Teaching Social Media: ECHOOOOOOOOOOOO

Today is our second to last meeting of TSM. I am eager and anxious to see what the three teams have been doing.



A few examples for today:

TED-Ed on Pinterest

Perhaps the greatest commencement speech in history:

Transcript of Steve Jobs' Address. "Stay hungry - stay foolish."

[Video] Not here for Parents' Weekend? Let two student guides take you on a virtual tour of campus: stanford.io/YJCvHy
— Stanford University (@Stanford) February 22, 2013

Best College Admissions Videos:
#1. University of Rochester
#5.


The Intern Candidate

Temple Made, Philly Made, Self Made

Re-Imagine Education and Learning Communities

"The map is not the territory" Alfred Korzybski

Or is it?

Yesterday a student let it slip that the epigraph in The Great Gatsby was made up.
I had remembered learning that once and asked him where he heard it.

He mumbled,  "The internet... might have been Crash Course." I had never heard of Crash Course or John Green but after watching a couple Crash Courses in class, I woke up this morning and started googling Crash Course which led to John Green's TED Talk.

Now our internet policy prohibits the use of Sparknotes and other virtual Cliff Notes - and the wicked Wikipedia.

We want students to read and focus on the primary text without the help of study aids.

Here's the rub: intellectual curiosity...

We Google everything. Have a question - Google it!

Can I blame a student for being curious and then sharing what he's learned on the internets?

(Yes, the internets is intentional - it's a joke - an allusion...)

The point is that there are no walls to the classroom - no end to education.

And no longer is the teacher the master... of all knowledge - the gatekeeper, the authority.

In learning, the more we learn, the more we learn the less we know (or something like that - who said that?)

Borrowing from John Green, we are curious cartographers - and like explorers, we traverse the world wide web.

John Green, thank you. I am free from delivering the same lecturing three times to my three sections - I can grade their writing and have more time to meet to discuss their writing. Your lectures trump mine: they are visual, they are funny, they are passionate, they are engaging - and they are accessible 24/7 if a student misses a class... like many did today with sports physicals.

If you missed class, watch the following:



Learn more about John Green in this enlightening and provocative TED talk.


Emily Dickinson's "There's a Certain Slant of Light"

Ze Frank The Show was funded on Kickstart

John Green's Crash Course Playlist on Youtube
I Recommend:


For More Knowledge and Learning Communities:

Vi Hart - fun with math, seriously.
Smarter Everyday
https://www.khanacademy.org/
Minute Physics

So Is YouTube Making Us Smarter? Check out: Idea Channel | PBS

And before you think you don't need school or college, remember it's about a community - where learners discuss ideas over lunch and dinner and yes, even breakfast at boarding school, plus in the libraries, in the dorms, and yes, on the buses to away games. And if you don't think college is worth the investment, watch this:

Think about your role in our community at WRA. What do you share with our community?
Who do you follow? How do you spend your free-time?
Are you intellectually curious - and not afraid to share that passion for learning?

Carrots, Eggs, Or Coffee?

The following is one of those stories that makes the rounds via email - my aunt received it, sent it to my mom, who passed it along to me. 

To be honest, I don't read many of the spam emails my mom sends me, but every now and then, she passes along a jem. 

As we head into midwinter break, and there's stress looming for my students with the Junior Writing Exam around the corner, it felt more than appropriate to share this story:

Carrots, Eggs, Or Coffee

A young woman went to her Grandmother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling.

Her Grandmother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans.

She let them sit and boil without saying a word. In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.

Turning to her Granddaughter, she asked, "Tell me, what do you see?" "Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

She brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft and mushy. She then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hardened egg. Finally, she asked her to sip the coffee.

The daughter smiled as she tasted its deep flavor and inhaled its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, "What's the point, Grandma?"

Her Grandmother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity - boiling water - but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin, outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water they had changed the water.

"Which are you?" she asked her Granddaughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?"

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong? But with pain and adversity, do I wilt and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a fluid spirit but, after death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart? Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water - the very circumstance that brings the adversity, the pain, the hardship – into something quite wonderful. When the water gets hot, it releases it's fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better, and change the situation around you for the better.

When the hours are the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate to another level? How do you handle adversity?

ARE YOU A CARROT, AN EGG, OR A COFFEE BEAN?

~ Author Unknown

MLK Day 2013

Bob Dylan, Death of Emmett Till (1963)

Twas down in Mississippi no so long ago,
When a young boy from Chicago town stepped through a Southern door.
This boy's dreadful tragedy I can still remember well,
The color of his skin was black and his name was Emmett Till.

Some men they dragged him to a barn and there they beat him up.
They said they had a reason, but I can't remember what.
They tortured him and did some evil things too evil to repeat.
There was screaming sounds inside the barn, there was laughing sounds out on the street.

Then they rolled his body down a gulf amidst a bloody red rain
And they threw him in the waters wide to cease his screaming pain.
The reason that they killed him there, and I'm sure it ain't no lie,
Was just for the fun of killin' him and to watch him slowly die.

And then to stop the United States of yelling for a trial,
Two brothers they confessed that they had killed poor Emmett Till.
But on the jury there were men who helped the brothers commit this awful crime,
And so this trial was a mockery, but nobody seemed to mind.

