When's the Last Time You Found Yourself in the Middle of an Unfamiliar Discourse?

A few hours ago I found myself sitting on a cold seat.  As I pulled on my coat, I realized that I was sharing an experience with thousands of people that I did not know.  All of us were huddled together with ear plugs in our ears as exhaust hung in the air; and yet I was separated from this group by one reality.  I am not a true member of the Discourse that surrounds the sport of Nascar racing.  A moment later as a yellow caution sign appeared on the screen in the middle of the track, I watched as everyone jumped up and started to either cheer or yell out in dismay.  I looked over at my husband, the reason that I was here in the first place, and watched his face as he excitedly tried to explain to me what had just occurred.  But while he patiently tried to educate me on the event and what it meant for the race as a whole, I realized that I was in the midst of a Discourse that I may never truly be a part of.

I do not say this with dismay necessarily or joy, but instead with new understanding.  My still novice literary lens really made me take a step back tonight and consider what I knew in that moment about my surroundings.  I looked at the advertisements and sponsor emblems, and struggled to recall what each of them stood for.  I took in all 43 cars and reflected on the true meaning that the numbers that adorned those cars could hold.   Those two stenciled on digits represented a person and a team; a team that fans either chose to love or hate.  Feelings that then drove them to support that driver and show their appreciation through merchandise purchased and worn to symbolize their devotion.  A symbol that, while immersed in this Discourse, could cause complete strangers to stop and speak or offer a 'fist bump' as a way of showing their mutual support and appreciation. So imagine how those fans may feel should they find a 'visitor' in their midst that may, at best, recognize one number and its associated race car driver.   Would they cast me out?  Would they wonder why I was here?

Upon further reflection I realize that I have often been privy to a conversation that is riddled with these numbers, leaving me lost in translation.  I wonder, in that moment, did they notice?  Or was I somewhat hidden because I had 'dressed the part'?  I will, in fact, usually listen to these types of conversations and try to appear interested.   I may even try and tap into the limited knowledge that I have acquired to participate or at least attempt to piece it together in my mind. But I'm afraid knowing terms like 'caution' and 'green flag' can only get you but so far….

I am, like many of you perhaps, constantly in awe of how often I am now seeing the literacy that surrounds our world in a whole new light.  And while I have learned some of the words and phrases that can be found within the Discourse of Nascar, and admit that sometimes the event that surrounds it can be a fun ride; I also realize that I may always be in this Discourse's passenger seat.

Learning languages

So this week I'm helping David figure out what class to take this fall; he's been accepted as a non-program graduate student at Virginia Tech. When we learn a language, we learn code. There is so much more socio-culturally to a language, but the base element is translation, initially literal translation. David has trouble with social cues, which are a language all their own. And yet, he speaks English, French, German, Russian, Italian, and Hebrew. People are always impressed that he is so skilled, but what I see is code. He can convert code, and if language is code, which I believe it is, he is able to convert. So he is literate in one way but illiterate in another. Neither has more importance, but in our society, his illiteracy makes it difficult for him to maintain relationships. I think people would be surprised at how much literacy is non-verbal. David's going to take a Comp Sci class in September. He is going to be trying to prove that he is capable of graduate work in order to apply to the Comp Sci department for his major. Comp Sci is probably the best place for him to start, but it will be interesting to see if he ventures into a more cultural environment as well.

Levels of literacy

Yesterday I taught an introduction class. Two of my students had originally signed up for the intermediate class (called "Getting More") and after the first fifteen minutes decided they were in too advanced a class and left. During the day they indicated that they were very glad they had moved back a level, and one student is going to be taking another introduction class rather than a "Getting More" class for a different program. My classes are different than many literacy classes in that my students are expected to have certain literacy skills, and we only have one day to 'learn' the software. I think often of the more knowledgeable other I become in the front of the room. My students are anywhere from 18 to 70 years old, and come in with their own history and skills. I have to kind of corral those skills into a common area and begin to work with the group to bring them up to a common skill level. In the Getting More classes, the zone of proximal development becomes more important. I scaffold the students to become more proficient in software that helps them in their jobs, which is the primary reason people take these classes. Ms. Coiro (got it this time, Dr. M.) discusses literacy in a way that pertains to my work. Eymann's discussion of digital literacy resonated with me, because as I've written in previous posts, the literacy in computers is not the skills to perform the tasks, but the ability to use the skills to acquire knowledge. Everyone used Presi last week, which I've never seen before, but is evidently common in the academic world. So now I am once again illiterate; I will be working on my own to explore the software and see if it is something I can learn without instruction. I am self-taught in most of the software I teach, and students are sometimes amazed (their word) that I can learn software on my own. It's only recently that I realize that other people don't understand software the way I do - I always say it just makes sense to me. And yet there has been so much this semester that everyone understands that I struggle with. Another example of different literacies, the basis for this class. Off to school.

