Pondering

I finished the Shirky book and started another one on produsage. It's particularly interesting to think about what it means to claim that we are in the midst of a change at the magnitude of the invention of the printing press or the industrial revolution. This must be what Colin and Michele mean when they say ontological change. With the shift to communication (many to many) and immediate social action (flash mobs), the speed and level of these practices, I am wondering whether school has completely missed the boat and it's already too late. Schools are so busy transmitting static knowledge and putting increasingly severe boundaries around what is allowed that I fear irrelevance has already set in. Publishing is global and free, social action and political change is possible without formal organizations and infrastructures, knowledge and information are generated at lightening speed by everyone...schools haven't paid attention. Gee makes the point that schools are bad for everyone, white kids just get A's for it and he argues they will be irrelevant if they don't account for these ontological changes. I'm just thinking that it's too late already. Problem is... now what do I do? I mean, I'm in education!

Working with the youth group has deepened my questions. These kids are incredible and they completely know school is pointless for them. They play the game for the most part, but their lives outside of school are rich and engaging. Maybe it's always been like this and I just now figured it out.

Reading in different spaces

Hooray for summer! It's interesting to read in different disciplines and fields (spaces). For summer I plan to read the pile of books that have been waiting for me on my desk at home. I started reading Shirky's new book, Here comes everybody: The power of organizing without organizations. He writes on information technology and how human relations are changing dramatically. There's a book on wikinomics, one on produsage...how much of a geek am I?

The youth project is going strong. We have 10 young people building a cool website, planning a video, podcasts, a YouTube series about their lives, and who knows what else...I can't believe how lucky I am to get to work with them. The website is still under construction, but check it out as it develops. We set up a Google site, bought a domain name (hoodbytes) and have been trying to figure out how to post our videos and link to everyone's bio pages. It's not as easy as it looks, but these guys are pretty savvy at this stuff.

Life is good today.