the due date for completing the documentation of the project was to be the time allowed to implement and document the project.

I mourn those potentially phenomenal projects that never really got off the ground, and I’m grappling with what steps for project design and implementation that I need to take to ensure that future students are successful with these projects.. These practices range from creating templates for a Google Sites Portfolio that each team would be required to complete at intervals throughout the semester. I’ve seen these templates used with undergrads for group work and with Masters students for semester-long practicums.

But I am of two minds. As a grad student, I would be a resisting learner as Ilene so well described in her reflective writing post if I had to fill out a template to document progress. I’d prefer to offer the template but give the teams the option to develop their own and a proposal and plan of action with specified due dates. That’s what I’ve done in the past for semester-long action learning projects for individual students.

When the goal is to encourage self-directed, self-determined learning in a space that is open and participatory, it is difficult to balance the need to scaffold and require strict adherence to arbitrary benchmarks. Perhaps offering the scaffolding as optional and that students can create their own plan of action would work best. But how participatory and open can a captive audience feel? Sometimes that’s the sense I get from many graduate students who are working way too hard between real job and multiple courses to enjoy and value the process.

As for the Feedback Badging System, one group (the relatively happy and successful group) seemed to thrive with this system and critical reflections on its value included:

three responses on value of Feedback Badging System

The other group basically used the feedback system to explain what they had contributed to the project. One did comment that she liked the system but felt there needed to be more team members so comments were not so obvious. I also got some excellent feedback that perhaps tying the project to one of the creative aptitudes that we study earlier, probably symphony, would create an opportunity to focus on the creative activism project earlier in the semester. I could either omit the radio production or find some way to tie it in with the creative activism project.

All in all, what I think I’ll take away at this point (there’s still more feedback to come from the official ClasslEvals) is that I need to design a system that gives students enough rope to explore and create and make their own way while not giving them too much rope to hang themselves when the crunch inevitably comes.

I’d love to hear from any ECI 509 students who would like to share his/her perspective on how best to scaffold a semester-long project. You’ve all been so generous with your feedback throughout the semester, and I am grateful. The “shakedown cruise” was no Love Boat but it was no Titanic either.

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The Challenge of Open Teaching

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Cris

First steps? Perhaps none are more famous than those that Neil Armstrong made as he bounced along the lunar surface. A nine-year old Canadian watched those steps and dreamed of becoming an astronaut, a seemingly impossible challenge for someone native to a country that had no space program.

Today, nearly 50 years have past and Chris Hadfield has not only become an astronaut but many believe he has brought a new energy and excitement and, yes, Cogdog, inspiration and optimism, back to NASA and space exploration.

How did he accomplish this?

By being open.

Some might say that Chris used social media expertly. He has two million Twitter followers and his music video, a cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” has over 14 million hits. On his popularity, Chris says, “They follow me because it’s interesting; there are beautiful images; there’s poetry in what’s happening; there’s a purpose in what’s happening; there’s a beauty to it; there’s hope in it.”

But as we discussed in Jenny’s session prompted by Lindsay’s question about openness only dealing with online, openness is a way of being in the world.

Or in Chris’s case, out-of-this-world.

Henry Jenkins disclaimer for participatory learning applies to openness: “It’s less about integrating technology and more about integrating the skills that we associate with participatory learning.”

Jenkins describes participatory learning culture as one:

1.With relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement
2.With strong support for creating and sharing one’s creations with others
3.With some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices
4.Where members believe that their contributions matter
5.Where members feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least they care what other people think about what they have created).
6.Not every member must contribute, but all must believe they are free to contribute when ready and that what they contribute will be appropriately valued.
— Confronting the Challenges of a Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century

In my teaching, if I can create a learning space that supports and encourages participatory learning then I’ve gone a long way toward becoming the open teacher I want to be and preparing my students to learn the skills of openness, and hopefully, to embrace the ethos of openness.

As I wrote in the backchannel in response to Lindsay’s question: “Yes, technology has given openness new energy/opportunities for openness.”

