Make and Share
Initial Ruminations on Digital Citizenship
#makeandshare
Author: Robert Heath
YAWP
David White, & Alison Le Cornu, (2011) offer a criticism of the binary digital native:digital immigrant framing of a web presence. However, they do not stop there, but rather they develop a theory of visitor:resident as a continuum of participation in their article Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement. In this video, White complicates our thinking in several key ways; first, White calls into question the importance of “generation” in our thoughts about web presence. White’s video further delves deeper introducing the model of continua in contrast to binaries. White also introduces the importance of motivation in propelling a persons’ relative residency or visitor status.
Therefore, if the simple binaries do not adequately open the conversation, what other possible models do we have at hand? Perhaps instead if we imagine the binaries as the ends of ranges and we imagine a node at which these several spectra intersect, then we can plot our “location” or comfort in the online environment — a multidimensional map. White indeed has mapping one’s participation as a goal of his method. White discusses motivation in relative participation as an essential element. “Participation” calls into question “presence” too. “Presence” suggests a product, perhaps, whereas “participation” suggests a process.
I begin with participation in the online environment since it seems implicit and necessary in any possible definition of “digital citizenship.” Stripping the “digital” we are unlikely to recognize a person who does not pay taxes, does not serve on juries, does not vote, does not stay informed on issues as behaving like a citizen, perhaps visiting but not residing, not a citizen. Adding back the “digital” what then is analogous behaviors and responsibilities in the online environment?
My social media presence is linked by the familiar icons at the bottom of the page. LinkedIn is my professional persona. I am less active with it of late, but I do read articles on a nearly daily basis. Twitter is exclusively for ONID, though I have found some interesting professional news on occasion. G+ is likewise related to ONID participation. YouTube was initially only a library of content providers I followed. I tried to make a couple of videos to see if that was a storytelling format that inspired my creativity. Perhaps if I stuck with it and messing about with the camera became routine and second nature… but for now that is all I have done. I have a Facebook page that is locked down tight and is solely used for managing Facebook Ads, and my work page. And that is about it for social media.
I kept a blogger site for years that journaled my workouts: Sisyphean Enterprises, but it is unkempt now. I have played a couple of online games, Pirates of the Burning Sea, and Eve Online, my main Eve character is Haki Aldard. I messed about a little with DayZ as well. The challenge of PvP is fascinating, not that I am any good at it. Alas, I cannot afford the cost or time to play now that I am living in Dillingham, Alaska.
I am susceptible to the existential notion of self — existence precedes essence. Accordingly, I am what I have done. My single greatest adult accomplishment is to have raised two kids, one of each flavor. My daughter just graduated from Columbia University and Lewis and Clark College with bachelor’s degrees in Environmental Engineering and Chemistry respectively. My son is a Junior at University of Maine, Orono and working on an Environmental Studies degree. They are well launched.
I have as well cared for ailing parents, one who had Frontotemporal dementia. I supported my spouse’s successful cancer fight. Her blog, Riding a New Horse is here.
I graduated from Sheldon Jackson College, in Sitka Alaska in 1988. My connection to Alaska extends back to World War II. My Grandfather and Grandmother lived in Kodiak during the war. My Grandfather built the refrigeration on the Naval base. My Grandmother was the Postmistress. My Mother was born in Kodiak in 1945. Their lives took them to Southern California after the war, and it was there that I was born and raised. But Alaska was always part of the family mythology. So, I chose to go to college in Alaska. However, I met my spouse and her family lived on the East coast, and so before I was done with Alaska, we relocated to Maine. I worked 20 and change years at an elite liberal arts college. The last four years as an Assistant Director. I was completely burnt out and desperate to return to Alaska. Last fall I took a position with Bristol Bay Campus, in Dillingham Alaska. I no longer have a good work-life balance as I let hobby’s and interests go and instead prioritized work and graduate studies. This winter I realized, during the holiday break, I had too much time on my hands and so purchased some acrylic paints and started drawing and painting again. Painting gave me a creative voice in college of which I was previously unaware. Rather than a picture of myself I offer this attempt at sunrise over the Nushagak (if you care SoundCloud and LinkedIn offer a professional headshot, though now I am grayer).
A third grader could do better. If there is any consolation, it is that I have not put paint to canvas since 1988. But, it feels good to be learning again.
I do not feel the affinity for lists, and so this is a struggle. However, among the many Chris offered I found these:
- List the ways you don’t care to die
- debilitating stroke
- dementia
- languishing disease, e.g. Parkinson’s, Lou Gehrig’s,
- List the epitaphs you might like on your tombstone.
- He left it a little better than he found it.
- One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
Of course these combined offer a relatively morbid sense of self. Perhaps at this moment, late in middle-age, and anticipating early old-age that is entirely appropriate. However, most of my waking time is not spent fixated on my mortality and rather on what I can still do and make both professionally and personally.
References
White, D. [jiscnetskills]. (2014, March 10). Visitors and Residents. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/sPOG3iThmRI.
White, D., & Le Cornu, A. (2011). Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement. First Monday, 16(9). Retrieved October 4, 2016, http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3171/3049
YAWP by Robert Heath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.rdheath.com/blog/?p=457.
Mashup/Remix
Genesis 1:1-10
In the beginning, God created the Vietnam War. Now the war was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the violence.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
‘Do ladies always such a hard time having babies?’ Nick asked.
‘No, that was very, very exceptional.’
‘Why did he kill himself, Daddy?’
‘I don’t know, Nick. He couldn’t stand things, I guess.’
‘Do many men kill themselves, Daddy?’
‘Not very many, Nick.’
‘Do many women?’
‘Hardly ever.’
‘Don’t they ever?’
‘Oh, yes. They do sometimes.’
‘Daddy?’
‘Yes.’
‘Where did Uncle George go?’
‘He’ll turn up all right.’
‘Is dying hard, Daddy?’
‘No, I think it’s pretty easy, Nick. It all depends.’
They were seated in the boat, Nick in the stern, his father rowing. The sun was coming up over the hills. A bass jumped, making a circle in the water. Nick trailed his hand in the water. It felt warm in the sharp chill of the morning.
In the early morning on the lake sitting in the stern of the boat with his father rowing, he felt quite sure that he would never die.
Nick stood at the end of time, half his head blown away, his right index finger curved gently; his other fingers lazily formed the grip of the gun. Dying was indeed easy, just like Daddy said; living was difficult. He saw his father first, a mirror image. The Indian next the gash across his throat flared luridly. Uncle George seeming unmarked was there too, his suicide a lifetime of booze and cigars. Finally, there were just too many things that they couldn’t stand, they shared that in life and death.
This, of course, was his story and it should have stood on its own. However, as always, others appropriated it to tell their stories, stories of gender, race, oppression and privileged masculinity. At first, it was wives, kids, and friends; later it was strangers telling his story for themselves, their purposes. Deriding the telling because of what it was not and missing what it was, just another kind of violence, and simply too much to stand.
Ernest Hemingway: The Life as Fiction and the Fiction as Life
Jackson J. Benson
American Literature
Vol. 61, No. 3 (Oct. 1989), pp. 345-358
Published by: Duke University Press
DOI: 10.2307/2926824
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2926824
Page Count: 14
Jackson J. Benson
American Literature
Vol. 61, No. 3 (Oct. 1989), pp. 345-358
Published by: Duke University Press
DOI: 10.2307/2926824
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2926824
Page Count: 14
For one thing, I think we have missed Hemingway’s humor, and for another, we have tended to overlook his expressions of gentleness, as well as his attachment to the natural world. We have missed the sense in his work of the complexity of what it means to live… and with our biographical blinders on, we have missed his deep conviction of life’s essential ambiguities.
Benson, J. (1989). Ernest Hemingway: The Life as Fiction and the Fiction as Life. American Literature,61(3), 345-358. doi:10.2307/2926824
‘How do you like being an interne?’
Nick said, ‘All right’. He was looking away so as not to see what his father was doing.
‘There. That gets it,’ said his father and put something into the basin. Nick didn’t look at it. ‘Now,’ his father said, ‘there’s some stitches to put in. You can watch this or not, Nick, just as you like. I’m going to sew up the incision I made.’
Nick did not watch. His curiosity had been gone for a long time.
Nick was young, less than eleven, probably. He discovered that experience of the ancient, just not interested, not curious, and exhausted and there is nothing to do with it or about it. The dying of curiosity is among the just too many things. As are the polite lies, hundreds, thousands of polite lies, mostly simply of omission, but stacked up in an enormous dirty pile. They became an impossible obstruction to self-reflection, each tiny little lie hides us from ourselves and in the end are impossible to stand. It is there as well though quiet and subtle, the matter of approval, father for a son, or rather the lack. It is almost never forthcoming. It is usually unapproachable. The father dies, by his hand, and it is forever irreconcilable. The depth of despair at never being deemed good, let alone good enough is among the too many things.
‘You see, Nick, babies are supposed to be born head first, but sometimes they’re not. When they’re not they make a lot of trouble for everybody. Maybe I’ll have to operate on this lady. We’ll know in a little while.When he was satisfied with his hands, he went in and went to work.
‘Pull back that quilt, will you, George?’ he said. I’d rather not touch it.’
