[Xmca-l] Re: Article for discussion: Facebook in Brazilian schools

[Andy Blunden]

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/teacher-accidentally-fires-gun-in-class-injures-student-20180315-p4z4eq.html

so much for arming teachers ...

a

------------------------------------------------------------
Andy Blunden
ttp://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm
On 15/03/2018 11:03 AM, David Kellogg wrote:
> I was ten years old on 15 October 1969, during the first national
> moratorium to end the Vietnam War, and I was a leader of the school patrol
> at my elementary school. Our job was standing at intersections with red
> plastic flags to stop the cars so that the younger grades could cross
> safely. The day before the Moratorium, we marched up a nearby hill instead
> of going to our first class so we could hold a discussion over whether it
> was right to strike on the Moratorium Day, and thus endanger the lives of
> the littler children. We decided to go ahead with a strike and close down
> the school the next day; I remember leading a march (our plastic red flags
> flying!) which included some little 'uns (second and third graders) to
> Coffmann Union on the nearby University of Minnesota campus where there
> were tens of thousands of  protesting students. They greeted us with a roar
> I never forgot.
>
> My wife, curiously, had a similar experience: she was an elementary school
> leader of the movement to criticize Lin Biao and Confucius in China and
> made speeches at mass meetings all over her hometown of Xi'an when she was
> about seven years old. Yes, the speeches were usually ones she copied from
> People's Daily, with the help of a friend of her mother's. But she was the
> only one in her elementary school who could read the speeches with an
> intonation that suggested understanding and did not have stage fright in
> front of tens of thousands of adults. As she says today, the newborn calf
> does not fear a full grown tiger.
>
> When we talk about our childhood experiences of mass movements, what
> strikes me is how utterly pre-conceptal, complexive, and even syncretic we
> both were: I imagined that the bombing of elementary schools in Vietnam was
> done to kill second and third graders; my wife thought that Confucius was
> still alive, and that's why we need to criticize him (in fact, even Lin
> Biao was already dead by then).  Similarly, it seems to me that a lot of
> the thinking around guns in the USA--and not just by kids--is
> pre-conceptual. The latest shooting was political--it was carried out by a
> white nationalist who had trained in the use of weapons with other white
> nationalists. This isn't much discussed.
>
> It seems to me that the suggestion to arm teachers (which is already being
> done in many areas, but in a way that only endangers teacher lives) offers
> an affordance for a more sophisticated and also more programmatic approach
> than simply trying to turn Trump's offhand comments into legislation. If
> the teachers union had specially trained armed defense guards, for example,
> they could not only stop school shooters, they might provide some limited
> protection to black students in South Chicago who are murdered by the
> police on their way to and from school. And of course armed union defense
> guards would be absolutely consistent with the "well regulated militia"
> provision of the Second Amendment, and with practices in countries like
> Switzerland.
>
> David Kellogg
> Sangmyung University
>
> Recent Article in *Early Years*
>
> The question of questions: Hasan’s critiques, Vygotsky’s crises, and the
> child’s first interrogatives
> <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09575146.2018.1431874>
>
> Free e-print available at:
> https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/6EeWMigjFARavQjDJjcW/full
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 14, 2018 at 8:59 AM, Andy Blunden <andyb@marxists.org> wrote:
>
>> During the anti-Vietnam War movement there were certainly
>> actions by school children. In Australia, so I'm sure it
>> would have happened in the US. But in that case the
>> schoolkids were joining what was already a mass movement.
>> The anti-gun movement obviously exists in the US, among
>> adults, but I get the impression that in both the USD &
>> Brazil, it is schoolkid initiated. Obviously very many of
>> the kids have the moral support and encouragement of their
>> own parents and many teachers and principals. But that is
>> not the same as actually setting dates and places, informing
>> relevant people, drafts up letters and statements, etc., etc.
>>
>> Every protest in modern times (20th century) happens thanks
>> to the tireless work of a certain social type called the
>> Organiser. The Organiser maintains a two-inch think address
>> book, kept up to date by regular calls relevant to a variety
>> of campaigns and utilised in the latest protest. The
>> Organiser hardly ever sleeps, they really *work* at it, and
>> you receive multiple phone calls reminding you when to be
>> where and to bring this or that or your friend along too.
>> They also know their subject and have mastered all the facts
>> and rhetoric and pester all the media.