When I first began university teaching, on-campus rather than online, I wanted to find some way to open up the classroom.

I had always wanted to move beyond the teacher-to-student loop and the online discussion boards enabled me to create a conversation spiraling among students and teacher.“Giving Birth to Ourselves,” FSLT12 blog post

The beauty of online discussion boards or forums was that everyone, between on-campus and online, had a chance to participate — whether they were introverts or extroverts. Whether as Scott Johnson described in the FSLT13 Arrival Lounge — they preferred “slow motion social interaction” to real-time.

From the blended/hybrid classes of twelve years ago, I’ve moved online and now hold synchronous discussions in a virtual world (The Bookhenge in Second Life) where I can open up the course and invite the world to join. I’ve written about learning and teaching here and shared an archived clip of a student presentation in this post: “The Better Part of Reality.”

In my reflective paper on learning for FSLT12  I wrote of a new course I was designing. Well, the shakedown cruise is complete and I hope to use FSLT13 as a way to reflect on what went right and what I can improve on. Of particular interest will be how to foster public critique in an course — something that seems to stretch the boundaries of openness.

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What Does Creativity Look Like?

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Cris

The Daily Create for today is “Capture love in a photograph. Give it a title.”

For two weeks now I’ve been trying to capture creativity or at least freeze it in time for a moment so I could hold it up to the light and study it before it melted away.

Actually my quest began much longer ago. I began the Daily Creates with #138 back in June when I enrolled in DS 106′s Camp MacGuffin. I’d had some experience with the Daily Shoot the year before and devoted my required Daily Shoots to creating a gallery of shots taken in Second Life — The Heresy Series: Virtual Reality Photography. I learned that virtual worlds afford great opportunities to manipulate light and perspective to learn about making good photographs.

Since them I’ve obsessed through over 235 Daily Creates — not to set a personal record but because I wanted to begin my new course, ECI 509, with a portfolio of digital creations and because I know no better way to keep my skills with Audacity, GIMP, and iMovie fresh. It’s so easy for me to forget something vital if I don’t use these tools regularly.

So what have I learned about what creativity looks like?

It looks like procrastination . . . so much that it scares me at first. I’m a champion procrastinator, so when I first hear that internal conversation start about maybe I’ll think of something better then I’m all for waiting for inspiration. I know that’s John Cleese’s advice — to wait it out; hold out for the good stuff. But I also know that if I don’t begin and begin boldly that I may just get stuck in neutral. So it’s a continual struggle to balance the procrastination with the need to let the ideas incubate because maybe the last one to hatch is the prizewinner.

This is a good example. I immediately had this image of a calendar page with 15 minutes-a-day marked in red. But it seemed too simple so I staged a fake birthday cake with a candle that looked like a question mark to represent a long, happy future for The Daily Create. But my first idea seemed best to me so I chucked the birthday cake. I procrastinated my way into my original idea.
Calendar with 15 minutes a day marked in red for Daily Creates

January 8 — TDC 366 — The Daily Create is one year old! Share a photo of a gift you have for us.

It looks like something totally unique . . . I have trained myself to squash any idea that I think seems too predictable. For example, when it comes to taking a picture of my favorite place to work, I did a twist on work to think of the kind of work I’d rather do than the mental work that seemed implied. My Daily Create compatriots, Norm the King of Daily Creates in particular, have inspired me to think different.
Photo of my garden -- my favorite place to work

January 14 – TDC 372 — Take a picture of your favorite place to work (desk, comfy chair, etc.)

It looks like a way to preserve personal history or one’s place in the overall history. Oftentimes I will make the most of a Daily Create to tell a story that I don’t want to forget. I’m lousy at keeping a journal or scrapbooking, so the Daily Creates I’ve created about family and friends are some of the precious few times I’ve documented some parts of my life.
January 12 — TDC 370 — Create a video about an item you own that has an unusual story attached to it.

JoJo’s Soapbox. I’ve ambitions to write a book about JoJo but until then this video tribute will have to do.

