Networks and Art Narratives

Network Concept

The idea is to use the network concept to create a culture of engagement/active learning/concerned teachers. A network has nodes which both inter-connect and radiate out on their own. I would like to couple this with the 'Cheers' concept—it is very desirable to have a place where everybody knows your name. The network needs input from an energizing battery to individual sources at each node.

The challenge is to find the way to convert these metaphors into action with people. Who is each of the nodes, what do they do as a node, how do they relate to other nodes? We could have individuals on the TLC board do this, or we could find individuals in each of the cohorts to do this. Moreover, we need to energize each node. I think we can do that by having facilitated discussions—one of the people from the gala showcase, for instance, could give a 15 to 20-minute session then let the group discuss for 40 minutes. The TLC could send around a periodic newsletter to keep individuals informed of the activities of other nodes, and also could set up 'all node' activities once a semester, a speech or a workshop. The TLC probably also ought to plan a social event once a semester.

In addition the entire node should be called upon once a year to put on a public event for the campus.

The art narrative concept and the art transcendence concept

The art narrative concept works like this. A picture depicts one moment in a story. But the story gives the picture meaning by supplying context. Thus, to use a very common example, the crucifixion is a moment in the Biblical narrative of the life of Christ. It is not so much the actual picture but the context that supplies the meaning of the image.

Art as transcendence is related to the concept of the spiritual. The spiritual is the opposite of the material. Most people seek some kind of contact with the spiritual, and thus desire to have or live in spirituality. To contact the spiritual takes, usually, a special situation, namely some kind of ritual performance, the most common example these days being the Sunday service. Art however is another route to this connection, both through obvious religious art but actually through any image. The idea is that the image takes us out of ourselves to see reality from some other viewpoint, and that viewpoint allows us to look at ourselves differently. That is the power of transcendence and thus the power of art.

Learning and Better Learning

Three impetuses to learning
October, 17, 2006

It seems to me that there are three impetuses to learning, all perhaps can be reduced to one .
The first impetus is some form of hurdle or discomfort, something that prevents something else desirable from happening.

The second impetus is the flash of insight, often discussed in terms of "I suddenly realized…" or "Then out of nowhere it occurred to me …"

The third impetus is the jollied acceptance of a challenge. In this version someone hears about something new but resists, usually openly, sometimes hostilely, the challenge. However in the situation someone else champions the new idea and 'works on' the resister who finally has her/his interest piqued and agrees to try it.

The one that all three can be reduced to is discomfort. In all three for different reasons some dissonance or discomfort is introduced. Not until this happens can learning begin. The hardest one to integrate with discomfort is the flash of insight which is a positive event thus hard to call discomfort, but it does reveal a disparity between what is and what might be, thus impelling the learner into action in order to resolve the gap.

What is better learning?

I presume that better learning is the integration of skills, concepts and attitudes closer to an expert level in the area. I am trying to work on a visual aid that illustrates this concept. Right now I am using the color theory model. Imagine a circle that has the rainbow colors at spots around it. Looking down at it one would see red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. From them all colors can be made. Then imagine a line descending from the center of the circle for some distance. At the top of the line is white and at the bottom of the line is black. Then imagine a line angling up from white to each color. As a color, say red, adds black, it becomes a shade; as it adds white it becomes a tint. All the variations of red can be represented on this triangle, and if the triangle is replaced by a cone, all the colors that can be created would be somewhere in that cone.

That cone is learning. All knowledge resides in it. The color or hue is expert disciplinary knowledge. The white node is creative analysis. The black node is disciplinary facts. As a learner integrates facts and critical analysis, he or she moves toward professional disciplinary knowledge. Thus better learning is moving away from pure critical work or pure factual work toward disciplinary knowledge.

While this is a fine start, the troubling point for me is the lack of a spot for attitude, which Krathwohl has shown is very important. That is yet to be determined.

Working with Critical Assessment

Critical Assessment

One aspect of critical assessment is application of concepts to situations. To assess this we need to ask direct questions about it and develop rubrics and activities that inform students whether or not they have effectively applied concepts and to what level.