>>
>> Whatever else it is, FaceBook enables everyone to be an
>> Organiser. The downside is that it has made people lazy;
>> poster runs, where a group of activists run around the
>> business areas at night sticking up posters, have almost
>> disappeared, as have the phone trees which organised the
>> Peace Movement. But we all know the story of redundant skills
>>
>> Although I always resist simplistic maxims like "the
>> transformation of quantity into quality" it really seems
>> reasonable to me that social media plus Trump plus yet
>> another mass murder cheered on by the NRA and their
>> political representatives can, at a certain point, exceed
>> boiling point.
>>
>> I look forward with interest to how it goes tomorrow. And
>> how a new generation handles themselves when they go out to
>> work and vote.
>>
>> Andy
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> Andy Blunden
>> ttp://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm
>> On 14/03/2018 10:25 AM, Glassman, Michael wrote:
>>> Hello Fernando,
>>>
>>> What I find really interesting is this phrase,
>>>
>>> "it was the first time in Brazilian history that students (who were not
>> supposed to interfere) interfered in a political decision."
>>> Mike alluded to this in his message as well about Parkland.  I find it
>> fascinating that the same type of movement among the same age group is
>> occurring simultaneously in the U.S. and in Brazil. Yet I believe these
>> students have no contact with each other. And there is nobody teaching
>> them. There are no experts.  They are learning in a way that challenges
>> many of our belief systems about learning (unless they are machines).
>>> Tomorrow is going to be a very interesting day in the U.S.  As part of
>> the anti-gun movement students all over the country are going to be walking
>> out of school and staying out for seventeen minutes.  In some places
>> schools will support this. In some places it just won't happen.  But I am
>> growing more fearful of what happens if there is a flashpoint between the
>> schools and the students.  I wonder if some schools will try and chain the
>> doors.  I wonder if some schools will lock the students out (this already
>> happened at one school putting students in danger).  I wonder if police
>> will decide to have a presence.  This will be the first time students (at
>> least high schoolers) en masse decided to challenge the authority of the
>> state.
>>> Michael
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@
>> mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Fernando Cunha
>>> Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2018 3:03 PM
>>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>; mike
>> cole <mcole@ucsd.edu>
>>> Cc: Lemos, Monica <monica.lemos@helsinki.fi>
>>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Article for discussion: Facebook in Brazilian
>> schools
>>> Dear all,
>>> I really appreciate the discussion so far, and I liked the way some of
>> you used some metaphors. It was far from our intention to reinvent the
>> wheel or to use flint stones to light fire. What I think it is important is
>> that there is no "if" in human history, and we are where we are because we
>> transform the places we live, as well as the tools we use. We can for sure
>> ride horses in the cities, but the horses would sweat so much (considering
>> the asphalt roads), that in a matter of hours they would die.
>>> Since life is forward, we tried to show in our article a small part of
>> what the movements organized by the students were.It is important to
>> highlight, that despite people that were not in favor of protests
>> (including some students!), it was the first time in Brazilian history that
>> students (who were not supposed to interfere) interfered in a political
>> decision. And they did so not only by using Facebook. As we mention in our
>> paper, Facebook is one aspect of the protests, and we considered it as a
>> mediational communicative tool. As I mentioned before in this answer, we as
>> human beings use tools that are available, reshape them, and sometimes use
>> them for a purpose that is completely different from the original idea.
>>> I myself am a secondary education teacher, and I am also a researcher
>> because I am a secondary education teacher. We may have different points of
>> view when you research something as an outsider, and when you participate
>> (not as an ethnographer), but as a subject of the group. In my humble
>> opinion, we are still trying to conceptualize (and stabilize) things that
>> move faster than we can handle as scientists, or to compare contexts that
>> cannot be compared.
>>> I am looking forward to your reactions.
>>> Best regards,
>>>
>>>
>>> __________________________Fernando R. Cunha Júnior, PhD.
>>>
>>> http://fernandorcjr.wordpress.com
>>>
>>>
>>>     Em segunda-feira, 12 de março de 2018 21:05:34 BRT, mike cole <
>> mcole@ucsd.edu> escreveu:
>>>  Alfredo et al
>>>
>>> I read this message before reading the prior one. You are making the
>> point I was trying to make regarding discussion of the paper.
>>> In our everyday lives we are experiencing a change in the wind (to use a
>> metaphor that Dylan made famous at another such time).
>>> HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS ARE DISRUPTING THINGS AS USUAL for the first time
>> in my life. Call it 65 years.
>>> And we are academics and some of us are are paid to theorize such
>> matters.
>>> To theorize the social organization of society was Hugh's description of
>> the social sciences. In most American Universities, Psychology (cap P) is
>> located in the social sciences.