It looks like an open space to play . . . Hey, if I like the idea of the Top Ten List of the Uses for a Banana rather than 20, then I have the freedom to go with the Top Ten. I can even opt to choose another Daily Create or design my own. I do play well with others, but I first have to be true to myself.

January 18 — TDC 376 — List 20 uses for a banana.
Top Ten Uses for Bananas for Daily Create Challenge

It looks like an opportunity to go to the edge . . . the edge of my incompetence. I so wanted to tell sort of a “back-to-the-future” story about a digital tool that I used growing up. Did I succeed with “learning to draw on my mother’s knee with an iPad?” Well, it’s corny enough but I had to do it three times before I got everything I held up in the Flip’s frame. It wasn’t as easy as I though it would be.

January 15 — TDC 373 — Find nearest over-looked everyday object. Fabricate a story about it being a key part of your childhood.

So what does creativity look like? It’s like love and it’s in the eye of the beholder.

January 19 — TDC 377 — The Daily Create for today is “Capture love in a photograph. Give it a title.”
photo of tiny, fluffy cat in lap of big guy with beard

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Twofer — Greetings to EdMOOC & Daily Create

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Cris

Sharon @dwrgi gave some great advice on the EdMOOC Twitter stream:
edmooc tweet about finding time

I’m sure there are many of us who feel she was tweeting directly to us.

I’ve got another bit of advice — multitask or create as many “twofers” as you can. That’s my approach and I tried it out today by completing DS 106′s Daily Create and my hello EdMOOC video in one fell swoop.

Oh, the challenge was to create a story about an everyday object.

Introduction-wise, I’m Cris and I’m teaching a brand new grad course this semester which I shall obsess completely over and so there won’t be enough hours in the day or night but I know Sharon is right and so I’m going to give it a go and enjoy EdMOOC!

Looking forward to meeting more crazy multi-taskers out there!

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My Daily Create Roll

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Cris

My Daily Create Roll now monopolizes the ECI 509 course trailer but I plan to gladly replace with student work soon.

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Hanging Around with the Creatives

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Cris

I’ve been thinking about DS 106′s Daily Create all day. Just a little place my mind wanders when I lose focus elsewhere.

Somewhere between the panic of getting my new course site ready for the final meeting with my course developer and tech guru tomorrow and making my prolific list of notes, I came up with the idea of a “twofer.” Love when that happens! So here’s my Daily Create and a graphic that works well for this, my first course blog post. I call it the “Edge of My Incompetence” graph and the theory belongs to a terrific young philosopher-playwright-actor-writer Ezra Brain.

Edge of My Incompetence Graph

So The Daily Create challenge #361 was to “Draw something that shows how happy you are today.” On My Incompetence Chart I can report that I’m happy to have aimed high and achieved a lot for today. I’d not be nearly as happy if I’d aimed lower and achieved less.

So let that be the first lesson of Daily Creates, at least for me. It’s far better to have ambition and be a risk-taker than to grasp the first idea that comes to you and play it safe. to be continued . . .

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Creating Patterns for Learning

Posted on November 18, 2012 by Cris

I see a lot of value in a mash-up of Diana Laurillard’s concept of pedagogical patterns and Margaret Haviland’s call for teachers to teach creatively

Pedagogical patterns, as I understand them, are combinations of strategies that transcend disciplines to offer teachers building blocks that they can use to build their own patterns, try them out, and then release them back into the community for feedback and the next round of modification and use. Consider them mental Legos.

My first degree was in reading instruction, what now would be literacy education, and reading in the content areas captured my interest and imagination. I thoroughly enjoyed learning new strategies, remixing, and mashing up, as my students and the teaching context required. Looking back, I can see that actively collecting strategies and creating new combinations as well as new strategies gave me a lot of creative expression and encouraged my innovative spirit.

Haviland calls for teachers to share their creative pursuits with their students; to serve as models of creative individuals. She gives some impressive examples of art teachers who share their art and craft work, English teachers who are published authors, and a science teacher who began and operates his own school in Ghana. One could feel a bit left out, but, fortunately, Haviland also suggests that teachers can share how they teach creatively. I smile when I think that this is what I’ve delighted in doing all of these years with my pre- and inservice teachers.

