Technology in education: a ground-map, part a (revision 2)

Cross-posted from Education Policy Blog.


For this month's "Monthly Forum" , I'd like to get a conversation going about the role of technology in education.

I'm trying to develop a "ground-map of the province" (if you will allow me an obscure reference to Dewey) of issues related to technology in education. This is part of a project that will result in a chapter on philosophical issues related to technology in education for a forthcoming book to which I've been asked to contribute.

Key question #1: What is educational technology?

Technology is "the application of science (or knowledge) to meet objectives or to solve problems." (source)

Technology is not science itself, which is primarily concerned with knowledge and the sorting out of which knowledge is privileged within society. While science clearly has a role in education (both because we want to have a public that understands its methods, issues, and major findings, and because we want to know how people learn best so we can design education to be efficient and effective), this essay isn't dealing with science per se, but with its application. When we apply science/knowledge to solve educational problems, we are using technology. On this broad definition of technology, schooling is largely a technological enterprise.

(Schooling is the systematic formal process whereby the behaviors [and ideas] of [mostly young] people are shaped to meet adult expectations. Education is the [largely informal] experiential process through which a person comes to know and be who s/he is. These definitions were developed by my FND 510 class this quarter.)

Technologies used in schooling include classrooms, chalkboards, books, podiums, graded classrooms, chair-desk, bells, bell schedules, school buses, school buildings, playgrounds, athletic fields, band rooms, band instruments, colored chalk, the architecture of schools, p.a. systems, teacher certification systems, the ways we "divide" subjects into "disciplines," testing (and other assessment approaches of all kinds), school districting, "catchment" areas, curriculum plans, "standards" statements, and many many other activities/processes/devices/frameworks. It is important to emphasize, "technology" isn't just things, but the systems of ideas that legitimate and constrain the use of things. On this expanded notion of technology, we can say that "schooling" is the application of technology to make the mass alteration of the behaviors [and ideas] of [mostly young] people not only possible, but affordable.

(Of course, schooling achieves other things as well, such as warehousing kids, but let's leave that aside for the moment.)

Related to this, technologies can roughly be divided into those that are "old" (that is, taken for granted as being "necessary" for schooling) and those that are new (that is, still being negotiated in terms of their role--or lack thereof--in schools). This, of course, depends on one's perspective, since a technology that is taken for granted by a young person might be still be considered to have an unsettled role to an older person. Similarly, technologies that are taken for granted in wealthier, suburban or private schools (such as interactive whiteboards) are often considered exotic or a luxury in poorer, urban schools. Such differences in attitude are never about whether a particular technology is really needed for education; they are always about whether they deserve to be funded or mandated for all schools--again, the central question of educational policy.

But we don't tend to talk about this question as if it were a question about technology. Instead, we limit our explicit discussion of technologies to a subset of policy questions about schooling, as if educational technology policy was only "about" relatively new, digital technologies, especially those tools and approaches that are not yet universal (or nearly universal) in their application to schools. "Technology," then, is used as a euphemism for "things that we're still trying to decide whether we need," or "things that only some schools can currently afford."

This limitation of the application of the concept of technology tends to draw attention away from certain critical perspectives (such as those of Michel Foucault, Neil Postman, or Michael Apple) which talk about, for example "technologies of [political] control." Surely these critical perspectives are justified in used of the word "technology," just as much as the common person is justified (in some ways) in limiting discussion of technologies to what I've described above as "digital technologies." What's important is realizing that any limitation of the word "technology" to particular types of technologies has both motivations and consequences, which should be examined. Thus, the limitation of the discussion to "digital technologies" tends to take OFF the table many of the other things I've listed, such as bell schedules and P.A. systems, even though THOSE technology are pernicious and omnipresent in schools.

What I'm saying is, the question of what we MEAN by "technology" is ahas political implications that perhaps logically antecede questions about the use of particular technologies in particular situations. [However, let me add here, without going into it in greater detail, that a "technology" can not be completely separated from the "use" of that technology, because, well, a technology without an application in a specific situation isn't a technology at all.]

Key question #2: What criteria do we use in evaluating educational technologies?

Like all technologies, each item on the list I generated above can be critiqued from many different perspectives, using many different criteria. Among such criteria for criticism include effectiveness (in reaching whatever objectives are desired), efficiency, humanity, cost-effectiveness, opportunity costs, ease-of-use, standardizability (can they applied in a consistent manner), teachability (can teachers/administrators/students actually learn to use them), fairness, beauty, "fit," conformity to [public] values of all kinds, carbon footprint, etc. etc.

(For the general public, probably, the most important criterion is whether the use of a technology conduces to the achievement of [whatever measure of success is given credence, for example] higher standardized test scores. But that criterion is hotly disputed by many.)

Given the importance of the choice of criteria to apply, perhaps the essential question of educational policy is the question of which criteria to apply to evaluating the technologies of education, because this question is basic to other questions such as what resources should we make available to all schools or all students, or to which students, and why. A key corollary of this insight is that anyone who merely argues for or against using a given technology without spelling out exactly what criteria go into (or are being ignored in) making that recommendation is not to be trusted without further investigation.

Okay, enough revision for now. Stay tuned for Part B, where I'll talk about some of the political, cultural, and ideological forces at work in discussions about educational technology, including those that are ostensibly concerned with student learning.

WOW, big virtual world news today

On the same day that Google announced the beta release of their new virtual world, Lively, Linden Lab (makers of Second Life), announced that in collaboration with IBM, their researchers had transported an avatar from one virtual world to another. This second development is pretty amazing! Quoting from LL's blog:

This is a historic day for Second Life, and for virtual worlds in general. IBM and Linden Lab have announced that research teams from the two companies successfully teleported avatars from the Second Life Preview Grid into a virtual world running on an OpenSim server, marking the first time an avatar has moved from one virtual world to another. It’s an important first step toward enabling avatars to pass freely between virtual worlds, something we’ve been working toward publicly since the formation of the Architecture Working Group in September 2007. These are still early days, however, so amid all the excitement, we thought it would be helpful to clarify exactly what we’ve done — and what still lies ahead.

Watch this video: http://s4.video.blip.tv/1530004098413/Lindenlab-AcrossTheMetaverseFromSecondLifeToOpenSim126.mp4

Read more.

This has me, um, almost choking with excitement. What it really means is that avatars can be in SL, for example, and then go to ANOTHER WORLD (that is, another server, such as at their university) and have a completely different type of experience (perhaps without the adult entertainment component, more focus on learning, mix of age groups like teachers and kids, etc.) and then go back to the other world. This will be MUCH more like the real world, where most of us transport between various "worlds" every day as we carry out the multidimensional lives we lead.

Wow...simply, Wow.

ELVEN Communication Workshop Held Today

This is just a transcript...I will put photos up here later.

[2008/05/03 8:18] Dewey Jung: (You can change the settings of “voice” so that you hear the speaker from your avatar’s position, which means that what you are looking at with your camera will not affect the volume…but I don’t recommend that.)

[2008/05/03 8:19] Dewey Jung: If you can’t hear me well, you might want to come closer to me.

[2008/05/03 8:19] Dewey Jung: Okay, let’s start:

[2008/05/03 8:19] Katrina Riederer: yes

[2008/05/03 8:19] You: can everyone hear me?

[2008/05/03 8:19] Mairenn Morgwain: yes

[2008/05/03 8:19] Babette Vuckovic: yes

[2008/05/03 8:19] Evus Alter: yes

[2008/05/03 8:20] Dewey Jung: On behalf of the ELVEN Institute and the Alliance Info Archipelago, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to our Educators Workshop on communication.