Later when he started to operate Uncle George and three Indian men held the woman still. She bit Uncle George on the arm and Uncle George said, ‘Damn squaw bitch!’ and the young Indian who had rowed Uncle George over laughed at him. Nick held the basin for his father. It all took a long time.
His father picked the baby up, slapped it to make it breathe, and handed it to the old woman.
* * *
‘Ought to have a look at the proud father. They’re usually the worst sufferers in these little affairs,’ the doctor said. ‘I must say he took it all pretty quietly.’
He pulled back the blanket from the Indian’s head. His hand came away wet. He mounted on the edge of the lower bunk with lamp in one hand and looked in. The Indian lay with his face toward the wall. His throat had been cut from ear to ear. The blood had flowed down into a pool where his body sagged the bunk. His head rested on his left arm. The open razor lay, edge up, in the blankets.
Violent birth and violent self-immolation mirrored, Nick looked away and avoided one and stared into the empty eyes of the other. A coin toss of the universe as to which Nick would glimpse and an unanswerable, unbalanced question torn into his psyche. It is easy to celebrate one over the other, and it is nearly impossible to hold both simultaneously in attention; birth and death. Oh, the words yes, but not the real particulars of a birth, or a death. And certainly not when they are piled up on each other spread across a lifespan perhaps, but violently brought together into simultaneity it rocked Uncle George and the doctor, but it crafted Nick. Birth is sex played in reverse, perhaps? Nick, watched three men hold down a screaming woman a fourth between her legs cutting violently. He struggled to connect emotional and sexual intimacy his entire life. Gentleness was just too much and yet he wanted desperately, starving to give it and to receive it. His children and his role as father an unnatural, calculated, performance of sanity, and goodness and secretly a burden of guilt and fakery. The difference, of gender and race, were impossible, after that night, the power of strangeness, sudden violence, poverty, and helplessness swirled comprehension, human connection away and any otherness only amplified his disconnection.
And, Nick sobbed and sobbed chest wrenching, head aching…
Nick gasped awake heart pounding, the dream, the sobbing, again, he only ever grieved in his dreams. He sat up, scuffed his slippers on, and shuffled to the bathroom and later to the kitchen, the restless night echoing in his head. He made coffee, poured some cereal into a bowl with a splash of milk. Ate. His wife bustled about with her morning, chatting and busy, a peck on the cheek and she headed off to work. He dressed and went to work by the usual route. Statistics indicated that if he lived to sixty-five, his life expectancy was eighty-three another thirty-one years sixteen more years at this job or another like it and then fifteen years of sitting in a recliner and watching reruns.
His wife said he needed a hobby that he needed to rediscover his passions as she swirled out the door with friends to do whatever it was they did it always sounded shrill and condescending when she said it. He mused darkly about becoming a serial killer but knew he did not care enough even to finish the thought.
Work that morning was the usual gray drudgery of paperwork and email punctuated by the hell of other people. At lunch he ate a salad with tuna, his Doctor wanted him to lose fifteen more pounds. He said that managing his blood pressure with lifestyle changes was better than medication. Nick had lost ten pounds, kept it off, and just could not care anymore, fifteen pounds might as well be a hundred. The afternoon was a wreck of personnel issues, and Nick clumped through it like a broken marionette, some evil-trickster of a god pulling his strings.
He ate supper, snuck a couple of drinks while his wife chatted cheerfully on the phone, he binge-watched a silly British car show, and it was time for bed.
You have already grasped that Sisyphus is the absurd hero. He is, as much through his passions as through his torture. His scorn of the gods, his hatred of death, and his passion for life won him that unspeakable penalty in which the whole being is exerted toward accomplishing nothing. This is the price that must be paid for the passions of this earth. Nothing is told us about Sisyphus in the underworld. Myths are made for the imagination to breathe life into them. As for this myth, one sees merely the whole effort of a body straining to raise the huge stone, to roll it, and push it up a slope a hundred times over; one sees the face screwed up, the cheek tight against the stone, the shoulder bracing the clay-covered mass, the foot wedging it, the fresh start with arms outstretched, the wholly human security of two earth-clotted hands. At the very end of his long effort measured by skyless space and time without depth, the purpose is achieved. Then Sisyphus watches the stone rush down in a few moments toward lower world whence he will have to push it up again toward the summit. He goes back down to the plain….
I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one’s burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s, heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
Camus, A. (1955). The myth of Sisyphus, and other essays ([1st American ed.]. ed.). New York: Knopf.
Revelation 6:7-8
When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine, and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rob1501/9302301877/
I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one’s burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s, heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
Camus, A. (1955). The myth of Sisyphus, and other essays ([1st American ed.]. ed.). New York: Knopf.
Participatory Storytelling
Edit
#onid17 Participatory Storytelling on Twitter
Crowd-sourced fiction appropriated and retold or an hybridized literary criticism.
Read selected Tweets from the #onid17 participatory story
Captures the Tweets that are about the character Kes.- It was Kes’s story that I wanted to hear and develop. Re was well started, and our cohort propelled her along organically. It was an effort to bring Kes along and keep the characters engaged. I am less certain as to why that is? One possibility is that we as writers did not engage in any back-channel, or meta-dialog. We had both the Google+ and a second hashtag where we could have communicated about the story and collaborated on any and all of the elements of fiction writing.
- Above I show such a conversation that Skip and I had at the very beginning of the story. We discuss, gender, character development versus plot in this anarchic storytelling venue.
- On the one hand, I disliked the heavy-handedness of this following Tweet. Nonetheless, I wanted to continue the emphasis on Kes. I also wanted to play with the circular or at least non-linear quality of time that seemed to be developing in the story. It was additionally an attempt to wrestle with my previous comment about character over plot.
- Deus ex machina in classical theatre: Euripides’ Medea, performed in 2009 in Syracuse, Italy
- I also wondered if such a device might subtly signal to the cohort the value of bringing characters along together throughout the story.
- The story thread that arose however anticipated the eventual shape-shifting device that developed later Skip referred to it as “morphing” in our synchronous class session.
- It is interesting to me that the posts that followed Skip’s initial post of Re’s version of that Tweet were relatively figurative. Whereas the Tweets following my recycling of it were quite literal and embodied, something I noticed but probably could not articulate at the time.
- Notice the dates of these two posts about Kes, five days elapsed while this character languished.
- I was happier with this Tweet. I felt like I was able to develop character, set a scene, and advance the plot, all at once. We knew that Re was exploring the house. And this Tweet ensured that the two characters would reconnect there as well. Skip, introduced the mise en abyme very early on with Re’s mention of the “documents.” My mention of Re’s use of a tablet as well plays on this device. As a cohort, we flirted with this throughout the story, but we did not pull those threads together very tightly. Again, probably this is because we did not enter into any meta-dialog, at least that I could find.
Story within a story – WikipediaA story within a story is a literary device in which one character within a narrative narrates.[1] Mise en abyme is the French term for a similar literary device (also referring to the practice in heraldry of placing the image of a small shield on a larger shield).- Again, notice the seven days elapsed without mention of Kes. Keeping this character in the story had become a personal agenda. This Tweet was less satisfying since effectively it only repeated the work of the previous one though with the most emphasis on setting and plot.
- Happily, Valarie propelled Kes along by adding the following Tweet. She also connected the two most important characters and the new third, very vague childlike character; all were within sight of each other at last.
- Text within a text, again I was just riffing on a theme that I thought might have importance and might develop.
- I would have been content with temporal shifting alone, but it was clear that we were also talking about the morphing of embodiments as well. I wondered if it was more Matrix-like or more shape-shifting like lycanthropy. I was not very excited by that twist.
data processing, computer, technology, laser, plastic surgery, cosmetic surgery, skin treatment, innovation, invention, ,blue background, computer screen, laser beam, laser, light, ray, blue, portrait, scan, virtual screen, virtual reality, floating screen, data, future, futuristic, wireless, light, ideas, security, hacker, programmer, internet, cyberspace, cyber, techie, connection, scanning, information, information highway, light beam, modern, control panel, data gathering, innovation, creative, concept, creative concepts, intelligence,- I think both the Science Fiction and the Horror genres give us great traditions of shapeshifting, so it is not the device I am opposed to. Rather, I struggled with it because it felt like one thing too many for us to sustain. Again if we had a meta-conversation about our project, we could have done more. And I want to be clear that while I am repeating this point, it is something I could have affected and did not. So, I bear the blame and do not aim to point fingers.
- There was a definite tension between the need to propel the story forward and the usefulness of crafting backstory. We introduced devices particularly the various texts as tools we could have used both to develop the temporal discontinuities and the shapeshifting. Speaking for myself I struggled with this tension and most of my contributions to the story are aimed at propelling characters and plot elements forward. Even as I longed to do more with our texts, backstory and mise en abyme. We could as well have violated the boundaries of the 140 character tweet by embedding an image, documents, yellowed snapshots, really anything we could imagine. We stuck to the letter of the law and that is not a bad thing just an interesting one.
- Another spontaneous technique that arose was the open ending and beginning post which facilitated other contributors engaging in a kind of baton pass. I think it was a good tactic and yet I wanted to post my own complete elements so a minor tension for me.
- One task of literary criticism is to identify what does not work in a piece of writing. However, criticism can as well celebrate what is accomplished. I think a fascinating social experiment developed out of this stripped down creative environment. For a bunch of folks just winging it, we came up with a surprisingly coherent story. Many elements of the story were at least interesting if not downright good.
