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Using social media as a voice or platform for social change is one modern method of social activism that has seen some success on the world stage. There are so many things happening in the world. But these things have been happening for quite some time. However, we hear more about what's happening in the world due to the prevalence of global social media and the connections we can make with people we might otherwise not have known through social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. But is awareness actually increasing social changes? The group Equality Now, would say there are successes to be had here, just look at Can't Stop the Serenity (CSTS), which has raised more than 1.2 million dollars for Equality Now since 2006, all from people getting together and watching Joss Whedon's Firefly series movie, Serenity, once a year around Joss' birthday, all primarily organized and promoted through social media.
But there is a big difference between effecting social change and effecting social awareness. Awareness is the beginning of change. In an blog post, "Can colouring your Facebook profile picture ever actually effect change?" Caitlin Dewey begins to address this concept. How far does the simple and "riskless act" of altering a profile pic on Facebook does not really cause policy change; however, it does bring awareness to an issue. It does give those viewing it the opportunity to think about something. This is the power of social media, causing people to think about things they might not otherwise be prompted to think over if not confronted with it throughout the day in small snippets. This is another factor, snippets. All of those influences roll around in our brains, collecting, collating, wrapping around one another, until we bring those discussions face to face or face to Facebook as the case may be. I know I, and many of my friends have been prompted to call our congressmen, senators, and local representatives about issues happening right now; which, without the FB influence, I might not have. But then there is the flip-side, so many walk around angry, disillusioned, frustrated, as more and more they are presented with the avalanche of information - real/researched and not so much. I fall into this category. I struggle with coping with the information bombardment from my myriad friends and acquaintances, sorting through the reality and the hype, twisting my brain around the distorted facts and doing my own research, and trying not to vehemently direct people to Snopes. Social media is both boon and burden when it comes to social change. It has been used as a tool for both good and evil, as evidenced by our most recent political upheavals. There is a TEDx talk by Ronny Edry that is a good example of how social media can bring people of differing backgrounds together and truly effect changes. By creating a design and a message against the tense relations between Iran and Israel, one he posted on FB for friends and family, Ronny started and entire movement that spread the globe and began to influence other people in other countries to speak out against war and for peace. One thing, one action, can start a movement. A movement can actually effect change. Communication is the basis of effecting that change. Once regular media picks it up it can really develop into something profound. The only challenge then is keeping that change going. Imagine there's no heaven... It's easy if you try...No hell below us...Above us only sky...Imagine all the people living for today... Imagine there's no countries...It isn't hard to do...Nothing to kill or die for...And no religion too...Imagine all the people living life in peace, you... You may say I'm a dreamer...But I'm not the only one...I hope some day you'll join us...And the world will be as one... Imagine no possessions...I wonder if you can...No need for greed or hunger...A brotherhood of man...Imagine all the people sharing all the world, you You may say I'm a dreamer...But I'm not the only one...I hope some day you'll join us...And the world will be as one Songwriter: John Lennon This is one of my favorite songs. It always has been. I am proudly one of those dreamers, even though sometimes the cynicism sets in, like now. But sometimes, I am given even more hope. A video shared by a site called "Now This" peaked my interest a bit ago. It is about a man, Jacque Fresco, that has been researching, according to The Venus Project's website, "an alternative vision of what the future can be if we apply what we already know in order to achieve a sustainable new world civilization. It calls for a straightforward redesign of our culture in which the age-old inadequacies of war, poverty, hunger, debt and unnecessary human suffering are viewed not only as avoidable, but as totally unacceptable." He proposes a resource based economy and purports the idea of everyone in this society being able to have what they need, "a system in which automation and technology would be intelligently integrated into an overall holistic socio-economic design where the primary function would be to maximize the quality of life rather than profits." I watched the video, poured over the website, and thought, if only... I posted the video on my Learning Space group, Colorado Teaching Artists in the hopes to spark discussion. I proposed the question "What role would the Arts have in such a society?" No discussion as of yet, but I'm going to ask the question again, and again. I think it is important. I think the project is important. What parent wouldn't want their children to live in such a world? Well, what non-materialistic parent would want that? Our society is at a precipice. With the chaos caused by DeVos as head of Education, and others threatening our health and well-being, it is ever more important we start to take a serious look at these ideas as a means of saving ourselves before our greed and materialistic lifestyles take away our humanity. There was a time when we lived in tribes, family groups dedicated to the survival and well-being of a community of people. Herein lies the rub - we are now a global society, our groups too large to function as a true tribe. Or are we? Affinity spaces, such as those that develop in Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and other media sites, or learning spaces, such as the one I created, form a kind of tribe. This tribe is more dedicated towards sharing of ideas and common interests rather than literal group survival. But, within The Venus Project, this concept is better realized. It would be a very large tribe, dedicated to the survival and well being of all living there. It would have to be, wouldn't it? Unfortunately, there are many obstacles for returning to a simpler time and