[2008/05/03 8:20] Dewey Jung: I’m Dewey Jung, the director of the ELVEN institute

[2008/05/03 8:20] Dewey Jung: in real life, I’m a professor at National-Louis university in Chicago

[2008/05/03 8:20] Dewey Jung: i teach technology in education and philosophy of education

[2008/05/03 8:20] Dewey Jung: The ELVEN Institute is the brain child of conversations between Puglet Dancer of the Alliance Library System and myself about involving pre-K through 12 teachers and librarians in Second Life.

[2008/05/03 8:21] Dewey Jung: ELVEN is an acronym that means “Educators and Librarians in Virtual ENvironments”.

[2008/05/03 8:21] Dewey Jung: We created the ELVEN Institute Advisory Board and began planning our mission, goals, and physical presence in Second Life.

[2008/05/03 8:21] Dewey Jung: Luckily for us, the Alliance Library System had space on Cybrary City II and we were given some space here.

[2008/05/03 8:22] Dewey Jung: With our board in place, the first order of business was to define our mission.

[2008/05/03 8:22] Dewey Jung: We defined this as "to assist preK-12 educators and librarians to envision, construct, and use engaging virtual learning environments in order to demonstrate and document their value in increasing student achievement and growth. "

[2008/05/03 8:22] Dewey Jung: To achieve this, we seek to collaborate with other institutions, to conduct professional development and research, and to collect and disseminate best practices and useful tools related to prek-12 learning environments.

[2008/05/03 8:22] Dewey Jung: We have been working together for about 25 months now and have had, we believe, an impact on the presence of educators and librarians.

[2008/05/03 8:23] Dewey Jung: Other pre K - 12 groups have been formed and we now have more people interested in and involved in pre K - 12 education in Second Life.

[2008/05/03 8:24] Dewey Jung: In the course of our discussions, we realized that many of us came into Second Life with no skills in using a 3D environment.

[2008/05/03 8:24] Dewey Jung: We had to learn from scratch how to move, to dress, to build, and, yes, to teach in a new environment.

[2008/05/03 8:25] Dewey Jung: Like our students, we jumped in without learning the basics.

[2008/05/03 8:25] Dewey Jung: The ELVEN Institute decided to try to remedy this and the workshop you are attending today is our attempt to help you learn the basics.

[2008/05/03 8:25] Dewey Jung: we are conducting at least one workshop each month, usually on the first Saturday. Next month’s workshop will be on June 7 and will cover appearance and shopping.

[2008/05/03 8:25] Dewey Jung: You can see a schedule for our workshops at http://elveninstitute.org/workshops.html

[2008/05/03 8:25] Dewey Jung: Also, be sure to join the ELVEN group before you leave here today, so you will get notices of upcoming events. I’ll tell you how to do that later, if you don’t know.

[2008/05/03 8:25] Dewey Jung: Any questions before we begin?

[2008/05/03 8:26] Rocky Vallejo is Online

[2008/05/03 8:26] Katrina Riederer: no questions

[2008/05/03 8:27] Dewey Jung: As we go, if you have any questions, you can either just ask it in open Chat –especially if your question is of general interest--or you can IM one of the ELVEN staff members. Would those people please stand?

[2008/05/03 8:28] Dewey Jung: To IM them, just right-click on their avatars, and choose “Send IM”.

[2008/05/03 8:28] Dewey Jung: Okay, let’s start.

[2008/05/03 8:28] Dewey Jung: Here are the topics we’ll be discussing today:

[2008/05/03 8:28] Dewey Jung: 1. Chat

[2008/05/03 8:28] Dewey Jung: 2. IM

[2008/05/03 8:28] Dewey Jung: 3. Friends conference (IM with a group)

[2008/05/03 8:29] Dewey Jung: 4. Group IMs

[2008/05/03 8:29] Dewey Jung: 5. offline IM to email

[2008/05/03 8:29] Dewey Jung: 6. logging IM and chat

[2008/05/03 8:29] Dewey Jung: 7. chat and IM options

[2008/05/03 8:29] Dewey Jung: 8. creating a notecard

[2008/05/03 8:29] Dewey Jung: 9. and we’ll conclude with a discussion about etiquette in SL communication.

[2008/05/03 8:30] Bronte Alcott: ok, Dewey

[2008/05/03 8:30] Dewey Jung: if you will direct your attention to the view screen behind me

[2008/05/03 8:30] Dewey Jung: To see the view screen more clearly, “Alt-click” on it and then zoom in using either your mouse wheel or Ctrl-8

[2008/05/03 8:30] Dewey Jung: (btw, this is a "freeview" screen

[2008/05/03 8:30] Dewey Jung: it will show any texture and videos as well

[2008/05/03 8:30] Dewey Jung: and is available for free

[2008/05/03 8:30] Dewey Jung: but that's not my topic, today)

[2008/05/03 8:31] Dewey Jung: this slide shows my user interface

[2008/05/03 8:32] You: can everyone see the screen and hear me?

[2008/05/03 8:32] Valaina Shepherd: yes

[2008/05/03 8:32] Mairenn Morgwain: yes

[2008/05/03 8:32] Babette Vuckovic: yes

[2008/05/03 8:32] Movies1963 Beck: yes

[2008/05/03 8:32] Amanda7 Himmel: yes

[2008/05/03 8:32] Katrina Riederer: yes

[2008/05/03 8:32] Dewey Jung: you all know about the chat bar, lower part of the screen

[2008/05/03 8:32] Dewey Jung: on the very lower left is a button that toggles that bar on and off

[2008/05/03 8:33] Dewey Jung: you all know how to chat, I’m sure; you type what you want to “say,” and hit enter

[2008/05/03 8:33] Dewey Jung: in addition to hitting "enter" to send a chat

[2008/05/03 8:33] Dewey Jung: you can also press the Say button

[2008/05/03 8:33] Dewey Jung: notice that the “say” button is inactive until you type something in the chat bar

[2008/05/03 8:34] Dewey Jung: If you click the little up arrow next to the say button, you can choose to “shout” something

[2008/05/03 8:34] Dewey Jung: shouts can be heard much further away than "say": about 100 meters

[2008/05/03 8:34] Valaina Shepherd shouts: Cool

[2008/05/03 8:34] Amanda7 Himmel shouts: Yeah!

[2008/05/03 8:34] Movies1963 Beck shouts: say something

[2008/05/03 8:34] Evus Alter shouts: shout

[2008/05/03 8:34] Babette Vuckovic shouts: Good morning!

[2008/05/03 8:34] Katrina Riederer shouts: Hurray!!!

[2008/05/03 8:35] Blu Heron shouts: Hello everyone

[2008/05/03 8:35] Bronte Alcott: hey

[2008/05/03 8:35] Zotarah Shepherd: The whole sim can hear you in shout.

[2008/05/03 8:35] Bergen Aeon: yes

[2008/05/03 8:35] Zotarah Shepherd: Ka's is on

[2008/05/03 8:36] sage Tauber: sorry

[2008/05/03 8:36] Zotarah Shepherd: You can mute the ones you do not want to hear

[2008/05/03 8:37] Zotarah Shepherd: hehe yes

[2008/05/03 8:37] Evus Alter: I don't know if I am or not

[2008/05/03 8:37] Dewey Jung: shouts are good for getting someone’s attention who is beyond 20 meters away

[2008/05/03 8:37] Dewey Jung: but illegal on some sims

[2008/05/03 8:38] Dewey Jung: residential sims, mostly

[2008/05/03 8:38] Dewey Jung: to the left of the chat bar, you'll see the "local chat" button

[2008/05/03 8:38] Dewey Jung: click that

[2008/05/03 8:38] Dewey Jung: and chats appear in that window instead of in a clear box on your screen

[2008/05/03 8:38] Dewey Jung: the “local chat” button is GREAT if you are in a situation where multiple people are talking at once

[2008/05/03 8:39] Dewey Jung: to keep better track of the conversation

[2008/05/03 8:39] Dewey Jung: or to go back to if you missed something

[2008/05/03 8:39] Dewey Jung: you can also type into the bar at the bottom of the local chat window

[2008/05/03 8:39] Dewey Jung: and again, choose to “say” or “shout” it

[2008/05/03 8:39] Dewey Jung: The local chat window also allows you to click directly on a URL like this one: http://elveninstitute.org

[2008/05/03 8:40] Dewey Jung: which will open the URL in a browser window right in the SL viewer

[2008/05/03 8:40] Dewey Jung: Notice you can also have URLs open directly in an external browser, either by clicking the button on the lower left of the browser window, or by clicking the checkbox to the right of that button so ALL URLs open in an external browser

[2008/05/03 8:40] Zotarah Shepherd: 2 text fields are good for preparing things to say in advance

[2008/05/03 8:41] Zotarah Shepherd: For Media URLs

[2008/05/03 8:42] Valaina Shepherd: how do you have 2 text fields?

