Ancient City of Thesis

I am experimenting with visualisation and thinking tools. This map I made with the help of World of Experience.

Click to enlarge.

photo story

originally uploaded by paper pecan.

originally uploaded by .littlegirlblue.

originally uploaded by chloe.rose.

originally uploaded by +winston.

originally uploaded by 1+1=1.

Returning to my previous thoughts about a writing exercise with the images, from this Flickr pool  this proves; the existence of space between your dreams and mine.  I found it quite fascinating just to assemble a photo story with no words. It gives a satisfying sense of closure to create a story arch with five images, while the photostream in the Flick group just carries on like a never ending dream.

And btw four images come from   London, UK; St.Petersburg, Russia; Baton Rouge, USA; Ankara, Turkey; the fifth one I could not find out. Is’nt it just lovely to be able to do this? 

fairy tale

    

originally uploaded by jenerally speaking.

    

originally uploaded by Anya Jasbar.

untitled, originally uploaded by mottoo.

originally uploaded by traqueotomia.

originally uploaded by kristopher keith helton.

So here is my mash-up assembled with images from the Flickr pool this proves; the existence of space between your dreams and mine and two well known fairy tales. See also my previous post and second photo story. The pictures come from Canada, Italy, Japan, Spain and USA.

unlimited reading

I just love Flickr and all the amazing things people do with photography. The group this proves; the existence of space between your dreams and mine was featured recently in Flickr Explore. It is strange how you can browse through the images triggering all sorts of feelings and sensations, hinting at stories and mysteries to be revealed, and narratives just start building up in your head. So I though of another idea for a literacy class:

Every student has to pick 5 pictures from the pool, arrange them in a sequence, and then write a story, which can be made of 5 sentences or five paragraphs. The story has to be written backwards, that is the fifth part (sentence or paragraph) has to be written first, the fourth second, and the introductory part last. Once the story is outlined, the text may be polished.

To create a challenge for more advanced writers, the genre could be specified. It could be a poem of five lines. It could be a report, romance, mystery, science fiction or horror story, or the concept for a genre film. 

The Flickr pool provides resources for ‘unlimited semiosis’ (Peirce, Eco). Narratives may be co-created using the imaginative scenarios shared in the pictures, transformed by the imagination of the reader/writer and connected by culturally and historically formed story structures, extending the meaning of the original images. In the next post you will find my fairy tale in pictures.

heart exercise for childen and war

by Reza

Recently a student told me about an ethnographic research project which was undertaken to study children’s ideas about war. The children were making drawings to elicit responses. For ethical reasons they made sure that there were not any children in the focus group, who had actually been traumatized by war. The same day I came across this picture by Iranian photographer Reza – more about him via Webistan Photo Agency. Apparently he has just released a new book Reza War + Peace: A Photographer’s Journey (‘a 30-year retrospective of his work, this remarkable photographer chronicles his travels to places of conflict through exquisite images that pair turmoil with hope, joy with despair.’)

In any case, I admire this image. And I could see this as a fertile starting point both for classroom discussion or creative writing exercises about children and war. Because what most people around me, including myself know about war, we know through media, or mediated through somebody. Unless we actually have experienced war as those childen excluded from the survey mentioned above. Or probably those boys in the picture. What I would really like to know is what those children think and feel. 

In any case for those of us privileged enough to be able to reflect about this in the safe space of some class or seminar room, here is an exercise which could go with this image, taken from VisualSpeak. The exercise is called “Heart Image” Exercise, because it is based on an image of a constricted heart, but it may be carried out with any image, depending where you want to go. 

Time needed: 5-7 Minutes (Break up large groups to maximize time)

The Heart image exercise involves the following steps:

1. Distribute a copy of the xxx  image to each person.

2. Ask each participant to spend 1-2 minutes writing a response to the question, “What does this image mean to me?”

3. Have each participant read his/her response to the group.

4. Engage the participants in a conversation about what they learned.

Questions you may want to ask are:

• What similarities and differences did you notice among the responses?

• Was there anything interesting or surprising in the responses?

• Do you have any new insights about anyone in the group?

• Can you imagine how someone’s life experiences could influence their perception of an image? How?

• Can you make any connections as to how you responded and your own life?

VisualSpeak say: This exercise “is applicable to … anywhere you want to lead a conversation on having different perspectives. The varied responses participants will give during this exercise will illustrate why it’s important not to interpret meaning for other people.”

What would be yours?

media studies 101

Here are some good videos to get a class of students thinking about new media.This one by David Gauntlett:

Media and Everyday Life (improved version)

Vision of Students Today

A short video made by Michael Wesch, who has made some  of the most widely circulated viral videos. Another one is The machine is Us/using Us:

The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version)

And if you have the time to watch this one hour introduction to YouTube and the cultural changes currently taking place made by Michael Wesch and his students – it’s worth watching:

An anthropological introduction to YouTube

participation and creativity

David Gauntlett’s Lecture on ‘Participation and Creativity’ given on the 12th of November, the birthday of the world wide web.

Part two is supposed to be out by the 28th of November.

how it all started

WorldWideWeb: Proposal for a HyperText Project

On 12 November 1990, Tim Berners-Lee presented a memo entitled ‘World Wide Web: Proposal for a HyperText Project’. This signalled the birth of the Web as we know it today. On 12 November each year an ever-growing number of people from all walks of life are grateful for this free, non-commercial, collaborative innovation.

WorldWideWeb: Proposal for a HyperText Project

via

http://www.12november.org.uk/

building models of learning in Lego

In this video you can see David Gauntlett doing his serious play with lego and a bunch of students. I hope I get the chance to try this out with students training to be teachers to get them thinking about media and learning.

Acceptance speech word cloud

  

y e s w e c a n, originally uploaded by js wright.

“word cloud” of barack obama’s presidential election acceptance speech on 11/4/08 created with wordle