Bud the Teacher

This collection of articles, published as Threshold Magazine - New Directions Spring 2008 by Cable in the Classroom and the KnowledgeWorks Foundation is one of the finest “think bombs” related to education and coming changes that I’ve seen printed on paper. I received a copy by accident, as my predecessor was on just the right mailing list.

There’s a great think piece on open textbooks, and Stephen Downes has a piece in the issue, too, on educational choices and virtual options. Also included is a handy copy of the Future Forces Affecting Education map by KnowledgeWorks. Might be worth getting some extra hard copies to share with your favorite administrator, teacher, school board member, etc. (Here’s the reprint inquiry info. I’ll be calling on Monday.)

    I guess it’d be a good thing if I slapped together a few of my best posts and put them on a page for teachers.  Then, I’d probably let everyone know that I’ve created a great new resource for teachers, one with an exclusive newsletter and very special stuff, stuff that I’ve collected from other places and put here, in this one special place.  Then, I could spend some money on teachers and bring them together to look at all the stuff that I created relabeled just for them.  They’d probably go nuts about that.  You know how we teachers like free stuff.
    That’d be pretty cool, huh?
      Seriously, though.  There’s always someone trying to make a dollar off of a teacher or a classroom.  Sometimes that’s an okay thing, because they’ve got a product that helps me do something that I want to do.  Other times, that’s no good, because they’re poor salespeople — they want to sell me something that I don’t really need, or won’t actually do something for the benefit of my students.
    Google, like lots of other vendors and merchants and innovative-type folks, has created some amazing stuff, and hopefully, will be involved in fascinatingly complex innovations in the future.
    But just because they’ve slapped "for teachers" on their cool stuff doesn’t suddenly mean that they’ve created vast new resources that will help me, or anyone else, do our jobs better.  What they’ve actually done, or so it seems to me, is that they’ve "given permission" for people to start using those tools in the classroom.
    We shouldn’t need permission.  We shouldn’t be so locked into paradigms and routines that when something interesting, fascinating, or just downright useful come along, we wait until we’re told it’s "okay" to use that tool in our schools.
    I’m hopeful, though, that the creation of Google for Educators can eventually lead to a meaningful conversation about how business can help teachers in mutually beneficial ways.  The folks at Discovery Education, when they’re not flinging book bags and projectors at teachers, are doing some interesting and meaningful work.    I don’t mean to pick on these two companies, or set them up as diametrically opposed.  Both have potential, both are selling products.   There are other corporate partnerships that work, too.  Plenty that don’t.   
    Maybe Google for Educators is the next big thing.  I just haven’t seen it yet.

PS — Bill and Will, aside from rhyming, are two smart folks who aren’t waiting for permission from anyone.  Their conversation about open source vs. corporate creation is wrapped up in my still cold-riddled brain as I think about this topic.
I just couldn’t figure out a witty way to work them into this post.   I’m also thinking of this comment, which I will address as the cold begins to give up brain control:

I checked out your link to I Love
Bees. Have you ever read the book Born to Buy by Juliet Schor. Schor
discusses these marketing campaigns to children which I found
troubling. The wiki you provided said I Love Bees was part of a viral
marketing campaign for Halo 2.

What’s Cathy’s Book trying to sell?

The short answer to Keri’s question is CoverGirl.  The longer answer is whether or not corporate sponsorship that leads to an interesting opportunity for learning is always a bad thing.  The book and some clever, or highly concerning, depending on your personal opinion, has started a bit of a conversation about product placement in books.  A better question is are they really selling us anything at all?  Does placing a product in a book make a meaningful marketing difference?   Does having a corporate connection necessarily make for a "dirty" experience, one that isn’t as good or pure or righteous or holy as one that would involve an open source tool?  I don’t mean to trivialize the question — it’s a really important one that has implications for Google for Educators just as much as it does for any other corporate connection to an educational initiative or vice versa. 
    I don’t know the answers yet, but I intend to speak with my students about it when we meet for book club tomorrow.
    This is definitely first draft thinking.  Be gentle.

    I’ve had a cold all week that’s been slowly taking away my ability to think and to communicate at the same time.  I’ve been striking back as best as I can, but last night, after the very enjoyable fireside chat session with the K12 Online folks, the cold won the battle. 
    I caved and took some cold medicine.  Now, irony of ironies, I can’t sleep, as all of the thinking I was trying to do today was sort of backed up in my brain until now, so I’m learning instead.  So long as there’s no talking, I think my brain can keep up with my typing.  Maybe.
    Thanks to Rick, I spent some time this evening at YouTube.  Here’s a video that pretty much matches our reaction to finding Cathy’s Book on the bookshelf.
    Sean Stewart, one of the authors of Cathy’s Book, has an essay on ARG’s posted at his website on ARG’s.  Since he’s been involved with the artform/genre/mindtrip since the beginning of the artform, I think he counts as an expert.  You should definitely read in its entirety, particularly if you think gaming has a place in schools.
This is a little jumbled, I know, between the cold medicine and the excited synapses going off and fighting for control of my intellect.  Forgive me.  There’s lots of synthesis to do between Stewart’s words and lots of the great conversations going on about how to tell a new story in school.  This might be one of those ways to teach the new story in schools — or I’m mixing my metaphors.  Either way, I blame the virus. 

On the idea of ARG’s not being a new experience, Stewart writes:

By the way, I do NOT assert that the Beast was the first, or greatest,
example of massively multi-player collaborative investigation and
problem solving. Science, as a social activity promoted by the Royal
Society of Newton’s day and persisting to this moment, has a long head
start and a damn fine track record. Not to mention more profound
investigations and way more scandalous gossip.

We just accidentally re-invented Science as pop culture entertainment.

