Agency, Divergence, Multimodality and Conceptualization

• This week in your blog, consider how digital media has affected Agency, Divergence, Multimodality and Conceptualization in your life, in the lives of your students, or in society in general. I have no requirement for length. -Jane

Agency is the biggest missing element in education today, IMO. I'm constantly seeing colleagues (and myself to be honest) blowing opportunities to help students be their own agents. Here are two ways I try to create agency in my students.

• In chorus and classroom situations my students pick pieces to sing using a consensus process. Students give me names of songs which I review before class (to make sure the material is appropriate in terms of language, subject matter and difficulty level). Then we review a video of the song using my projector and speakers. After we listen I have students rate the song with something called "Fist to Five Fingers". If they cannot abide the material they put a fist up and if they love it they put five fingers up. Usually a piece get's adopted by the group if it's mostly 5's with a few 4's or 3's. (I usually don't allow fists just because it can come off as inflexible or mean). People who rate a piece poorly must explain their vote using technical terms (range, subject matter, style, etc) and not just say, "I don't like it".
• In composition class I mostly let students experiment. I talk for ten minutes at the beginning of the class about a topic and model it with my own work. Then, they can follow that thread or not. The program they use scaffolds their production to the point where they can make pieces more or less intuitively. Experimentation is the most powerful tool. Over time they grow to appreciate my concepts better, I think, when they aren't forced into it. They see it's rightness when they aren't told that they are wrong. The nice thing about the CMS is that it keeps us organized and the idea doesn't go away once the class discussion does. 

Divergence is very related to agency. When people are given control over their lives they will tend to travel paths that are different from others. Often this is what teachers are most scared of and why they often use technology to homogenize rather than differentiate. Divergence indeed goes against the very nature of instructionalism. In my own learning divergence has played a very important role.

• I was able to graduate from Brown University largely because I took electronic music composition with Professor Shep Shapiro four straight semesters. I had been a poor music student largely because I was basically a self taught musician. I couldn't read notation well at the time so my ability to understand music theory was compromised when music was read and not heard. I couldn't follow scores when I listened to orchestral pieces very well either. I, also, like many people in their late teens, did not want to do anything but what I wanted to do. I wanted to express myself and, really would only work hard when I was allowed to (which was basically never). I was a great songwriter and in a great band, but as a student I was lost. Shep allowed me to write the music I wanted regardless of style and he allowed me to record it rather than notate it. Over time I ended up picking up aspects of his style and over the years since I've worked on my reading ability and pushed my limits comfortably. I didn't simply accommodate to my deficiencies. Now I'm pretty good with notation, but Shep let me work within my comfort zone at the time. My music flourished and I was able to be a successful student.

Multimodality is possibly the most exciting aspect of web technology. It enlivens learning for all and makes progress possible for those who struggle.

• My Audible subscription has been a godsend. In the three or so years, since I signed up, I have read more novels than I did in my life prior to that. I've read Tolstoy and Dickens. The longer the book the better. I struggle with reading text, less so with writing (the same is true for music notation) (I'm like a non native speaker of my own languages). But I have multiple means of representation. I can listen, see moving pictures, still pictures, read text, or do a combination of all. How far I've come as a learner because of this is astounding. I was talking about being a lawyer with some people and I thought to myself, "Yeah, I could do that if I wanted to" (of course there may have been some red wine involved, too). But previously, the sheer volume of reading would have made that impossible for me. If the textbooks had been in audio form I could have comprehended the possibility of more careers. 

Conceptualization is where the rubber meets the road in education. People will increasingly be expected to plan their own learning. This will include what and how they learn. With agency comes divergence. With both comes conceptualization. With conceptualization comes multimodality. Conceptualization is where the learner builds skills and knowledge with a larger purpose and with many different tools.

• As a musician, the one thing you want to be more than anything is different from everyone else. You want to be singular in your style. A one of a kind. So you write your own material. You arrange it for various instruments. You record it with technical tools. You apply for copyrights. You sell it. Many skills to be mastered are whole careers in and of themselves. You'll do it if you believe your core concept and if you have a roadmap. Teachers can help with the roadmap but often get bogged down in training discrete skills and lose the forest for the trees.  

new Levels

Last week I felt that I got a lot out of the work but that I fell just slightly short in terms of engagement with my colleagues. This week I made an effort to quote everyone else in the course and comment on their particular thoughts. This was done over a range of posts and on various mediums. I studied Bill's course blog and reflected. I made a specific post referencing Allison's take on the readings. I summed up all sentiments in Jane's summation forum.

Not on my list of to-do's last week was more quoting of text from the readings but I discovered that this helped me quite a bit and improved my scholarship. I got a lot closer to the text by essentially taking notes as I went.

Using other's quotes to help summarize was a time saver and enabled me to use my time to reflect on meanings rather than merely restating other ideas in my own, perhaps less effective, words.

In short, I think my process improved this week and I was able to get more clear on core issues as a result.