The TWAIN blog

In 2005, author Erwin Raphael McManus released a book titled “The Barbarian Way: Unleash the Untamed Faith Within“. This book is small and powerful. I believe it was less than 200 pages and it basically rouses christians to disregard the current Christianity movement to move back toward the original barbaric and revolutionary early Christianity.
“Somewhere along the way the movement of Jesus Christ became civilized as Christianity,” McManus writes. “We created a religion using the name of Jesus Christ and convinced ourselves that God’s optimal desire for our lives was to insulate us in a spiritual bubble where we risk nothing, sacrifice nothing, lose nothing, worry about nothing. I wonder how many of us have lost our barbarian way and have become embittered with God, confused in our faith because God doesn’t come through the way we think He should.”

The call to be the barbarian way is truly about being fearless. The early church was about revolution and change. The people in that church held to a belief system that literally meant death or danger in the political shift of the time.

He goes on to say, “When we fear God and God only, we are no longer bound by all of the other fears that would hold us captive. The fear of death, the fear of failure, the fear of rejection, the fear of insignificance — all of the fears that we know by name and haunt us in the dark of the night become powerless when we know the fear of the Lord. And if this is not enough, we discover that perfect love casts out all fear. Not even God will hold us or control us by fear. When we fear Him, we in essence begin to live a life where we are fearless.”

I think of this tied to the changes we want to make in education. I didn’t get into education because it was an insurance policy for my future. I know I didn’t get into this for the pay or the holidays. I signed up to be in education so I could make change happen.

I believe I see others in my field who want to make change happen but there is fear. Fear of change. Fear of sacrificing too much. Alterning the first quote: “we are in a bubble where we risk nothing, sacrifice nothing, lose nothing, worry about nothing. I wonder how many of us have lost our barbarian way and have become embittered with [school systems], confused in our faith because [teachers or students] don’t come through the way we think [they] should.”

Have we lost our Barbarian way? How do we get it back?

I think the generic post for “what are you reading?” is too broad a category for our field. Especially during summer when any Jackie Collins book could be added to the shelf as fast as the newest US Weekly for some.

I want to ask the question differently. What books are considered part of the “Web 2.0 Educational Technology Must Read” list? Which ones are the books that lead us toward more informed arguments?

After books, which blogs? which magazines? which podcasts?

What are our “must-reads”? “must-listens”? “must-bloggers”?

What are yours? And yes, this is completely subjective. Lay your cards out on the table. Who are your influencers when it comes to education and educational technology integrating 21st century skills?

Who are our “ceWEBreties” of today?

I heard the story of these three grey whales in church this morning. The story was summarized from a book on worship by Craig Larson so I am not direct quoting it but summarizing the summary I received this morning.

In 1988, three grey whales were trapped under ice off the coast of Alaska. You may remember this item in the news as there was such an effort to help the whales move out to free waters. Under ice, the whales had no where to come up and get air. They did manage to find one small hole in the ice where they were gathered to share the air.

The whales were gathered around a small hole in the ice which they were using as a breathing hole. The rescuers drilled a hole in the ice about 6 feet down to expose another hole 20 yards away. The whales moved over to the new hole. The rescuers then drilled another hole 20 yards away again and the whales moved with them. This continued for 6 miles with the crew drilling holes every 20 yards for the whales to get access to a breathing hole. After six miles, the whales were out in the waters and no longer under the ice sheath.

Now, one could use this story to connect philosophies of how we need to put out more breathing holes for teachers to use to connect to global learning. But I choose this story to connect to my last post.

What if we - the ed tech community - are the ones bunched up around one breathing hole? We would need to spread out. I think we are all reading the same things to add to the same conversation that we keep having over and over. And we are all stuck under the same ice sheath.

I believe we need to spread out. We need to check for other breathing holes. Or as we heard at the NECC first keynote by James Surowiecki - we need to fill our groups with more diverse individuals. We need to listen to diverse thoughts and endulge in diverse conversation.

As discussed in my last post, I think we need to hear a little more dissention in the ranks. Its okay to get frustrated with what is going on. It is also okay to vent a little and let people know. I don’t think we all have to be pro-Twitter if some of us don’t think its useful for our teachers or students. I don’t think everyone needs to blog or wiki either. Its okay if you don’t listen to certain podcasts too!

I was not greatly impressed at NECC by the content of the conference. I was more impressed by the growing gap between the speakers and followers at the front of the room vs. the ones who just want to try in the back. The cliques of the Twitter crowd and the teachers/administrators who are just starting to untie their shoes to put in a toe to test the waters.

*I keep picking on Twitter only because I hear more people complain about it than anything so far. I pick because I love.

Lemme ask you this:

Have you read any divergent thought lately?