>>> Do we approach the problem from "below" as psychologists? Do we approach
>> it from "above" as sociologists and political scientists?
>>> Can you link the Leontiev who writes about the nature of human
>> consciousness, psychologically speaking and conducts experiments in the
>> laboratory that look for all the world like what goes on in my psychology
>> department, AND as someone who can help understand the growth of social
>> movements? This may also be a way to address and understanding of the
>> overlap and variability in the ideas of Vygotsky and Friere.
>>> Monica and Fernando must be reeling from all the complicated English we
>> are spewing. I look forward to the discussion.
>>> Still worrying about Figure 3! I know I need to be able to interpret it
>> but I am doing a lousy job.
>>> mike
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Mar 12, 2018 at 5:34 AM, Alfredo Jornet Gil <a.j.gil@iped.uio.no
>>>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Thanks for finding and sharing the link, Andy, and thanks Michael and
>>>> Mike for bringing the absolutely relevant connection to Parklands.
>>>>
>>>> There was not so long ago a discussion here as well as in a couple of
>>>> articles in MCA about how crises leading to development most often
>>>> result from quantitative increments that lead to qualitative leaps
>>>> such that new forms of organization emerge from previous ones. So,
>>>> David, I don't see why increments in the pace of circulation (e.g., of
>>>> information) would not be expected to bring with them changes in the
>>>> organisation of the whole economy system. I would not say that social
>>>> media is just bringing a lot more of the same, just as I would not a
>>>> priori reject the possibility that bringing a lot more of the same
>>>> might not end up bringing new qualitative forms of communicating. The
>>>> observation that "like" is intransitive in Facebook is interesting;
>>>> but to me it needs to be put in its larger context of use. And so, are
>>>> we analysing Facebook as a grammar closed up in itself, or as one more
>> chain in a larger grammar of possible cooperation?
>>>> I am myself concerned that Social Media like Facebook may be
>>>> amplifying dichotomical thinking beyond the innocuous and often
>>>> way-to-verbose essays we academics enjoy entertaining with much more
>>>> complex verbal forms than Facebook's intransitive "likes", only that
>>>> the confrontations now seem to be moving to family's dinner tables,
>>>> quarrels among protesters in public squares, or previously unheard of
>>>> incarcerations for publishing tweets and rap songs that critique the
>>>> crown in a supposedly modern democracy like Spain (e.g.:
>>>> http://cadenaser.com/ser/2018/02/20/tribunales/1519135083_
>>>> 106543.html). But the article here discussed also shows that there are
>>>> forms of organization that these technologies are affording that may
>>>> bring more positive changes, like the case again in Spain of March 8th
>>>> women's strike, the extent of which no politician or journalist had
>>>> anticipated and which led the government to quickly adopt a much more
>>>> equity-friendly discourse than even the evening before
>>>> (https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=4_11iIELdfc). So, no, probably that
>>>> one strike, or that one social media that may have made it possible,
>>>> won't change the system. But they seem to incrementally add to
>> something, don't they?
>>>> Alfredo Jornet
>>>> ________________________________
>>>> New article in *Design Studies* "Imagining Design: Transitive and
>>>> intransitive dimensions"
>>>> Free print available: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1WhHg_,KmyN6Dr
>>>>
>>>> ________________________________________
>>>> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu
>>>> <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on behalf of Andy Blunden
>>>> <andyb@marxists.org>
>>>> Sent: 12 March 2018 06:39
>>>> To: xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu
>>>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Article for discussion: Facebook in Brazilian
>>>> schools
>>>>
>>>> That headline does not exist, but is it this:
>>>>
>>>> https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/07/us/parkland-students-social-media.h
>>>> tml
>>>>
>>>> Andy
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> Andy Blunden
>>>> ttp://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm
>>>> On 12/03/2018 4:02 PM, mike cole wrote:
>>>>> Michael - I have been trying to find a digital copy of a story in
>>>>> today's NY Times titled "the social media warriors of parkland." For
>>>>> some reason
>>>> it
>>>>> is not visible on the digital version.... yet. Maybe someone out
>>>>> there in  xmca-land can find it for us? I will check again  in the
>>>>> morning to see if it appears.
>>>>>       It seems especially relevant to Monica and Fernando's article,
>>>>> and
>>>> to
>>>>> David's comment that "  it is very hard for me to pinpoint any
>>>>> actual new form of thinking or new form of speaking which was made
>>>> possible by
>>>>> Facebook."  The voices and forms of speaking used by the students
>>>>> was
>>>> not,
>>>>> so far as I could tell, the source of data. There are no quotations
>>>>> of
>>>> any
>>>>> students speaking differently. I assumed that this article was about
>>>>> collective action.
