A harmonious online network

Richardson wrote, "The incredible growth of YouTube.com, Google Video, and other audio and video sites online is rattling the very foundations of television and radio, and it's no doubt going to b e very interesting to see how all of it plays out in the next few years" (2010, p.111). Throughout this past module, the class discussed various networking and social sites that may or may not be infiltrating our school systems ... While Many public schools have blocked flash, Facebook and YouTube, I was inspired by a very unlikely source this past week.

Eric Whitacre, a composer that I have been a fan of since my senior year of high school, created a musical movement, inspired by one girl's video. The original collaboration included 185 people, but after sometime, Whitacre went back and did version 2.0. This time he had 2,000 voices from all over the world, recorded at different times. They were synthesized into one hauntingly beautiful chorus that became the virtual choir singing "Sleep". (See Whitacre's Virtual Choir website)

Despite not being a choir teacher, I still find this global movement extremely inspiring. We have been discussing ways in which we can connect with people around the world, and expand our classrooms beyond the walls. As Richardson wrote, "...the Read/Write Web opens up all sorts of new possibilities for students to learn from each other or from authors or scientists and other professionals who can now work side by side in digital space even though they may be far away from one another physically" (2010, p.23).

I want to point out a very profound quote from Whitacre's brief intro: "For me singing together and making music together is a fundamental human experience and I love the idea that technology can bring people together from all over the world and participate in this transcended experience" (Whitacre, September 22, 2010, bold/italics added by me). I know I have been a naysayer and wary of technology making the world too plastic and inhuman. But this quote opened my eyes and really showed me what an awesomely great tool technology can be to harmonize humanity.

This is the full-length video of the 2011 Virtual Choir singing "Sleep". Even if you only watch the first 30 seconds, the image of the entire world being linked together is absolutely amazing.

Whitacre's video made me go back into my saved links, and I dug up another revolutionary way to get students connected and involved with others in the world:

Students actually have a chance to create an experiment with the hopes that it will be conducted in space!!! It's the ultimate science fair project! If not to be used as an in class assignment, what an amazing motivator this could be for gifted and super ambitious students. To foster this kind of creativity and excitement is what we live and work for ...

While there are many negative aspects to the web, there are also those people out there that are making us feel more and more connected each day, one student at a time.

Picasso or Picasa?

My parents are artists, and a few weekends ago we were discussing Nooks, Kindles, and the possible disappearance of books. My mother who is an avid reader and lover of all things book-like, has a legitimate fear that one day all books will be electronic. I believe there are some that are resistant to the change in technology -- perhaps the Baby Boomers and +/- 10 years of that generation. I also believe there are those that fear a technology take over that will eliminate anything and everything tangible and real. I think I fall somewhere in the latter category, right alongside my mom.

As far as Baby Boomers go, my mom is no stranger to technology. As a graphic designer she had to take community college courses in order to learn Quark, Adobe Photoshop, Publisher, and other publishing software mostly for the Mac. Her days of sketching everything on the light table were done, and her profession did a 180º. Picasso turned into Picasa overnight, and the fine arts part of Bachelor of Fine arts seemed to disappear for my mom in the blink of an eye.

Even as I take this course, I find myself battling the technology movement because as much as I love my Nook, I don't want books to disappear. I don't want art to become digitally drawn and painted on a tablet. I don't want my students to not know how to write in cursive -- did you know they're eliminating that from curriculum?? For as much as a technology helps us move forward and link with people all around the world, I also feel that it takes away from reality. We are constantly separated by a screen.

With that being said, it's impossible to deny the opportunities technology has afforded our students: blogs that connect them to real authors (Richardson's class communicating with Sue Monk Kidd), to real people (Skype, Cisco), to microscopic worlds (cameras that connect to microscopes and project images), and to access curriculum through wikis 24/7. I would not trade my laptop and the tools it gives me for anything, and to be able to communicate with relatives across the country and world is amazing. When I think of Digital Natives vs. Immigrants, I have placed myself into the Immigrants category.

Technology is a great tool; we just can't forget that it is a smaller -- yet very integral -- part of a larger world.

(Another post will follow, relating to our curriculum/readings.)