- In hindsight, I wish I had been less skeptical and more participative. I felt some dread and ambivalence over the assignment. I wonder if we had linked to other classes stories and saw their success it that would have helped? I suspect this was not encouraged in order to avoid tainting our own little social experiment. I suspect that were this same cohort to engage in a similar storytelling again we would tell a significantly better story because of what we learned, but I suspect that the process would be less fascinating. And that, in turn, leads me to wonder about this as a pedagogic element. We have both process and content to analyze and as we saw in the synchronous class we did have a lot of group comment and debrief in this rich vein. Obviously, this assignment could be recycled in higher education, and perhaps high school. I suspect a very different coaching and pre-posting editing practice would need to be developed to use it in middle school, though if the teacher had the time and the passion it might be very productive for young people that age.
- Turning to this retelling/critical reading of the story I think this too was fascinating. Because it returned ownership of authorship to me. But that is a conceit and fiction itself because I can only claim a tenth or so of the story. And, this sets us up to remember that Roland Barth’s essay “Death of the Author?” is profoundly relevant in this environment of digital storytelling, fan fiction, mashups, re-appropriation (as here) as well the original Tweet thread. The story is produced by our reading.
Augmented Reality
Development
This image represents my starting place in working with Aurasma. I very much wanted the building itself to trigger an overlay. I wasted a bit of time with that and came away disappointed. I tried as well to drop some coordinates in the middle of that concrete in front of the door, alas.
However, working with Aurasma is the assignment. So I turned to what I could get it to do. On the phone app, I noticed a couple featured auras, one for the back of a dollar bill and the other the back of a twenty. Opened my wallet and extracted one of each and fired up the camera in the app. Although, I found the content to be goofy both worked. Lesson learned, the triggers needed to be quickly recognizable by the application so not overly complicated.
Casting about my office, I do a fair bit of marketing here at UAF-BBC, I landed on the tri-fold brochures. I am not a big fan of this promotion format, and I wondered if auras might make them more fun? In part landing on the Sustainable Energy brochures was because I know we have a fair bit of content that works as overlays. Since my initial foray into using Aurasma had been frustrating and ambiguous, I hoped this might give me some success to build on.
Link to Apple Store for Aurasma app download.
Link to Google Play for Android Aurasma app download.
follow rdheath on Aurasma
Sustainable Energy Brochure Aurasma Version
I used my phone camera to capture images from a printed version of the brochure, actually every image because I didn’t know where this was going. My thought was that that camera was going to have to recognize the trigger and perhaps starting with it might streamline things. I cropped and made some minor image adjustments in Adobe Photoshop. I then dropped this picture of the photovoltaic panel installation on the trigger element of Aurasma studio. I grabbed the interview video and compressed it in Camtasia and cut that into the overlay. I felt flummoxed that it worked.
My thought with adding these elements to the print brochures was to enrich them. In my years of making flyers and brochures, I have always encountered the problem of too much content, not enough space. That is compounded now with the lack of interactivity or media one has to read them simply, and nobody reads anymore.
I had no content for the Yup’ik values at least no media. I hit the Alaska Native Knowledge Network website and spent a moderate amount of time spinning my wheels looking for something, anything. In the end, I decided to experiment with a simple image. The first one I made the font is too small, and so I’ll make another with two columns of text so that the values are legible on the phone.
For us, here at UAF-BBC and Dillingham, Alaska, Dr. Marsik’s world record and President Obama’s visit are points of pride, stories that cannot be overlooked. The actual video of the world record blower door test is nearly 11 minutes long and simply too much for this application. So, I had to edit it. In truth were this a real work assignment I would consider crafting something altogether new for this use. But for this assignment, revised version will have to stand as a placeholder. I again dumped the mp4 into Camtasia knowing that I was cropping it and compressing it. What surprised me in testing once the overlay was added, was the strange aspect ratio change that made the house seem weirdly shaped. I will edit out that opening sequence and only start with Tom and Kristen talking for these purposes that is adequate.
And that is a fundamental element of developing auras, I think, it has to be an iterative task with lots of testing. Yes, I could have watched all the Aurasma tutorial videos to learn how to do it. Indeed, I did look at a couple, and unfortunately, I found them too cheerful and free from the struggles I was encountering. So, instead, I just muddled and satisficed through. Seeing the output of fellow students has inspired me to continue experimenting with the studio mostly out of nerdy curiosity not out of any sense that this app has a significant place in our marketing efforts.
I have an iPhone but were I trying to develop even this type of project I would test early and often on different devices. Too situating the trigger and sizing the overlay to fit a phone display even close to optimally takes iteration. It seems that the Aurasma server updates on a quarter or half-hour and that means waiting impatiently after every change. It meant as well limiting the number of changes so that I could isolate variables.
I think locking the overlay so that once it is triggered it runs no matter what a person does with the trigger is a critical step. Handheld brochure and handheld camera made for really annoying user experience because the app would lose track of the trigger, find it, and then restart the overlay, again, and again.
I found myself switching between several different programs, Camtasia, Movie Maker, and Adobe Photoshop for example to do this work. If I was less facile with software, I suspect this project could be challenging. Despite the clunkiness of the Aurasma studio and app, I find myself intrigued with how to make better overlays. I am wondering as well if PowerPoint might have some functions that could simply contribute to overlay development.
Reflection
With this experience, I am struck by what seems the heavy landing on the side of “push marketing” that Aurasma appears to enforce. “Pull marketing” is more about conversation and co-creation of experiences and a product or service. Social media and our topic of digital storytelling have a play in making this definition meaningful. This ambivalence is a concern I was not expecting to surface at the outset of this assignment. The part of me that is paid to tell the UAF-BBC story is reconciled in some ways to the need to push our story.
If I were still working an academic library, I would try to develop this as a self-guided tour of both services and resources in the library. Librarians are fond of making scavenger hunts as training devices. I think I would avoid that conceit and instead simply have point-of-service types of improved interface. While this class is about digital storytelling, I’m afraid we can take that too far particularly when we are approaching customers.
I have been kind of aggressive in my ignoring QR codes; however, the frustrations with Aurasma have inclined me to reset. I wonder if combining QR and Aura’s might be an interesting approach. I showed this work in progress to Dr. Marsik, he recounted giving Dillingham High School students a tour and watching them recognize and use QR codes that he was oblivious to because he didn’t know what they were. I was questioning the payback of this kind of development for a community like Dillingham. However, hearing Dr. Marsik’s observation leads me to wonder if young people might quickly pick up on using the Aruasma app. Nonetheless, I think I would add a statement to the brochure about downloading the app and using the triggers to learn more about our program rather than assuming the customer recognized the logo.
I think this functionality that adds information (to buildings or skylines, cars, whatever real-world objects) is where I want this technology to go. In reading for this assignment the more recent articles identify the linkages between the internet of things and augmented reality as a critical moment. I particularly resonate with this scenario:
This technology could be used by emergency responders. “Moreover, those same first responders might plug certain variables into an incident as it is unfolding to ‘see’ the prediction of what will happen. They could visualize where the crowds will go, how the flood will expand, where the fire might move and which people and/or facilities would be impacted,” DeLoach says. The technology could also enable first responders to practice how they respond to challenging situations such as interacting with hazardous materials. “This would allow them to manage their response much more effectively as a result—likely saving lives,” DeLoach says. (Buntz, 2016)
I can imagine a contact lens, for example, worn by first-responders for heads-up and hands-free application of such simulation and scenario planning. While some of the information would be trended from databases real-time information might be collected from drones. At the end that is all very game-play and moviesque and probably likely and valuable.
Since some of our aim here is to reinvent ourselves as Instructional Designers, I wondered about real uses of Aurasma style augmented reality in schools. A quick search of YouTube, of course, yielded results.
http://https://youtu.be/uHIxYpBW7sc
And, I am left feeling like this is a pivotal moment, and both teachers and students contributed to it. And yet I am not fulfilled. I worry that this video shows just more “push education.” And that seems to be the limit of this technology at the moment. I can push a story, you can push a story, but it is a struggle to pull stories, to co-create them, to have them organically branch and build from data, our interactions, and the narrative.
Above, I mention the role of the internet of things for informing augmented reality. The story the first-responders receive is a push story. We see the purposiveness of storytelling in the initial inquiry, “Where will the flood spread? How best to respond?” It is probably a splendid and useful story, rich with information and prioritized and organized by artificial intelligence. And yet I am uncertain where the human agent comes into play as participant and co-creator of the story rather than a cyborg embodiment of the artificial intelligence. I do not feel paranoia or cynicism but rather a disappointment in this conclusion. Alas, at the point of execution the purposiveness of the story seems to have drained away. If our robotics were sufficient, we could do away with the human first responder altogether.
But, I still want to hold my phone up, here in Dillingham, Alaska, (or insert a contact lens) and scan the panorama for hotspots. I want native place names, historical highlights, information about plants and animals as I look at a moose, or spruce. I want it to be Wikipedia-like so that I can participate in content creation as well. The language, other mnemonic devices, and our imaginations have been our augmented reality for eons. Pictured below are carved maps of the Greenland coastline serving as triggers for our Inuit hunters cultural overlay.