[2008/05/03 8:42] Valaina Shepherd: ah

[2008/05/03 8:42] Dewey Jung: One more thing about the chat bar….you can scroll back through the things you have previously said and say something again.

[2008/05/03 8:43] You: sl is so flakey

[2008/05/03 8:43] You: sl is so flakey

[2008/05/03 8:43] You: sl is so flakey

[2008/05/03 8:44] You: sl is so flakey

[2008/05/03 8:44] You: sl is so flakey

[2008/05/03 8:44] You: sl is so flakey

[2008/05/03 8:44] You: sl is so flakey

[2008/05/03 8:44] Katrina Riederer: Hurray!!!

[2008/05/03 8:44] Babette Vuckovic: Good morning!

[2008/05/03 8:44] Amanda7 Himmel: Yeah!

[2008/05/03 8:44] Evus Alter shouts: i'll do it

[2008/05/03 8:44] Amanda7 Himmel: Yeah!

[2008/05/03 8:44] Bergen Aeon: also copy and paste into note cards

[2008/05/03 8:44] Katrina Riederer: Hurray!!!

[2008/05/03 8:44] Blu Heron: Hello everyone

[2008/05/03 8:44] Evus Alter shouts: you did a great job

[2008/05/03 8:44] Evus Alter shouts: you did a great job

[2008/05/03 8:44] Movies1963 Beck shouts: hi

[2008/05/03 8:45] Dewey Jung: click in the chat bar, then hold down the Control button and use the up and down arrows

[2008/05/03 8:45] Dewey Jung: If you get to the beginning or ending of your chat history, you’ll hear a “thump” sound, which says there are no more lines to scroll through.

[2008/05/03 8:45] Dewey Jung: below the chat bar is the "communicate" button

[2008/05/03 8:45] Dewey Jung: if you click that, the window i am showing on the viewer appears

[2008/05/03 8:45] Dewey Jung: you know to IM someone, you can right click (or Command-click on a Mac) on them

[2008/05/03 8:46] Dewey Jung: or choose them from your "friends" list and click the IM/call button

[2008/05/03 8:46] Dewey Jung: IMs are private conversations, unlike chat

[2008/05/03 8:47] Dewey Jung: the other great thing about IMs is you can IM with someone no matter where they are in SL….whereas chat only carries 20 meters (or 100 if you shout)

[2008/05/03 8:47] Dewey Jung: friends who are online appear in bold at the top of the list in alphabetical order by first name

[2008/05/03 8:47] Valaina Shepherd: How do you know if they are online

[2008/05/03 8:48] Katrina Riederer: yes...you are off line

[2008/05/03 8:49] Bronte Alcott: haha

[2008/05/03 8:49] Katrina Riederer: you did well Dewey!!!

[2008/05/03 8:49] Katrina Riederer: does mess with the head

[2008/05/03 8:49] Bergen Aeon: busted!

[2008/05/03 8:49] Katrina Riederer giggles

[2008/05/03 8:49] Dewey Jung: friends who are offline or who have chosen to appear offline are below the online friends

[2008/05/03 8:50] Dewey Jung: Once you are in an IM with someone, you can call them on Voice by clicking the call button.

[2008/05/03 8:50] Dewey Jung: They will get a blue message on the upper right of their screen asking them if they want to accept the call. To talk, they will have to have the “talk” button on the lower right of their screen locked or pressed to talk.

[2008/05/03 8:51] Dewey Jung: Note that when you “talk” in an IM, you no longer hear the local voice chat.

[2008/05/03 8:51] Dewey Jung: So, voice IM really is only good to use if you are not participating in a local voice chat.

[2008/05/03 8:52] Katrina Riederer: can you have a voice chat with someone in another sim?

[2008/05/03 8:52] Katrina Riederer: thank you

[2008/05/03 8:52] Dewey Jung: By the way, I’ve learned that you can often get Voice to work by starting a voice IM call with someone. For some reason, it seems to “kick in” the voice function when it doesn’t seem to be working.

[2008/05/03 8:53] Dewey Jung: Okay, I want everyone to pick someone on your friends list to start a voice IM with. It can be someone here, or some of your other friends who are online. Just try it out, and after a short while, close it so you can listen better to me.

[2008/05/03 8:54] You: come back to listening to me after you've tried out the IM

[2008/05/03 8:54] You: don't forget to lock yuor "talk" button while in the voice IM

[2008/05/03 8:54] You: and dont forget to unlock it (mute your mic) when you come back

[2008/05/03 8:54] You: i'll give everyone 2 minutes

[2008/05/03 8:55] Katrina Riederer: question -- locking the talk button means a little green microphone shows up????

[2008/05/03 8:56] Amanda7 Himmel: If I don't see the green waves going out over my head, does that assure me that my mic is off?

[2008/05/03 8:56] Amanda7 Himmel: Thanks.

[2008/05/03 8:57] Avigail Lindman: that works

[2008/05/03 8:57] Evus Alter: how do I know my mike is muted?

[2008/05/03 8:57] You: okay, end your IM call

[2008/05/03 8:57] Evus Alter: yes

[2008/05/03 8:57] Mairenn Morgwain: I'm sorry I have to leave now. Thanks again

[2008/05/03 8:57] Mairenn Morgwain: thank you

[2008/05/03 8:58] Evus Alter: so if it is white is unlocked

[2008/05/03 8:58] Bergen Aeon chuckles......

[2008/05/03 8:58] Evus Alter: and we wantitunlocked?

[2008/05/03 9:00] You: everyone ready to move on?

[2008/05/03 9:00] Katrina Riederer: yup

[2008/05/03 9:00] Bronte Alcott: yes

[2008/05/03 9:00] Zotarah Shepherd: yes

[2008/05/03 9:00] Amanda7 Himmel: yes

[2008/05/03 9:00] Evus Alter: yes

[2008/05/03 9:00] Babette Vuckovic: yes

[2008/05/03 9:00] Dewey Jung: there is this thing called "friends conference" or multiple IM

[2008/05/03 9:01] Dewey Jung: it's very cool

[2008/05/03 9:01] Dewey Jung: you can IM with more than one person at a time

[2008/05/03 9:01] Dewey Jung: to have a private conversation among a group of your friends

[2008/05/03 9:02] Dewey Jung: to do that....

[2008/05/03 9:02] Dewey Jung: you open your communicate window

[2008/05/03 9:02] Dewey Jung: friends list

[2008/05/03 9:02] Dewey Jung: and then hold down the ctrl button as you select multiple people

[2008/05/03 9:02] Dewey Jung: when you have the group you want, you click the IM/Call button

[2008/05/03 9:02] Dewey Jung: a weird sound occurs, and then a "friends conference" opens up like what you see on the screen

[2008/05/03 9:03] sage Tauber: what if it's grayed out?

[2008/05/03 9:03] Evus Alter: not happening

[2008/05/03 9:03] You: hmmm, what's graayed out?