Earth day and the abolition movement

Zinn Education Project

Classmates: since we have all come to "read" the world differently, I wanted to share something with you about Earth Day. This article was in my Facebook feed, and I must admit, I would never have compared Earth Day to the Abolition movement. Curiosity got the best of me; I had to read more and share it with you.   Forgive me for over-posting this week!

To begin, the Zinn Education Project is connected to Teaching For Change.  You can find more on TFC by clicking on their icon in the upper right of our blog.  TFC/Zinn challenge us to dig  a little deeper into what we teach our kids today, question the assumptions we promote, and provide a more balanced, historical perspective.  Hmm, that sounds familiar!  So, by digging a little deeper into the Earth Day/global warming movement, Zinn compares it to the struggles faced by Abolitionists in 19th century America.

Susangale wrote in her blog post about the ways we don't challenge the truths and assumptions that comprise our worlds.  I  am certainly guilty of that.  While I don't know how I feel about global warming, I believe that, in order to take a stand on an  issue, it is necessary to question the many truths, assumptions, and science that surround it.  How else can we be fully informed?  Furthermore, if we propose to teach these "facts" to our children (and adult learners!), we owe it to them to provide a more balanced approach. OK, sorry to be so preach-y.

I hope this post leaves you curious enough to check out the Zinn Ed Project.  It's worth a quick read.  Thanks for taking the time to read this post, "the other Susan."

Take Away Points: Mass Campaigns or One-to-one Empowerment?

As we are coming to the end of – wait, I don’t like that word, “end” – doesn’t seem right. Rather, I think I want to reflect a bit on the things that I will carry forward. As I was going over our generative lists, the questions I will continue to ask with the new lens of my understanding kept landing on two themes. Interestingly, I was struck by the dualistic nature of two.

As I have previously noted, the use of texts in the colonization of nations and peoples is something I have never given much thought to. I don’t know why.  I guess my “eyes” had just never really been opened to the role of written words in codifying the “shared exterior” of my realities – the things I accept as true and right and, well, “normal.” These have all been constructed by “texts” and are not just the “norms” I have taken for granted. I am not sure how I thought “norms” developed, but childlike, I apparently have just accepted the veracity of the social claims of many, many, norms in my lifetime. The longer I live, though, and the more I learn, the more I am struck by how little we (I) question how big T truths have been constructed.   Learning about the role of texts in history by colonizers to promote favored ideologies, justify acts of suppression, even campaigns of war and genocide, will never allow me to “read” a text again without questioning the motives and the message. That is something I will carry forward. 

On the other hand, though, the ability of one educator to empower those they “learn” with will never leave me, either.  I don’t think we can “measure” the outcomes – the potentially far-reaching effects – that helping just one person to find their voice can have. By voice, I mean giving a person, an adult in our case, the tools with which to make sense of their world and to take action in their lives. Even the simple action of understanding how to fill out a form, perhaps, or write a letter, changes a life. And adult educators get to do this again and again. That is more than an occupation, that is a calling. Thank you. Susan

Being an Adult Learner

      We have expectations, we register for a class, we work and we learn.  As an adult our expectations are different than those of the K-12 learners who are essentially forced into education.  We possess some control.  We are paying for academic freedom.  We weigh what we will learn and what we are willing to invest time in learning.  We bring our own backgrounds into the classroom, much broader and more diverse because of our years.  When education happens it is often because our choices as adult learners lead us to question our assumptions about the education we expected and the education we discover.  Preconceived notions about what we’ll learn are often shattered as we make the choice to experience our own education. 