Perhaps this technology-heavy augmented reality can mature into a real thing. Certainly, the quality by which it seems to externalize and give body to imagination is fascinating. And yet, what we are exploring now seems thin and raw and underdeveloped.
References
Buntz, B. (2016, July 1) 10 Killer Applications of the IoT and Augmented Reality. Retrieved March 25, 2017 from http://www.ioti.com/iot-trends-and-analysis/10-killer-applications-iot-and-augmented-reality
Charles Cooper [Charles Cooper] (2016, Nov 7). Teaching with Aurasma. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/wolsdGbNEC
Inuit Cartography. (2016). [Graph illustration]. The Decolonial Atlas. Retrieved from https://decolonialatlas.wordpress.com/2016/04/12/inuit-cartography/
Ideological Gym Ethos
Edit
Ideological Gym Ethos
I offer CrossFit, as Spartans and BodyTribe, as Athenians opposed to each other but united in their opposition of professional bodybuilding, Persians, perhaps.
- Marx’s Critique of Ideology < DIALECTICAL MARXISM: The Writings ...Marx’s Critique of Ideology Introduction to Essays in Critical Theory: Toward a
Marxist Criticism of Liberal Ideology by Richard Lichtman By Bertell Ollman. 
Ethos – WikipediaEthos is a Greek word meaning “character” that is used to describe the guiding
beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology. The Greeks …Bodybuilding
- Bodybuilding exploded into the mainstream in the 1970’s, in part, because of Joe Weider’s empire and because of charismatic and iconic stars like Arnold Swarzenegger, and Lou Ferrigno. The movie, Pumping Iron, was the start, the vehicle for their move to mainstream success.
- However, that moment represents the tipping point. It is preceded by years of physical culture sub-culture. Synthetic testosterone was developed in the 1940s, so 30 years (though other versions of the story extend into the 19th century). Venice beach, in Los Angeles perhaps the sacred city, the navel of the universe.
- We see an aesthetic for the shape and form of the male physique writ increasing large by the “good genes” that came in bottles from pharmaceutical companies and available to everyone willing to use them. In the 1970’s Arnold reigned as embodied exemplar of the aesthetic.
Classic Physique Building and Natural Bodybuildingfor everybody who wants to build a good looking physique the natural way- Yet in the spirit of American consumerism and the excess ofthe 1980’s the aesthetic shifted increasingly celebrating, simply more. This era of bodybuilding shows participants of both genders, raising their testosterone to extraordinary levels, and supporting muscle growth by consuming 10,000 calories per day, perhaps more…. Food blended and drunk because sitting to a meals of these proportions takes too much time. Then as the competition approached reversing the training radically dieting to near starvation levels, and weight training to maintain gains but now training to burn calories in order to eliminate even the thinnest layers of subcutaneous fat, this to show veins, and striation in the muscles for fans and judges, and increasingly large purses.
- Yet, muscle and strength developed to what purpose?
- If we circle back to Venice beach, we recall the importance of gymnastics at the roots of this physical culture and displays of amazing feats. Perhaps, carnivalesqe, campy, but still functional showing balance, coordination, skill, strength, and risk. This is altogether unlike, bodybuilding competitions where men and women display their muscular development by posing, extraordinary, and unclothed models parading on the catwalk rather than performing feats of strength.
campy Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionarycampy definition, meaning, what is campy: used to describe an activity, or someone’s behaviour or appearance, that is funny because…. Learn more.Rabelais and His World
This classic work by the Russian philosopher and literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin (1895–1975) examines popular humor and folk culture in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. One of the essential texts of a theorist who is rapidly becoming a major reference in contemporary thought, Rabelais and His World is essential reading for anyone interested in problems of language and text and in cultural interpretation.- A moment ripe for an iconoclast, an irreverent, voice, and enters, Greg Glassman as much an entrepreneur as Joe Weider, but brash, embracing of controversy and hungry for success. CrossFit, a trademarked brand, combines, elements from gymnastics, Olympic lifting, power lifting, and calisthenics into high-intensity short duration workouts, given women’s names, or honoring deceased soldiers, police, firefighters remembering them by name.
- Glassman franchised the concept and gyms swept the country, the world even. The exercise formula appealed to military and first responders this combined with Glassman’s rhetoric has created an aura around a Spartan functional fitness.
- By contrast, Chip Conrad founder of BodyTribe fitness loves both his exercise and his philosophy.
Human Posture
Schumacher has written a provocative work in the philosophy of science. In presenting posture as the most important aspect of life, Schumacher examines how the terms of posture encompass all the major disciplines and provide a means for resolving human dilemmas through a humanistically oriented philosophy of inquiry.- The BodyTribe gym in a Sacramento suburb offers its walls to artists to exhibit their paintings and drawings. The gym has doubled as a concert venue. Cats and dogs are welcome and people exercising yield to the animal’s right of way. Conrad like Glassman draws from Olympic lifting, power lifting, and calisthenics, he as well draws upon gymnastics and yoga. Conrad is deeply committed to functional fitness but he also aims to develop a whole person. He thoughtfully, examines playfulness, sociability, the pleasure, and wonder at beauty. He is concerned with social justice and is willing to speak out. Accordingly, we may liken him to the Athenian values.
- Making America Look Like Idiots. A wall shows fear, not strength. What the hell is @realDonaldTrump so damn scared of?
- Yet his principles seem to hamper his potential impact Conrad is deeply suspicious of fitness credentialing, he tours and speaks nationally, but does not seem interested in branding and franchising accordingly his impact on American exercise culture is limited in comparison with CrossFit and professional bodybuilding. One may join the tribe as a participant but not as a franchise owner/operator.
- Workshops in NC taught by your’s truly.
https://mentalmeatheads.com/event/kinetic-fitness/ … - Conrad searches for an alternative genealogy for his fitness/philosophy. He is an artistic video maker and one of his loves is capturing moments in the lineage of physical culture sub-culture.
The First Peloponnesian War
- Glassman took a next turn, one similar to what Joe Weider did in promoting professional bodybuilding, and that was to create a consumable spectacle. Glassman promoted the “sport of fitness” and introduced the“CrossFit Games.” Contestants compete in several workouts per day over the course of several days a grueling endurance event. Workouts are scored in several ways, most repetitions, and speed to completion, for examples.
- We could look at the movements the practitioners engage in and start to sense something about the values and the ethics of the approaches. For example, bodybuilding prefers isolating muscles and joints, the number of sets and repetitions optimized on hypertrophy. Both Crossfit and BodyTribe celebrate and elevate compound movements seeking to engage many muscles around multiple joints. So the movements themselves convey information about priorities. But we do not have to constrain our inquiry to this alone. The adherents themselves tell us about what they consider a beautiful body. They tell us about their values and priorities.
Society Of The Spectacle
The Das Kapital of the 20th century,Society of the Spectacle is an essential text, and the main theoretical work of the Situationists. Few works of political and cultural theory have been as enduringly provocative.- However, necessarily standardization in movements and routines is required in order to compare performances, and so, for example, there is one “right” way to do a burpee. It is at this moment that CrossFit and Body Tribe absolutely and irreparably divide. Their differing values certainly anticipated this divide, but this is the moment of non-negotiability.
- Conrad's rejoinder… And it is not all about any particular movement, rather about the mentality that surrounds the movement. Conrad, himself competes in Olympic lifting and so it isn't only about competition, rather about the mentality that surrounds the competition. Conrad does not name by brand who he is speaking to nevertheless we know, the breadcrumbs are sufficient.
- Circling back to CrossFit it is interesting to note that the web page of 2017 feels very different from that of 2010. This website today is more polished, more inclusive gone are the images of Pukie the Clown and Uncle Rhabdo.
Why Would Anyone Want to Work Out Until They Puke?As intense exercise programs like CrossFit and P90X gain popularity, a look at the psychology of pushing your limits—and when that can be a bad idea.- Pukie the Clown references exercise induced vomiting, unpleasant, at least. Uncle Rhabdo is a reference to the condition rhabdomyolysis a very serious and life-threatening breakdown of muscle with a consequential flooding of the circulatory system with proteins which in turn overwhelm the kidneys. Not unusual in the early days of CrossFit workouts. Yet, weirdly made light of in the old days.
Why Pukie the Clown Isn’t FunnyI have never been able to get my head around Pukie the Clown – a cartoon depiction of a CrossFitter who has pushed it past the point of no return. And don’t even get me started on Uncle Rhabdo.- Circling back to bodybuilding we see equally disturbing aspects of that activity these include cycles of binge and purge eating, extreme drug use, and other high-risk behaviors and consequences.
Myth: Bodybuilders Are Healthy. | Davey Wavey FitnessWe’ve all seen pictures of tanned, oiled up bodybuilders competing for titles. With their bulging muscles and impossible physiques, one might think that a- How ironic that the most visible and successful training types in America come bound together with extreme health risks if taken to their most competitive levels?
- Circling back to BodyTribe we see that Conrad's rant about "un-stupid" is important and significant. Alas, the very weakness of the most principled is the principled quality itself. For Conrad to achieve the level of impact necessary to challenge bodybuilding or CrossFit would probably require a spectacle rivaling these and a compromise equally monumental. In the end, I think I will give Conrad the last word in this strange tale.
