I’m so pleased to see you back here on bgblogging. You are indeed one of the students who inspired me to get even more creative in my thinking and see if centers for community digital learning could in some small way contribute to a positive shift in education. I know that you and Remy have already, in your young lives, made significant contributions with your bold departures from the standard course of study in college–I still quote your blogs when I give talks– digital storytelling fellowship, your teaching lives, your example of living deeply creative and activist lives.

I have learned a great deal from you two–the classroom time was always magical–and I look forward to hearing all about your teaching adventures. My path is out of the classroom now, but that doesn’t mean that I think everyone should do what I’m doing–at least not yet. We need teachers like you opening up every window of every classroom, asking your students and yourself the tough questions about how they want to be, want to act in this world, and how what they are learning in your courses helps them to answer those questions.

It’s a chain effect, and like some others said above, you’ll never know the extent of that chain.

By the way, despite my “techniness” yours is the only blog I read, well besides The Modern Story, so I’m glad to have you back

-Piya

As one of those students, I don’t think a teacher, or a person for that matter, could possibly contribute more meaning to this world. Maybe there is some solace in the fact that I, and a few other students whom you deeply touched, are taking an alternative path and keeping in mind, each day, the possibility in this change.

Remy and I have been interviewing applicants for our fellowship (a project that is dedicated to you) and I’ll tell you, our generation is a different breed than those Phd’s at an NYU graduation ceremony (by the way, you have to see a film, The Visitor to really get you going). I know that in shaping my future and goals, I will not settle for the commonly held belief that it is impossible to combine the number of passions and interests that you have awoken in me; instead I will and have been finding a way to incorporate them all and stay grounded in the real world.

Of course, I realize that this is easy to say as I’m just starting out, but I do believe that I, and we, can make it happen despite the challenges that we’ll face in this dauntingly new sphere.

Please don’t lose faith, Barbara. You are an extraordinary person and those 19 years you spend were not in vain. Know that.

-Piya

I think I need to clarify what I mean here by “failure” and “only touching a handful of students” over the years. Patti, you’re right. Failure IS a powerful word, and one not to be used lightly. My failure is on a local level, a small-elite-liberal-arts-college level, a place that really isn’t yet feeling the winds of systemic educational change in any significant way or wanting to feel them. When I say that I only reached a handful of students, Alan and Steve, I’m speaking once again strictly on the local level. I mean that in the context of a private school, by definition, only the most privileged (with a few notable exceptions) get access to its offerings in the first place. I am appalled by the role of grades, test scores, and resumes in the admissions process. I could go on and on in a fine rant.

All of my students touched me; all of them touched one another. They were hungry, no, starved, for other ways of engaging with their learning than the semesterized, departmentalized, class-periodized model. They wanted to explore, to noodle, to contemplate, to be playful, to stretch themselves creatively. THAT doesn’t happen in many places in such institutions. Nor does exposure to a range of kinds of people or life situations–more on that in an upcoming post.

It is precisely because this moment seems so ripe, so filled with potential for people to question school and education-as-industry while embracing open learning, that I leave the safe and known to try something different, to see if I can do my small part to offer alternatives to school-as-we-know-it. I’m delighted to hear that at the ISTE conference, Patti, there’s a palpable sense of embracing a new paradigm for learning. I’m ready to work where real change can happen and make a difference. Windows are open and the glass is more than half full–I haven’t felt this jazzed in a long time.

And so I think the path you have so passionately pursued has not been a failure but just a beginning. Fling open those windows and air out those rooms. There is a whole wide world that needs you.

It was very, very hard to leave teaching.

You grossly underestimate the impact you’ve had on colleagues around the world via your blogging, photography, presenting, being. And for those “handful” of students? They don’t even realize yet what an impact you have made.

Let the glass be half full, three quarters full, flowing over on the nice wood table. Leave the rest in the rear view mirror and drive on.

cheers

Shannon, you have taught me so much this past year–our connected learning relationship exemplifies the possibilities of learning beyond and in spite of the classroom in what just might be a totally edupunk move/groove. (Only today have I dipped back into the blogosphere and discovered what I missed this past month-oh my!) I hope you will indeed participate in the center–I will keep you posted.

Bud, knowing you are out there reading along is a huge incentive to do this next bit right!

Lanny, once again you surprise me–this time with your ability to see and to entertain all sides without rejecting them out of hand. ( I might well have passed that piece by with my nose in the air if you hadn’t sent it along.) You remind me of my father who insisted we read a wide range of newspapers before we weighed in during the nightly dinnertime debate on Vietnam, racism, feminism, or whatever the topic of the day. Yes, I am deeply concerned about the divides in our society, the gaps between the wildly wealthy and the rest, and the lousy attempts by those in power (and I include educational institutions in that bunch) to solve our pressing problems that are largely a result of rampant greed and consumerism and the cult of the individual. Yes, that’s the conversation that interests me, and I see this open-learning movement on the Web (collective intelligence) coupled with in-the-lived-community-connection as a way we might actually save ourselves and our planet. I gotta get out there and try to do my part. Thanks, as always, for pushing me.