For my FSLT12 (Massive Open Online Course offered on university teaching) microteaching, I shared a mash-up that includes Luis Moll’s Funds of Knowledge, Jim Cummins’s and Dennis Sayers’s collaborative critical inquiry, blogging, VoiceThread, and Second Life. Inspired by my other summer MOOC, Digital Storytelling 106, I’ve created a video to share the story of this pedagogical pattern that I’ve tested multiple times in my online teaching of ECI 521, Teaching Literature for Young Adults.

Previewing
In true reading in the content areas tradition, I have a question for you to reflect on prior to viewing the video.
Do you use collaborative inquiry small group work with your students? When, why, and how? Please view the video and consider how your approach, pedagogical pattern, is similar or dissimilar. Jot down a few notes.

During Viewing
View the video and jot down any questions you have as you watch or, perhaps, connections that you make to strategies/activities that you have found successful.

Post Viewing
Pause briefly to reflect on how the Waves of Change pedagogical pattern is similar or dissimilar to your own for inquiry-based small group work. Please bring feedback and questions to our session on Tuesday, November 27. Thanks in advice for your feedback.

If you’d like to interact with a VoiceThread, here’s the Waves of Change from this semester . . .

and here it is in context . . . Waves of Change, Fall 2012

And if you’d like to try your hand at adding comments, here’s a test VoiceThread, an Open Mic, for questions, comments, testimonials if you’ve used VoiceThread, ideas for how you might use it, whatever . . . Just click on “Comment” and you’ll be prompted to create a free account.

References

Cummins, J. and Sayers, D. (1995). Brave new schools: Channeling cultural illiteracy through global learning networks. Retrieved from http://us.macmillan.com/bravenewschools/JimCummins

Haviland, M. (2012). Encouraging teachers to teach creatively. Retrieved from http://plpnetwork.com/2012/06/05/encouraging-teachers-teach-creativity/

Laurillard, D. (2010). Investigations of elearning patterns: Context, problems, and solutions. Christian Kolis (ed.). Retrieved from http://www.lybrary.com/investigations-of-elearning-patterns-p-101195.html

Moll, L. (n.d.) Explanation of Funds of Knowledge. Video retrieved from http://www.tolerance.org/tdsi/asset/explanation-funds-knowledge.

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The Better Part of Reality

Posted on November 3, 2012 by Cris

I like to say that when the first reader became immersed in a book that literature moved to the cutting edge of virtual reality. I can’t explain it any other way but that English Language Arts teachers seem to really benefit from and enjoy classes that meet in virtual worlds. Oh, sure, they’re as skeptical at first as any newbie would be, but after a brief orientation (like 15 minutes) when I meet with each one individually in our virtual classroom, the Bookhenge, for their first conference of the semester, I get very positive feedback on the use of Second Life for “live” synchronous classes. Comments in our anonymous midterm course survey included:

This is the biggest shocker of the course. I’m open to lots of technology, but I entered the course thinking that having a class in Second Life was the STUPIDEST thing I’d ever heard of. What can I say? I’m a complete convert. It’s sheer brilliance. (That doesn’t mean I’ll be pursuing SL in my spare time, but I think it’s the perfect way to conduct an online class.)

It isn’t all rosy — 2 of the 16 students don’t like meeting in the Bookhenge but they also don’t approve of scheduled times for synchronous sessions for online courses. And a few cited technical problems, typically caused by low bandwidth. We always stream the sessions live on UStream so students have a backup way to participate in class. It’s great to have these archives when the unexpected happens and students must miss a class. You can take a look at the archives at http://bookhenge.wikispaces.com/ — see Archived Classes on the navigation frame.

