Re: [xmca] adult affordances

[Greg Thompson <greg.a.thompson@gmail.com>]

Noel,
Thanks to you and your student for this wonderful gift!
A fantastic video that I hope all of XMCA can see.

Or, in the argot of today:

Like!

-greg

On Sun, Mar 18, 2012 at 7:23 AM, Noel Enyedy <enyedy@gseis.ucla.edu> wrote:

> Hi I have been following this conversation with fascination, thinking
> about my own practice as well as how to address this better in my courses
> on learning and technology.  Oddly enough, the undergraduates I had in my
> course were keenly aware of what they are doing during class (and beyond)
> and have very mixed feelings about technology in general--they always
> surprise me.
>
> I thought I would insert at least one student's perspective--he made this
> as a homework assignment for my course.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Noel
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdx-XmiCIyU&feature=youtu.be
>
>
>
>
> On Mar 16, 2012, at 5:28 PM, Martin Packer wrote:
>
> > Hi Greg,
> >
> > I think you're politely saying that I hijacked my own thread! Well, it
> won't be for the first time.
> >
> > But I think the linkages were from cell phones in the classroom to
> adult-imposed instructional practices, to indigenous versus Western
> conceptions of work, and the relationship (or lack of) between work and
> learning.
> >
> > And my point to you was that once you've started to recognize the
> interconnections between culture, worldview, ideology, at least you're
> stepping away from the notion that work is just one unpleasant area of
> life, to be avoided as much as possible. It's hard to hold onto a holistic
> worldview in a form of life that keeps dividing the world up. But that was
> what Marx was able to do: describe how the dividing up is consequence of a
> particular way of organizing the whole. Marx as shaman, perhaps.
> >
> > And isn't flipping the classroom an example of working within the system
> but transforming it? I have plans to try something like what Hake has done,
> once I have the readings collected, after reading this:
> >
> > Deslauriers, L., Schelew, E., & Wieman, C. (2011). Improved Learning in
> a Large-Enrollment Physics Class. Science, 332(6031), 862. [copy available
> on request]
> >
> > Martin
> >
> >
> > On Mar 16, 2012, at 5:21 PM, Greg Thompson wrote:
> >
> >> Larry and Martin,
> >> appreciate the thoughtful responses.
> >>
> >> Larry, regarding the class size perception discrepancy between Japan and
> >> U.S., to this point, wouldn't larger class size in U.S. also mean that
> each
> >> student "owns" less? The ideal here being the classroom of ONE and in
> which
> >> the child owns it all! (a future investment banker?).
> >>
> >> And Martin, the connectedness was more a matter of the interrelations of
> >> culture and world-view to any individual ideology such that there are
> many
> >> different interrelations that hold a given ideology in place. It is
> never
> >> so simple as "choosing" to reject a given ideology (e.g. of
> "ownership"),
> >> because this causes all kinds of other disturbances (whether social or
> >> psychological). This seems to me the (forgotten?) lesson of
> structuralism.
> >> And eventually one is faced with the reality that if one really wants to
> >> change an ideology, one must exit the system altogether (hence the
> utopian
> >> communes, which also have never worked precisely because of the
> >> intractability of the self-other mapping - a thread for another time).
> But
> >> that's not very practical for most of us who are entangled with others
> in
> >> said system.
> >>
> >> This is where the magician/shaman comes in. The magician works within
> the
> >> system but also potentially creates and transforms things.
> >>
> >> But I fear we are slipping too far afield and I'd like to return to the
> >> place of the lecture.
> >>
> >> I'm going to paste below a shortened version of a recent listserve
> posting
> >> (on a different listserve) by Richard Hake. Anyway, it is about the much
> >> talked about Kahn Academy and "flipping the classroom" -  a pedagogical
> >> practice in which you have students read and/or watch lectures outside
> of
> >> class and then you work through problems with them (in groups) in class
> >> using clickers (anyone used these?) and new media. The links connect to
> >> some very interesting articles that are very informative about
> ideologies
> >> of teaching/learning in college today. (see below)
> >>
> >> But is this "flipping" just a re-do of "the study group" with the minor
> >> addition that "flipping" pulls the professor into their students'
> process
> >> of learning? (and as an aside: do study groups still spontaneously form
> or
> >> are they considered taboo by students who have been forced to imagine
> >> learning as something that they must do in isolation from anyone else?)
