Penny Hero (dot) Net

(or titled “part 2 of the “hole in the wall” India literacy experiment post!”)

Google announced yesterday that it’s launching the Google Literacy project to help spread literacy and provide resources and lots of other stuff for teachers, parents, mentors, students, and just regular people (with internet access) to help do so.

While promoting literacy worldwide via the internet is not a new thing (just do a google search. basically every self-respecting university, and a number of big organizations also are working to create a more literate world), I think google’s visibility, their philosophies, and their resources can add a lot to this.

Google’s literacy project basically acts as a portal to some of its services, like book search, google scholar, and other things, all acting as a kind funnel and pointing to things related to literacy. It draws attention to literacy, education, and pro-actively does something about it in the google-way of doing things… by organizing information and making it more accessible.

That’s way more powerful than you’d initially think, really. Honestly. Because most people in “literacy initiatives” or projects try to open schools, try to gather volunteer support, write and publish, or they manually collect links to resources and re-post them. But google uses it’s own technologies to sort and find these resources for you, so there’s no manual lists of resources to sort and maintain, and all the results are current, relevant, etc.

Plus, making this kind of portal (rather than yet another technology/news/omg-cool-stuff! portal) shows what kinds of values Google celebrates and wants to promote.

So… India. The googleblog announcement talks about India, and how it has 1/3 of the worlds “literacy problem”. And just yesterday, I blogged about the hole-in-the-wall experiment from India, which showed that there was some exciting and active research going on involving literacy, technology, and accessibility to this education.

Coincidence? maybe. Awesome? yes.

Gotta read more.

But first, must go back to work.

“ New Delhi physicist Sugata Mitra has a radical proposal for bringing his country’s next generation into the Info Age”

I don’t wish to claim that this shows anything more or less than what it has shown, which is that curious kids in groups can train themselves to operate a computer at a basic level. In doing so, they also can get a generally good idea about the nature of browsing and the nature of the Internet … And, therefore, if they view these things as worth learning, no formal infrastructure is needed [to teach them]. (emph mine)

What he did was this: he mounted a camera in a tree, embedded an internet-connected computer in a wall in a “slum” area, and watched what happened.

He calls it “minimally invasive education” and believes that the key to promoting authentic computer literacy is “for teachers and other adults to give [kids] free rein, so their natural curiosity takes over and they teach themselves.”

Wow. Yes yes yes.

Another cool point was that the kids taught themselves in groups. it seemed that being in a group was a major component to self-learning.

How’s that for authentic education based on collaboration, social-ness, etc. de-centralized learning, and all those other literacy and educational buzzwords floating around! woo hoo!

But it makes sense. People don’t learn by rote memorization or being forced to learn something. They don’t really truly learn material by sitting at a desk and forcing it into their brains. we learn by practicing, doing, asking questions, figuring stuff out. NOT by lecture. we learn because we have a question, a problem, or out of curiosity.

lectures can help us prepare for tests, but this kind of “figure stuff out” method is what gets you to really learn something.

The thing that’s way cool is that this shows that this type of ‘decentralized’ learning model isn’t all that expensive.

So what’s the real difference between adults and kids? Just that adults “can’t” learn new things? No. it’s more like the sense of curiosity and self-confidence just fades or grows out of them or something. So the key to always being able to learn is to retain your sense of curiosity and spontenaety.

All these things are sort of “common sense”, but now there’s some sorta scientific “proof” that this is true.

I just wish that we had an educational system that matched research like this. individual teachers who model their classrooms around these ideas are awesome, but when they’re forced to “teach to the test” or their kids will fail and they’ll lose their funding… it just hurts everyone.

Anyway, gotta get back to work… just didn’t want to forget to write about this.

A “holy shit” moment while I was reading a dissertation as part of my research for my writing class:

If people can experience punctuation in a personal, three-dimensional way–to grappling, playing, and having physical contact with these symbols–then perhaps it may lead to an awareness of how their own narrative is punctuated.

Wow. Sorry, but that just makes punctuation fucking hot. I don’t want to stop reading.