Part of the appeal for ELA teachers is that we can easily meet in book clubs and small groups as well as whole group seminars. And beyond the seriousness of discussing the Common Cores State Standards and issues like censorship, the Bookhenge encourages a kind of playfulness that helps us feel more connected. There’s nothing like a good laugh together when someone does something a bit embarrassing like standing a little too close to the fire. Here’s a “slam” group presentation that’s a good example of a casual and yet effective kind of activity that can happen in the Bookhenge:



Video streaming by Ustream

Bunny and vampire avatars? Note I’m the Superwoman avatar in the clip above — we were discussing sequential art/graphic novels so I dressed the part. We begin to learn about each other through the avatars we choose. There’s a lion who is strong in his advocacy for urban minority kids who need a break and believes he can help provide one through his teaching. And someone really interested in gender issues who quite possibly created the most “hard-favored” avatar I’ve ever seen. Our “Avatar Makeover” session at the beginning of the semester is always great fun.

What more can I say? Just Tuesday I presented with two other online teachers who use Blackboard Collaborate and send students to different rooms in the big house. I think that’s fine. But I’ve also found that many of us English Language Arts-types really enjoy a bit more informal, egalitarian environment where the mic is always open and you can take your avatar for a spin around the island.

POTcert participant Jim Stauffer visited the Bookhenge in September. Read more and see the comments here — “Time to Get Real.” The invitation to the Bookhenge is always open . . .

And for more on learning and teaching in the Bookhenge, please see my post after the POTcert11 class visited — “Being There.”

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Elemental Riffs

Posted on October 29, 2012 by Cris


For best effect, play video while you read . . .

Pedagogical patterns, as I understand Diane Laulliard’s concept, are combinations of strategies that transcend disciplines to offer teachers building blocks that they can use to build their own patterns, try them out, and then release them back into the community for feedback and the next round of modification and use. Consider them mental Legos. Or, perhaps, a better metaphor — arranging the pattern’s elements in a riff or a melody within a melody. I suggest better because there’s a lot of improvisation involved in adding riffs to new melodies.

A pedagogical pattern, Laurillard insists, must be cross-disciplinary and that adds a bit of a challenge. I’ve written about a teaching and learning pattern, collaborative critical inquiry that I believe could be used across disciplines and to help encourage others to give it a try I thought I’d try to focus in on the elements.

Mind Map

You’ll see in the mindmap that this inquiry pattern both begins and ends with reflection. It begins with a bit of scaffolding, through prompt/question, that leads the learner to take stock on what he or she already brings to the learning experience. Officially, it’s called activating prior knowledge.

Then the learner begins to explore various resources to gather information relevant to the inquiry. Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos (2012) suggest that rather than begin with a shotgun approach collecting web sites via Google that the learner search for a well-researched “anchor” book that can provide “deep” reading from which the learner can then expand the exploration. The exploration and conceptualization are, of course, occurring simultaneously and recursively with one feeding the other until the learner is ready to express that conceptualization in some form.

The form of expression could be written as in posted to discussion forums or blogs or it could be recorded as an audio file with tools such as VoiceThread or SoundCloud. The VoiceThread simply makes it easier to have all of the audio recordings in one central location (see sample Collaborative Critical Inquiry). The SoundCloud recording could be pasted in a blog (see exemplar). SoundCloud also has a group function that would work well for collecting expressions in one spot. I’ve also been exploring video tools like Intervue, much like VoiceThread with multiple recordings on a page, and Eyejot that can be embedded in a blog. Or video blogging/vlogging is so easy that iMovie/MovieMaker could be used. Here’s an exemplar . . .

There’s really no limit to the form that these expressions might take. Timelines? Checkout TimelineJS using a Google spreadsheet. Mindmaps? There CoSketch for individual or collaborative efforts. Performance art (performative writing, slam poetry, dramatic readings or acting), just use audio tools like Audacity (for editing) and then posting to SoundCoud or iMovie/MovieMaker/Photostory to create video or audio slide shows from video.

Once the expression is shared then the collaboration begins with other learners reading/listening/viewing the expressions, conceptualizing, synthesizing, and responding in turn. Again, this can happen in a more teacher-directed, central location with tools like discussion forums, VoiceThread and Intervue, or on individual blogs that are tagged and/or tweeted.