> >> And although this kind of communication between where students "are at"
> >> with the material and where the prof "is at" is an important part of the
> >> process of teaching/learning (a bridge towards "intersubjectivity" on
> the
> >> subject?), I think that good lecturers always already did this, they
> just
> >> had other ways of knowing where their students were "at" (okay, not
> always;
> >> classes flop, but good lecturers learn from these flops).
> >>
> >> And back to the original intent of this thread, I appreciate the
> >> distraction. ;=)
> >>
> >> -greg
> >>
> >>
> >> ABSTRACT: POD's James Morrison wrote (paraphrasing): "Last night Sixty
> >> Minutes featured the 'Kahn Academy: The Future of Education' - a great
> >> depiction of an innovative disruption, now applied to the sciences, but
> >> with a prospect of expanding to other disciplines, K-16."
> >>
> >> Alan Bender then pointed to an initiative "Multi-institutional Cognitive
> >> Coursewares Design" at <http://bit.ly/wIUPGh> by the "Association of
> Public
> >> and Land-Grant Universities" to "develop sophisticated online tutorials
> for
> >> various introductory college courses rather than to wait for textbook
> >> publishers and other companies to do so (and to end up controlling the
> >> whole process)."
> >>
> >> But Kahn Academy creator Salman Kahn is only indirectly responsible for:
> >>
> >> (a) the highly publicized "flipped classroom," see the "Chronicle of
> Higher
> >> Education's "How 'Flipping' the Classroom Can Improve the Traditional
> >> Lecture" at (for subscribers) <http://bit.ly/xKYX8h>, and the sequel
> >> "Lecture Fail? Students and Professors Sound Off on the State of the
> >> College Lecture" *currently* freely available) at <http://bit.ly/yKy70D
> >.
> >>
> >> (b) the consequent race to develop tutorials for introductory college
> >> courses.
> >>
> >> In an interview <http://bit.ly/yAfKac> in "Education Week" Kahn says:
> "Very
> >> little of this [flipping of the classroom] did I think of myself. . . .
> .
> >> the flipped classroom is not what we view as the ideal or the endpoint.
> We
> >> view it almost as a transition state. . . . instead of holding fixed the
> >> time and date when you learn something and the variable is how well you
> >> learn it, we're saying let's hold fixed how well you learn it, and you
> >> learn it at a deep level, and what's variable is how long you have to
> learn
> >> it, and when you learn it, and when you revisit the material."
> >>
> >>
> >> On Fri, Mar 16, 2012 at 9:31 AM, Martin Packer <packer@duq.edu> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Greg,
> >>>
> >>> Maybe your recognition that everyone is connected to everything else -
> the
> >>> magician's handkerchief - is part of the solution, not part of the
> problem.
> >>> Here is more from Bonfil Batalla's writing on the characteristics of
> >>> Mesoamerican culture:
> >>>
> >>>      "There is a unity of human beings and the natural world, which is
> >>> the reference point for human knowledge and abilities as well as for
> work,
> >>> the specific way of obtaining sustenance. This unity is also present in
> >>> human plans, in the capacity for imagining as well as observing
> nature, in
> >>> the willingness to have dialogue with it, in human fears and hopes
> faced
> >>> with forces beyond human control.
> >>>      "Of course, this occurs in all cultures, but in Western culture
> >>> there is an effort to separate and specialize in distinct aspects of a
> >>> unitary reality. The poet eulogizes the moon, but the astronomer
> studies
> >>> it. The painter re-creates the forms and colors of the countryside
> while
> >>> the agronomist understands soils. The mystic prays… There is no way, in
> >>> Western logic, of unifying all these things in a common understanding,
> as
> >>> does the Indian.
> >>>      “It is difficult to comprehend many characteristics of
> Mesoamerican
> >>> civilization if one does not take into account one of its most profound
> >>> dimensions: the conception of the natural world and the human being’s
> place
> >>> in the cosmos. In this civilization, unlike that of the West, the
> natural
> >>> world is not seen as an enemy. Neither is it assumed that greater human
> >>> self-realization is achieved through greater separation from nature.