Who are you following on Twitter/Plurk?

Are you following education specialists?

What about small business owners? Media specialists? Mathematicians? Scientists? Innovators in other fields?

Are you following anyone in a field other than your own?

Can I make a suggestion? Go through your followers’ followers’ followers. You may find your own breathing hole further down the ice.

Another suggestion? Think about and post a thought that may be different than the group.

I post blog after blog and I read blog after blog. In our education circles, I read the same posts over and over. One person posts one idea and then their idea is reposted on everyone else’s blog until the next idea. And then they all comment on each other’s posts and it all ties them together more and more. It reminds me of junior high when all the same people dated within the same group. It just was a perpetual date it seemed with the same person over and over.

Find the divergent thought in the group and if it isn’t there, be the one to speak it first. Take the devil’s advocate point and see where the discussion goes next. Don’t jump on the bandwagon.

I don’t get it. But then again, I never liked crowds. I like my own breathing hole. Better than that, I like my own ocean to swim in. And I like the other creatures in there who may not ever get an iPhone or a Twitter account.

When I started grad school, my colleagues and professors discussed the separation between Academia (University-level teachers) and Classroom (K-12 teachers). The gap between research and application of the research to the classroom. To the teachers in our group it felt as if the professors or “Academia” we discussed just weren’t grounded in the real-world. We could read research paper and journals but it just seemed as if they were observing and not participating.

There was a gap and this gap made them separate from us - on the battle lines.

I am starting to see this gap develop between our classroom teachers and our new upper echelon of education technologists and bloggers out there. I think this was most noticed by the idea of “famous bloggers” from Scott McLeod’s post as well. It is also seen in the conversation taking place on Twitter and in the blogs of the new philosophers of the Web 2.0.

The group is adapting the new technologies so quickly for themselves and for the development of new communication for the edublogosphere. But, is it reflecting in our classrooms? Is it being shared by our teachers? Or are we getting so far ahead of ourselves that we are creating our own gap between research and reality?

I see communication on Twitter from the new philosophers (I like this title better than Famous Bloggers) asking us to provide them with teachers for conversations they want to have using the new technologies. I can see why it would be hard to find core teachers using Web 2.0 strategies like we use daily to communicate with one another! I don’t know of any teachers using Plurk or Twitter for that matter during the school year or even summer.

The blog conversations are so full of ideas and the push to “get our teachers onboard” and “motivate student learning” with these tools. Inspire them with collaboration and creativity! Really??!? That’s what our teachers need right now?

I am in the field. I know the push. I do. But frankly, it is getting embarrassing. I have tried most of the tools and even found a few I like personally. However, I don’t think most of my teachers would really give a flying flip about most of them or the conversations we are having. I think they see the great divide much more than we do. And that divide REALLY separates us from them.

For the past few months, I have played around the edge of the new philosophers. I have been reading their blogs, listening to the podcasts, reading the books they recommend, joining their Ustreams, and even observing the Twitter conversations about everything from baseball to new uses of technology. I have been an observer and an active participant.

But the gap is great and expanding. And I don’t want to go to their side and lose connectivity with the teachers I work with.

I wish I could Twitter and Plurk all day too.
I wish I could research blogs and contribute to the online conversation like they do.
I wish I could Ustream and connect with this global philosophy shift in live streaming.
I wish I could participate in their witty and fun conversations and travel tips they share all day and night.
I wish I could get online and ask for participants from your district because mine…well..they gave up on listening to me months ago because I am “too far out there”.
I wish I could read all those books you all talk about and listen to those podcasts while I get ready to take on a new day.

But I can’t. I have to work. I guess we can play together at NECC or TCEA someday.

I find this concept to be very interesting, especially for our current students and the realm of future job presence. In the edu-bloggersphere, there is talk of Daniel Pink’s book A Whole New Mind and his discussion of jobs non-existent now being ready for the next generation.

I guess since my background has been working with students in design programs and working with web and server design, I see how this idea of Conjunctured or Co-working is so beneficial to the design community. Many of these designers work from home or the local coffee shop without getting the interaction of others in an office. And they genuinely miss that interaction. They can do the watercooler discussions online but they can’t participate in instant feedback communication or sharing of ideas that an office brings.

Co-Working and Jelly in Austin are what I believe we as educators should be looking into for how future jobs can be developed. The concept is explained better in the video and I have posted about it before (I may have deleted it). But the concept is to gather a group of independent workers in an office space where they can still work on their independent projects; but they can co-work on each other’s ideas. Sharing. Networking. Collaboration. Creation.

But without a boss. Without the pressure of administrators. Without the hierarchy.

Equality.

Click here to view Co-Working Video from Austin American Statesman reporter Omar Gallaga