This the most difficult part of being an educator. I teach sixth grade. Eleven year olds. What will the World be like for them when they graduate high school? College? Who knows? So, focusing on critical thinking skills is important -- and collaboration and problem-solving. As we identify skills that translate across disciplines, and time, we do justice to the learners in our spaces.

It seems to me that we need to do more to value and support and enhanced our Vocational Education System, which we have often underfunded and devalued as a place for those who can't cut it in academic/traditional high school settings. If we rethink Voke Ed, we could create powerful pathways for many students into the trade fields and beyond.

These are all excellent anchor points, and articulated well. Thank you for sharing this.

Hmm .. page notes? I guess I would note that this page is a post about digital writing. Or not. It's a debate playing out in the margins of the post. Karen kindly represented some interesting criticisms of digital writing.

Like this, perhaps? And maybe we say, writing is just writing. But ten years ago? Five? Writing digitally was very different. Probably the label remains from a time when we (you, me, us) were trying to explain how technology was changing the way we wrote and interacted and read. Maybe it is no longer different. (Although, I don't think we are there yet)

Thanks. Interesting dissertation idea.

Link to free conference

I am here, in the margins of your writing, writing alongside with you. We are two. The digital aspect of our world allows you to write one day, send it into the world, and then I read it, and write with you another day. Is that one aspect of Digital Writing?

You take a turn here, from Writing into Literature. I wonder how you perceive the bridge from one to the other. Is Digital Reading a thing?

Yes, but critically. Their arguments are valid and worth viewing and making sure we have some answers. I don't have all the answers. I keep exploring.

No, I don't think so. Do you suggest that writing code is the only form of pure digital writing?

This is the kernal of the question. And we have asked it before. Can we just drop "digital" and call it "writing"? I prefer the term "composing" because it has larger arcs and possibilities.

She's a smart one. Critical question. How we write, and what we use to compose, depends on whom the audience is, and what the writer/composer is trying to convey.

Hmm. But this seems to back the point of digital writing ... that writing is no longer just words on the page, but something much larger. Visuals and charts, yes, but also composing with video and with audio and with interactive elements.

This is different, though. Important, and worth noting, but not the same as thinking of how the use of digital platforms might alter the ways in which we write. What does it mean when we embed links to associative information? How does a video thread extend the written word? Does voice of the writer inserted right into a written text change the notion of how the reader's interaction with the piece? This is more with the inquiry of the question, in my opinion.

I bet some researcher has, in fact, done this. It might be along the lines of "Communication across digital mediums in which elements of writing and media (audio, video, etc) intersect with connectivity of content." - That sounds rather gibberish. Maybe he has a point.

I love this sentence. It's good to hear from others and to dissect the terminology of the profession.

Which makes it a perfect time to wonder, critique and question the whole notion ... (notice I am using the hashtag for Digital Writing Month .. ha!)

I guess I hope you all will come up with some practical solutions to this issue of Open Invitations and Cultural Acceptances and more. I mean that with my heart, and not with any sarcasm. Perhaps a set of "Remember This" for folks planning what they hope/intend to be a Global Experience. That would be an important artifact of these discussions. Thank you!

I need to bookmark this sentence and remember it anytime I am involved in some open learning system. Thank you for expressing this in strong terms.

That word again ... I know Remi asked about it ... I wonder about it ...

I'd be curious to know about these obstacles -- I know it is an ancillary discussion -- the technology -- but I find it intriguing how the technology is both the opportunity and the barrier.

Time zones are their own challenges when it comes to collaboration It requires a lot of patience and coordination -- which may be a stumbling block to being inclusive across world cultures -- someone(s) has to coordinate the time zone jumps (never mind the cultural elements)

Looks like it's been happening right here ...

You mean, literally, right?

The philosophical underpinnings of Calvin and Hobbes

Acknowledgement, following by action.

Concurrent docs? Hmmm.

I love this storyboard! Funny, right? The paper planning process notes are something I want to dig into almost as much as the collaborative story itself ...

I am curious to know how many waited for the first words to appear before jumping in ....

This is where the margins are important -- sort of like here, I guess, we comment. Having two texts (and now three?) running concurrently is an intriguing thought, made more accessible with digital (but of course, you can do the sam with paper)

And, in fact, many students still need guidance on navigation of those spaces. They can find them ... but can they use them to the fullest limit? We still need teachers!

