Author: timcalvin

I’m starting to worry.

The title to this is a teeny bit misleading, I know. I always worry. It’s part of who I am.

Given that, the title should be “I’m starting to worry about all this collaboration-focused education doing disservice to the introverts in schools” but that wouldn’t fit. I just posted a new Tangential last night, and it deals with Introverts and Extroverts and Lord of the Flies. But that got me thinking (again) about how we accomodate those two personality types in the classroom.

We’ve been putting a tremendous amount of faith in the power of collaboration in the classroom- and I’m not saying that’s entirely a bad thing. There’s a lot of good that comes out of collaboration, and there’s a lot of collaboration that goes on in the working world. It’s an important skill, and it suits the extroverts in the room well.

But our rooms aren’t full of extroverts- they’re full of a mix of extroverts and introverts, and with all the focus being put on the extroverts in the room, I worry about the smaller group of introverts being ignored. Susan Cain makes a good point surrounding this in her TED talk on the subject- and while when that came out there was a bit of nodding and agreeing on the subject, I haven’t seen anything actually done about it. I wonder about the spread of introvert vs extrovert among classroom teachers- are we overwhelmingly extroverts? Is the performance aspect of what we do attracting significantly more extrovert and therefore skewing our ideas about teaching the general population?

Maybe I’m sensitive to this sort of thing- maybe years of being put on the spot in classrooms has made me overly shy about doing the same thing to a student. Maybe the current view is that students that are introverts need to be trained how to be more extroverted in the classroom. Maybe extroverts need to likewise be trained to be more introverted in classrooms.

I don’t know why. I’m not sure why each group can’t be taught to use what they have as a gift and work with it. I’m not sure why we have to be compelled to try to change the fundamental nature of how student function.

I think the better plan is to teach students how to exploit the way they work- teach the introverts to embrace the introversion and the extroverts to use theirs. It seems obvious- as they’ll want to function that way in life anyway. The ambiverts in the room can practice moving between the two.

 

SitRep

For a second, while cleaning out the span in the comments on here, I thought I had a live comment. Nope!

Anyway-

1. I helped write a grant for a 3D printer for my school, and it got accepted. So that’s good- and this week I had a meeting with a rep about some of the printers he carries and offers. I’ll give him loads of credit- he knows his stuff, and he was totally awesome to deal with. He’s offering his for more than twice the price of what I asked for, so that’s something to be thought about, but regardless it’s looking like we’ll have a 3D printer at the school next year. Awesome.

2. My session this summer with EDCO is running for sure, which is good news. I’m really looking forward to that. There’s still room, from what I gather, so get in while you can.

3. The MA Digital Publication Collaborative is coming along nicely- that is to say “is accelerating wildly.” The schedule is up, and I’m running a ton of sessions- so please, sign up and come and share. Last I looked we were rapidly approaching 400 people- and we still have some room for more…

4. I’ve got three episodes of Tangential up- the cover some basic vocab, the Milgram Experiment, and an overview of the Robbers Cave Experiment, the Stanford Prison Experiment, and The Third Wave experiment. I’m really enjoying doing them, and I’m hoping to get another up in the coming week. These are all part of the first unit devoted to Lord of the Flies- a book I have strong feelings about teaching.

That’s it, I think. Loads going on in the wings, but I’ll make sure to post about other new exciting stuff as it happens.

 

t.

 

SitRep

Tons of stuff.

1. Tangential, my new ELA podcast is two episodes deep right now, and I’m really proud of it. I’m starting with Lord of the Flies, and I’ll keep going to cover tangential topics related to other books as well.

2. Long Road Home is still live, but I’m changing the format somewhat. I got sick of one camera in the car, and I want to make it a little more stimulating visually. There are two of the new-er style up now, and I’m not entirely settled on where it goes from here.

3. The 2012 Massachusetts Digital Publication Collaborative is edging closer and closer. I’m still excited, and I’m still teaching a ton of sessions. Come!

4. I’m still teaching a summer workshop on iPads in High School classrooms with EDCO. You might still find it useful.

5. I’m starting some work on some digital editions of some books- It feels nice to get back to building books, as it’s been a good while since I handled anything properly large. I’ll post links as those go public.

t.

SitRep

It’s Memorial Day weekend, and instead of relaxing, I’m neck deep in projects.

Not a bad thing.

1. I’ve launched a new podcast series I’m calling Tangential. It’s focused on making quality videos that deal with issues tangential to the books often taught in High School English classes. I’m not in a classroom next year, so this is my way of contributing. I have no idea about my schedule for these; I’ll get them done as I can. I’m starting with Lord of the Flies.

2. The Mass Digital Publication Collaborative keeps inching (speeding?) closer every day. Attendance has jumped in the last few days, and we’re really excited about some of the sessions we’re running and offering. I hope you’ll come if you’re able.

3. I’m excited to be teaching a two day session at EDCO this July on using iPads in High School classrooms. It should be really good- I’ve learned a ton in my time doing this, and I’m really excited to share.

4. The Long Road Home is thundering away in it’s newest incarnation. I’ve had loads of good feedback, mostly (interestingly!) from students. I’m debating shifting the focus to address that specifically. Especially with my current mission of bringing computer games to the ELA classroom.

That’ll do, for now.

 

t.

 

Tangential.

That’s what I’m calling my newest project.

It’s in-progress right now- some test shooting and a prototype intro are in the can, so to speak. It’s easily the most complicated self-shooting rig I’ve worked with in at least a very long time, and maybe ever.

Here’s what it is:

Tangential is a series of video podcasts that cover a wide range to topics related to texts taught in High School English classes. I’m not teaching any English classes next year, and I can’t bear to have some of my more fun and tangential talks sit on the shelf. Plus I get bored. So I’m doing all the stuff I really like as videos so others can watch and learn and enjoy.

 

Zork part 2

So my latest video post is here.

But in the meantime, I’ve done some research, as I’m prone to. And I’ve found some interesting stuff.

So Zork is only the tip of the iceberg. There’s an entire genre of work called “Interactive Fiction” that builds on the format of Zork, but expands quite a ways beyond that. Creating them isn’t the most straightforward thing ever, but I’ve found this gadget called FrobTADS that seems built for that exact function. Granted, I’ve just downloaded the thing (and I haven’t even installed it yet…), but it looks like a mostly straightforward nomenclature that it’s using. Interesting, at least.

So my current thinking is to combine attributes of Interactive Fiction with those of ARGs (Alternate Reality Games). I’m thinking about starting a unit inside of a bit of Interactive Fiction, and then having tasks that have to take place out in the real world. Puzzles, maybe, or locations that need to be visited to gain a clue or code or whatnot that then gets loaded back into the Interactive Fiction to gain the next level or step.

My next step is to play with FrobTADS a bit and see what it can do and how it is to work with, and decide if it’s the sort of thing that’s going to be useful without simply adding to the pile of things I have to do.

That and figuring out if students are even going to like this sort of thing. Because if they’re not into this, then…

 

t.