> To the
> >>> contrary, a person’s condition as part of the cosmic order is
> recognized
> >>> and the aspiration is toward permanent integration, which can be
> achieved
> >>> only through a harmonious relationship with the rest of the natural
> world.
> >>> By obeying the principles of the universal order, human beings fulfill
> >>> themselves and meet their transcendent destiny. Thus we can see that
> work,
> >>> the effort applied to obtain from nature that which humans need, has a
> >>> different meaning from its meaning in Western civilization. It is not a
> >>> punishment, but a method of harmonious adjustment to the cosmic order.
> A
> >>> positive relationship with nature should be achieved on all levels, not
> >>> just the purely material one of physical labor. For that reason it is
> >>> impossible to separate ritual from physical effort, empirical knowledge
> >>> from the myth that provides its full meaning within the Mesoamerican
> cosmic
> >>> vision” (26-27).
> >>>
> >>> I suspect that the children who Elinor Ochs was studying have come to
> see
> >>> work as a chore, to be avoided if possible, minimized when unavoidable.
> >>> They have come to assume that people must pit themselves against one
> >>> another if they are to succeed.
> >>>
> >>> Martin
> >>>
> >>> On Mar 15, 2012, at 11:24 PM, Greg Thompson wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Larry and others,
> >>>> As for your intentional awareness question, from a parent's
> perspective I
> >>>> can tell you that I am aware of these tropes and still have managed to
> >>>> raise a 10 year old who can split the finest hairs over whether or
> not he
> >>>> should be responsible for having locked his sister out of the car
> (while
> >>> he
> >>>> was inside! long story...), not to mention the lengths that he and his
> >>>> sister go to when arguing over what the other one got and they didn't.
> >>>>
> >>>> I think that the fairness principles and "ownership" are things that
> we
> >>> as
> >>>> parents "feel" is right in a very common sense way and tend to act on
> >>>> without thinking. And we must explain these behaviors to some extent
> as
> >>>> well so that our kids learn the operative "rules" (e.g., in the
> >>>> door-locking case: how to feign non-intentionality; and in the
> fairness
> >>>> case: everything the sibling gets, I get). And yes, this is tied in to
> >>>> making little Kings and Queens (or Princesses as in the locally
> >>> culturally
> >>>> preferred form).
> >>>>
> >>>> It is one thing to be aware that these behaviors produce less than
> ideal
> >>>> results, but the really difficult question becomes: how else could I
> do
> >>> it?
> >>>>
> >>>> Looking to other cultures can provide some answers, but it is like the
> >>>> kerchief up the magician's sleeve - when you start to pull it out you
> >>>> quickly begin to realize that there is more connected to it, and more
> >>>> still, and pretty soon it is hard to find where it begins and ends...
> >>>>
> >>>> -greg
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 7:16 PM, Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> Andrew and Martin
> >>>>> The turn this thread has taken is fascinating [and also troubling
> >>> because
> >>>>> *owning* is so  pervasive]
> >>>>> Andrew, your comment,
> >>>>>
> >>>>> children's contributions to household work in these communities are
> >>> largely
> >>>>> bound to personal domains of responsibility and that those domains
> are
> >>>>> delimited by fairness
> >>>>> principles: children are responsible for things they "own" (their
> >>> things,
> >>>>> spaces, messes).
> >>>>>
> >>>>> The question of contributing to and taking responsibility for things
> >>> that
> >>>>> are personally *owned* ties into the comments Greg contributed on
> >>> Western
> >>>>> ethno-psychology that posits self-control and self-responsibility as
> the
> >>>>> ground rules for a *way of life* [and the language-games that sustain
> >>> this
> >>>>> value of personal ownership.]
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Are *ways of life* such as described above able to be transformed
> >>>>> intentionally?? It seems it will take more than merely *knowledge* or
> >>>>> *awareness*
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Larry
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 6:14 PM, Andrew Coppens <acoppens@ucsc.edu>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> Hi Martin,
> >>>>>> Thanks for making this connection. Your question at the end is
> close to
> >>>>> my
> >>>>>> thinking on the issue. I would just add that for me the question
> isn't
> >>> so
> >>>>>> much about preparation for the classroom, but the extent to which
> these
> >>>>>> children in Los Angeles are in a sense already participating in it.