This assessment must be clear to the student. The student must realize that this is an activity expected of him/her, that it can be mastered, and it can be mastered at differing levels of competence. In other words we have to make the concept of applying concepts as important work clear to the students. They must internalize that they can and do apply concepts.

This same logic should be used with the other aspects of critical thinking that we feel should be emphasized.

I think that this approach can also end much of the Why Do I Have To Take This Course line of questioning. If the course is taught in a way such that the critical thinking as outlined above is a central part of the course, then at any point the relevant answer is To Increase Critical Thinking skills. When the inevitable retort of Yes, but I will never have to use this in my field appears, the answer is two fold—critical thinking at its highest levels is manifested by the ability to think critically in any field and is intensified by practice in many fields.

Laptops as Call and Response

I would like to propose two ways to look at laptops: as an engagement machine and a 'call and response' machine.

An engagement machine is a device that attracts and holds your attention, often making you loose track of time as you become involved in paying attention to details and themes. One of the most common such machines is a book. The phrase 'lost in a good book' indicates the nature of the experience a person can have reading. Laptops cause that same phenomenon, even more easily than a book. I would suggest that, put in front of an open laptop, many if not most or even all people will begin to 'fiddle' with it. Soon they are 'lost' in it. I recently watched my brother, who is not a scientist, open a National Geographic site on their Genome project. Within minutes he was surfing through the site, just looking at visuals and spot reading. Then he asked himself a question about the process of determining how the Y gene functions in males' genetic history. Soon he was involved in page after page as he reformulated the question based on information he received from visuals and text. He didn't quit for nearly 30 minutes while he pressed for an answer to his question.

While one anecdote hardly stands for the entire population, I would submit that the experience described above is common. Think of the time comparative shopping for airline tickets, reading reviews of cameras to determine which one to purchase and from whom, looking up medical issues such as pink eye or cancer. During those moments the machine takes us over and engages us with the content it reveals to us, or allows us to construct.

This key feature is important for teachers who have laptops in the classroom. The machine will cause engagement. People will find pathways in it which they will explore, whether those pathways be iming, email, shopping, solitaire, gaming, or search for answers or data upon which to construct knowledge. The goal then is to manage the machine. If we manage the machine, we manage the engagement. Part of teaching with laptops it seems to me is to facilitate the student machine interface so that we channel the freeflowing engagement that the machine not only allows but encourages. The strategies of that facilitation are key topics that we need to put into our shared discourse as quickly as possible.

The laptop is also a call and response machine. 'Call and response,' of course, is a term derived from activities in spiritual music, a strategy stemming from our African-American heritage. However, it is easy to see a class as a call and response locale. For 56 years in education this strategy has been a constant in my life. The teacher 'calls' a question and the students respond with the answers. The goal in the class, as in the church, is to engage the congregation such that caller and responders join in a celebration of awareness. But in classes all too often the response is limited to a few people. For instance in an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune (November 28, 2005, A1, A6) Assistant Professor Scott McLeod says, ""The dilemma [in a regular class] is that you throw out a question and you hear from two or three students.'" In other words he uses the call strategy but like many teachers has less than satisfactory response.

The laptop, and other technologies, can facilitate call and response. The Star Tribune article ("At U, raising your hand in class goes high tech") discusses the use of 'clickers' in lecture classes. These clickers are hand-held devices that students use to respond to questions. The professor poses the question and students respond by clicking. The professor's computer is hooked to a system that records all the answers. Within seconds the professor can determine whether students are understanding the material. The benefits of this approach are apparent to Associate Professor Donald Liu who says, "' By using the system to quiz them, focus them and get them to engage in cooperative learning, I am able to bring them back.'"

In other words Liu uses technology to facilitate call and response: "'Now you can pose a questions and see what everyone thinks. They all participate.'" The University of Minnesota, however, says that they will eventually replace the clickers with laptops because laptops in a wireless environment can communicate more readily than clickers.

This call and response strategy is one method of managing the engagement capability of the laptop in class and is also an example of technology not only facilitating but enhancing a traditional, deeply held educational value.