       We may enter into a classroom looking for that formal education.  Yet quite often what happens is the informal learning.  It’s providence that we are led through the educational information (Thank you Bill).  What we discover along the way broadens our horizons more and education happens.  It’s exciting, it’s enriching, and it’s revitalizing no matter our age.

      To make this education happen all of us juggle something.  Maybe we’ve put spouses on hold, or shifted our children’s needs to someone else.  Maybe we take the stairs on Tuesdays because we can’t fit exercise into our day any other way.  We might eat on the run and still feed others.  Our time and our energy may be spread thin, our careers demanding of us.  Yet in my case I knew I had reached a learning plateau in my current field and I was ready for the next step.  It was time to get off that plateau and climb the next mountain.  I needed more.

      Within this program I started with a plan in mind and I’ve already learned that every moment is more.  My experiences and what I’ve learned in class, in my studies and with my colleagues shapes how my plan will evolve.  No matter the challenges of being here, I appreciate every moment of this personal growth that I have chosen to embark on.  Maybe this is just a feel good post, but as the semester winds down I found myself would up.  It’s a journey and it has just begun.  Thank you for joining me.

Big Data

"We now generate more data every two days than we did in aggregate from the dawn of early civilization through the beginning of the 21st century...this is called the 'Big Data Revolution'" (Gerencser, 2008).  The words big data revolution  have a frightening overtone, but I don't have a context for what they really mean.  Gerencser (2008) gives a business and security perspective on the meaning; it is disturbing to read about the vulnerabilities of  intellectual property, and our national security, to hackers with criminal intentions.  For some background, Mark Gerencser is a managing partner in a large, defense contracting firm in Northern VA.

I suppose I'm in denial about the ways Google, Facebook, Yahoo, this blog, etc. continually collect information from every key stroke I make.  I'm forced to ask myself if it is a coincidence that I receive marketing ads about specific things I look at while surfing the Internet.  Denial, denial, denial.  Technology is good for us.  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it! 

I recently came across a publication from the U.S. Dept. of Education, Outreach and Technical Assistance Network (OTAN)  Expanding evidence approaches for learning in a digital world (2012) that once again made me face big data.  "This report discusses the promise of sophisticated digital learning systems for collecting and analyzing very large amounts of fine-grained data ("big data") as users interact with systems" (OTAN, 2012).  This is something called education data mining.  To be clear, the "users" who "interact with systems" are our children sitting at their school computers doing their assignments and taking tests.  "Various stakeholders in the education community have different perspectives and needs, but all share an interest in understanding how to use digital learning systems, the data they generate, information, and evidence to address specific challenges in the U.S. education system.  The opportunities digital learning resources create and the data they produce have important implications for each stakeholder group"  (OTAN 2012).  Now I have a vision of children chained to computers that capture every keystroke they make. 

Given my recent discovery of the way literacy is treated as an independent variable that can be quantified and studied, the concept of education data mining gives me pause.  I implied the adult education system could be better run as a business model, however, education data mining points me in a very different direction.  Who are the stakeholders and what is at stake with our education system? 

Education data mining allows for something called design-based implementation research (DBIR).  This is a different way to conduct education research, one that systematically assigns "users" (our children) to random test groups and collects data as it happens (as our children are sitting at their computers in the classroom).   Called "rapid A/B testing," its results  allow digital learning systems (the computers in our children's classrooms) to be enhanced based on the user's input.  I'm over simplifying this because I can't begin to fully understand it, but I think it means the software on the child's computer would adapt based on the way the child responds to prompts.

I'm not able to hide my fear and apprehension about big data, DBIR, and its implications for the future of education.  I read the words "address specific challenges in the U.S. education system" (OTAN, 2012) and I can't help but think it's a challenge we created because we're trying to quantify knowledge and measure it in a way that is self-promoting.  Furthermore, the "specific challenges" include some human elements that are completely overlooked by classroom "learning systems." For one thing, the student must be present to input data.  How does DBIR address the drop out rate?

My naive idea about running adult education as a business seems comforting compared to a big data/DBIR  model in which we can engineer learning (and learners?).  Adult education is going digital with GED testing in 2014.  I think we need to be on the look-out for new "challenges" we will create from that data.  I need to remind myself to question the Truth, question the ideology, and question what is at stake. 

Thank, Susan.