> It
> >>>>>> sounds like you might agree with me in thinking that how children
> >>>>>> contribute is perhaps more consequential for learning/development
> than
> >>>>> how
> >>>>>> much (how much often being the salient feature in studies of
> children's
> >>>>>> work).
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Jacqueline Goodnow has some great work on this in middle-class Anglo
> >>>>>> Australian families. Like Ochs, she finds that children's
> contributions
> >>>>> to
> >>>>>> household work in these communities are largely bound to personal
> >>> domains
> >>>>>> of responsibility and that those domains are delimited by fairness
> >>>>>> principles: children are responsible for things they "own" (their
> >>> things,
> >>>>>> spaces, messes). One of my favorite examples of hers calls
> attention to
> >>>>>> what's communicated to children what parents say "Who got these
> things
> >>>>>> out?" - a veiled directive to clean up that chops up responsibility
> >>> into
> >>>>>> chores that only certain family members own. Not only does the
> >>> directive
> >>>>>> preclude children's initiative to some extent, but it communicates
> >>> norms
> >>>>> of
> >>>>>> accountability and "rules of engagement." Coincidentally, there's a
> >>> nice
> >>>>>> dovetail in this example with Ochs' earlier work on language
> >>>>> socialization.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> I think these in-home practices that reproduce domains of
> >>> responsibility
> >>>>>> and accountability easily compare to many classroom settings. Myself
> >>> and
> >>>>>> others are looking into cross-cultural variation in "fairness" and
> >>>>>> initiative in a study underway.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> ---
> >>>>>> Andrew D. Coppens
> >>>>>> www.andrewcoppens.com
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> On Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 5:34 PM, Martin Packer <packer@duq.edu>
> wrote:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Hi Andrew,
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> I just today came across a report of Elinor Och's recent work on
> >>>>>>> initiative and responsibility in Southern California:
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> "Dr. Ochs, who began her career in far-off regions of the world
> >>>>> studying
> >>>>>>> the concept of "baby talk," noticed that American children seemed
> >>>>>>> relatively helpless compared with those in other cultures she and
> >>>>>>> colleagues had observed.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> "In those cultures, young children were expected to contribute
> >>>>>>> substantially to the community, says Dr. Ochs. Children in Samoa
> serve
> >>>>>> food
> >>>>>>> to their elders, waiting patiently in front of them before they
> eat,
> >>> as
> >>>>>>> shown in one video snippet. Another video clip shows a girl around
> 5
> >>>>>> years
> >>>>>>> of age in Peru's Amazon region climbing a tall tree to harvest
> papaya,
> >>>>>> and
> >>>>>>> helping haul logs thicker than her leg to stoke a fire.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> "By contrast, the U.S. videos showed Los Angeles parents focusing
> more
> >>>>> on
> >>>>>>> the children, using simplified talk with them, doing most of the
> >>>>>> housework
> >>>>>>> and intervening quickly when the kids had trouble completing a
> task.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> "In 22 of 30 families, children frequently ignored or resisted
> appeals
> >>>>> to
> >>>>>>> help, according to a study published in the journal Ethos in 2009.
> In
> >>>>> the
> >>>>>>> remaining eight families, the children weren't asked to do much. In
> >>>>> some
> >>>>>>> cases, the children routinely asked the parents to do tasks, like
> >>>>> getting
> >>>>>>> them silverware. "How am I supposed to cut my food?" Dr. Ochs
> recalls
> >>>>> one
> >>>>>>> girl asking her parents."
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Would you imagine that these kids are, ironically, being well
> prepared
> >>>>>> for
> >>>>>>> the school classroom?
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> Martin
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> On Mar 15, 2012, at 7:18 PM, Andrew Coppens wrote:
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> Hi Michael and others,
> >>>>>>>> This is my first time replying from the digest, so apologies if I
> >>>>> break
> >>>>>>> the
> >>>>>>>> thread. I've abridged most of the digest.