I prefer to cap off the collaboration stage with a live, synchronous seminar and so my classes meet in the Bookhenge, our virtual seminar space in Second Life (use SL url in navigation frame). If the course is online, then webinars would also suffice, though it’s not as easy to do synchronous small group work leading up to the seminar or to “pass around” the mic.

Finally, we’re back to reflection only this time it’s critical reflection (Merizow, 1990) with learners examining how their assumptions may have been challenged over the course of the inquiry and forming a position on what they now believe.

So, please take these elements and create your own riffs. And let me know how it goes. Again, I’m hoping this pattern is cross-disciplinary potential.

References

Aronson, M. and M. Budhos (2011). Sugar changed the world. New York: Clarion Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Learn more at http://sugarchangedtheworld.com/

Laurillard, D. and Ljubojevic, D. (2011). Evaluating learning designs through formal representation of pedagogical patterns. IGI, Global. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=aaU6Lb5X9RkC&oi=fnd&pg=PA86&dq=diana+%2B+laurillard+%2B+pedagogical+%2B+pattern&ots=5d9jp0dVjl&sig=EApKVo7K7C-HO7z3UZ9nGKT_Quw#v=onepage&q=diana%20%2B%20laurillard%20%2B%20pedagogical%20%2B%20pattern&f=false

Merizow, J. (1990). Fostering Critical Reflection in Adulthood. Retrieved from http://www.graham-russell-pead.co.uk/articles-pdf/critical-reflection.pdf

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Thank You Again, Mrs. Benson (updated Fall 2012)

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Cris

“Thank you, Mrs. Benson.”

That’s how I ended my brief tribute to my senior English teacher, Barbara Benson, and her bold choice “to teach” Richard Wright’s Black Boy for the Journey Book VoiceThread, ECI 521: Learning Through Literature with Young Adults).

I have to marvel all the more about Mrs. Benson’s bold choice because she was fresh out of then High Point College and we were her first senior English class. She was a mere four years older than us but in many ways a lifetime ahead. I do believe that she “opened a mind” – mine – and is directly responsible for how I teach this course and my encouragement for my students to make the bold choices and make them wisely. Standards-wise, I see Mrs. Benson’s influence in my efforts to develop a framework for learning through literature with young adults. She probably gave me my first lesson in social justice as we read and discussed Richard Wright’s plight as a black man in the segregated South. I’ve endeavored to place social justice and critical literacy at the heart of the “Learning Through Literature with Young Adults” Framework by beginning with a review of crucial literacy, literature, and learning theories so that we can all envision how literature can serve to “open minds.” And because of my lifelong interest in creativity, I was thrilled to see the social justice/critical literacy and creativity link through Dan Pink’s inclusion of empathy as an element of creativity. I think beginning with the theoretical basis for how to create the conditions for students to become more conscious of social justice and critical literacy has led naturally to connections made throughout our collaborative critical inquiries, particularly in our inquiry into negotiating diverse cultures through multicultural literature.

I’m excited about trying something different this fall by working with an essential question, “”What does social justice look like and where am I in that picture?” as a way to explore how we might learn through literature to effect positive social change and work towards social justice. We’ll call this “The Change Project.” I mentioned my interest in creativity and I do believe that to create is a drive not far behind food, thirst, and sex. I’ve really enjoyed Dan Pink’s latest book, Drive, and his theory that autonomy, mastery, and purpose are necessary to encourage creativity. I’m working to build in more opportunities for these in the activities I design. I’ve been so impressed by ECI 521 students’ bookcasts and their Action Learning Project multimedia reports, both by the meaning (one of Pink’s creative elements) and the storytelling (another of Pink’s creative elements).