Are You Useful? The Book!This week celebrates the release of the second book to bear my name. The process from concept to print has been an example of what to do only if you’re a bit of a moron. This book was extreme…References
- 1shimashima [1shimashima] (2013, Aug 27) Original Muscle Beach 1950s Santa Monica Vintage Photography, youtu.be/BnRkF4v6no8
- allan97 [allan97] (2016, Oct 22)TOP 5 Freakiest Bodybuilders Ever In Bodybuilding History, youtu.be/qkrxV8g0H6Q
- Anabolic Steroids. Wikipedia. Retrieved February 20, 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabolic_steroid#Development_of_synthetic_AAS …
- Arnold Swarzenegger.Wikipedia. Retrieved February 20, 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Schwarzenegger …
- Bodytribe [Bodytribe] (2009, Dec 31) History of Fitness Youtube Series: Pedestrianism, youtu.be/vLsDm0WvXkw
- Bodytribe [Bodytribe] (2013, Mar 12) Bodytribe: Creating the Holistic Athlete Workshop & Training, youtu.be/C3eEpkIgRYk
- Bruno, ( 2010, August 27th). Classic Physique Building and Natural Bodybuilding, Retrieved February 23, 2017,,, http://classicnaturalbodybuilding.blogspot.com/ …
- Crossfit [Crossfit] (2017, Feb 1) Fittest On Earth: A Decade of Fitness — Official Trailers, youtu.be/OJa4HPVAk3A
- Joe Weider. Wikipedia. Retrieved February 20, 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Weider …
- Lou Ferrigno. Wikipedia. Retrieved February 20, 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Ferrigno …
- Rhabdomyolysis. Wikipedia. Retrieved February 23, 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhabdomyolysis …
- Robinson, R. (Producer), Butler, G. and, Fiore, R. (Directors). (1977). Pumping Iron [Motion picture]. USA: White Mountain Pictures.
Theoretical run-up on Elements of Digital Storytelling
Introduction
I came into this game of higher education at a chaotic intellectual moment: postmodernity. Accordingly, I struggle with claims of universality, and this persists as we begin to explore storytelling and digital storytelling.
We are all familiar with the short story, “You make me so angry.” If we take the authors of the Crucial Conversations curriculum seriously, we learn that mastering our stories is a fundamental key to improving our communications (and our internal life) (Patterson, K. Grenny, J., McMillan, R., Switzler, A., 2011, p. 103). Their schema moves from perceptions, for example, “see and hear” to “tell a story” which causes emotions and, in turn, inspires us to “act.” The trainers at Crucial Conversations teach various techniques to slow down, in order to become self-critical and provisional in our storytelling. Obviously, there is a tension between our common-sense meanings of our short stories and this second version. Jacques Derrida’s observations and methods, summarized as “deconstruction,” offer us a tool to explore this tension.
Deconstruction generally tries to demonstrate that any text is not a discrete whole but contains several irreconcilable and contradictory meanings; that any text, therefore has more than one interpretation; that the text itself links these interpretations inextricably; that the incompatibility of these interpretations is irreducible; and thus that an interpretive reading cannot go beyond a certain point. (Wikipedia, Deconstruction retrieved 1/26/2017)
So, if we take clues from Derrida and the Crucial Conversations curriculum we might interpret the short story in this way — “When you speak in that tone, in this context, I tell myself a story about being patronized and denigrated. In turn, I feel angry about that (though I might as well feel sad, or insulted) and in the end, I may lash out, or I may go to silence.” The voice we hear is the storyteller. What is missing here is the listener/reader/interpreter. Sometimes we tell stories solely for our own consumption but, if we analyze our internal dialog, there is very much a persona we create to tell the story to – a version of ourselves, our boss, or a spouse, for examples. Deconstruction shows us that a listener is an aspect of “irreconcilable and contradictory meanings.” That is, we cannot talk about storytelling without talking about interpretation. Returning to our short story, there are several key ambiguities here: the story, the emotion it elicits, and the consequent actions. We can problematize this further by scrutinizing our data itself; if it is composed, at least in part, of interpretations then every aspect of our storytelling/interpretation is ambiguous. So then, if the storytelling side is particular, situated, and relative, is it meaningful to speak of the interpretation side as exempt from this variability and particularity since teller/listener are bound together?
Yet while I love these philosophical musings, an equal part of my participation in this game of higher education derives from business school. Therefore, I am pragmatically intrigued by the claim,“To achieve success on YouTube you have to have a niche” (Edwards, 2014). Perhaps this is further evidence that universal claims about storytelling are problematic, but it is also an eminently useful observation.
Theorizing
Bryan Alexander offers a working definition: “Simply put, it is telling stories with digital technologies. Digital stories are narratives built from the stuff of cyberculture” (Alexander, 2010, Loc 110 of 3318).
So if our topic is actually particular and situated, then it seems wise to develop an aesthetic equally particular and situated. Again, “To achieve success on YouTube you have to have a niche” (Edwards, 2014). Alas, my tolerance for fiction has waned over the years, likewise, in part, as a function of the workplace grind. Rather my aesthetic cuts in a different direction:
Gonzo journalism is a style of journalism that is written without claims of objectivity, often including the reporter as part of the story via a first-person narrative. The word “gonzo” is believed to have been first used in 1970 to describe an article by Hunter S. Thompson, who later popularized the style. It is an energetic first-person participatory writing style in which the author is a protagonist, and it draws its power from a combination of social critique and self-satire.[1] It has since been applied to other subjective artistic endeavors. (Wikipedia, Gonzo Journalism retrieved 1/21/2017)
And, second, Yvon Chouinard says in the movie 180° South, “The word adventure has gotten overused. For me, when everything goes wrong, that’s when adventure starts” (Copeland, 2010). Entailed in both of these is a lived experience, lived in the “real” world. Once we attach the “digital” to our storytelling, we add complexity and nuance to this lived experience that will need to be explored. I found interesting connections between what I was sketching and this video definition of digital storytelling (Iwancio, 2010).
- Point of view
- Dramatic Question
- Emotional Content
- Voice
- Soundtrack
- Pacing
- Economy
- Length
I savor and favor the first person/subjective voice. It is most appropriate for these fraught (certainly sometimes contrived and antagonized) experiences. In addition, the fictive quality of memoir, changing names, or locations, or dates to protect the guilty adds complexity requiring additional development. “Self-aware” this is taking the first person perspective one step further and having that voice reflect on learning, emotions, and the physicality of the experience. Clearly, this is about the point of view and in this case, we hear a subjective first-person accounting hence we can combine this with voice as well.
The urgency and the on-edgy quality of both quotes are important as well. Failure, injury, and death are real possible consequences. Unlike most computer games, where we respawn at a save point, rather this lifestyle/storytelling is pushing the boundaries of our lived experiences, our skills, our preparation, and our knowledge. I would argue that dramatic question, emotional content, and pacing could all be folded together in this element.
Lastly is the social criticism implicit or explicit in these lives/stories. Going to where the risks are takes us beyond the normal. Indeed for many of us living vicariously through those tolerant of risk is part of what fuels the lives/stories. This is actually quite a complicated figure because storytellers need an audience to consume their telling and, as we will see, these consumers underwrite the risks. So social criticism and social norms are complicit in ways requiring further development.
This leaves soundtrack and economy still unaccounted for…. Except, readers of Hunter S. Thompson will remember popular music references to the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane in his writing. “Economy” is a delightful ambiguous figure; we may be speaking of efficient prose or precise illustration, or we may be thinking about the transactions between characters, or writer/reader, or the money-making potential of the story and storytelling itself. Certainly, all these elements are present in gonzo journalism.
Length, Iwanicio’s video offers us a simple formula, and immediately, we hear Tara Hunt speak to a much more complex notion for deciding narrative length based on optimization accounting for YouTube algorithms (2016).
These definitions and this critical theory, alas, are formulated in the abstract. I believe it will make better sense to explore them based on a case study of a particular digital storyteller.
Case Study
Jon B., at Fishing the Midwest is in his early 20’s. He recently dropped out of college in order to work full-time on his YouTube content. He has been creating YouTube content since 2009; he was 12-13 years old at that time. He participates in several additional social media, such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. Jon B. is attentive to the details of his camera, audio work, and editing and he seems as passionate about them as his fishing. Recently Jon B. has traveled, fished, and created content with a cohort of YouTube channel hosts. These people might be seen as competitors; however, they are working as collaborators driving traffic to each others’ sites and appearing in each others’ videos.
Jon B. has created a recognizable personal brand, defined a business model, and is executing on his plans.
So returning to my critical theory, the first element is first person/subjective point of view. This is seen clearly in his “vlogging” content. “Vlogging” is a “journalistic documentation of a person’s life, thoughts, opinions, and interests” (ZMD, 2005). It is more complicated because of Jon’s use of multiple cameras, as in this video we see both chest-worn GoPro’s and deck-mounted monopod DSLR or mirrorless cameras. In this particular video, we see Jon B. fishing with friends and we might lose track of the first person narrative, nonetheless, this is his story of that event. In his solo trips, the vocal quality is clearly a first person and subjective point of view.