[2008/05/03 9:03] Valaina Shepherd: grayed out here too

[2008/05/03 9:04] Valaina Shepherd: oh, I did people off line

[2008/05/03 9:04] sage Tauber: so it's grayed if friends are offline?

[2008/05/03 9:04] Evus Alter: okay

[2008/05/03 9:04] Bergen Aeon: do they have to make the same selections?

[2008/05/03 9:05] Bergen Aeon: and they are all aware of that?

[2008/05/03 9:05] Zotarah Shepherd: If you exit a Friends conference you can't get back in and you can't be added once it is started.

[2008/05/03 9:06] Bronte Alcott: haha

[2008/05/03 9:06] Zotarah Shepherd: Oh wow yes!

[2008/05/03 9:06] Amanda7 Himmel: Will we be able to see everyone in the conference if it was initiated by someone else?

[2008/05/03 9:06] Dewey Jung: Note that if you start a friends conference with a group, and someone hits the “x” in the upper right of their friends conference window, then they leave the conference and can’t return to it

[2008/05/03 9:06] Avigail Lindman: haha

[2008/05/03 9:08] Bronte Alcott: that's amazing

[2008/05/03 9:08] Dewey Jung: If you lose someone from a friends conference, you have two choices:

[2008/05/03 9:09] Avigail Lindman is taking notes!

[2008/05/03 9:09] Dewey Jung: First, you can restart the conference, which is easy to do…you just close it with the “X” and then, since everyone is still highlighted in your friends list, you just click IM/Call again

[2008/05/03 9:10] Dewey Jung: Or, alternatively, you can re-add someone to a friends conference by dragging their “calling card” onto the “names” panel of the conference.

[2008/05/03 9:11] Dewey Jung: When you are in a conference, you can see who is in the conference by clicking the little blue double arrow button on the top right of the conference panel. This opens the “names” panel.

[2008/05/03 9:11] Dewey Jung: Everyone time you “friend” someone, you get a calling card.

[2008/05/03 9:12] You: hello desdemona!

[2008/05/03 9:12] Desdemona Enfield: Hi Dewey

[2008/05/03 9:12] You: we're using voice, btw, if yuo wish to follow along, but i'm also doing text of teh major ideas

[2008/05/03 9:13] Dewey Jung: You can find your calling cards in your inventory, by looking for the folder named “Calling Cards”

[2008/05/03 9:13] Dewey Jung: You will notice that the cards are (usually) in reverse order by date you friended someone, with the most recent at the top.

[2008/05/03 9:13] Dewey Jung: The calling cards of friends who are currently online are BOLD with the word (online) next to them.

[2008/05/03 9:14] Dewey Jung: To add someone to a friends conference, click and drag their calling card to the names panel.

[2008/05/03 9:14] Dewey Jung:

[2008/05/03 9:14] Dewey Jung: On e confusing thing is, you can end up with multiple “friends conference” tabs open…..

[2008/05/03 9:15] Dewey Jung: if you initiated the friends conference, the most recent one is on the LEFT

[2008/05/03 9:15] Zotarah Shepherd: One of the most embarrassing things is to type in the wrong window.

[2008/05/03 9:18] Dewey Jung: but if someone else initiated the friends conference, the most recent is on the RIGHT

[2008/05/03 9:18] Desdemona Enfield: yes

[2008/05/03 9:18] Dewey Jung: this can get confusing.

[2008/05/03 9:18] Dewey Jung: To remove the highlighting on multiple people so you can IM with just one, just click someone not in your friends conference

[2008/05/03 9:18] Katrina Riederer: very confusing!!!

[2008/05/03 9:19] Dewey Jung: or, hold down the Control button and click a highlighted person to remove them

[2008/05/03 9:20] Dewey Jung: Note that you can also have a friends conference via voice. To do that, you simply start a regular friends conference, and after hitting the IM/Call button, you click the “Call” button on the conference panel. The selected people will get a blue mess

[2008/05/03 9:20] Dewey Jung: To participate, they must have voice enabled, and their “talk button” (lower right of screen) must be either locked on, or pressed to talk.

[2008/05/03 9:20] Dewey Jung:

[2008/05/03 9:20] Dewey Jung: while we’re here, let's talk a bit about groups

[2008/05/03 9:20] Dewey Jung: your current groups are listed on the groups tab

[2008/05/03 9:20] Dewey Jung: the one in “bold” is the one that is displayed above your head (as in ELVEN Institute, which is my current label)

[2008/05/03 9:22] Dewey Jung: you can change the active group by clicking a group and then clicking the “Activate” button

[2008/05/03 9:22] Dewey Jung: or you can click “none” and activate that, to remove your label

[2008/05/03 9:22] Dewey Jung: how do you join a group?

[2008/05/03 9:22] Dewey Jung: well, you can search in “groups” by clicking the “search” button

[2008/05/03 9:24] Dewey Jung: when you find a group you want to join, you can click the “Join” button

[2008/05/03 9:25] Dewey Jung: Or, if you right-click on someone and choose "profile"

[2008/05/03 9:25] Dewey Jung: you'll get their profile, like this

[2008/05/03 9:25] Dewey Jung: it shows their groups

[2008/05/03 9:26] Dewey Jung: (or at least their public groups)

[2008/05/03 9:26] Bergen Aeon: thank you for all the useful info - I'm afraid I must go

[2008/05/03 9:26] Dewey Jung: to join a group that someone you know is in

[2008/05/03 9:26] Dewey Jung: double-click on the group name in their profile

[2008/05/03 9:26] Dewey Jung: once in a group window, i can JOIN that group, by clicking on the "join" button

[2008/05/03 9:26] Dewey Jung: not all groups allow anyone to join

[2008/05/03 9:26] Dewey Jung: if there is no "join" button, the group is invitation only

[2008/05/03 9:26] Dewey Jung: when you join a group

[2008/05/03 9:26] Dewey Jung: it becomes "activated" automatically

[2008/05/03 9:27] Dewey Jung: that means the label appears above your head

[2008/05/03 9:27] Dewey Jung: you can remove the label by activating "none"

[2008/05/03 9:27] Dewey Jung: there is an unfortunate limit of 25 groups per person

[2008/05/03 9:27] Dewey Jung: I’m at that limit now, so to join a new group I would have to leave one I’m in

[2008/05/03 9:27] Dewey Jung: okay, next topic: making a notecard

[2008/05/03 9:27] Babette Vuckovic: Any movement to increase the number of groups we can join?

[2008/05/03 9:28] Zotarah Shepherd: There was a petition to Lindens to increase the number of groups to 50

[2008/05/03 9:28] Bronte Alcott: yes

[2008/05/03 9:28] Zotarah Shepherd: That was a few months ago

[2008/05/03 9:28] Zotarah Shepherd: Some groups do not have a Join button.

[2008/05/03 9:29] Zotarah Shepherd: Some groups have a fee to join too

[2008/05/03 9:29] Dewey Jung: in your inventory (lower right of screen)

[2008/05/03 9:30] Bronte Alcott: some of the clothing designers are having join fees

[2008/05/03 9:30] Bronte Alcott: to keep from getting spam messages

[2008/05/03 9:30] Zotarah Shepherd: Some told me that a fee insures the person is really interested and not just a spammer

[2008/05/03 9:30] Bronte Alcott: yes

[2008/05/03 9:30] Bronte Alcott: discourage them

[2008/05/03 9:30] Bronte Alcott: haha

[2008/05/03 9:31] Dewey Jung: is a "create" menu

[2008/05/03 9:31] Dewey Jung: on that menu is "new note"

[2008/05/03 9:31] Dewey Jung: click that

[2008/05/03 9:31] Dewey Jung: (do it now)

[2008/05/03 9:31] Dewey Jung: a blank note window appears

[2008/05/03 9:31] Dewey Jung: you should immediately give it a name other than “new note”

[2008/05/03 9:32] Dewey Jung: by typing the new name.