The question I’m living as I teach these days is how can we evolve online learning so that it’s available to everyone who wants to learn? I’ve participated in several MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) that are totally free — educators simply get together, decide to create a course, and invite the world. My first, PLENK 2010 (Personal Learning Environment and Knowledge) attracted over 1600 participants. I learned so much about the value of social media for networking that I decided to design my courses so they are more network-based. I also decided to “open up” my courses so that anyone can take the course at no charge. We are fortunate this fall to have several librarians join us and share their perspectives on encouraging actively literate teens. If you have colleagues who would like to participate in our course in any way, please invite them to join us. All of our work is open to the world and it’s great to have guests join us around the Bookhenge firepit.

In terms of my own literacy development, the luckiest break I’ve had was meeting Teresa Brantley, the then Newberry Club facilitator at Eva Perry Regional Public Library (Apex), through Frances Bradburn. It just occurred to me that Frances is ECI 521’s fairy godmother. Teresa’s Newberry Club began partnering with our class each year and morphed into a Printz Club when Frances chaired the first Printz Committee. And Valerie Nicholson became the Printz Club facilitator – a mom, trained medical professional, and book talker-extraordinaire. She really knows how to keep a group of fun-loving teen readers engaged and well aware of their power as literary critics. Here’s a group shot of the Eva Perry Mock Printz Club taken at the Melinda Awards — our huge, Oscars-themed event where we talk about the books we’ve selected as most distinguished of the year and announce awards/superlatives for everything from best cover to lifetime achievement award.

Group shot of Eva Perry teens

The 2012 Melinda Awards for Young Adult Literature

I never had the chance to read YA lit as a teenager. Didn’t know it existed. I don’t think I would be teaching this course now if I’d not met Teresa and the amazing teens from the Eva Perry Printz Club. They’ve kept me green and growing and up-to-date on the latest and greatest. It’s the best job in the world that requires that I read YA lit. I do think that YA lit is at the cutting edge of literature. As well it should be. Young adults are just beginning to ask the tough questions about issues that challenge society and humanity. Literature can be a cognitive tool for thinking critically and creatively as well as empathetically.

Now about the virtual self. You’ve met 2B Writer in the introductory video. She’s my avatar in Second Life – the one with the hot pink streaked hair. She’s my virtually immersive self and she is fearless in Second Life. There’s something about speaking to a live audience and not seeing the whites of their eyes that makes you selfless and intent on “the moment.” My online virtual identity is someone I’m working to evolve. Basically, that self is one borne of text and not image and voice. But my work in the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) Digital Storytelling 106 (the infamous DS 106) has given me a whole new set of tools to use to develop my virtual self. One of the things I enjoyed most about the course is The Daily Create If you take a look at my Flickr Photostream,YouTube Channel , or my SoundCloud channel, you’re likely to see some pretty curious pieces of “art” — all inspired by The Daily Create challenges to do something creative daily. A goal to accomplish by next year will be to figure out how to archive these on my blog. btw you need not take DS 106 to participate in The Daily Create. You should check it out!

You may have sensed that I enjoy integrating a great deal of technology in this class. I do this not to challenge you or myself but make sure we have the opportunity we need to learn new literacies and new competencies that we’ll need to model for our students.

I’ve hinted at my goals for the class. I hope that taking this course open will lead to a more global focus on young adult literature. My dream would be to have participants from around the world meeting in virtual book clubs. I also want to use the open Web tools to encourage all of us to expand our personal learning space/environment so that we develop those new literacies/competencies that we need. Finally, I want to share what you all teach me this fall about virtual book clubs and bookcasts so that online courses for middle and high school students can become more compelling. There are at least 30,000 students in North Carolina alone taking online courses, and we need to make certain that these students learn about social justice/critical literacy and creativity through literature and I don’t think that’s possible in the traditional, transmission style-online course.

Whew! I got pretty inspired there by my goals. I’d not really written those out before. It always surprises me when I complete a piece and learn something new or realize something through the focus and reflection that was just below the surface. I think I learned through this writing that my efforts to make the course open really fit into the unspoken overall goal of creating a space where educators interested in young adult literature from around the globe could meet and talk about books and learning through literature with young adults. And that we can then share this type of connected learning with our students.

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