socio-cultural grouping, however. Some arguments against this I saw: "He wants to get rid of "money" but a similar system would have to be put in place even if its a credit system. Expecting everyone to "just do whats right" is a child's dream not a reality." "Yes everybody would have to be educated in the right way in order for this to work, unfortunately our current education system does not contour these ideas because it doesn't benefit the hierarchies." An argument for: "It certainly would be difficult with our current mentalities, but that is just because that is how we have been raised. If we are put into a cooperative system which lacks scarcity then community triumphs will equal as much (if not more) than individual triumphs." The true hurdle against a society such as Fresco proposes presupposes one thing: That we somehow overcome our desire for having more than someone else, our cultural need to compete, to be better than, and also to have things. Our materialistic culture would need to disappear. Gordon Gekko would be horrified. But, there is hope. Contrary to what many people believe, we are not predisposed towards greed, we are, according to the project, The Human Spark, children are predisposed towards altruism. We learn selfishness, greed, and hardheartedness; it is not human nature. If we could start within a world such as The Venus Project proposes, I think we would be able to live there without the issues put forth by the naysayers. (on a side note, I highly recommend all the videos for The Human Spark. It's wonderful and hosted by Alan Alda. Bonus) And the world will be as one... An interesting thing happened on the way to learning in the 21st Century...
George Siemens said "Technology is altering (rewiring) our brains. The tools we use define and shape our thinking." I can think of no more poignant a statement for today's social and political climate than this statement. Technology has become both our savior/liberator and our prison. We are tethered to our various social networks and information outlets during the majority of our waking hours. We search for answers to all questions through Google, obtain feedback instantaneously through FacebookLive, and we respond to the world's problems and in-the-moment opinions and commentary in blips through Twitter. How is this NOT rewiring our brains? I am reading an article for another class that had a quote by Henri Poincare ́, a physical scientist, I think really applies here. ‘Science is built up of facts, as a house is built of stones; but an accumulation of facts is no more science than a heap of stones is a house.’ Accumulation of technology, how much tech we own, is not the main factor; the main factor is how much we use on a daily basis, in our jobs and in our free time. This is the deciding factor on how much it affects our brains. For example, reading books encourages imagination and focus, it takes time to get the information from many different sources. On the other hand, the advent of technology and the access we have to mountains of information at our fingertips has encouraged the abilities of rapid and efficient scanning of information. The importance of processing, analyzing, and synthesizing that information? This is something that is lacking in our culture and in our schools. So, I agree with Siemans. Technology is literally changing the neurons for creating the pathways of thinking in our brains, changing how our brains receive and process the information. I was reading a research study on the effects of regular video game playing on the manual dexterity of laparoscopic surgeons - an average of more than 35% increase on surgery skill level as a direct result. It's impressive to think how much computer use or game console use can have an effect on our brains and bodies. But the effect does not stop there. Technology is affecting how, when, where, and why we are learning. According to many neuroscience researchers, the ever-growing exposure we have to technology for information gathering/input is quite literally rewiring our brains. We process information differently than we did when it was just books or magazines, just as the change from handwriting to typing changed the way our brains were wired to process and read and write information. https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128236.400-susan-greenfield-living-online-is-changing-our-brains/ (Links to an external site.) Biologically, our bodies are linked to our brains, hence the order in which most humans learn to walk. It doesn't start with walking or even standing, it begins with the body up on all fours, rocking to and fro, before falling back on the belly. Walking happens only when the brain is ready for it. I think there is a big parallel here. But getting the brain ready and training the brain for for learning via technology is only half of the issue. The other half concerns the location of the knowledge and information. In today's world, we have Wikipedia, Google, Answers.com, AskIT, and millions of other sites we can go to for information. I have heard many times, 'Why do I have to know this? I can just Google it.' Knowing where to go for knowledge is good, it makes for good research. However, without the prior knowledge to connect new knowledge to, we are doing nothing but opening up files and looking at isolated facts. That is not learning nor is it conducive to locating and understanding correct information. We have to know how to process the information we find, connect it to other information, and come up with new ideas to contribute to the subject, or at least new ways of thinking about it. Innovation and new ideas have both exploded and suffered at the hands of technology, in my opinion. The future of learning will be finding ways to combine information overload with information processing/synthesis and fact confirmation. This week, as part of my Social Media & Digital Culture class, I looked at Quora, located at www.quora.com (Links to an external site.). The purpose of Quora is, simply put, for people with answers to link up with those who have questions. However, Quora goes so much beyond the simple. I found a plethora of articles relevant to my interests, both personal and professional, from poetry and novel writing to art and education. How have I not heard of this before? As a seeker of knowledge, why is this new to me? How is Twitter bigger than this site? As I went in search of answers, pun intended, something occurred to me. Twitter is a no holds barred, raucous, sounds like incoherent ramblings sometimes, short blip of a conversation. Quora is a place to ask and answer questions - Easy questions, such as "What fruit starts with the letter 'n?'" and more complex questions "Why is reading so important? or Why do we need quantum mechanics?"