[2008/05/03 9:32] Secret-Agent HUD 7.5a (WEAR ME): (localSIM) Blu Heron @ 39m

[2008/05/03 9:32] Dewey Jung: then, you can type into the new note.

[2008/05/03 9:32] Secret-Agent HUD 7.5a (WEAR ME): (localSIM) Movies1963 Beck @ 08m

[2008/05/03 9:32] Avigail Lindman: wb, Blu

[2008/05/03 9:33] Dewey Jung: you can put landmarks, other notecards, and snapshots into notecards

[2008/05/03 9:33] Zotarah Shepherd: Good for making reports of griefers.

[2008/05/03 9:34] Valaina Shepherd: can you put in folders

[2008/05/03 9:34] Dewey Jung: this is a very cool way to share information

[2008/05/03 9:34] Dewey Jung: when you click "save" the notecard appears in your inventory as "new note"

[2008/05/03 9:34] Dewey Jung: by right-clicking the "new note" and choosing "rename"

[2008/05/03 9:34] Dewey Jung: btw, inventory items usually or sorted by date created

[2008/05/03 9:34] Dewey Jung: so the most recent is at the top

[2008/05/03 9:35] Zotarah Shepherd has folders and sub and sub sub folders for notecards *grins*

[2008/05/03 9:35] You: zo is a "sub folder" queen

[2008/05/03 9:35] Zotarah Shepherd: hehehehe

[2008/05/03 9:36] Dewey Jung: you can also sort your inventory by "name" in the sort menu

[2008/05/03 9:36] Dewey Jung: if you need to find something by name

[2008/05/03 9:36] Dewey Jung: or, of course, search it

[2008/05/03 9:36] Dewey Jung: and also apply filters, in the "recent" tab, which i won't cover here

[2008/05/03 9:37] Dewey Jung: you can also create folders and sub-folders to organize them

[2008/05/03 9:37] Dewey Jung: by right-clicking an existing folder, and choosing “New Folder”

[2008/05/03 9:37] Dewey Jung:

[2008/05/03 9:37] Dewey Jung: okay, next topic: communication settings

[2008/05/03 9:37] Dewey Jung: click the edit menu

[2008/05/03 9:38] Dewey Jung: and then the tab that says "communication"

[2008/05/03 9:38] Dewey Jung: this tab is chock full of stuff

[2008/05/03 9:38] Dewey Jung: important stuff

[2008/05/03 9:38] Dewey Jung: first, you can have all your offline IMs go to email

[2008/05/03 9:38] Evus Alter: I don't have it

[2008/05/03 9:38] Babette Vuckovic: Edit, then preferences, then communication?

[2008/05/03 9:38] Evus Alter: no communication tab

[2008/05/03 9:39] Valaina Shepherd: go to properties and then communication

[2008/05/03 9:39] Blu Heron: open preferences from the edit

[2008/05/03 9:39] Valaina Shepherd: whoops preferences

[2008/05/03 9:39] Evus Alter: sorry I did not have preferences open

[2008/05/03 9:39] Zotarah Shepherd: Or Ctrl P

[2008/05/03 9:40] Dewey Jung: which is great to know that someone has contacted you while you were offline

[2008/05/03 9:40] Dewey Jung: (you can change this setting from the secondlife.com account page as well)

[2008/05/03 9:40] Dewey Jung: if you click "include IM in chat history", IM's will show in the history, as they do in the clear box at the bottom of the screen

[2008/05/03 9:40] Dewey Jung: i don't like to have my IMs in the chat history

[2008/05/03 9:40] Dewey Jung: because I often save the chat history for transcripts, and i don’t' want my IMs in those :-)

[2008/05/03 9:41] Dewey Jung: you can choose timestamps in IMs

[2008/05/03 9:41] Zotarah Shepherd: And too many IMs are confusing too

[2008/05/03 9:42] Dewey Jung: you can change your busy mode response

[2008/05/03 9:42] Dewey Jung: now, the logging options

[2008/05/03 9:43] Dewey Jung: CRITICALLY USEFUL

[2008/05/03 9:43] Dewey Jung: you can log everything that happens in sl

[2008/05/03 9:43] Dewey Jung: well, the text anyway

[2008/05/03 9:43] Desdemona Enfield: Each day, I create a subfolder with yesterday's date,then copy all the log files into that subfolder.

[2008/05/03 9:44] Desdemona Enfield: agreed.

[2008/05/03 9:44] Dewey Jung: (no voice logs, yet)

[2008/05/03 9:44] Babette Vuckovic: Where do these logs go and how can I access them?

[2008/05/03 9:45] Dewey Jung: notice i log IMs AND chat

[2008/05/03 9:45] Dewey Jung: with timestamps

[2008/05/03 9:45] Dewey Jung: and dates

[2008/05/03 9:45] Dewey Jung: the KEY thing here is

[2008/05/03 9:45] Dewey Jung: (well two things)

[2008/05/03 9:45] Dewey Jung: first, the logging does not start until the next time you "log" into sl

[2008/05/03 9:45] Dewey Jung: so to start the logging, you click these boxes, and THEN log out, then log back in

[2008/05/03 9:45] Desdemona Enfield: The preferences panel title communication there is a path where the logs go.

[2008/05/03 9:46] Dewey Jung: the second key thing is the "path"

[2008/05/03 9:46] Dewey Jung: you need to be able to find your logs

[2008/05/03 9:46] Dewey Jung: on a PC, they end up in an obscure folder that is usually "hidden" by default

[2008/05/03 9:46] Dewey Jung: that is, not shown in "My Computer"

[2008/05/03 9:46] Bronte Alcott: Mac too

[2008/05/03 9:46] Dewey Jung: C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Application Data\SecondLife

[2008/05/03 9:46] Dewey Jung: i keep mine there, cause i'm used to it

[2008/05/03 9:47] Valaina Shepherd: Do you have all the boxes checked under Logging Options?

[2008/05/03 9:48] Dewey Jung: but you might want to change this to a path under "My Documents"

[2008/05/03 9:48] Dewey Jung: the logs are continuous from the time you start logging

[2008/05/03 9:48] Dewey Jung: every session is appended to the end

[2008/05/03 9:49] Dewey Jung: one log is called "chat.txt"

[2008/05/03 9:49] Dewey Jung: and the others are named after the specific person

[2008/05/03 9:49] Dewey Jung: (that is for IMs)

[2008/05/03 9:49] Dewey Jung: some of my IM logs are HUGE

[2008/05/03 9:49] Dewey Jung: my chat log got too big

[2008/05/03 9:49] Dewey Jung: so i copied it to a backup

[2008/05/03 9:49] Dewey Jung: and then made a new, empty file called chat.txt

[2008/05/03 9:49] Dewey Jung: all the stuff appears in the IM, and with time/date stamps, you can tell when

[2008/05/03 9:49] Dewey Jung: btw, you can tell when you FIRST Im’d someone

[2008/05/03 9:49] Dewey Jung: by looking at the "date created" on these files

[2008/05/03 9:50] Dewey Jung: while, we’re here, let’s talk a bit about text chat settings

[2008/05/03 9:50] Dewey Jung: you can change the colors of the text chat in the local chat window, or in the clear box that appears when the window is not open

[2008/05/03 9:51] Dewey Jung: that clear window is called the “chat console”

[2008/05/03 9:51] Dewey Jung: and you can control how long the chat stays in that clear window

[2008/05/03 9:53] You: you will notice that what i say is in a chat bubble

[2008/05/03 9:53] Zotarah Shepherd: I don't know anyone who uses bubble chat. Sooo cartoony

[2008/05/03 9:53] You: yes, it's cartoony

[2008/05/03 9:53] You: also, you have to be looking at someone to see the caht

[2008/05/03 9:53] Bronte Alcott: not liking this at all

[2008/05/03 9:53] You: anyway, check it out

[2008/05/03 9:53] You: just for a secton

[2008/05/03 9:53] You: second

[2008/05/03 9:53] You: then turn it off

[2008/05/03 9:53] Valaina Shepherd: ok, definitely uncheck

[2008/05/03 9:54] Babette Vuckovic: This is very odd

[2008/05/03 9:54] You: yes, definitely uncheck :-)

[2008/05/03 9:54] Zotarah Shepherd grins

[2008/05/03 9:54] Dewey Jung: Okay, last item, SL communication etiquette:

[2008/05/03 9:55] Zotarah Shepherd: Some groups are chatty and some are only for announcements.