I saw the morning papers but I could not bear to see
The smiling brothers walkin' down the courthouse stairs.
For the jury found them innocent and the brothers they went free,
While Emmett's body floats the foam of a Jim Crow southern sea.

If you can't speak out against this kind of thing, a crime that's so unjust,
Your eyes are filled with dead men's dirt, your mind is filled with dust.
Your arms and legs they must be in shackles and chains, and your blood it must refuse to flow,
For you let this human race fall down so God-awful low!

This song is just a reminder to remind your fellow man
That this kind of thing still lives today in that ghost-robed Ku Klux Klan.
But if all of us folks that thinks alike, if we gave all we could give,
We could make this great land of ours a greater place to live.

Wednesday, August 28, 1963

At MLK's March on Washington on August 28, 1963, Bob Dylan performed "Blowing in the Wind".

Emmett Till on PBS

The Untold Story of Emmett Till


From Wikipedia:

Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) was an African-American boy who was murdered in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman. Till was from Chicago, Illinois, visiting his relatives in the Mississippi Delta region when he spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the married proprietor of a small grocery store. Several nights later, Bryant's husband Roy and his half-brother J. W. Milam arrived at Till's great-uncle's house...

Emmett was kidnapped and killed; his body was found in the river - his father's ring helped identify the boy as Emmett Till.

While the KKKs numbers may have dwindled - extremist groups are still strong and hatred still exists.  MLK teaches us to speak out against repression and for justice and love for all human beings.

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Detention: Thinking Out Loud with Social Media

So it's Saturday night, and I'm in detention. Not quite a John Hughes film like The Breakfast Club. 

(I include the trailer for students that haven't seen such '80s classic films)

To clarify, I am not serving detention. I monitor detention that runs from 7:45 to 10:30pm. The students have cut class or required work to make up. Some may have skipped one too many sit-down meals or assemblies. The list is relatively short - seven kids - in a boarding school of about 400 - not bad.

Their eyes are fixed on laptops and ipads with earbuds secured. 

One boy falls asleep; after twenty minutes, I tap him on the shoulder and tell him to take a bathroom break and splash a little water on his face. 

Truth be told: many of these students would be doing the same thing in their dorm rooms. The punishment is to sit in uncomfortable chairs in a math classroom under terrible fluorescent lighting. My eyes hurt. 

Meanwhile, I contemplate grading, reading, revising plans for tomorrow's lacrosse clinic, or finishing an overdue course plan for a unique ECHO course this winter entitled: "Teaching Social Media."

(What is an ECHO Course? FYI )

So please allow me to think out loud with you.

Here's the course plan: 

_______
TEACHING SOCIAL MEDIA; Social Media for Social Good

Pre-meeting sign up for Edmodo.com - in-class assignments will be shared on Edmodo.com

Take Edmodo group poll and quiz to see where the 25 students stand in terms of literacy with, and use of, social media.

Hopefully, there will be more than five veteran iMovie editors - and many students with smart phones with HD cameras.

(Exploring possibilities to partner with Mr. Gerber's video editing ECHO that will run simultaneously.)

Week 1:

Watch and Discuss the Fine Brother's viral video:
Teens React to Chilling Cyberbullying Video

"Be With" Exercise - to see one another eye to eye.

Discussion on Integrity: Who am I? An existential crisis in a world of social media.

Review privacy issues on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as well as personal exposure on social media.

(Re)introduce Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and the Class Blog. Create platforms to share and learn.

For some, it will be old hat - for some it will blow their minds; therefore, partner students with a tech savvy mentor.

Things to think about: Who would you like to interview on campus or in Hudson? We will create content for our blog that the admissions office, alumni office, or deans office will likely appreciate - and share with prospective students, alumni, and current students and parents.

Course Projects: Why WRA? What makes WRA special to you? Tell your WRA story.  

Week 2:

Brainstorm in groups; then, go shoot short films on smart phones - one take - no splice editing necessary.

Post to blog - and share via platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google+.

Brainstorm longer documentaries that will require editing and more story boarding and planning.

HWK: Contact possible individuals to interview on campus and in town.


Week 3: 

Continue to brainstorm and plan in groups; then, go interview individuals on smart phones.

Edit.

Post.

Week 4:


Brainstorm in groups; then, go interview individuals on smart phones.

Edit.

Post.



Week 5:


TBD - Possible field trip one week.




Week 6:


Review and showcase work.

Final discussion.



Conclude with another "Be with" exercise.
________


During the course, we will discuss and share various findings, video clips, and TED Talks.

I hope to have short visits from guest speakers both live and via Skype or Google Hangout. For example, tech savvy faculty, alumni, social media gurus, business owners, non-profit organizers, content producers, writers, etc.

FYI: I've already been tweeting @kob14 relevant links and posts using: #teachingsocialmedia #wraecho

I am guessing the students will teach me more than I can imagine right now; however, I do want to share the idea that who you "Follow" in cyberspace is just as important as it is in the real world.

Technology is a tool - how do we use it responsibly? That's the question.  Imagine if we shifted the mindset from mundane status updates and cyber bullying to social media for social good.

Any feedback would be most appreciated.