It’s from “Living the Punctuated Life” Punctuation as Symbol: Experiencing Archetypal Patterns through Punctuation as Personal Narrative by Gail Emily Arriola-Nickell. (2003)

Today, I was brave and went to a talk by one of my professors (Lisa Ede, who’s also my boss, and a great mentor), where I had a great big brain buzz. Well, two actually. One from the talk itself, which was all about what the rise of “citizen reviews” of books on websites–like amazon.com or personally hosted book review sites–might mean from a scholarly humanities point of view. It was partly a “call to arms” for more research and for the asking of more questions and a “hey look at what I’ve found and I’m excited about researching!” kind of talk. She pointed out how there is a rich source of information about literacy, power, authority, and culture in these websites that could reveal how they may challenge or possibly change the way that our society looks at and/or creates knowledge and authority. The Q&A portion of the talk brought up product reviews, and how those differ from book reviews in that they are about the quality of the product from a consumer point of view, whereas the book reviews are more qualitative conversations or statements about characteristics of the book.

I was supposed to be Lisa Ede’s research assistant last year for part of the research for the project this talk was about, but things fell through on both our parts because of excessive other things going on, etc etc, so I’ve been slightly familiar with her research for a little while. I’m also part of her new class called “Language, Technology and Culture” where we’re going to get to explore technologies and education, literacy and other yummy things, and I’m really excited that we get to explore IN CLASS some of the things that she’s researching and may lead to her next publication.

Anyway, so that was one of the brain buzzes.

The other buzz had to do with the fact that I was absolutely the only undergraduate student there at the talk, and that most of the professors that I respect (and fear) the most were there. I recognized several grad students I know by reputation and by passing them in the halls too. Lisa even mentioned the work of a grad student I met last year and have a teenie tiny (ok, huge) intellectual crush on. I got that buzz of being surrounded by these “high up there” people. It was pretty frightening, and I really want to sit down and explore why a little better. Some of these people I know personally and as friends, and I see and know them in totally different settings. But here, they were in their element and I could really just listen.

The anxiety that started to build up was pretty strong, but I don’t think it’s un-realistic. I had this yicky terrifying feeling you’d get as a middle school kid who accidentally walked into the teacher’s lounge. I didn’t feel I was allowed to be there, and got this panicky feeling towards the end when it came time to try to have conversations with other attendees.

I want to smack myself in the head though, because in any other setting, I’d be fine talking to my writing teacher, or talking to a previous English prof (who just made fellowship btw. it was announced at the talk. congrats to him) about any of these things. No one there was a scary strange “untouchable, sitting on a pedestal” type of person to me in a normal setting. I have lunch with Dennis all the time. I went to Canada with a few of the grad students there and two of the profs there. I borrowed books from another prof there, and like I said before, a friend of mine was mentioned in the talk itself. This wasn’t a frightening setting… but I still got that sticky “oops, this is the teacher’s lounge” feeling and it wouldn’t let me go.

Is it because I’ve always been a step or two behind someone else most of my life? Always the ’sidekick’ or always seeking out people who are smarter than me so that I can soak them up and follow them around? Is it because I was born a girl and I’ve been culturally trained or encouraged not to take an active, voiced, and public role in much of anything? I don’t know. I know that I’ve always always felt much more comfortable working to support someone else’s work, or support and contribute to something I’m passionate about but has already been established rather than trying to call people to a cause I want to do. I’ve never felt comfortable taking a completely “leadership” type of role. So for me, maybe this setting was frightening because I was expected to have an identity on my own in this kind of setting, and I have never even come close to developing one yet. To borrow some Yagelski language, I haven’t written myself into academia yet… maybe that was the source of my anxiety.

Anyway, today gave me buzzes, and made me think about lots of stuff related to my own various identities. I had that sort of meta-consciousness about my behavior at this talk and my sudden urge to get the hell out of there and (ha ha ha) write in my livejournal about it.

…which could be an interesting thing to explore… think blogging is contributing to meta-consciousness and self-analysis? I’d guess yes. Or it’s encouraging people who already have that drive to be self-critical and analytical and finally giving them a soap box to stand on.

There’s a kind of potential for therapeutic honesty in blogging. There’s the publicprivate-ness of it too–the illusion of anonymity and the gratuitous self-indulgent drama… ego stroking/popping.