[2008/05/03 9:57] Zotarah Shepherd snickers: I just close chatty groups if they get excessive.

[2008/05/03 9:57] Bevan Whitfield is Online

[2008/05/03 9:57] Zotarah Shepherd: Oh How to get rid of the : Type /me

[2008/05/03 9:58] You: not sure i understand the question, zo

[2008/05/03 9:58] Zotarah Shepherd: Oh if you want to say that you do something without a : you type /me

[2008/05/03 9:59] Zotarah Shepherd grins

[2008/05/03 9:59] Valaina Shepherd understands

[2008/05/03 9:59] Bronte Alcott smiles

[2008/05/03 9:59] Dewey Jung wonders why zo said that at this moment

[2008/05/03 9:59] Bronte Alcott giggles

[2008/05/03 9:59] Babette Vuckovic: Ettiquette?

[2008/05/03 9:59] Zotarah Shepherd: It is a part oc comminication

[2008/05/03 10:00] Bronte Alcott: was there more on etiquette?

[2008/05/03 10:00] Katrina Riederer: Has anyone figured out how to 'mute' a group without losing that group membership?

[2008/05/03 10:00] Bronte Alcott: did i miss anyone?

[2008/05/03 10:00] Ka Castaignede: At the beginning of your speech you mentioned ELVEN was for K-12. Are there organizations focusing on higher education?

[2008/05/03 10:00] Valaina Shepherd: that was helpful. Thanks Bronte

[2008/05/03 10:00] Evus Alter: got it

[2008/05/03 10:00] Avigail Lindman: me!

[2008/05/03 10:00] Zotarah Shepherd: There are also many ways to express in text. Graphics even.

[2008/05/03 10:01] Zotarah Shepherd: ,,,=^_^=,,,

[2008/05/03 10:01] Babette Vuckovic: I see in the local chat when it says SOMEONEW giggles

[2008/05/03 10:01] Babette Vuckovic: How do we do that?

[2008/05/03 10:01] Babette Vuckovic: Just type giggles?

[2008/05/03 10:01] Babette Vuckovic: OK

[2008/05/03 10:01] Valaina Shepherd clapping

[2008/05/03 10:02] Avigail Lindman: that's where you type the /me

[2008/05/03 10:02] Bronte Alcott: type /me giggles

[2008/05/03 10:02] Dewey Jung giggles

[2008/05/03 10:02] Katrina Riederer giggles

[2008/05/03 10:02] Bronte Alcott giggle

[2008/05/03 10:02] Babette Vuckovic: Thanks

[2008/05/03 10:02] Evus Alter: Thank you. Excellent information. I'm already taking advantadge of some of it

[2008/05/03 10:02] Valaina Shepherd: thank you very much

[2008/05/03 10:02] Zotarah Shepherd: You can also set up things to say in shortcut keys

[2008/05/03 10:02] Zotarah Shepherd: ♥(`'•.¸(`'•.¸ * ¸.•'´)¸.•'´)♥

[2008/05/03 10:02] Zotarah Shepherd: You're the best!

[2008/05/03 10:02] Zotarah Shepherd: ♥(¸.•'´(¸.•'´ * `'•.¸)`'•.¸)♥

[2008/05/03 10:02] Desdemona Enfield: thank you, Dewey

[2008/05/03 10:02] Bronte Alcott: yes . . . even those of us who have been around a while . . .

[2008/05/03 10:03] Amanda7 Himmel: I learned a lot. Thank you.

[2008/05/03 10:03] Bronte Alcott: thank you, Dewey

[2008/05/03 10:03] Katrina Riederer: bright eyed!!!!

[2008/05/03 10:03] Bronte Alcott: WONDERFUL!!!

[2008/05/03 10:03] You: thank yuo all

[2008/05/03 10:03] Bronte Alcott: Fabulous!

[2008/05/03 10:03] Blu Heron: thanks, Dewey!

[2008/05/03 10:03] You: for listening

[2008/05/03 10:03] Babette Vuckovic: BRAVO!

[2008/05/03 10:03] Avigail Lindman: Thanks Dewey!

[2008/05/03 10:03] Desdemona Enfield applauds

[2008/05/03 10:03] Katrina Riederer: thank you Dewey

[2008/05/03 10:03] Zotarah Shepherd: Sounds and gestures are fun

[2008/05/03 10:04] Babette Vuckovic: Where do we get more gestures than we already have?

[2008/05/03 10:04] Babette Vuckovic: Or how do we create them?

[2008/05/03 10:04] Zotarah Shepherd: From people too

[2008/05/03 10:04] Zotarah Shepherd: Sére ar alasse (Peace and joy)

[2008/05/03 10:04] Babette Vuckovic: TY

[2008/05/03 10:04] Zotarah Shepherd: ar saila, mâlon! (and wisdom, friend!)

[2008/05/03 10:05] Zotarah Shepherd: ♥(`'•.¸(`'•.¸ * ¸.•'´)¸.•'´)♥

[2008/05/03 10:05] Zotarah Shepherd: ♥ ( <>•<> Happy Rezday! <>•<> )♥

[2008/05/03 10:05] Zotarah Shepherd: ♥(¸.•'´(¸.•'´ * `'•.¸)`'•.¸)♥

[2008/05/03 10:05] Zotarah Shepherd: I steal the hearts and rearrange them

[2008/05/03 10:05] Zotarah Shepherd: hehe

[2008/05/03 10:05] Bevan Whitfield is Offline

[2008/05/03 10:05] Blu Heron: In Library folder..there are sub folders with additional gestures

[2008/05/03 10:05] Zotarah Shepherd: You can deactivate them too.

[2008/05/03 10:06] Dewey Jung: What is appropriate and not appropropriate in SL......

[2008/05/03 10:06] Zotarah Shepherd: Thank you Dewey

[2008/05/03 10:06] Desdemona Enfield: Thank you, Dewet.

[2008/05/03 10:06] Bronte Alcott: ty, Dewey

[2008/05/03 10:06] Desdemona Enfield: poof

[2008/05/03 10:06] Bronte Alcott: have a nice day

Democracy is a learning theory.

If you ask most Americans about the meaning of democracy, you will likely hear the response: “Democracy is when everyone gets a vote.” You might also hear about representative government, “one man, one vote,” or something about elections of executive, legislative, or judicial authorities. The American public thinks that democracy is the political system that the American revolutionaries fought England for—replacing its monarchy with our constitutional “democracy,” and why the United States has been the “leader of the free” world since at least the beginning of the twentieth century. A more sophisticated American will tell you, following Abraham Lincoln, that democracy is government “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” suggesting that there is more to democracy than a particular mode of conducting elections.

Etymologically, “democracy” in ancient Greek meant rule by the “demos,” or "people," implying the possibility of participation in “rule” by “regular people,” rather than by the elite, as in an aristocracy or oligarchy. It strongly implies that no particular social class (at least not free white men above a particular age who own property) has any greater right to participation than any other. If we acknowledge that “participation” means more than just voting for elected officials—activities such as actual service in community organizations and political campaigns, on school boards, and in public discussions through newspapers, talk radio, blogs, and other media—you begin to get a sense that democracy doesn’t refer simply to a form of government or a political system but to a type of society.