>>>>> Monica and Fernando - I confess I had difficulty following parts of
>>>>> the article, perhaps because I am a very seldom user of Facebook. In
>>>>> particular, I had difficulty understanding Figure 3.  Were the
>>>>> people who started M1 also those who started M2-M3? ( " Once
>>>>> students achieved the object of the activity—in the first case, to
>>>>> avoid the closure of the schools—they focused the protests on another
>> object").
>>>>> Did the M4 people get the idea from M1 through a FB connection form M1?
>>>> Did
>>>>> you get any sense of what distinguished pages that got a few hundred
>>>> versus
>>>>> 10,000 reactions?
>>>>>
>>>>> Harshad - Did you think the article failed to consider social issues?
>>>> There
>>>>> is no information about you on the xmca membership page, so it is
>>>>> difficult to know from what part of the world you are writing.
>>>>> Unless I miss my guess, some people will wonder at your use of the
>>>>> word "man" where the local practice might put "humankind" or some
>>>>> other gender inclusive term.
>>>>>
>>>>> David - Daylight saving time tonight so I find myself "working
>>>>> late."  It got me to wondering how many people live in Seoul. A lot,
>> it turns out.
>>>>> About 9-10 million. That got me to wondering about how much faster
>>>>> all those people would be getting around on horses with all the
>>>>> horse plops
>>>> to
>>>>> clamber over. And all that hay to haul into town for the morning
>>>>> rush hour.  :-)
>>>>>
>>>>> mike
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sun, Mar 11, 2018 at 8:25 PM, Glassman, Michael
>>>>> <glassman.13@osu.edu>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi David,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm sure those meddling kids won't come back on your lawn any time
>> soon.
>>>>>> But really, the article did not say Facebook is a new type of
>>>> technology.
>>>>>> I believe they said that it's a form of human-technology
>>>>>> interaction and suggested perhaps social media was a new type of
>>>>>> human-technology interaction.  I don't agree with this phrasing. I
>>>>>> tend to think of
>>>> Facebook
>>>>>> more as an application of Internet technology - but either way
>>>>>> Facebook
>>>> is
>>>>>> just a form or an application. Is the internetworking of computer,
>>>>>> radio and satellite communication an enormous step forward in how
>>>>>> humans communicate.  I think so - it's really extraordinary on a
>>>>>> number of
>>>> levels
>>>>>> but that's really not the conversation for this article.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I do think the authors have done an analysis that is interesting
>>>>>> and possibly important, especially when one considers what is
>>>>>> currently
>>>> going
>>>>>> on down in Parkland (some might be happy to know that, at least
>>>>>> from
>>>> what I
>>>>>> have read, Facebook isn't dominant or even that important for these
>>>>>> students. Adults have been using it more for larger organizational
>>>> events
>>>>>> like the March 14 walkout and the March 24 march).  I have read
>>>>>> some articles on organizing on online forums (and actually wrote a
>>>>>> not very
>>>> good
>>>>>> one a few years back). Most of them are communications based an
>>>>>> don't
>>>> have
>>>>>> strong theoretical underpinning which is why I think this article
>>>>>> might
>>>> be
>>>>>> an important step forward.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I think the idea of using third generation activity theory might be
>>>>>> a
>>>> good
>>>>>> idea for this type of analysis. I myself have seen ties between the
>>>>>> trialogical approach being developed by Hakkareinan and Paavola and
>>>> what is
>>>>>> going on down in Parkland. The students are creating their own
>>>>>> projects
>>>> and
>>>>>> then getting the larger community to buy in to and support what
>>>>>> they are doing which is in turn changing the quality of their
>>>>>> activities. I have
>>>> my
>>>>>> own ideas on why this is suddenly happening and direct
>>>>>> communication technologies like Twitter and texting (which seem
>>>>>> primary vehicles) are only part of it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Anyway, this particular article I think is really timely and should
>>>>>> give us a lot to think about.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Michael
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@
>>>>>> mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of David Kellogg
>>>>>> Sent: Sunday, March 11, 2018 6:03 PM
>>>>>> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
>>>>>> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Article for discussion: Facebook in Brazilian
>>>> schools
>>>>>> So in the fifteenth century, Gutenberg exapted extant technology
>>>>>> already widely available in China and published a single text using
>>>>>> moveable
>>>> type
>>>>>> which started a profound intellectual, cultural, and social
>>>>>> revolution whose effects we still feel today: the rise of
>>>>>> Protestantism, the Counter-Reformation in, among other places,
>>>>>> Brazil, the Wars of
>>>> Religion in
>>>>>> France, the vicissitudes of a multii-confessional (political) State
>>>>>> and ultimately those of a multi-confessional (psychological) state,
>>>>>> In the twentieth century, Ford similarly exapted extant technology,
>>>>>> this time nearly two millenia later than China, and mass-produced
>>>>>> automobiles
>>>> using
>>>>>> Taylorism, forcing everybody to buy an identical product with
>>>>>> interchangeable parts made by factories with interchangeable workers.
