Creativity + Internet = 1.2 Million Views

I am fascinated with the notion of creativity. What is it that makes some people seek out the new, the different, the unusual? What is it about their upbringing and their education that pushes them to push the envelope? Elizabeth Gilbert has some interesting things to say about the notion of creating - of tapping into the "genius" that is not only all around us, but within us as well.

Creating is a uniquely enriching experience. It fills us as it empties us. At its heart, it is an endeavor of curiosity where we seek to not only figure out what we think, but how we fit within the world. It saddens me that our educational system is not structured to encourage such thought. When we do make the time for our students to think in such a capacity, they look like deer caught in the headlights. They want to know how they will be graded and exactly what they can do to please us and earn a high mark. Ah, we've trained them well.

Well, there is good news in all of this. Some of our bright young ones are somehow able to maintain a sense of curiosity and ingenuity. They are not hampered by the new technologies and advances that we are making as a society - they are using them to propel their own, unique, creative messages. Check out this story about what an unknown New York band, a subway, and a few iphones can teach us about thinking outside the box.

Blogging Tips: Shooting it Straight

Ran across this post today about why some blogs just don't get much traffic. I love the candor and simplicity to it. Got me thinking about how to implement better content and teach my students how to do the same.

The First Shall Be Last

I have to admit that while I have been thinking and praying about the Chilean miners, I haven't been watching the story 24/7 like much of the world. But on this momentous night when all 33 miners were rescued, this CNN headline grabbed my attention:

"Last miner scheduled to emerge is group's captain."

Luiz Urzua thought that he was leading his crew into the mine for a 12 hour shift. He ended up leading them for 69 days. He was the first into the mine and the last one out. This is an incredible story about true leadership. Too often, kids think that power equates to freedom and leverage. They crave it because they don't feel like they have much say over their lives. And many times, all of that is true. But leadership is different than power. Leadership - servant leadership - is about being the first to go into a dangerous situation and the last one out.

This man kept his team sane and healthy by keeping his cool. Plain and simple. We as teachers and parents could learn a thing or two from Mr. Urzua. Here's hoping that he gets paid all of that overtime that he most certainly deserves.

"Bring Out Your Dead"

Last week, our media specialist visited the English department and all of our classes to give us the lowdown on new copyright laws. She did a fantastic job because I sort of understand what I can and can't do online now.

The students were pretty surprised and overwhelmed by the information. They are the cut-and-paste generation, after all. From what I can tell, their belief is that if you find it on the internet, then:

1. it must be credible.
2. it must be free for me to use without giving any credit at all.
3. it must be posted onto facebook in some form or fashion.

So, after much discussion about what is and what isn't intellectual property, they had one question for me:

What CAN we put on our blogs?

I was happy to show them a site that a fellow teacher introduced me to last week.

World, meet MORGUEFILE.COM. It's where good pictures go after they die - to be resurrected elsewhere.

Maybe I'm late to the party, but this site is amazing. It's filled with beautiful artistic photos that people are no longer actively using -hence the name. Now, my students and I can enjoy some real pics without the real law-breaking that might otherwise occur.

The Web Whisperer

I've been skimming one of my favorite books tonight - The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman -  with the hopes that it would spark some inspiration for an article I'm supposed to write concerning this class. It didn't disappoint. The book is genius. Check out this excerpt that I just now stumbled upon:

The very technologies that are uniting us are also clearly dividing us. The same technologies that allow us to connect with each other as never before also allow us to interrupt each other as never before. The technologies that are empowering individuals to upload their own content...and to inscribe themselves on the world also contribute to a coarsening of our language and the dumbing down of our discourse. And most troubling, but still not yet fully understood, is what happens when we can all not only author our own content and upload it globally, but, thanks to improved connectivity and search engines, read all the content people are authoring about us. What happens when the Internet becomes so ubiquitous and search engines so refined that we can all suddenly hear everything whispered about us? What happens when we all have dog's hearing?

This was written five years ago. Well before Facebook and Twitter even existed. Yikes. Don't get me wrong. All of the tools available to us are indeed a marvel. But they alone do not enable us to truly connect with one another. They do not - they cannot - take the place of true character and thoughtfulness. In many ways, the connectivity that teens enjoy in a superficial way leads to their disconnection from others and from themselves. Just ask Tyler Clementi's parents. 

So it is my sincere hope and prayer that in this class we can explore the new forms of writing and connecting while also honing our relational skills to the fullest. According to Friedman, that is the only true path to success in a flat world.