A democratic society is a society in which each person has an equal opportunity to reach his or her potential. The great American philosopher John Dewey (1859-1952) explored this deeper meaning in much of his work, most notably Democracy and Education (1916). According to Dewey, democracy is “more than a form of government; it is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience” (Democracy and Education, 1916; MW 9:93). For Dewey, who believed that experience is, in a sense, everything, to communicate experience “conjointly,” or through mutual and dynamic participation by all, was to share in experience and thereby to share in growth, or an individual and society progression towards personal and social fulfillment, or the good life.

Democracy, then, is shared progression by all people—all people, not just free white men over a certain age with property—towards the good life, both as individuals and as a society. This progression happens because of conjoint communicated experience. To put it differently, society progresses through communication, which is—in essence—educative:

Not only is social life identical with communication, but all communication (and hence all genuine social life) is educative. To be a recipient of a communication is to have an enlarged and changed experience....The experience has to be formulated in order to be communicated. To formulate requires getting outside of it, seeing it as another would see it, considering what points of contact it has with the life of another so that it may be got into such form that he can appreciate its meaning. Except in dealing with commonplaces and catch phrases one has to assimilate, imaginatively, something of another's experience in order to tell him intelligently of one's own experience. All communication is like art. It may be fairly said, therefore, that any social arrangement that remains vitally social, or vitally shared, is educative to those who participate in it. Only when it becomes cast in a mold and runs in a routine way does it lose its educative power. (Democracy and Education, 1916; MW 9:8-9)

The implication of this line of thinking is that democracy is not only a form of government, or a mode of social living, but essentially a broad conception of education as the movement of individuals and societies forward, towards….well, towards something better. Dewey believes that the ultimate ends of such movement cannot be determined in advance—that goods, like other objects of experience, are continually reconstructed in the light of ever-changing experience. Since each new experience carries with it the possibility of new insights, knowledge, skills, or attitudes, each new experience contains within it the possibility of new conceptions of goods, new capacities for attainment, and new conceptions of how best to support such attainment by a greater number of persons within the society. Thus, experience for Dewey is inherently progressive…and an education that conduces to progressive experience is inherently democratic.

(By the way, this suggests a new way of looking at the particular role of democracy in the United States. Dewey writes: “An American democracy can serve the world only as it demonstrates in the conduct of its own life the efficacy of plural, partial, and experimental methods in securing and maintaining an ever-increasing release of the powers of human nature, in service of a freedom which is cooperative and a cooperation which is voluntary” Freedom and Culture, 1939; LW 13: 187.)

Further inquiry into the forms of education that are most conducive to “an ever-increasing release of the powers of human nature in service of … freedom” reveals that education can no longer be a simple matter of transmitting the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of the older generation to the younger. Democratic education cannot be static—it cannot serve to limit the young or bind them unnecessarily to traditional ways of seeing and doing. Of course, it also cannot be completely disconnected from tradition…for tradition represents, in some form, the accumulated experience and wisdom of the society. So democratic education must both open access to stored knowledge and wisdom and—at the same time—develop the capacity among the young for critique of that tradition through inquiry, experimentation, and imagination of new ideals and the means for securing them.

It turns out that democratic education is considerably more difficult than a form of education that seeks primarily to induct the young into the ways of the old. Dewey spent considerable efforts during his career to try to outline the principles and methods of democratic education, and remained frustrated that many readers of his works seemed unable to escape the tired dualism of an education that is primarily grounded in tradition and one which is primarily aiming to free the myriad possibilities of each child. The best education, Dewey argued, would take account of both the curriculum—taken from the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of intellectual and social tradition—and the child, with his or her creativity, fresh perspective, and lively imagination.

It is important to understand how Dewey’s concept of democracy connects with this nuanced and hard-to-achieve conception of education. Education cannot be considered apart from the conditions of associated living in the society, and such conditions cannot be considered separate from education. Life rooted in “conjoint communicated experience” is inherently educative; young people in a democracy inevitably grow to become participants in shared activities and shared governance; and schools—as institutions explicitly designed to further education—must necessarily be continuously redesigned to serve—and reflect—democracy.

This isn’t the time or place to inquire further into what schools that serve and reflect democracy look like—nor shall I get drawn too far into the criticisms this particular perspective offers educational policies such as No Child Left Behind (for such analysis, see the Education Policy Blog which I participate in separately from Technopaideia). Rather, this summary of the relationship between democracy and education is designed to provide some background for understanding a sentence I heard at the recent American Educational Research Association annual meeting in New York City (March 24-28). The occasion was a symposium sponsored by the John Dewey Society (JDS) called “Cloistered Scholars and Community-School Engagement.” JDS president Jim Garrison put the panel together to further his notion—shared by others including the JDS Commission on Social Issues, on which I serve—that if scholars paying attention to Dewey’s works wish to do more than talk amongst themselves about arcane issues in the history of philosophy, but wish to further Dewey’s democratic vision in the real world, then they need to find ways to engage publicly in their local schools and communities.

Speaking on the panel were several scholars with impressive credentials not only in scholarship but in public service. Each put their comments in the context of ways in which university scholars can engage in activities which support democratic schools and societies. Mary John O’Hair, associate provost at the University of Oklahoma, described the K-20 project, which aims to link the university closely with schools throughout the state to foster higher quality curriculum and instruction. Derrick P. Alridge, history professor at the University of Georgia, talked about some little-known activities of African-American philosopher and activist W.E.B. Dubois involving the formation of a “People’s College” at Clark University in Atlanta in the 1940s. Carl D. Glickman, professor of educational leadership at the University of Georgia, talked about his career working in various projects related to school improvement, emphasizing the role that generalists can play in bringing together experts from diverse disciplines to work on complex problems often not effectively addressed through the kinds of universal policy prescriptions that emerge from state and federal legislatures or departments of education. Glickman was the one who said, almost in passing, that “Democracy is a learning theory,” which has become the title of this post and on which I will have more to say in a moment.

Perhaps the most interesting speaker on the panel, for me, was Ira Harkavy, who is co-author of a book (wth John L. Puckett and Lee Benson) entitled Dewey's Dream: Universities and Democracies in an Age of Education Reform. According to that book, Dewey’s dream of participatory democracy cannot be realized without the full and conscious participation of schools from preschool to university level, with a special need for universities—which both train the teachers at other levels and set the expectations and content for the curriculum at all levels—to take the lead. This vision, of energizing and transforming schools through the active participation of universities, was one that Dewey took from the first president of the University of Chicago, William Rainey Harper, after Dewey arrived in Chicago in 1894. Dewey took Harper’s idea and gave it a philosophical depth, and also connected it to Jane Addams' idea of schools as community centers. However, when Dewey left Chicago in 1905 and joined the faculty of Columbia University, he abandoned this vision, and turned away from using schools to foster democracy. Harkavy believes that this was a major mistake, and not only contributed to Dewey’s slide into irrelevance in terms of American educational practice, but also to the deterioration of American democracy as well.

Harkavy issued a call to arms for all American scholars to focus at least some of their efforts on promoting democracy in American society. His call is a compelling one. According to Harkavy, the problem of fostering participatory democracy in the United States and in the world at large is the “most singularly urgent” problem of our times, and is related to war and peace, terrorism, violence, and poverty, among other issues. It is also one of the most difficult to solve. Since it is so difficult to solve, working towards a solution will inevitably require new ways of thinking and working that will require new approaches to academic disciplines such as political science, sociology, psychology, public health, and education. And, as most academics know, the most difficult problems to solve are also likely to be the most rewarding to solve: not only in terms of solving a big problem but in terms of the collateral learning that results.

