Learning Aloud

NASA offers educational materials related to the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn. The materials are intended to capitalize on interest in the current mission to teach math and science concepts.

I watched Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” last night. I found it disturbing, but I would highly recommend that others see it. I recognize that there have been complaints contesting the factual accuracy and slant of the film. Why should this be surprising and, if true, why would the complaint be unique to Michael Moore? By way of comparison, I checked my audible.com current best seller list – “My Life”, “Charlie Wilson’s War”, “Plan of Attack”, “Dude, Where’s My Country”, “Against All Enemies”, “Hegemony of Survival”, “Sleeping With the Devil”, “Deliver Us From Evil” were within the top 16 NonFiction Best Sellers. Any bets that these books have somewhat different stories to tell?

My take on the core message of “Fahrenheit 9/11”? There is a hidden agenda and hidden players behind current events. The players include an assortment of political leaders from several countries and the agenda involves huge financial opportunities for these players and the companies or groups they represent. In addition, the human cost of unwittingly implementing this agenda falls to military personnel nearly exclusively from lower income groups.

What does any of this have to do with education or technology? Perhaps a great deal. As technology provides greater access to an increasing amount of information, information literacy seems an essential skill. This concern is often presented as – you can’t believe everything you access through an unedited medium such as the Internet. However, we are also learning that you can’t believe everything politicians, the news media, etc. tell us. One of the first skills in evaluating web resources – who authored this page and what does he/she have to gain by you accepting the information the page presents. Perhaps careful consideration of public information sources should always have been in order, but immediate access to very different perspectives now makes this reality very apparent (see list of best sellers provided above). Awareness of contrasting positions is a good thing.

Quicktime segments from video

We offer a database of the online resources we encounter in our activities. There are approximately 550 links in our collection. Approximately twice a year I go through the entire collection to search for dead links. I have taken to keeping track of he number of links that do not function and I am unable to locate with a Google search. This time the number was 12. Obviously, the number of links is partly a function of the type of resources I collect. However, this seems a small % and one way to quantify the stability of web resources.

James Gee is becoming one of my favorite writers (see previous posts about Gee’s analysis of computer games). I recently read his chapter “Millennials and bobos, Blue’s Clues and Sesame Street: A story for our times” in Adolescents and literacies in a digital world (Edited by Alvermann, 2004).

I would describe this chapter as an effort to describe the changes in values that are occuring across generations and how such change may be moderated by differences in wealth. I would describe myself as a bobo and my kids millennials. Millennials are children born after 1982 and are more likely to be the younger children in a family than the older children. As parents, bobos probably are upper middle class and desire a lifestyle that is meaningful, but also involves the pursuit of wealth and status.

Gee describes bobos as helping their children develop a portfolio because both parents and children view themselves as ongoing projects. The idea of shape shifting portfolio people implies that significant life changes are likely and well prepared people rely upon a collection of skills and experiences they can use to promote themselves when faced with change. They repurpose past experiences and skills to adapt and gain an advantage when faced with changing circumstances. Parents invest in their children to develop this portfolio – prestige colleges if possible, travel, development of special talents (music, athletics).

There is an element of concern in this analysis and this concern relates to the failure of schools to address an increasing gap between the “haves” and “have nots.” Parents with money appear committed to provide their children a range of experiences necessary to succeed in a rapidly changing world. Society in general does not appear to be committed to providing all children this range of experiences and schools are placed in the position of providing “the basics.” The lack of commitment of schools to experiences involving creativity, deep thinking, long term projects may eventually limit the opportunity of underpriviledged children unable to acquire such experiences in other settings.

Wired News reports that the Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional a law blocking companies that appear to offer porn to children. The basis for this decision was the first amendment.

My concern is that this situation will invite even tighter access controls by schools.

Additional Washington Post Analysis

For you history fans:

The University Libraries of the University of Cincinnati are taking responsibility for “Lewis and Clark: A Journey.” You may want to follow the expedition by following
daily accounts or examine other links available at the site.