Mediactive by Dan Gillmor

How has media publication changed?  How will it continue to change?  As we move further into the digital age, we will be creators and producers of the news, rather than passive receivers.  Gillmor offers many insights into media and journalism in an evolving climate from managing your online presence, to being a skeptical consumer of information, to trustworthy media/journalism and plenty of ideas and suggestions for improvement. 

All of this begs the question, what are we teaching in schools in order to prepare our students to face the media of the future?

Author Dan Gillmor is the founding director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and writes an online column for the Guardian newspaper.  He also runs the website mediactive.com.

Reflections on Heidi Hayes Jacobs’ TEDxNYED talk

• What are we preparing our students for?
• Strategic replacements/upgrades of outdated curriculum
• Updates are replacements of outdated content, skills and assessments
• Media, global and digital literacy – what is it and what does it look like?
• Students are processing information differently.
• Most learning isn’t linear.
• Every school should have at least 3 benchmark assessments where students get to “be” a futurist and/or practice new genre(s).
• Have student develop the rubrics – What does a quality __________ (blog, podcast, wiki, etc.) look like?
• New School Versions
• Schedule – What types of schedules would best help kids?
• Student grouping – Why do we always need 3^rd graders together?
• Personnel grouping – Why are we only meeting with our content area/department?
• Space (virtual and physical) – Virtual Learning Magnets (Tom Welsh)

Quite a bit to think about here.  I'm particularly struck by asking students to define quality work!

Visual Information

I just watched a video of Karl Gude of Michigan State presenting at TEDX Lansing in May 2010. What an excellent presentation on visual design.


Basically, Gude points out that we are on information overload. It’s like a fire hose pouring out into a teacup.

Data comes at us from every direction and we are trying to absorb everything. So how can we make our information relevant and readily available to our audience?

Instead of presenting in print-rich format, you can get more information out more quickly by using graphics and visuals. A reader can skim a graphic and get an overview much more quickly than one can read a pamphlet. Get the information out by SHOWING it to your audience. Then, your reader can scan the information.

Now I know what you’re thinking, “I can’t draw.” Well, me either. There are tons of free programs out there that can create charts and graphs for you. Or stick figures drawn on a napkin work well too. Or use photos. Either way, it’s making me think I need to reevaluate how I present information to teachers, students and clients.

Writing is...

I was playing around with Wordle and thinking about what it means to write.

Play

Next up in Pink’s six senses/aptitudes for success is play.

Play: Problem solving, self-expression, self-exploration and humor.

Now, anyone who knows me knows this is not my area of strength. My family jokes that I came out of the womb a mature thirty-year-old. So, games, humor and not taking myself seriously don’t come easily to me. Pink give a few suggestions for how to strengthen this aptitude.

• Look at cartoons and try to create the caption (p.210). This would work well as a Writers’ Notebook entry.
• Play video games (p. 212). I don’t think we’d have to tell most kids more than once to work on this one!
• Think of writing prompts to promote self-expression and self-exploration. You could certainly bring in some poetry here too!
• Play ‘A Day in the Life’: Have each participant write his or her name on a large piece of paper and then make two columns with the headings: My Frustrations, My Rewards. Next, post all of the sheets on the walls and ask everyone to walk around the room and write what they think the answers are for their co-workers. Then, each person reclaims his/her own sheet and everyone takes a turn responding to their classmates' guesses while explaining what their day is really like. This would also work well with characters from a novel.

That last one might have been from the empathy chapter, but felt like it could fit here too. My apologies to Mr. Pink if I put it in the wrong place.

Empathy

Daniel Pink’s six senses, or essential aptitudes, for success: design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning.

Empathy: The ability to imagine yourself in someone else’s position and intuit what that person is feeling (p. 159).

I agree with Pink and I also recognize that this is hard to do with adolescents since they are so egocentric. However, I think it’s worth pointing out to teens and modeling it for them to build their self-awareness. Shortly after I finished Pink’s book, I ran across this article about what students should learn in school, but aren’t. The author listed Global Empathy as something kids should learn.

[Education technology consultant Alan] November said he was talking with a senior executive at a global investment bank recently, and he asked the executive: What is the most important skill for today’s students to learn so they are prepared to succeed in the new global economy?

“Empathy,” the executive replied—the ability to understand and respect different points of view.

Most of today’s companies do business with customers all over the world, and several also have branches in multiple countries. Chances are good that when students enter the workforce, they’ll be working with—or doing business with—someone from another nation, with its own culture and its own unique perspective, at some point in their career.

It’s not hard to find people who are smart, the executive said. What is hard to find are employees who have to ability to empathize with, and be sensitive to the needs of, people from other countries

The response this executive gives really stood out to me especially in light of the new Common Core Standards for college and career readiness. What are we doing to prepare our students for the global workforce?!

Design

This is my first post exploring Daniel Pink’s six senses, or essential aptitudes for success: design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning. I’ll just go in order for ease of my memory!

Design: Not just creating a product, but creating something that is aesthetically pleasing.

Pink says, design is utility enhanced by significance. (p.70) We must master design for personal fulfillment and professional success. Design principles are crucial for differentiation in business. Good design, (well, even bad design) can change the world.

Pink suggests a few things to work on in this realm. First, pay attention to the things around you. How are things designed? What works well? What colors, shapes, materials are used?

• Is there an item that you think needs to be improved? Draw a sketch of how you could improve the item.
• Take a drawing/art class. Why is it that beyond about third grade, the drawing stops? In school, we could definitely encourage more students to represent their thoughts visually/graphically.
• Instead of a typical outline, how about allowing – even encouraging – a storyboard? There are some great samples of these online that could jumpstart a writing workshop.

I think that in this global society we all must make ourselves more marketable. It never hurts to look for areas for improvement. From an educator standpoint, these six aptitudes are simple things we can incorporate into our classrooms.

A Whole New Mind

I recently read Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind which explores six senses which are necessary for success.  Pink examines America’s growth from the agricultural age to the conceptual age.  While at one time, it was necessary to be left-brain dominate for success, those are also the skills and jobs which are currently being outsourced.  Pink’s assertion is that Americans need to explore their right-brain aptitudes in order to compete in this global market and develop a whole new mind (hence Pink’s title).

 

He outlines six senses, or essential aptitudes: design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning.

 

Design: Not just creating a product, but creating something that is aesthetically pleasing.

Story: Anyone can argue a point, but in order to effectively persuade and communicate, you need to develop a compelling narrative.

Symphony: Left-directed thinking analyzes; right-directed thinking synthesizes. This synthesis is looking at all the components and using them to create a symphony.

Empathy: The ability to imagine yourself in someone else’s position and intuit what that person is feeling (p. 159).

Play: Problem solving, self-expression, self-exploration and humor.

Meaning: Meaning is the key to happiness. One should see one’s work as a calling. Drive/ambition is the pursuit of meaning (and the topic of Pink’s current book, I presume).

 

In upcoming posts, I’ll address each of these six and my attempts to cultivate them in my life and work.

Passion for Literacy

I have a passion for all things literacy: reading, writing, texting, speaking, blogging, viewing, podcasting, listening…the list could go on. Merriam-Webster defines passion as “intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction.” That last part, conviction, really resonates with me. I have a strong belief that literacy is a foundation for all other skills. I also think literacy is more than reading and writing – we must consider the 21st Century skills that our students will need to succeed.

No longer does composing mean writing an essay. Composing is creating something, whether alone or together. It may be on a computer, on paper or even on a napkin. As educators, we must recognize that students are encountering various literacies and modes of expression and determine how we can equip students to succeed.