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> This is a fascinating analysis to me, and one that overlaps with
> some
> >>>>>> of
> >>>>>>>> the work I'm doing to try to understand children's initiative in
> >>>>> paying
> >>>>>>>> attention and making contributions to on-going endeavors in
> >>>>>>>> Indigenous-heritage communities of the Americas. Dewey (1916) has
> a
> >>>>>> nice
> >>>>>>>> way of distinguishing between two forms of imitation that I think
> is
> >>>>>>>> relevant to this thread:
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> "[The child/student] imitates the means because he wishes, on his
> own
> >>>>>>>> behalf, as part of his own initiative, to take an effective part
> [in
> >>>>> a
> >>>>>>>> shared endeavor]…imitation of ends, as distinct from imitation of
> >>>>> means
> >>>>>>>> which help to reach ends, is a superficial and transitory affair
> >>>>> which
> >>>>>>>> leaves little effect upon disposition... It affects outward acts
> but
> >>>>>> not
> >>>>>>>> the meaning of their performance.….Imitation of means of
> >>>>> accomplishment
> >>>>>>> is…
> >>>>>>>> an intelligent act. It involves close observation, and judicious
> >>>>>>> selection
> >>>>>>>> of what will enable one to do better something which he already is
> >>>>>> trying
> >>>>>>>> to do. (pp. 35-36)"
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> When students' attention/participation is placed under rule-based
> >>>>>>>> constraint that serves adult-determined instructional purposes - a
> >>>>>>> pattern
> >>>>>>>> I find myself reproducing by default in much of my teaching -
> >>>>>> initiative
> >>>>>>> in
> >>>>>>>> engaging with possible ends and possible meanings might be nudged
> out
> >>>>>> as
> >>>>>>> an
> >>>>>>>> option for students. This initiative seems to powerfully drive
> >>>>>>>> children's/student's learning precisely because it involves
> agentic
> >>>>> and
> >>>>>>>> intentional engagement in shared goals. By the time students are
> in
> >>>>> our
> >>>>>>>> university classes, they've likely been through years of
> schooling in
> >>>>>>> which
> >>>>>>>> they are more-or-less handed "ends"/motives/objects by teachers
> and
> >>>>>>>> grade-driven instructional situations. It's perhaps not surprising
> >>>>> then
> >>>>>>>> that students don't do what their instructors would like right
> away
> >>>>>> when
> >>>>>>>> given the freedom to make their own choices. Give me a day off of
> >>>>> work,
> >>>>>>> and
> >>>>>>>> I might spend it sitting on the couch (or catching up on
> Facebook).
> >>>>>> Give
> >>>>>>> me
> >>>>>>>> a week off of work, and I just might find my way back to the
> parts of
> >>>>>> my
> >>>>>>>> work that are meaningful to me for my own reasons.
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> On another note, there is a fair amount of research on cultural
> >>>>>> patterns
> >>>>>>> of
> >>>>>>>> *simultaneous* attention as contrasted with *alternating*
> attention.
> >>>>>>> Rogoff
> >>>>>>>> and colleagues have contributed some of this evidence. Many
> >>>>>> communities,
> >>>>>>> in
> >>>>>>>> which children are consistently integrated into on-going events as
> >>>>>>>> meaningful contributors to shared family/community endeavors,
> seem to
> >>>>>>>> support children's simultaneous attention to on-going events. The
> >>>>>>> practices
> >>>>>>>> associated with Western schooling in particular seem to encourage
> >>>>>>> attention
> >>>>>>>> alternation. Some food for thought on the idea that it's either
> >>>>>> Facebook
> >>>>>>> or
> >>>>>>>> the lecture; for some students it might be both at once.
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> Thanks for sparking some initiative on the part of another lurker.