>>>>>> The automobile "revolution" did not even give us new roads, and in
>>>>>> Seoul today traffic moves notably slower than it would on
>>>>>> horseback. Clearly, there are some forms of technology that are
>>>>>> actually semiogenic--and
>>>> others
>>>>>> which merely circulate capital at a faster rate and actually slow
>>>>>> the movement of people and new ideas.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> So my question is very simple. How do we know that "Facebook"
>>>>>> (which as the name implies was originally designed to help Harvard
>>>>>> freshmen decide which classmates were sufficiently hot to "like")
>>>>>> is really one of the former technologies?.There are very clear
>>>>>> signs , beyond the obvious
>>>> ones
>>>>>> surrounding the American origins, that it belongs to the latter
>>>> category,
>>>>>> and not a few of them appear in this very article. First of all,
>>>>>> the authors are honest enough to associate Facebook with
>>>>>> reactionary, xenophobic, populist movements like the clowns who run
>> the "Five Stars"
>>>>>> movement in Italy. Second, on the very first page, the authors try
>>>>>> but
>>>> do
>>>>>> not really seem to be able to distinguish between the "post first
>>>>>> and organize later" technologies of Occupy Wall Street and the use
>>>>>> of social media by the four movements in the article (including one
>>>>>> actually
>>>> called
>>>>>> "Occupy Everything"). And thirdly, it is very hard for me to
>>>>>> pinpoint
>>>> any
>>>>>> actual new form of thinking or new form of speaking which was made
>>>> possible
>>>>>> by Facebook. If anything, Facebook seems to narrow semiogenic power
>>>>>> to a single consumer/computer menu. Ford said, you can get a Model
>>>>>> A in any color you like so long as it's black. Facebook tells us
>>>>>> the same thing,
>>>> but
>>>>>> makes the verb "like" intransitive.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> David Kellogg
>>>>>> Sangmyung University
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Recent Article in *Early Years*
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The question of questions: Hasan’s critiques, Vygotsky’s crises,
>>>>>> and the child’s first interrogatives <https://www.tandfonline.com/
>>>>>> doi/full/10.1080/09575146.2018.1431874>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Free e-print available at:
>>>>>> https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/6EeWMigjFARavQjDJjcW/full
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Sun, Mar 11, 2018 at 7:30 AM, Alfredo Jornet Gil <
>>>> a.j.gil@iped.uio.no>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Dear xmca'ers,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> it is (bit over) due time for introducing the article for
>>>>>>> discussion from MCA's 2018 Issue 1, before Issue 2 comes upon us
>> soon.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The selected article, by Monica Ferreira Lemos and Fernando
>>>>>>> Rezende da Cunha Júnior, is about two topics that were thematised
>>>>>>> in the last ISCAR congress and that ought to be of much relevance
>>>>>>> to current and future CHAT-related research: Social media and
>>>>>>> social movements. In particular, the article examines how students
>>>>>>> use social media for the organization and development of 4 social
>> movements in Brazil.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The article is attached and is Free access during the discussion
>>>> period.
>>>>>>> It can be accessed free in the following link:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10749039.2017.1379823
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The authors have kindly agreed to participate in the discussion
>>>>>>> and they will be introducing themselves soon. I hope you  will
>>>>>>> find the article interesting and please don't be shy to share
>>>>>>> anything you might have learned reading it, anything you might
>>>>>>> wonder about it or that you would like see discussed. Having
>>>>>>> authors engage in dialogue is a great opportunity that this
>>>>>>> community offers and that makes sense the most when many of you
>> participate. Good reading!
>>>>>>> ?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Alfredo Jornet
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> New article in *Design Studies* "Imagning Design: Transitive and
>>>>>>> intransitive dimensions"
>>>>>>> Free print available:
>>>>>>> https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1WhHg_,KmyN6Dr
>>>>>>>
>>