As everything does ... the blank page ... the collaborative element is what changes this dynamic, though. We're, together, staring at the same blank document, and then ... words appear.

Rooster soundtrack ...

Mine is nearly empty. Interesting. I almost never venture into the land of the right click, but not sure why. I mostly use the tool bar of my browser. Right click land seems more efficient ...

But it is up to us to make sure that doesn't happen ... developers often don't know the way something will be used (they have an idea ... often, it is wrong ...)

Me, too

I am a huge fan of field walks -- or learning walks -- or whatever term we want to use, where we head out not in any one direction or with any specific intention ... merely to discover something you didn't know you might discover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY73vFGhSVk

Note: This website is all about digital marketing, so it has a certain bias towards how to "sell" messages. Still, I think its analysis here is useful. - Kevin

This is also a strange privacy line, too, right? A candidate knows what you want because it is scouring your responses, and maybe extrapolating to Tweets and Likes and other social media posts. It is using algorithms to parse through your data (my data, our data) and then sending you what you want to see. This may just create another Echo Chamber in our lives.

Good to have some historical perspective. Each technology changes the way that a candidate potentially reaches voters. Those who don't adapt often don't survive for very long.

It is also more likely to be picked apart and remixed by the opponent. Veracity of content is part of the equation, too. With so many editing tools in our hands, can we even believe what we see with our own eyes to be true?

This is part of the Revolution ... one person potentially (and that is a key word here) can shift a campaign. Potentially.

This was always the case, I think. Politicians always wanted voters. The difference is that data analysis makes the courting of voters more focused.

I know Maha and others (including myself) have tinkered with this and reveled in the messy nature of collaboration, searching for voices and themes and links between experiences.

This is what faces us all, if we allow for the introspective/reflective voice to take hold.

Maha starts off from a strong position, noting the conundrum of the Digital Age, which both opens the doors to new and opposing views while also shutting down discussions and discourse with ease.

And this is why I write online, and join in discussions. It's an exploration.

maybe ...

And it would be an interesting endeavor just to read the margins and not the text. It's multiple storylines emerging from the book itself. I remember taking great interest in the margins of this text, where I felt a bit more free to explore.

Or more like, we needed time to think, to let the experience simmer for a stretch. Reflection points give us another view of the experience itself.

In some ways, these questions are the inquiry itself, almost more than the writing we did as a swarm. I appreciate that others took the time to formulate questions. I dove in and wrote. Others framed the experience.

So true, and it was this spirit of the digital page that made this kind of writing experiment not only interesting, but also engaging. We did not know how it would turn out. I, for one, did not ever think it would ever become an article for HyPed, or the basis for a presentation, or anything more than thoughts streaming along the page (and the margins of the page)

Here lies the difficulty of explaining the potential of open learning spaces, and why canned MOOCs at the University level exist. Getting people to wrap their heads around the experience is critical. I'm not sure the Untext did that, though, and wonder if it has made it all the more imposing. Not to take away from the writing and the experience of it. It is valuable. But will its chaotic nature be a closed door instead of an open invitation?

Nice visual. I wanna dip my palm in paint and press it up against the page.

This is my favorite passage in this article so far. It covers a lot of ground and a lot of thinking that is aligned to my own about learning and writing and connecting. That dynamic flow of ideas is what keeps me engaged as a writer/learner, and helps me think of my role as a teacher, too.

Thanks to all of you for trying to make sense for the rest of us. I'm tempted to think: Oh, so this is what we were doing?

Yes. True. Another hint of how digital is changing/altering/shaping literacies -- in how we write and how we read and how we interact with texts and each other.

and thus, no distinguishing anchor. In fact, this article about the writing of the Untext is prob now the anchor, and I wonder if there is tension in that fact -- that by writing and explaining about the Untext, we have lessened its power as a rhizomatic document?

We do, even if some of us still question the whole rhizomatic metaphor for learning. Learning can be messy at times. Collaboration is a tricky balance. Writing in and around and among spaces are their own difficulty.

or at least, a way to remain "in the moment" even after the moment -- that arbitrary element of "six week course" -- has ended. The Untext was a desire, for me, to keep moving forward, to remain entangled in the writing of others.

Keep this message ...

As a country, not just as a political party ...

A little Wiz Khalifa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgKAFK5djSk

I don't do enough of this ... I know that and keep making progress and then the year ends (like now) and I think, I could have done more of that. Dang it.