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> Best,
> >>>>>>>> ---
> >>>>>>>> Andrew D. Coppens
> >>>>>>>> www.andrewcoppens.com
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> ------------------------------
> >>>>>>>>> Message: 13
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2012 07:36:29 -0400
> >>>>>>>>> From: "Michael Glassman" <MGlassman@ehe.osu.edu>
> >>>>>>>>> Subject: RE: [xmca] adult affordances
> >>>>>>>>> To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> >>>>>>>>> Message-ID:
> >>>>>>>>>    <
> >>>>>> B33131190AB080468C8D5FA5DBCD4EFD789563@helios.hec.ohio-state.edu
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> So here's the punchline,
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> When I first started doing this it was a disaster and I got
> really
> >>>>>> angry
> >>>>>>>>> at the graduate student who suggested it.   I was constantly
> losing
> >>>>>> the
> >>>>>>>>> students and was feeling frustrated, feeling I was competing with
> >>>>> all
> >>>>>>> these
> >>>>>>>>> devices.  But I also met pretty regularly with that graduate
> student
> >>>>>> and
> >>>>>>>>> another discussing a number of issues about the Internet, which I
> >>>>> have
> >>>>>>>>> become really interested in, but was born too late to really have
> >>>>> the
> >>>>>>>>> perspective of a "digital native."   It would be funny sitting
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> Message: 14
> >>>>>>>>> Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2012 07:47:09 -0400
> >>>>>>>>> From: "Michael Glassman" <MGlassman@ehe.osu.edu>
> >>>>>>>>> Subject: RE: [xmca] adult affordances
> >>>>>>>>> To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> >>>>>>>>> Message-ID:
> >>>>>>>>>    <
> >>>>>> B33131190AB080468C8D5FA5DBCD4EFD789564@helios.hec.ohio-state.edu
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> Sorry, don't know how this got sent early,
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> Anyway, it would be funny sitting with the two students who would
> >>>>> both
> >>>>>>>>> have their computer and smartphone and ipad all laid out in
> front of
> >>>>>>> them
> >>>>>>>>> and during our discussion things would be rinings and buzzing.
> >>>>>> Slowly
> >>>>>>> I
> >>>>>>>>> started to understand both through discussion and experience the
> >>>>>>> rhythms of
> >>>>>>>>> their experience, which I hypothesize has changed in this new
> >>>>>>> technology,
> >>>>>>>>> and we discussed how to incorporate that into the classroom
> >>>>> teaching.
> >>>>>>>>> Things starting getting a lot better, or at least I became less
> >>>>>>> frustrated.
> >>>>>>>>> We have entrance and exit blog posts for the class - the blog
> >>>>> being a
> >>>>>>>>> central tool in the class.  The last two classes the students
> have
> >>>>>>> almost
> >>>>>>>>> universally described how at first they would just go to their
> >>>>>> Facebook
> >>>>>>>>> page, but as the class went on - usually sometime around the
> third
> >>>>>> week
> >>>>>>> for
> >>>>>>>>> many students, they would start to turn their attention back to
> what
> >>>>>> was
> >>>>>>>>> happening in class - and they went much deeper into what was
> being
> >>>>>> said,
> >>>>>>>>> because it was their attention, t
> >>>>>>>>> heir choice, their interest.  They might start googling what was
> >>>>> being
> >>>>>>>>> talked about, finding their own information, their own sources,
> >>>>> which
> >>>>>>> they
> >>>>>>>>> would post on the blog.   Then they got a real kick from teaching
> >>>>> and
> >>>>>>>>> learning from each other.   I probably never got 100 percent or
> even
> >>>>>> 75
> >>>>>>> of
> >>>>>>>>> their attention, but I doubt I had it anyway.  But to quote
> Spencer
> >>>>>>> Tracy,
> >>>>>>>>> "What I got was choice."
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> Michael
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> ------------------------------
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> Message: 8
> >>>>>>>> Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2012 22:33:33 -0400
> >>>>>>>> From: "Michael Glassman" <MGlassman@ehe.osu.edu>
> >>>>>>>> Subject: RE: [xmca] adult affordances
> >>>>>>>> To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> >>>>>>>> Message-ID:
> >>>>>>>>    <
> >>>>>> B33131190AB080468C8D5FA5DBCD4EFD789562@helios.hec.ohio-state.edu>
> >>>>>>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> Hi Larry, Martin, Adam,
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> Thanks for the great post Adam.  A couple of years ago under the
> >>>>>> tutelate
> >>>>>>>> of a graduate student I had all students in my class bring the
> laptop
> >>>>>> and
> >>>>>>>> keep it open.  I told them they don't have to be listening to
> >>>>>> everything
> >>>>>>> I
> >>>>>>>> say, they could be on Facebook or they can text or twitter.   They
> >>>>>> didn't
> >>>>>>>> have to hide it from me.   My students were shocked.   No, no,
> this
> >>>>>> can't
> >>>>>>>> be happening.  Every other class is a battle against this new
> >>>>>> technology.