Indeed, according to Harakvy and Dewey, working to solve real and urgent problems is also the best way to learn about the world at large. This is one of the major ideas behind the expansion of the service learning approach to education, and is also at the root of problem-based and inquiry-based learning.

Harkavy described some of the efforts of the University of Pennsylvania to foster participatory democracy by helping the local community schools build curriculum focused on local community problems. By focusing on local problems instead of a seemingly irrelevant or generic curriculum, schools encourage students to become knowledge creators and problem solvers rather than passive recipients of knowledge and, what’s more, they become truly schools of the community, providing both the means and the motivation for parents and other members of the local community to become involved in the schools. Universities, Harkavy said, are the one institution most positioned to support these efforts in schools, since universities tend to endure through changing political times and despite funding variations, and universities have the expertise to help solve problems of all sorts. And, since universities have students—and students learn best by working to solve problems—universities have a natural workforce for helping local schools.

The biggest challenge both for schools and for universities is finding ways to connect the core academic mission of these institutions to the local problems. More effort needs to be devoted to this task. It doesn’t do merely to have students at all levels talk about local problems. Academic expertise, disciplinary skills, and scholarly dispositions must be fostered and leveraged through the changed curriculum. But through engagement in the processes of participatory democracy, students become immersed in participatory learning. In this way, democracy itself becomes an approach to learning.

Carl Glickman had one very specific suggestion for how university instructors can become more democratic in the way they teach, and foster more and better democratic participation. After three classes in each course he teaches, he takes time out to ask the students to discuss among themselves how the course is helping them, and what he, as the instructor, can do to make the course more relevant to their needs and concerns. Most students are surprised that an instructor is taking time to listen to what they feel they need, but it definitely helps his courses improve. The idea, according to Glickman, is to become better at listening to those whose lives are different from our own. By doing so, we move beyond seeing people in terms of single categories and come to see that each person’s perspective is unique, and complex, and that there are many different ways to come to terms with one’s own experience….but that coming to understand the experiences of others helps broaden our own understanding and helps us to learn from each other. Through paying closer attention to fostering better communication with the people around us, we can better participate in their lives, and in the solutions of their problems, thus strengthening local democratic practice at the same time. The main idea is that learning is a matter of making connections between various ideas, and that such connections are more likely with heightened communication among different perspectives, and that as such learning occurs, democracy is strengthened at the same time.

In this way, Glickman tells us, democracy is a learning theory. Learning theories are “attempts to describe how people learn, thereby helping us understand the inherently complex process of learning.” According to this theory, learning is inherently social, participatory, based on the communication of different perspectives, and active. Understood in this way, learning and democracy are simply two sides of the same coin, both leading towards, as I wrote above, the good life.

To the extent that universities can overcome their traditional isolation from daily life…and their traditional “ivory tower” mentality towards their local communities and the concerns of local people…they may find their own missions as centers of learning to be re-energized, and, at the same time, do some good for their own students, faculty, and staff, and for the world at large.

A monument to a drug

When I was in Cambridge MA earlier this month for the Philosophy of Education Society annual meeting, I took an afternoon and went on a field trip to the Back Bay area of Boston. This is one of my favorite areas of Boston, and it brings back some memories for me from my days living in Boston as a (very) young law student and then law school dropout. There are a lot of cool things in Back Bay, including the Boston Public Library, Copley Square, lots of fancy shops and galleries, the Prudential Building, and the Hancock Building(s). Also in Back Bay, or rather between Back Bay and Beacon Hill, is the Boston Public Garden, the oldest Public Garden in the United States (dating from 1837).

The Boston Public Garden is very cool, especially in the summer when the flowers are in bloom and the swan boats are out in the lagoon. But even in early April, especially on the warmish day I was there, it is very lively, with people walking dogs, sitting on benches, playing with children, or just walking through.

There are a lot of special monuments and other features in the Garden, as one would expect in such an old, public place. Off in the Southwest corner of the Garden is an extremely odd item, one that has consistently amused me in the 25 years I've been returning to Boston. It is, to my knowledge, the only monument to a drug found in a public space in the United States.

The monument is quite elaborate, and from a distance there is no way you would know what it's a monument to.



On closer inspection, however, and reading the inscription, one sees that the monument, dedicated in 1869, is "To commemorate that the inhaling of ether causes insensibility to pain at the Mass. General Hospital in Boston" in October of 1846.

On October 16 of that year, dentist Thomas G. Morton electrified an audience of surgeons and medical students in the operating theater of Massachusetts General Hospital when he put a printer, Gilbert Abbot, to sleep. The attending surgeon then removed a tumor from the sleeping patient's neck: no thrashing, no screams, no restraint by assistants. The theater broke into cheers. http://mccoy.pair.com/personal/ether.html

When I saw the monument earlier this month, it looked much better than it did when i first encountered it back in the mid-1980s. Turns out the monument has just been through a nearly 20-year rehabilitation effort, described in an article in the Boston Globe from September of 2006:

Dr. Rafael Ortega, an anesthesiologist and associate professor at Boston Medical Center, has just had a book published under the title: "Written in Stone: An illustrated history of the Ether Monument."

"Most people don't know there is an Ether Monument," said Ortega. "For variety of reasons, even many physicians aren't aware that the monument exists."

The 40-foot tower is topped by a sculpture representing the parable of the Good Samaritan in the Gospel of Luke. An older man holds a younger man who has been overcome by an illness -- an allegory of mercy and good will, Ortega said.

The figures rest on marble columns atop a square pedestal adorned with four marble reliefs. One of the panels represents the triumph of science with a woman sitting atop of throne of test tubes and other medical equipment. Two of the other carvings show the use of ether during the Civil War. The fourth frieze depicts the angel of mercy descending to a man stricken with disease.

"The monument itself sort of memorializes a major step forward in modern healthcare," said Dr. Jonathan Griswold, a pediatric anesthesiologist at Tufts New England Medical Center. "People were exceedingly afraid of surgery, and rightfully so. Most limbs were removed with people awake. Most people who had surgery had to go through excruciating pain."

Then on Oct. 16, 1846, Dr. John Collins Warren and a dentist named Thomas A. Morton administered ether to a 20-year-old patient at Massachusetts General Hospital before painlessly removing a tumor from his neck. The doctors performed the procedure before an audience of other doctors and word quickly spread in medical journals.

Where patients once had to be physically held down for surgery, the sick could now sit still and allow doctors to work. Ether became critical on the battlefields of the Civil War and in hospitals across the globe.

The monument's rehabilitation was paid for by $220,000 from the city and money from private donors including the Solomon Fund and the Friends of the Public Garden. It involved the installation of a new lighting system that officials hope will increase public consciousness of the sculpture and discourage vandalism. Organizers are trying to establish an endowment to fund future maintenance of the memorial.

"It's a beautiful sculpture in and of itself," said Pollak, the park's commissioner. "I think learning about the interpretation of it and making the public aware of its importance is crucial."

Turns out, there is some controversy concerning the event that was actually commemorated by the monument, with a competing claim to having discovered the anesthesia.

Morton hadn't invented ether. The volatile liquid was discovered in the thirteenth century-maybe earlier-and by Victorian times, many middle-class party-goers in Europe and America used the drug recreationally at so-called "ether frolics." Sometimes the giggling, red-eyed revelers were so insensible they struck themselves on tables, chairs, or the floor-opening bloody wounds that went unnoticed until much later. Morton was the first to suggest ether's surgical use, or so he claimed. Shortly after Morton's demonstration at Mass General, another Boston dentist, Charles T. Jackson, claimed that Morton had stolen his discovery. Jackson was so open and persistent in his rancor towards Morton that the public joined the battle on both sides. Eventually, opinion decided in favor of Morton, but as late as 1882 Mark Twain sided with Jackson, proclaiming that the Ether Monument "is made of hardy material, but the lie it tells will outlast it a million years. http://mccoy.pair.com/personal/ether.html