But, there’s value in the act of just spilling. unrestraint in a public place. telling faceless usernames how and why and to what extent you hate foo. I’m sure people have tied blogging to the psychological and psychic value that comes from “confession” before and I don’t want to be the umpteenth person to do that.

Potential for therapeutic honesty when you’re sure the people reading aren’t affected by the things you do/say/write/read.

On some topics, I’ve gone back to a paper journal. And tonight I realize I’ve taken for granted my freedom of expression here. I feel restrained, censored, even though I’ve got nothing bad to say tonight.

News: I’m manic today. and I’m not sure why. anxiety over being in class again. Anxiety over being part of a pair. Anxiety and worry about failing in either of those roles. Anxiety about being friends/co-workers with so many ex-boyfriends, one of which I think could grow into an awesome life-long work-partnership/friendship… but the anxiety comes in because I know my boyfriend would rather he was a girl, and/or not my ex…

anxiety about my roommate… and how now that her boyfriend is back, I’m more comfortable around her. It’s not fair to her to have let the relationship degenerate for 3 months while he was in Japan. It’s not fair, and not nice. I love her and I wish I could just be her friend… anxiety about girls in general… I can’t explain why I can’t ever seem to feel comfortable around them. conversations NOTHING, let alone roommates.

I want to feel more calm. I want to feel more capable. I feel so off-centered because of something. But I can’t figure out what it is. I feel like I’ve got something on my contact lens. enough to be fuzzy, but not enough to find.

I’m in a rusty, leaky metal row boat. I’m trying violently to sleep in the bottom while the gentle icy waves rock me back and forth. As long as I don’t move too much, I’ll be safe from the colder, darker water. Metal digs into my back, my sides, my hands. I’m cold. But the water’s colder, so I’ll stay here and pretend to be calm. But is it better? to be safe and cold? or dead and cold? or is the water just icy at first, and once I’m in it I’ll discover I’m really a flounder?

Right now, I don’t care to know. but it’s so hard to be calm when you’re shivering.

Months ago, I had an extremely pessimistic view of life. I believed that the world was not worthy of existence, that it grossly unqualified to be considered for the position it was applying for, so to speak. It was an inferior form of existence to say the least and it really fucking pissed me off. I often dreamed of some kind of world annihilation, some form of mass destruction to try to correct this horrible error in God’s judgment.

Anyway… I grew out of that period somehow. I think I moved in with my dad and stopped reading so much. I hid myself away from the world and got a fricking job. Bought a car, isolated myself and hid behind my computer screen.

Today I think I experienced Chapter Two of that “world destruction” idea. Or rather, I experienced a kind of reincarnation of it. A more mature instance. I can’t put the entire concept into words just yet. I feel this intense frustration in regards to the injustices and inconsistencies of the American Education system, especially where it concerns foreign language. I spent the evening reading books and essays on ESL, talking to Tomo who is a student studying English as a second language… and I basically was overwhelmed by feelings of remorse and … just psychic agony.

My conceptual English skills are not quite good enough to just throw out an analysis and a source for these feelings so soon after having them, so I am not even going to try right now… just know that I had them, and that they were real and that I am going to one day do something about them. I feel so strongly about this that I’d be willing to change the entire course of my life if I thought that I could make a difference. I know that I have a reputation for getting very passionate about something in a kind of abstract way… But that was when I was young and immature and powerless. Now I’m growing up. I can learn how to make my way through any system, because I am intelligent enough to understand anything I set my mind to.

Does this sound arrogant?? Shit I hope not.

I will go to bed tonight with the following ideas:

There is Optimism, and then there is Reality.

I am an optimist at heart. (But I must fight for every shred of Optimism I have.)

One Day, I am going to change the world.

When I die, I am taking the world with me unless it is a better place after I leave.

I am grateful that Tomo understands where I’m coming from. I got to talk to him about this. It was really great. And I think Adi is going to be a prominent figure in the next season of The Continuing Adventures of Penny the Super Haole. Maybe I could cast him as Penny’s new partner. Or maybe Penny’s new Mecha. :) He wants to help me destroy the world if it ever comes down to that.

Comment Topic of the Day: Got Perspective?