In this video, the friends have set a fishing challenge for themselves. It is not enough that Jon B. is hundreds of miles from his home near Chicago visiting Texas, during the winter, using borrowed boats on an unfamiliar water. This theatricality speaks to creating urgency, dramatic questions, emotional content, and pacing, all of which aids in having a story, an adventure, from what might otherwise simply be a relaxing fishing trip. This emphasizes both the lived experiences and the gonzo journalistic technique of pouring gasoline on the fire – everything for the sake of a story.
I see a couple places where Jon B. celebrates and advocates for “real” experience. Certainly, his love of fishing and fishing where he is presently, informs all of his video creation. He surrounds himself with friends and fans who love fishing. Yet that is only part of what is required by being a content creator. Jon B. has to film his activities and he, in turn, spends hours editing his videos. Solo camera work, self-filming, requires a split consciousness, as he must engage simultaneously with fishing and with video creation. We know that good framing and camera work can save hours of editing. Jon B. also puts the time into editing on his laptop, at home, or on the road and hence can be said to be sequestered in the virtual world as much as the real. This in part because he has to think like his consumer, in order to produce a product they want, and for many of them the ratio is inverse virtual to real world. We know Jon B. values the real world because of the message from one of his sponsors, Mystery Tackle Box (an interesting consistency between espoused value and paid sponsorship).
In several of his videos, Jon B. talks about his decision to drop out of college. In this one, he comes at it from the direction of quitting fishing and quitting video making, or the price tag that college required him to pay, beyond tuition (view from 7:30).
For me, this links back to the real sense of urgency in his life and his business enterprise. In addition, that connects with the critical theory as well. It also demonstrates the kind of social criticism that Jon B. is engaged in. I suspect that this cohort is speaking together in its’ criticism of schooling, and the “normal” career path. Yet, thinking back to deconstruction, we also see Jon B. clearly seeking corporate sponsorship as one of his revenue streams. Some of these vlogs narrate his attendance at industry trade shows and, while he offers no details, he mentions business meetings as an aspect of those trips. Therefore, this form of social criticism is complicated. Likewise in some videos, we hear Jon B. say or do things unreflective of his middle-class privilege. At other times, he is deeply cognizant of the opportunity and luxury he has in creating this media. Some of this we can attribute to his youth but some of it has to do with the straight up complexity of combining, art, self, and economics and doing it as a performance piece nearly real-time, for a subscriber base of four-hundred-thousand YouTube viewers.
Jon B. is serious about his art; his video editing, camera work, storytelling and selection of soundtrack are all intentional. He is certainly bridging a very interesting divide. He is engaged really in fishing and virtually as a social media marketer and content creator. His circle of friends likewise blur the real/virtual divide and so, yes, in response to Alexander’s definition of digital storytelling this is built, in part, from cyberculture and yet that is not enough either.
Broadening the Application
I believe this case study develops my aesthetic/critical theory and demonstrates its coherence. I likewise believe this theory can be used to examine other niche content creators on YouTube, for example, Adventure Adrift and the Ginger Runner:
These stories are built from both real culture and cyberculture. These creators are certainly engaged in digital storytelling, and yet our definitions struggle to keep up with their innovation.
Circling back to the tension between economics and social criticism in the persona that Adventure Adrift has constructed, their social criticism is more explicit. Their tiny house allows them to travel the oceans and one of their aims is to do good in communities as they travel. Their monetized web presence facilitates their doing well as they do good. I might suggest that Ethan Newberry is most at peace with being an entrepreneur. If his passion for ultra-running has a social criticism it is more subtle, and he knows better than to alienate potential customers with proselytizing. Nonetheless, he is advocating for a more active and healthy lifestyle. As mentioned above, Jon B.’s social criticism is youthful and not fully developed but intensely relevant to higher education.
Circling back to the ambiguity of lived adventures turned to content for consumption of YouTube viewers, it really remains to be seen how impactful this genre is in fostering lifestyle change and increasing risk-taking. I take the Sailing Nervous channel to be one of these fast followers in the live-aboard community. Brendan’s Fabulous World of Fishing is likewise a channel on the rise in the fishing community. At what point will imitation breakdown and the market saturate? However, in truth and speaking from personal experience in the last year, I have taken several big risks in part emboldened by this genre. I too experimented briefly with video making. It, however, is not my passion and struggling with cameras while engaged in an adventure dilutes my fun. Therefore, it will be hard to know the impact of this genre simply because not everyone will become a content creator – even as s/he changes his or her life.
However, I think my theory begins to break down with other kinds of niche content creators. So for example, those that engage in purely cyberculture content creation, such as computer game playthroughs, or those engaged in MMORPG streaming pull on my valuing of real-life activities in a troubling way. Though I am not deeply bothered with that since my opening argument indicated my abiding suspicion of universal definition and theory. The Gamer niche needs a niche aesthetic/theory just like these genres I explore here need a niche theory.
Conclusion
Jon B. left college because it required him to give up his passion and it prevented him from developing his entrepreneurship. To my mind, that is a harsh criticism that higher education needs to take seriously. We need to find a way to stop being an impediment and instead begin to facilitate these young people’s successes. Finally, I believe, as an aspiring Instructional Designer, that this aesthetic/theory allows me room to work with both teachers and learners in developing skills that are relevant to young people and yet allows them to display sustained intellectual engagement and learning. My aesthetic/theory allows me to engage with a teacher familiar with grading an essay but who is out of depth in grading a series of videos, for example. Likewise, by emphasizing a kind of digital storytelling that blurs the boundaries between real and cyberculture, and real and virtual activities, I am treading in an environment that requires a couple different learning curves. Observing how the participant/learner navigates those offers interesting moments and intersections to assess learning. Interestingly, participation in this genre runs the gamut of demographics from Millennial to Boomer and so we see, in a snapshot, a cross-section of lifelong learning perhaps previously impossible to compile so simultaneously. I think my aesthetic is limited, as it is not applicable to all digital storytelling; however, I do believe it crosses niches as well hence expanding its usefulness and credibility.
References
Adventure Adrift [Adventure Adrift] (2016, Nov 7). Our Journey: Sailing with a Purpose. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/wolsdGbNECs
Alexander, B. (2011). The new digital storytelling: Creating narratives with new media. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Praeger.
Copeland, L. (Producer), & Mallory, C. (Director). (2010). 180° South [Motion picture]. USA: Magnolia Pictures.
Deconstruction. (2017, Jan. 26). In Wikipedia. Retrieved January 26, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconstruction
Edwards, J. (2014, Dec. 31) How to become a YouTube entrepreneur. Retrieved January 26, 2017
from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/virals/10765955/How-to-become-a-YouTube-entrepreneur.html
Gonzo Journalism. (2017, Jan. 21). In Wikipedia. Retrieved January 21, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzo_journalism
Barzacchini, J. [Jon B.] (2016, Feb. 14). Finesse Fishing Texas Bass — Texas Trip Day 2. [Video File]. Retrieved https://youtu.be/Hj3UuSlzY5c
Barzacchini, J. [Jon B.] (2016, Sept. 11). Why I Quit Fishing and Filming?. [Video File]. Retrieved https://youtu.be/XTTxc0WkFB8?t=7m30s
Hunt, T. [Truly Social with Tara Hunt] ( 2016, Dec. 18). How Long Should YouTube Videos Be? YouTube’s New Algorithm. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/O7JbyboijdM
Iwancio, P. [Paul Iwancio] (2010, April 22). 7 Elements for Digital Storytelling (in 4 Minutes!). [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/NipDAd3_7Do
Newberry, E. [TheGingerRunner] (2011, Jan 25). WELCOME TO GINGERRUNNER.COM!. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/WV4aByWNGfY
Patterson, K. Grenny, J., McMillan, R., Switzler, A., (2011). Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High, (2nd edition). McGraw-Hill Education.
ZMD, (2005, January 6). Vlogging. In Urban Dictionary. Retrieved September 29, 2016, http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=vlog
Reflecting on the Personal Learning Network
I have mixed feelings and thoughts about the PLN requirement. I am about halfway through the program. I have taken classes horribly out of sequence. So, my introduction to the PLN was through Owen Guthrie’s Online Pedagogy course. Accordingly, despite Owen’s efforts it still felt contextually weird, and somewhat artificial. Nonetheless, I also appreciated having a name for something that I had been developing organically for most of my life.
So, despite how old fashioned they are, libraries are still central in my PLN. As a small child, 4-5 we lived within walking distance, I was allowed to check out as many books, at a time, as I was years old. I gamed that rule by making several trips per day and exchanging books I was finished with for new ones. Once school started in earnest, the library became the place where I was in control of my learning in a way that I was not in school. Google was a couple of sets of encyclopedias. As well, San Diego has a rich set of museums in Balboa Park, and the Scripps Research Institute and Zoo are valuable aspects of my PLN. I recall a moment when I was ten years old reflecting on my book smarts but practical ignorance. Therefore, making, and tinkering became important to me. In this way, I also connected with my Grandfather, and so my PLN suddenly included the craft of the hand and eye and people (mainly old-timers but not, my school teachers). I hated school, elementary, middle and high school all. It is a wonder, actually because of a car accident putting me out of work that I went to college. College was great stuff and graduate school even better. Accordingly, I have taken classes almost continuously throughout my adult life. I have stayed in contact with professors for years following their classes. John Schumacher until his death is one example. Bob Whitcomb is another. We are fast friends and talk regularly working on each other’s’ challenges, work, life, whatever.
