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kclinton
wrap-up
context for the tsg
nml started w/ the white paper that identified 12 skills and social competencies. we did a guide for reading in a participatory culture. expert-driven. content-heavy. what should a strategy guide be? maybe a process? is it a set of modular activities? a set of links? so, today’s about modelling this process of unconferences as an ideation process. generating a lot of ideas quickly. for us, from here, the next phase will take us to look more closely at the bridges between participatory practices to civic engagment. how we bridge betw/ participtory culture and participatory democracy.
current focus on maps. what happens when think about new media literacies as a paradigm shift in all the disciplines.
question: who are you going to get to bring this into school?
I’m wondering why it’s maps and not something else? i do feel that it constrains a bit. just the idea of mapping, when you think of it only in terms of a google ap it sort of constrains thinking for me.
we’re looking for subject matter that are at the center b/c those are things that are a part of the established curriculum. to take a radical approach of conservative content is our essential philosophy.
k-6 charter school. teachers were wanting to figure out how to get tech in the class. brought in experts. teachers overwhelmed. so to take the curriculums they have— 2, 3 pages— and look at them and then say how you can use these tools to teach what you’re already teaching (as an approach)
the analysis and skills that go into MAKING the maps. when start dissecting the final product, and link to the associations and observations and to understand what goes into making them, as a teaching tool.
the other thing I think, the way you began the think-tank. our sense of place & what we thought. not a question kids often asked: where do you think YOU belong? a kid has to discover his/her place in the world before they can develop a bigger understanding.
recognizing that students need the opportunity to wrestle w/ where am I, who am I, and how it goes all the way up to: I’m a global citizen. Recognizing that they’re a part of a variety of communities & that each has a different membership. so, i can see the dual benefit of helping them to understand new geographies. not urgent to know where a place is, is urgent for kids to say they want to come to school. new media changing how kids see themselves, and that’s a lever for bringing geography into the major leagues.
it’s not 21st century geography, there are multiple dimensions to this— what is the urgency? it’s an argument for what makes geography important. here’s the opportunity to reach the kids who are not a part of the new media. part of the beauty of being in geography is that you’re not in the middle of the battleground. so the challenge is how do you get out of the corner to be seen as important.
growing gap, social studies teachers no longer prepared to teach geography
if come at content matter from another angle— this is just about being a citizen of the world— to begin to figure out how to teach it to kids.
do you think there’s a likelihood that geography could be a certificate that teachers could become (accredited in)..
go to a place like Clark, where they have a strong geography program, students really enthusiastic about their subject area & MA doesn’t attract them, so they go to somewhere like CA where they value geography more.
i think the sad irony— at the time when it is more important to be a citizen of the world and to be aware of the world— is when geography is falling away. to embrace geography we’d be able to overcome a lot of the problems. the need for these big picture ways of thinking and knowing. there’s an absolute necessity for geography to experience a renassance.
are we are saying that geography is a part of everything? do we need a separate discipline for critical thinking?
i think there’s a disconnect for people who don’t teach in the public system.. how geography happens.. not a single discipline.. to become certified in set of ways of thing that can be applied to other disciplines
geography was included in the Standards/ once it’s mandated and testing, it has great credibility. it is conservative, but it is there, it’s not going to go away. citizen education has to be maxed. geography connects with everything. I am not discouraged about geography. it’s in the law.
nine subjects, but geography is the only one w/o federal funding and there are very few states that test it. if subject area not tested, it’s still optional.
in the frameworks for geography what are they being asked to do?
not at all?
that’s what I was thinking. not being able to understand poverty in Africa and the struggles between cultures and tribes.. geography.. artificial borders being drawn and the conflicts they cause.
so then, if we’re thinking both in terms of how geography is something that infuses everything. might it be geography across the diciplines as well as the new media literacies across the curriculum.
distinction between geography education and geographic education.
can you talk about geographic education?
the spatial thinking and spatial understanding.. in a mathematics class.. in literature.. it’s all a part of how we think and how we discuss what needs to happen. thinking about what students need to learn and how they need to be prepared, where are the lines, where are the emphases, how guide of where to put their emphases?