Can you imagine the classroom power of reinventing our content as pop culture entertainment?  Sure, there’s some dangerous ground there — but plenty of potential in there too.
    Feels like the cold’s taking over again — off to rest.  And read.   Before I go, though, I’m curious — how many of you actually dialed the number on the cover (650-266-8233)?  What was your reaction?

    I’m teaching a book club class in the afternoons for students who want to take their independent reading a little further.  We meet twice a week, discuss their reading and generally do book clubbish things, such as share ideas, questions, and, occasionally, chocolate.   There are only two students in the class at the moment, and we’ve been together for nine weeks, so we’re starting to get used to each other as readers and thinkers. 
    We pick the books that we’re reading together, and so it was a pretty normal day when we arrived at a local book store to pick out our next text, as well as some new books for the library that I had ordered.
    Of course, the book we had selected wasn’t in.  But we found something else.
    A student handed me a black, hard cover book, with the words "Cathy’s Book: If found call (650) 266-8233" written with what appeared to be silver marker on the cover.  She asked me what I thought.  On a hunch, I asked her if she had her cell phone with her.  She pulled it from her pocket, at which point I instructed her to dial the number. 
    She was nervous about that, so she asked me to instead. 
    I’m going to interrupt this narrative to ask you to dial that number, so long as it’s reasonably cost-effective for you to do so.  If you’ve a Skype account, it’s probably a free call for you at the moment — go ahead and dial.  I’ll wait. 
    From the moment we heard that message, we were curious.  Then, we opened the book.  Alongside a pretty standard looking book was a pouch full of documents and other stuff: ripped up photographs, a menu, some old letters, and some other odd items.  We shared the find with the other student in the class, dialed the number for her, she took a listen, and we headed to the register with our new read in hand.
    This is an interesting book. 
    Written by one of the creators of  I Love Bees, an early incarnation of an ARG (alternate reality game), Cathy’s Book is a puzzle wrapped inside a book and scattered around lots of voice mail boxes, collections of documents, websites, and .  .  .  well, we’re not sure what else yet.  We just know it’s addictive and contagious.  At least one other student here at school is waiting to read the book, and we’re all reading voraciously; we even met up today during lunch to check in on the progress that we’ve each made.  (All of us had discovered different clues that allowed us to access various hidden puzzles.  We needed each other to make the picture begin to be complete.  VERY COOL.)
    I like the idea of a novel that uses a narrative that exists in lots of places.  I’ve written about this before, but I really, really think there’s potential in these types of stories, stories where we have to access different types of information and begin to make sense of what’s real, what’s relevant, and what’s important to the story. 
    After only a day of reading Cathy’s Book, I’m hooked, as are my students.  The only problem I see with that excitement is that in a week or two, we’re going to need another book that engages us in this way. 
    Got any ideas?

    Stephanie’s compiled a solid collection of resources for those interested into digging deeper with Second Life.  I can’t say I’m sold on the tool, yet, but I’m definitely paying attention.

Mr. Evil Eyes’s Othello video has really taken off.  I recorded several thousand page viewings just yesterday — which is a major jump in traffic for our little newspaper. The feedback is pretty positive — and the grades on the project were turned in months ago.  This is so not about school anymore.   All I did in the classroom was teach the Shakespeare.   This is about flexing one’s creative muscles.   This is about the power of audience.   
    Of course, Mr. Evil Eyes wasn’t creating for the world — he was creating for his teachers.  But I wonder what this positive attention will do for him for future projects.  I have a hunch that it’ll be a good thing.
       Good stuff rises on the Internet.  Students are not students — they’re participants in a community of creation and consumption where they are judged on their work — that’s all.    And the Internet, it seems, is big enough to embrace most everyones’ interests.  I think everybody can find an audience here. 
    Interestingly, I learned a lot following the postings about the video around the ‘net.  For example, did you know that there’s live theater in Second Life?  I sure didn’t.  Lots of potential here.

    What happens when your game is more than a game?  How about Othello, World of Warcraft style?  One of my students produced this video as his final project for my Shakespeare course this year.  He chose to involve his family in the project (they help with the voice work) and to shoot the abridged performance via a network of computers in his home. 

    How cool is this?

John’s been playing a lot of Worlds of Warcraft lately, ostensibly as research.  Clarence talks from time to time about educational gaming.  Others have mentioned the idea that we can teach with immersive games, too.  I got it, and agreed, intellectually speaking.  But I didn’t see us quite there in terms of logistics, practicality, and technology.  Then I read this story about James Cameron’s current projects  in Businessweek today:

 Cameron has more than a passing interest in simulation and
next-generation games. A former physics major at California State
University, he once served on the board of NASA. Aiming to shoot all
his future films in 3-D, he has helped pioneer a whole suite of 3-D
cameras, tools to capture actors’ performances and import them into
simulations, and various post-production techniques. Cameron now sits
on the board of Multiverse, a startup that helps developers create
their own games in return for a cut of the subscription revenues.
"You’re seeing what hundreds of thousands of people in this game
environment can create," he says.

Other big directors are glomming onto MMOGs. Imagine Entertainment, the
company run by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer that created the TV show 24, has teamed up with producer Jim Banister, Halo
creator Alex Seropian, and others to develop a sci-fi reality show
called XQuest. If it flies, contestants will occupy a cramped
spaceship-like module for a month. Its flight simulators will subject
them to rocket-like conditions, including six Gs of thrust. Players
will ply the galaxy while following the rough contours of a plot.
Outside the ship, online gamers will track the crew’s mission and
ultimately board their own PC-based spaceships to rendezvous with
contestants in shared, simulated space. The next season’s cast, in
theory, is chosen from those who show the most skill playing the game
at home.

    Boy was I wrong.  I totally get it now.  More later.