I share all of this because it feels like it is missing from the ONID PLN assignment (and here I am referring to the thematic reoccurring PLN assignment that occurs across ONID courses). The PLN is mostly focused on online tools and resources, and that almost seems to negate a lifetime of learning. I think the assignment would be better if it built on what we are already good at, and instructors helped us plug into online resources that amplified that.
I am not a huge fan of Twitter though over the last year and a half I have found ways to use it to good professional effect. Not so much in creating a web presence but in keeping informed of relevant online content. I had heard the librarians, at my previous job, talking about Diigo. One, in particular, I hold in high regard, used it and so I was willing to be patient with it. However, it was not until Skip’s presentation this semester that the penny dropped for me. That said, bookmarks, spreadsheets, bibliographies are all still good ways to manage web resources, though not necessarily “socially.”
All of that acknowledged I hate having a quota of retweets to make and all the required tags are annoying, and finally I just had to rebel. I see myself participating in the spirit of the assignment but the letter of the law – just felt to school for me.
I am visible and moderately active on LinkedIn, and that is a great source of work-related articles, videos, blogs, podcasts along with too much drek and rubbish. It is unclear to me why it is not a priority in the PLN assignment. G+ is an interesting tool used in the way this program does.
Unfortunately, I do not hear enough in the PLN assignment about attending workshops and trainings and networking. One door that may open at those events is an opportunity to get involved with professional organizations. I attended an EDUCAUSE leadership training and was roped into working on the NERCOMP conference selection committee for the library track at the annual event. That was a great bad experience, and I opted to leave it alone. However, I also have not thrown the baby out with the bathwater other opportunities like that will allow me to build quickly a reputation in Alaska. Moreover, I would urge an early or mid-career person to do it sooner than later. Conference presentations are a tremendous way to grow a network quickly, as well. The little I did immediately opened doors for additional presentations and consulting. My previous boss dragged me kicking and screaming into that, and he was right.
In the end, I would not encourage killing the PLN assignment. Rather, make more of it, and let learners, at least, sketch out the parameters of their network then add gasoline to their fire by suggesting online resources and tools that amplify the learners’ native activities. Right now it feels half-conceived, awkward, too much about a rubric and too much about the internet.
The Illest Homework in Forever.
Writing about the process of creating “podcasts” is the work of this piece. In this program, this is the second time I have been required to something like this. My reflection on the first was deeply articulate, I said something to the effect, of “This is the illest homework I’ve had in forever.” Therefore, I was pleased to see this assignment. I remember as a kid listening to the local public radio station doing extended replays of radio shows from the 1930’s. Abbott and Costello’s landmark “Who’s on First,” Orson Wells, “War of the Worlds,” and on the lighter end “The Burns and Allen Show” for some examples. For me, these radio shows were magical, like books, but unlike TV. Yet, interestingly, I find YouTubers magical like books and radio and unlike TV, (though lately writing for TV is better than movies.) Writing, since browsers, has again become magical as well. The magic, I believe, is that creation of content is in everybody’s hands now.
I think making the spoken content is an interesting process. On one end of the continuum, for me, is a very writerly approach. The written revision comes from struggling with the transition to speech as I verbally stumble over words read easily but spoken with difficulty. On the other hand, some scripts originate with spoken words, improvisational, and only later are written down and polished. Beyond that, I suspect that the more I did this the more attention I would pay to rhythm and syllables, alliteration, cadence, and volume. For now, I was satisfied to come up with topically relevant content.
Audacity reminds me of Photoshop in that they are refined and deeply nuanced programs. They have several ways to do any particular chore and from several different user interfaces. While I am content that I produced these several audio clips on time and under budget, I am not content with their technical quality. Some of that discontent comes from cheap hardware, namely my microphone. Some discontent comes from simply needing more practice and a better understanding of the software. And, some comes from needing a better understanding of genre conventions.
Editing is an art of its own. At this point, my sources are Milan Kundera, The Art of the Novel and Robert Rodriguez, 10 Minute Film School. Kundera speaks of his musical training as significantly important and informative of his composition in writing.
Rodrigues speaks of editing with the camera planning the shots ahead so less editing afterward is necessary.
Too, as I mentioned above I might take wisdom from rappers in thinking about rhythm and rhyme in my composition. Rapping Deconstructed is for me less about becoming a rapper and more about becoming self-conscious of the magic of rhetoric, again. The musicality, planful and mindful composition, all topped with the spiciness of improvisation that returns us to music as a metaphor, the pentatonic scale, and the chord progressions set the parameters, but within that is nearly an infinity of possibility.
I offer the following scripts from my audio recordings. They move from improvisational to scripted, though after the fact that is probably less obvious.
Today I want to talk about Moodle and from the perspective of an aspiring Instructional Designer.
First, I want to distance myself from the argument that we are better than this that the best online instruction only occurs in the open environment of the untamed internet. Most colleges and universities have selected one or a couple learning management systems that they support. Similarly, in the business world learning management systems are frequently standardized and selected for compatibility or interoperability with their HR department’s employee management system. Learning management systems are an important skill set for Instructional Designers.
I like Moodle because it is open source and being open source that means almost every internet service provider includes a one-click install of it as part of your service package when you buy domain and hosting. I cannot recommend taking advantage of this highly enough.
Once you set up your personal instance of Moodle, you have the opportunity to interact with the program as an administrator and teacher. Now it is also possible to install the Moodle app on your personal mobile device and test your content in that way, as well. Creating your own development domain lets you master both administrative and instructional functions.
Our tendency is immediately to explore the role of “Teacher” and to begin creating content. I would warn folks away from that and instead to explore the role of Administrator. Explore the various roles that an administrator can create and assign. As well, administrators have authority over authentication, account management, permissions, and enrolments. I am unsure about the effectiveness of it; I have used my own instance of Moodle in my recent job search. I created user accounts for my interviewers and invited them to review a couple of courses I have developed and achieved at my Moodle installation.
So, while I was disappointed with Moodle’s “big brother” competitor’s mobile app I am looking forward to experimenting with Moodle’s mobile app just to see how it works.
LMS have the same basic functions Moodle’s availability allows us to explore and master these basics hence preparing us for our Instructional Designer role.
I find the presence of a semicolon in a spoken piece laughable, to begin with. My process here started with my own use of Moodle. I then moved to reviewing their website for highlights to develop as content. Finally, I spoke to the microphone until I had most of the script. I forced myself to come in under three minutes and so the gap between my content and my outro required some spontaneity and some finessing. From this recording, I learned that I dropped my volume at the end of sentences fading rather than punching.
Internet service in Dillingham is quite expensive and slow. Therefore, I found myself researching NotSchool.net on my phone. I discovered Heppell’s website on my work desktop, but the heavy lifting was done from my phone. This script was further towards the written end of the continuum yet it to developed out of recording, writing and revising.
Today I want to talk about NotSchool.net. Professor Stephen Heppell at Anglia Polytechnic University started this as an outgrowth of his Ultralab project. Heppell offers his version of the inception of the project at his website, “history.notschool.net.” The initial conversations leading to the program occurred in 1998. One of the cool features of the program is that they developed a new vocabulary and rather than students, they had “researchers” I will respect that in the following. The project focused on researchers excluded from institutional education, school refusals, school phobic, school exclusions, children in long-term hospital care, and profoundly physically impaired. Beyond the goodness of the mission are two other striking elements Heppell was acutely aware of the compelling case that money makes for government officials, Heppell drops the number 25 billion pounds in reengagement savings. Second, Heppell’s list of “early heroes” is a striking list of leaders, non-profit, for profit, journalists, educators, and government officials. My first take away is entrepreneurship whether business, non-profit, or social has a similar recipe for success, networking, and storytelling are fundamental skills.
Heppell also offers the literal sketch on a bar napkin for the technology plan for delivery to researchers. In 1998, it was perhaps relatively radical, now it is a tried and true recipe. I like that Heppell talks about other versions being explored and the realization that that part of the project they got nearly right on the first draft. After inception comes a lot of hard work by many dedicated individuals and once relative success is achieved then continuity becomes important. Far too many projects like this end with their funding, Heppell offers academic, administrative, and social accomplishments for role modeling.
Simply the program worked and has stood the test of time; it has become a model for other similar programs. A British Non-profit called Inclusion Trust is currently operating it. I encourage folks, particularly folks looking for alternatives to the ranks and rows of our classrooms to explore and adapt Stephen Heppell’s work.
Because I had the Moodle script I had a feel for how much of a page would take three minutes to speak, so some of this composition was based on how big a text block I had achieved. Finally, I worked up the OCW script. This I did sitting at my keyboard with a Word document and my iPhone to search the internet.
Today, I want to talk about the euphemistically titled “Open Courseware.” Massachusetts Institute of Technology led the way in 2001 by starting a project to make virtually all their course content available online. In 2001, this was a completely unheard of approach. Most scholars in higher education considered course content to be proprietary and part of what made an institution competitive and unique. MIT lead in two important ways through this initiative. They anticipated “content creation” as a profoundly important marketing tool. As well, they anticipated and understood that online learning and online peer review were important future trends. In the intervening years, many other universities have joined with them and an amazing wealth of instructional content is available consequently.
On the marketing side, it is easy to understand that their leadership position in technology is nearly unquestionable because of this strategy. Content marketing is now an established new profession I believe, in part, because of this initiative. All organizations are facing questions about positioning themselves as thought leaders and contributors to the knowledge economy.