This seems to happen, in my experience, around fourth grade, for whatever reason. I get them in sixth grade and we spend the year trying to show them how to be creative again.

That's worth celebrating in our corners of the world ... but I know that's not always true in all corners of the world.

Maybe this will be the year of the shift ...

Which explains the energy behind the Sanders' Movement ...

This is a critical point ... change happens more on the local level but ... but ... the Supreme Court .. that is the key to so much in terms of fundamental change in the country ... now and into the future ...

Let's hope they become informed voters, too

I wonder if this is always true, or just this generation ...

Let's hope so but somehow, I doubt it. Maybe the continued emergence of Sanders on the Left will force the issue.

My gosh ... just seeing a number like that makes me choke ...

What if we took this Venn and turned it again, and where the line meets the circle meets the line, we drew ourselves dancing? - See more at: http://impedagogy.com/wp/blog/2016/05/22/the-wolf-in-the-fold/#comment-12397

Surely, it is, and it is in the mystery that we engage in it.

OMG .. love this wordplay ...

Yes, if only ... or maybe no, if only not ....

I wonder how far we have come since 2008 ... have we learned enough to really understand the possibilities of the Web as a mode of reading? How it differs from traditional paper reading? Eight years later, and we're sort of still working on the ideas.

So, I wonder what would have happened if a man or men were also involved. I get why this was not the case, but the gender influences the comments. Maybe? It's interesting that while this is an open reading space, it is also a closed reading space. But tools like Hypothesis allow me to add my own thoughts to the margins beyond the margins.

There's a lot here, in this sentence that I like.

I wonder how this step -- Hackpad -- went.

like me, right now. There is something powerful about notes off in the margins, and the processing power of our brain to make those notes and read those notes ... and share those notes? Collective? Individual?

This is a key component, right? Showing how one goes forth, but leaving enough space for students to do it their own way, too. Yeah. That's always the tricky balance or we risk automatons.

This is what we want to have happening ... moving from discussion and sharing with teachers to the classroom stage.

Lightweight is its own weighted phrase. It seems to suggest that nothing of meaning or value, beyond something skirting the surface, would be worth writing or reading. But I think it all depends on how one uses the margins of a text. If someone writes a racist post, I can't take it down, necessarily, but I can target the writer and the words with annotations, making my views known and inviting others to do the same. Perhaps then, the weight of the annotation protest might have some value. With annotation, we can target specific words and phrases and sentences, as opposed to comments, where observations are more general in nature. Maybe it is the comment bin that is lightweight.

And that once again, those with power and money will give the rest of us a little gift ...

Yikes

This is the crux of it all -- who has access and who does not have access means who has a voice and who does not have a voice. Who gets ignored?

And this is a good thing, right? Unless of course, the "crowd" has views opposite your own, and then it is a bad thing. I like the focus here of localizing the impact of the flattening, improving lives in our cities and towns.

"Where I won't have to say anything of real substance because it's only status updates anyway"

Not me, though. I am still one of the fans of the centrist theme and message of the Bill Clinton years but I often feel very lonely in that zone. I'm not saying Hillary does it for me, either. But Bernie is too far left for my taste.

So, there is a possibility of some sanity ... unless of course, it is the nutjobs who have also opted out of the political parties and will make an even stronger lurch to the right or left than the primaries are showing right now.

This may be the key to the unknown element of the election -- while the primaries tell one story, the general election may unfold another - driven by those of us not affiliated with either party. Whose message will reach those people?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gndkcb12X1c

I like the concept of a "repurpose" beyond the original intent of the tool or tech or whatever. That's where the agency of the user has roots.

What this report does that we in CLMOOC did not always do is to circle back around. I am not sure what "neoliberal flows" are but the inflection points of remix moments -- where the idea took root and then expanded -- is a fascinating topic to examine.

Cultural glue is an interesting phrase ...

Mia, too?

Hopefully, more than imagine it. Let's keep pushing to make it happen.

Yes

So, the larger question in mooc design is this: can such turns happen without a facilitator stepping in? How do online spaces and events ... just happen ... or can they? If we diminish the role of facilitator, and flatten the expertise, does activity and "turn"ing still happen?

True, and then we often wondered: how to sustain the burst? But maybe I see now that such thinking might be counter-active to the burst itself. Maybe the question is: what resonance happens after the burst itself and what are the echoes from the original?