> >>>>>>>> I told them a story about when I was in college lo these many
> years
> >>>>>> ago.
> >>>>>>>> I took a class in Russian literature with someone who was
> considered
> >>>>>> one
> >>>>>>> of
> >>>>>>>> the great professors on the subject in the country - not just as a
> >>>>>>> scholar
> >>>>>>>> but as a teacher.  And he was amazing, and passionate, and caring,
> >>>>> and
> >>>>>>> one
> >>>>>>>> of the two or three best professors I ever had.  I would go to
> class
> >>>>>> and
> >>>>>>>> dutifully open up my notebook and focus my attention on the
> >>>>> professor.
> >>>>>>> My
> >>>>>>>> eyes never wavered but my mind certainly did.   A little while
> into
> >>>>> the
> >>>>>>>> class I would start th
> >>>>>>>> inking, "Hmmm, what's for lunch" and then, "I wonder what I
> should do
> >>>>>>>> tonight".  Oh I would get pulled back to the class again and
> again, I
> >>>>>>>> remember him waving his arm and shouting,   "And think of the
> scene
> >>>>> of
> >>>>>>>> Napoleon riding into Moscow and his men cheering and the subtle
> irony
> >>>>>> in
> >>>>>>>> the scene and what lies ahead."  I saw in my mind the soldiers
> >>>>>> gathering
> >>>>>>>> around their beloved emperor, but among them was this woman Lori
> who
> >>>>> I
> >>>>>>>> wondered if I should ask to eat with me at the dining hall that
> >>>>> night.
> >>>>>>>> That is the way our mind works, jumping from point to point, and
> >>>>> there
> >>>>>>> is a
> >>>>>>>> method to the madness of our minds, the jumps are meaningful and
> >>>>>> perhaps
> >>>>>>>> keep us in the game.   The idea that anybody is paying attention
> to
> >>>>>>> anybody
> >>>>>>>> one hundred percent of the time is pretense and the idea that even
> >>>>> the
> >>>>>>> most
> >>>>>>>> vibrant speaker has control over another's thoughts is an illusion
> >>>>> that
> >>>>>>>> gives the speaker warmth.   The Facebook, the texting, the cell
> >>>>> phones,
> >>>>>>> all
> >>>>>>>> of it, just outward manifestations of w
> >>>>>>>> hat our minds have been doing all along anyway.  Come one, be
> honest,
> >>>>>> how
> >>>>>>>> many reading this were thinking for a little while about their
> next
> >>>>>> snack
> >>>>>>>> or perhaps checking Netflix.  Technology has finally caught up to
> our
> >>>>>>> minds.
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> Michael
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> End of xmca Digest, Vol 82, Issue 13
> >>>>>>>>> ************************************
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> __________________________________________
> >>>>>>>> _____
> >>>>>>>> xmca mailing list
> >>>>>>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >>>>>>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>> __________________________________________
> >>>>>> _____
> >>>>>> xmca mailing list
> >>>>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >>>>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >>>>>>
> >>>>> __________________________________________
> >>>>> _____
> >>>>> xmca mailing list
> >>>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >>>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> --
> >>>> Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> >>>> Sanford I. Berman Post-Doctoral Scholar
> >>>> Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition
> >>>> Department of Communication
> >>>> University of California, San Diego
> >>>> http://ucsd.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
> >>>> __________________________________________
> >>>> _____
> >>>> xmca mailing list
> >>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >>>
> >>> __________________________________________
> >>> _____
> >>> xmca mailing list
> >>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
> >> Sanford I. Berman Post-Doctoral Scholar
> >> Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition
> >> Department of Communication
> >> University of California, San Diego
> >> http://ucsd.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
> >> __________________________________________
> >> _____
> >> xmca mailing list
> >> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >
> > __________________________________________
> > _____
> > xmca mailing list
> > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>
> __________________________________________
> _____
> xmca mailing list
> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>



-- 
Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
Sanford I. Berman Post-Doctoral Scholar
Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition
Department of Communication
University of California, San Diego
http://ucsd.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
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