Fresh Graffiti

Check out Banksy's urban art. He just wants to be non-conformist just like everybody else

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

Melissa just showed me this video, Web 2.0 The Machine is Us/ing Us, from a working group called Digital Ethnography at Kansas State University dedicated to exploring and extending the possibilities of digital ethnography.

It is one of the most provocative digital shorts that I've seen. It's about how digital multi-modal communications are changing the world. It's about the adaptive, hybrid, shape-shifting nature of online digital designs. The machine is using us---The machine is us.

McCain's Theme Song

Initially, I didn't believe our friend Melissa when she told us about McCain's recent invoking of the Beach Boys song at a campaign appearance. Sounded more like a Saturday Night Live sketch than a press conference. Sure enough, in response to the vomitous question: How many times do we have to prove that these people are blowing up people now, never mind if they get a nuclear weapon? When do we send them an airmail message to Tehran?, John McCain unveiled his gunslingin' presidential campaign theme song: Bomb-Bomb-Bomb. Bomb-Bomb-Iran. Funny guy, at least the audience seemed to think so. Excuse me while I wipe the puke off my chin.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. 1922 — 2007

Last week, Kurt Vonnegut died. I have not read him in years, but at one time, he was central to my literature diet. In college I applied for a Fullbright scholarship. When one of the interviewers asked me who my favorite author was, I responded Vonnegut, and he frowned at me. I'm sure that's the reason I got turned down--yeah right. Perhaps Mr. Fullbright gatekeeper couldn't appreciate the way that Vonnegut combined the experiences of misery and fear wih droll humor. Perhaps it was Vonnegut's strong anti-war themes. Whatever it was, that guy was a twit. After my semester's over, I'll go back to him.

In the meantime, those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand.

I'm published

I'm not opposed to a little shameless self-promotion, and until I get a PR rep, who's going to do it? Anyway, it's my first real publication. Hopefully not the last. For folks outside of education, it may be a better sleep aid than read. But the issues we discuss in here indirectly impact anyone with kids in public school...

A Critical Policy Analysis and Response to the Report of the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ)

by Curt Dudley-Marling, Lisa Patel Stevens, and Alexander Gurn, Boston College

While education has long been a political touchstone in the United States, current federal and state legislation and funding initiatives have raised the political stakes to unforeseen levels. The reach of the federal No Child Left Behind Act and accompanying Reading First program is unparalleled, affecting the form and content of instruction in classrooms across the United States. As debates rage about intended and unintended effects of these policies, we take the stance that, at a minimum, educational policies, including position papers and reports, must be closely examined for their representations of education, particularly how educational policies position teachers and students relative to theories of learning and wider political contexts. It is in this spirit that we offer a critique of a recent report on the preparation of teachers of reading produced by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) which concludes that schools of education are not teaching future teachers about the “science of reading” (Walsh, Glaser, & Wilcox, 2006, p. 48). Specifically, we pose questions about the historical relevance of the NCTQ report and explicit and implicit definitions of reading proficiency embedded in the report. We also suggest how informed educational professionals—like NCTE members—can and should engage with policy documents that shape their daily work. We begin by situating the NCTQ report in a broader historical and political context. MORE...

Teaching Kids to Walk

Standard 1.9-Students will be able to walk for a variety of purposes

Last week Martin Johnson, the deputy general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, a UK teachers' union, suggested the national curriculum be discarded and children taught life skills instead, such as how to walk.

"There's a lot to learn about how to walk. If you were going out for a Sunday afternoon stroll you might walk one way. If you're trying to catch a train you might walk in another way and if you are doing a cliff walk you might walk in another way," Johnson explained.

"If you are carrying a pack, there's a technique in that. We need a nation of people who understand their bodies and can use their bodies effectively."

I suppose Johnson was trying to argue that the national curriculum, with a back-to-basics focus on academic skills and standardized tests is disconnected from actual life experiences and social needs. I tend to agree and might add that the intellectual skils needed to excel in the 21st century are not reflected in a narrowed curriculum with scripted instruction and prescriptive learning goals. Realities outside of school in our global, fast-capital economy call for multimodal ways of thinking, flexibility, and adaptability, while policies governing in-school practices remain focused on stabile, unchanging conceptions of knowledge... Too bad he kept running his mouth. It's rhetoric like this that allows Bush to convince people that he's confronting the "soft bigotry of low expectations" with NCLB.

Get on the Bus

When I'm not racking up parking tickets in Boston, I like to ride public transportation. The MBTA #51 Bus shuttles me between Roslindale and Boston College. The trip takes at least three times as long as the car, but it's usually way more colorful. Many days, I get face time with a random crazy on the bus ( I wear my sign proudly), but the other night I bumped into a friend. That night, I got to ham it up with a crazy that I know. So if you're reading this, please keep riding the bus, Juanito. I'll look out for you.