Sensibly, MIT has examined their website traffic as part of this initiative and the volume is impressive, certainly. MIT has observed three groups, educators, students and self-learners who traffic their site and resources. Of the self-learners, we find people already established in their professions who want to broaden their knowledge followed by people who need to brush up existing skills, or learn a new skill are frequent user of these resources.
I can think of another relatively new profession, Instructional Designers, who might use these types of resources as well. I can imagine using them to either audit or augment course content depending on the instructor I was working with. I can imagine using these resources for inspiration also.
Unfortunately, MIT’s OCW website is not optimized for mobile devices. However, they have a specialized search page focused on educators desiring to use MIT’s resources. Their search protocol is quite interesting it first offers a choice between instructional approach and teaching materials. Unfortunately, I was frustrated in using their searches since I continually received error messages from their website. However, given the many other universities around the world who have followed suit I am not worried that I could find a way to enrich any instructional project I work on. Perhaps this is old news for many folks but for some of us it represents a new class of resources to add to our toolkit.
In this case, I wrote the script entirely. I revised it based first on verbal stumbles. Second, I edited for concerns that are more standard, overstatement, and accuracy for example. By the end I was feeling quite peevish, perhaps cross even, with MIT of all places for having such a bad and broken website (in fairness the brokenness may well be blamed on Dillingham’s internet access, but I have no way to test that, so my pettiness is completely justified.)
Composition and editing in making digital audio recordings has a second moment during recording. One may keep the tape rolling and simply re-speak a stumble knowing that they can snip away an offending “umm.” Finally, there is the actual editing phase though because of split functions and track movement one can still engage in composition even at this late stage.
At work, I am currently engaged in editing a professor’s Blackboard screencasts recorded from the Collaborate module. They will suffice. However, I am intrigued with constructing the audio separate from the video. Alternatively, is simply focusing on creating excellent audio in the first and last place. I recall my celebration of Bronet and Schumacher and their criticism of our cultures’ privileging visual knowledge, metaphor, and inquiry. I suspect that when we are not demanding and holding students attention by visual, auditory, and kinesthetic we experience ourselves as losing control. Students at a distance are not under the influence of the rooms’ ranks and rows. Students at a distance are, just like us, multi-tasking, watching YouTube listening to Spotify, typing a text, an email, and a writing assignment. Is there power in giving up control and instead developing excellence in our performance simplified and amplified through a single sense?
References
Bronet, F., & Schumacher, J. (1999). Design in Movement: The Prospects of Interdisciplinary Design. Journal Of Architectural Education, 53(2), 97-109. doi:10.1162/104648899564475
Kundera, M. (2003). The Art of the Novel. Harper Perennial Modern Classics; Reprint edition.
Paulo De Souza, M. (2008 July 5,). The Robert Rodriguez: 10 Minute Film School
(The 1st & Original). [Video file] Retrieved from https://youtu.be/W-YpfievjSk
Vox. (2016, May 19). Rapping, deconstructed: The best rhymers of all time [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/QWveXdj6oZU
Un-learning Google Forms
What is the role of the Instructional Designer in anticipating the learners need to un-learn and in supporting the teacher, in that perhaps most important task, facilitating un-learning?
I came to this assignment with a mild bias against Google Forms. A very long time ago, we made forms with HTML. Moreover, that offered a huge amount of customizability though at the steep price of building them from scratch. Six to eight years ago, my workplace transitioned to Google. Forms were among the tools available as a result. Looking back I am uncertain whether Forms has improved over time or if the functionality was there and we did not know how to use it. However, we soon switched to Survey Monkey (much more sophisticated was our participation in the MISO survey, a powerful tool, but mostly a black box) and more recently the Qualtrics product. It was with this in mind that I approached this assignment.
In this instance, un-learning was triggered by recognizing the feeling of misgiving that perhaps something was missing. In the workplace, I have gotten good at trusting that feeling when it comes to others’ presentations or projects. In my personal relationships, I recognized it when I rationalize or giving half-measure. This, for me, is first an aspect of listening intently, to others, and then to myself. However, in this case, my listening was dulled by my bias. Sometimes in life, we tell ourselves rich and complex stories based on just a few ambiguous facts and a bunch of emotional energy. These stories get in our way of relating with other people and of learning. In this instance, I was not telling myself a rich or emotional story. Rather, “Why is Skip having us work with Google Forms? I know there are better tools out there.” My simple story blocked my progress for a long time.
It was these misgivings in this case that slowly dragged me into realizing I needed to un-learn, in order to complete this assignment.
Because of previous work, I came to this project predisposed to create all of my content up front. In addition, this was an approach that actually delayed my insight into needing to un-learn. On many other occasions, I simply fire up a new program and see what it can do, learn it on the fly. Here I imagined that I knew what Forms could do. It also caused me to miss the nuance in Skip’s emphasis on “branching logic.” I sensed it was important to him and accordingly imagined I needed to write it into my content, up front. Yet, I was working on a real-world project, and real-world data (Google Analytics tells us a fair bit about folk’s use of our website) accordingly I needed to ask about what we do not know. Unfortunately, that did not fit well with “branched questions” hence Skip and I struggled to communicate here. If I was simply doing a simulation for the assignment then I probably would have been quicker to un-learn, but this project had real-world consequences for me, hence I was more stubborn then I might have been otherwise.
We were at an impasse as I approached Tuesday, evening’s synchronous session. The technical difficulty in my logging in meant that I heard Skip’s talking about the “description” and “question” text fields incompletely and out of context. However, it was a moment of niggling misgiving. My last attempt to use Forms had been stillborn on this functional ambiguity. Questions as spreadsheet headers, or not, made analyzing the data cumbersome and impractical (real world, I need this now and I do not have time or patience to figure it out). Therefore, this started my repeating my simple story above, “Why is Skip having us work with Google Forms? I know there are better tools out there.” The misgiving was inarticulate at that moment but it was simply my recognizing I did not know as much as I thought I did. Seeing Skip fumble around with the Forms interface was likewise an ambiguity. I started to repeat my story but pressed pause because Skip said, “They must have recently updated Forms. Things have moved around.” This simple fumble, I am sure, not intentional, but oh so real, caused me to watch the video that Skip posted. Why had I not bothered with the other video tutorials? First, I knew, already about Forms. In addition, internet access now is more challenging; hence, I am increasingly declining high data, and high bandwidth, options. I also have a vague recollection of Skip saying the Atomic Learning tutorials were “older.” My bias and my situation caused me not to engage with all the online learning objects.
Watching the new tutorial connected the dots for me. Skip is interested in branching logic because it is a feature of the Forms functionality. He wanted us to recognize the power. This was obscured for me in part because I tried to write my form completely and upfront in Google Docs.
Another important moment of realization that I needed to un-learn came from interacting with Valerie’s assignment. She has nicely broken her survey into sections. In fact, as a survey taker, this is something I dislike a lot. The only time I have patience for it is when the survey designer provides enough information to navigate the form and manage my impatience. This bias likewise stood in my way to discovering the branching logic functionality. Indeed, I discovered the section button on the toolbar and then immediately removed the section I accidently created when I was first messing about with moving my content into Forms. Seeing Valarie’s form was the moment of understanding regarding how sections and branching logic function in Forms. Skip said it in his tutorial, but to learn it I needed to interact with a peers’ form.
I still believe there is significant room to be critical of Google’s Forms. They are right-at-hand, powerful, richly featured, grossly under-explained, and not particularly intuitive. That said most of my struggle was due to my own internal monolog. So, how do I as a budding Instructional Designer design with a learners’ need to un-learn simultaneously along with their learning, in mind? How do I help teachers facilitate learners in un-learning? Treating myself as a case study I see the following elements that might have broader application.
- Peer-to-peer
- Down and dirty learning object(s) targeted at miscommunication
- Sensitivity to miscommunication
- Experience may provide a clue that a topic is likely to require unlearning
- Collect and offer samples to interact with
A down and dirty search of Academic Search Premier, “unlearning” limited to education and psychology peer-reviewed article, shows that “un-learning” appears across many disciplines, medicine, social work, teaching, technology, organizational change, and leadership. The concept itself is contested (it would not be academia otherwise). It is not my intention to research this here, nor to argue for the concept. Rather, I want to use it as a a “variable” as I sort out my tentative re-invention of self as Instructional Designer.
In my case study, I mentioned the stories we tell ourselves. And this is a construct I learned from the Crucial Conversations training from Vital Smarts. They also offer a mnemonic, AMPP, which stands for Ask, Mirror, Paraphrase, and Prime when one is trying to stay on track in crucial conversation. It is also a useful tool for interrogating, and interrupting and rendering the stories folks are telling themselves as objects of self-reflection. This without being rude or causing defensiveness. I think of the story I was telling, “Why is Skip having us work with Google Forms? I know there are better tools out there.” I could have engaged in my own AMPP process and probably made quicker progress on this assignment. However, I need to get into the skin of an Instructional Designer and apply the mnemonic from that point of view. I see the need for AMPP as I work with Professors on a daily basis to interrupt the stories they tell themselves about students and about their subjects. But how do we anticipate as distance learners need to “unlearn”? How do we build that into a curriculum?