What kind of world are we preparing our students for? I'm intrigued by this student-created media literacy video (see my post below for a description of Just Think curriculum). It reminds me of the video Michelle posted a few weeks ago, but from a student perspective... I don't know about you but I think there's something frightening about this image of the world coming from a young person. My last post argued that we are slow to change (as teacher and policy makers)- and here we have a sort of opposite point of view that (uncritically?) welcomes every change that comes. Out with the old, in with the new, for a minute, and then out with that, too, we won't miss be missing you. Yikes.
Did anyone else sort of cringe at the notion of preparing students to become "Shape-Shifting Portfolio People" (as described by Gee in Chapter 9). Gee admits some hesitation about this: "I am not arguing that the demand to become a Shape-Shifting Portfolio Person is good (ethically); I am arguing that it is an identity to which young people today are 'summoned' by our modern world" (Alvermann et. al., p. 166). Hmmm... I'd argue that becoming literate must include a critical examination of what we are heading toward. Again, in the words of poet Lucille Clifton, oh pray that what we want is worth this running,
pray that what we’re running toward
is what we want."
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Out with the old, in with the new?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I'd argue that becoming literate must include a critical examination of what we are heading toward. Again, in the words of poet Lucille Clifton, oh pray that what we want is worth this running,
pray that what we’re running toward
is what we want."
The problem is, is that even if we thought about where we are going, and tried to prepare for it, we would be wrong. we can never predict what will happen by what we do now. There are too many variables involved. In "All that Is Solid Melts Into Air," the arguement is made that is what "modernism" entails: we create a new monster everytime we try to create a better world. It is aFaust's bargin; the devil always wins. I still want to argue for some kind of unifying literacy where we teach the students that all of these things are just literate tools to read the world. We simply, if there is such a term, have to teach them to read in all of the manifestaions of that word.
I'd argue that becoming literate must include a critical examination of what we are heading toward. Again, in the words of poet Lucille Clifton, oh pray that what we want is worth this running,
pray that what we’re running toward
is what we want."
I'd like to think that's what we do, we make informed decisions as best we can. So I guess the question is, "How informed can we be as move forward?" Everything is moving so quickly as aptly demonstrated by your video, how do we even begin to keep up with the new so as to be informed? Yike, I remember what it was like 10 years ago, no cell phone, no iPod, no cd players in the car, no DVD, no web surfing like today, I had just gotten my first email account. Wow.
Post a Comment