Another aspect of Quora I find intriguing is the algorithm it seems to use to determine what questions you might find interesting to answer, and ones you might find intriguing to read. After a week, I seemed to be relegated to college and art questions. I then updated my topics and was greeted with a plethora of enticing questions to read and answer. The more subjects you list, the more varied topics for questions you are exposed to; however, Quora pays attention to the questions you seem to like to answer as well. You can "pass" on answering questions and get more questions to read or answer. It seems to be a never ending process, but one that is fascinating to take part in. After vetting more than five dozen answers to questions I researched the answers for, I discovered most of the answers for concrete subjects were accurate. There was some conversations and debates for more subjective answers to questions, especially in the art section; which is as it should be. On the whole, Quora is worth a look and worth returning to as it is much more entertaining than Wikipedia. Favorite question I've read on Quora so far (and only tabletop RPG participants will get this, but it is very relevant to another class I am taking) "How do I, as a DM, deal with a pair of Chaotic Stupid and Stupid Neutral alignment characters?" If you play RPG's and have ever played D&D, you will get this and it is amazing that there are two dozen answers to such a niche question and there are almost a thousand views of the answers. Pro's and Con's: Pro: There are so many different articles from many professionals and everyday people to read and process. The subjects seem to be endless and varied. Lurking is easy as is answering questions in an almost anonymous manner. Con: There are so many different articles - I got lost in the rabbit hole for hours. There does seem to be a group of posters and question answer gurus that I see frequently, there may be something strange here about this, but maybe not. A year ago, I struggled with coming to terms with analyzing the worth and function of curriculum. After a long while, many articles read, and discussions debated, I came to a few conclusions that so far are holding, even and especially in light of our current state of affairs.
Curriculum in any time and place becomes the site of a battleground where the fight is over whose values and beliefs will achieve legitimization and the respect that acceptance into a national discourse provides. --Kliebard, 1995 The concept of curriculum, especially in regards to school curriculum has many different meanings and approaches depending on the perspective of the person holding the definition. I find it easy to picture a concept as complex with contradictory understandings or perspectives could be compared to a battlefield. The field of education itself has many stakeholders: the children, their parents and families, the educators, the school administration, the district administration, state policy makers, state governments, federal government, companies, workplaces, businesses…the list is almost endless because what happens in the education of our children affects everything and everyone those children touch or will touch. At the heart of this connection is the concept of curriculum, the pathway to a student’s learning. As the quote states, “the fight is over whose values and beliefs will achieve legitimization.” Teaching is often referred to as “being in the trenches,” and as a teacher, I agree with this statement. The struggle happening in our schools is exactly what the quote is expressing, the battle to have someone else’s beliefs and values legitimized – the someone else being the combatants, those that create curriculum. On one hand, the combatants are all fighting for a better future; however, it is their version of better. On the other hand, they are fighting to convince the public their vision is the correct one, their concept of what a better future is, a better workforce, and better support for economic growth to compete with outside influences. However, I don’t think anyone is truly winning the battle. We are still stuck with the outdated concepts meant to push manufacture instead of pushing invention and innovation. Currently, this pattern of curriculum development is still held as legitimate and is therefore winning. Much of this is due to industry driving policy decisions through politics. Those in power, both voters and politicians, do not trust those in education due to the failures being experienced and the inaccurate data being disseminated through the media, such as the skewed comparison reporting on the study concerning education money spent per pupil. But, the need for innovation, inquiry, critical thinking, and imagination is slowly gaining ground. Those that push these curricular concepts are still losing, but hopefully not for long. This is a battle of stamina, and in light of the potential defunding of the NEA, I think being an Art Teacher is going to be even more important. |
Kait E CottengimA wandering leaf, teacher, lifelong book addict, ofttimes artist/writer, & eclectic spiritual explorer. ArchivesCategories |