Categories
Music

One of those weeks

This week I’m a mover/reviewer/reader/interviewee/photographee/supervisor/tech supporter/teacher/etc. I also got the news today that my poster presentation for ALA was accepted. I won’t say what my topic is just yet, because it’s a classified secret. No, actually, it’s pretty mundane. But there are Contingencies, so I’d rather keep it to myself for now.

If you haven’t seen elsewhere, my husband has been recording podcasts for the Chicago Underground Library, with some technical direction from me. I know about things like Skype, microphones, how to work Audacity, XML, and the other things that make podcasts work from a technical point of view. He knows about art, music, community, and being funny which make podcasts work from a human point of view. His latest effort is up, and it chronicles some really interesting musical projects in Chicago, including an archive of street sounds, which is really cool.

Categories
Education

Two Year High School

Immediately on reading the New York Times article High Schools to Offer Plan to Graduate 2 Years Early (2/17/10) I was ambivalent about this type of plan. As someone who had perhaps an unusual high school education, I like the idea of options, but on the other hand this plan sounds like it could be too constricting for many students. It calls for all students to take exams in their sophomore year, and then immediately go to community college, elite college prep, or remedial courses. This is much more in keeping with foreign systems, which seems to be an argument in its favor to proponents.

“School systems like Singapore’s promise students that if they diligently study the material in their course syllabuses, they will do well on their examinations,” says an educational consultant interviewed for the article. He goes on to say that students in the US often do not know where their efforts are best put.

Leaving aside concerns about teaching to the test that is already a problem, I see some problems with this attitude. Students who have come to the US to study often tell me that they admire the freedom US students have to pursue an academic path–and to change their minds when necessary. In many countries one’s educational path is set at 16, and it takes a lot of ambition to change this later on. It’s good to know which courses you’ll need to do well in a career for sure, but as we all know, not being able to become an auror because of a vindictive Potions master is overly punitive.

No matter what, I do like the idea of being able to leave school and do something more challenging or relevant at the age of 16 without having a stigma attached. I considered starting community college at the age of 16 myself–I took the placement test, but then decided that what I was doing was working so well for me that there was no need to change just then. Plus I did have my heart set on a very traditional college experience. But for many people, high school does not have to take 4 years, and college does not have to come immediately after.

And (of course) this ties into libraries. Libraries provide, above all, educational experiences which are self-directed and unique to each person. They can begin and end as appropriate to each learner, hopefully with guidance from a librarian. (There is also that other Library in the Series of Tubes, but I won’t address that and related caveats right now).

Categories
Libraries Writing

Private writing

Earlier this week I went a faculty development workshop on using technology in teaching. Michael Stephens was presenting on how one can use Twitter and blogging to create a constant conversation among the class about the course material. A lot of this was review for me, but I found the idea of a very public and constant conversation potentially really exciting for student engagement. So, for instance, I decided to give my students in my course-integrated instruction sessions my Twitter name and my Google Voice number for texts. These are first year students, so I don’t know how many of them are on Twitter, but I know they text. Note I did not give them my real cell phone number. There’s student engagement, and then there’s creepiness.

What struck me this week is that for all my fascination with the public and the social in media, lately I have personally been most satisfied by the most private of media. Since January 1 of this year I have written every single day in a private paper journal for at least five minutes. Over the years I’ve been a sporadic journal writer, and for the last 2 years I’d only written in my journal a handful of times. Some say that blogging helps hone the craft of writing, but that never has been true for me. For me, and probably for most people, writing starts with the private and moves toward the public. When I was a teenager and throughout college I wrote very personal things on my various blogs, but that was, in retrospect, not such a good idea. So I haven’t been worrying about my public writing at all (other than a book review, deadlines being what they are), but focusing on the writing that takes places in the intensely personal space of paper, pen and thought. By taking the pressure off myself, I am getting excited by engaging with words, even in the high pressure and intense conversational worlds, for instance, Twitter. I just hope that student writers (of any age) are finding the same thing, and not being made to write everything in blogs or tweets, and that young writers still have some private writing spaces in which to develop.