Wish resolution was better, although the squiggly lines are interesting in terms of connections and iterations

Love this phrasing: "The pursuit of possibility" because it captures the essence of exploration and play, and maybe arriving at a destination that you didn't even know existed, but had faith that your journey will lead you somewhere.

Interesting term to use ...

Keep moving forward, reflecting as we go ... and learning the barriers and the open space, and finding the way between them.

Interesting ... and so cultural, too. We bring our language bias when we use sarcasm.

Unless you are the cops ... then "playful" skirts into "unlawful." Maybe. Continuing this line of thought is one that Terry brought up in some earlier annotation at some other post -- we have no control over who annotates our post with Hypothesis, right? Anyone could come here and add racist, derogatory media and comments in the margins -- maybe even under the banner of "play" -- and the post's owner has no recourse? Just wondering and pushing thinking about annotation etiquette in the realm of play and appropriation ... hmmm ..

The margins are littered with notes: Scrawled love poems; Anguished understandings; Scribbled doodles of stick figures, dancing; A recipe for a dinner date; Lost phone numbers of dead telephone lines. The text dances at the margins, as if the book were a stage and the words, the music but not the show, and you and I, we pull up our chairs, watching in silence for the performance someone's pen wrote out, long ago, some other room, and we applaud.

Yeah! http://www.reactiongifs.com/cheering-minions/

This is a crucial paragraph in this post ... many of us assume openness as a possibility for everyone but the world is complicated for many, and the "if" question -- and how to change the nature of the world to lower barriers -- is as crucial as designing something that has the possibilities of open.

I rarely even think about that idea of a "class of students is here" -- I just figure, this is my space and I am doing what I am doing, and enjoying what you re doing and so ... away we go ...

Did you write notes on a sticky note and stick them to your screen?

Participants were encouraged to start wherever they wished, to make multiple connections between each other and with a diversity of participant generated and shared resources, to create their own personal learning maps and content, to engage in multiple different modes of activity, in multiple spaces, and to manage their own learning. A culture of play and fun emerged; many artefacts incorporating poetry, music, personal writings, photography, and art works were produced. A-signifying rupture and lines of flight, if not lines of fantasy, and nomadic behaviours were in evidence.>

-- http://ajet.org.au/index.php/AJET/article/view/2486/1342

This is the heart of it for me: the playful exploration with no set boundaries

This graphic is helpful since I continue to be unable to completely grasp the D/G concepts on my own in regards to how I participated in the Rhizo events.

Here we are ...

The fact that you are so open about your teaching and the learning going on in your classroom is evidence of how this kind of open annotation is really just a thread in the ways of approaching learning. The annotations themselves are just one piece of the larger quilt, and you are inviting us into the making of that quilt.

Here is a great example of Connected Learning -- Connected Sharing.

Good band name ....

interesting that we can annotate the annotations ... can we use that meta-idea to surface thinking?

Was this egg hunt unassigned? (please say 'yes') and if so, whoohoo. And did folks play? (please say 'yes')

This does bring up so many interesting questions. Did they know you would "get" the code? (speaking to our audience?) Was the code another code for the annotation activity? (It would be cool if they layered in another Easter Egg into the annotation) What was reaction of other students? (no answers needed here ... just thoughts off my mind)

I love this concept of stretching the experience across platforms, Remi, and I will be doing my own grad course in summer that seeks to incorporate some of those same ideals. So, I might come back knocking for advice ...

Thanks for sharing this post, Remi. I do wonder though ... we keep making notes in our blog post comment bins, saying: Check the Annotation in the Margins. How open is a system that would require you to tell someone to look for what you wrote? Does this impact the accessibility/open factor at all, do you think? Just thinking out loud here and looking around a bit ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wElrDRAmj4w

As all maps are .. once unfolded, they take on a story of their own ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYLPe9WLqe0

I love the byways of discussing a course like this and wonder what the students thought of this. Terry is bringing the spirit of inquiry and adventure into the learning ... wondering whether some are doubtful about this approach (ie, Tell me what to Learn and I will show you what I Know ....)

I'm forever lost in myself, wandering this terrain with such little preparation that disaster seems imminent every step of the way, and the one sole thing that guides me is the map of her voice and the hope of the world and the sense that just on the other side of this landscape, the world is always on the mend.

She said something when she said nothing but all I heard was empty thoughts rattling about inside my head because as she was saying something I was thinking on anything other than what she was saying

Hmmm (again) Is it participatory "culture" on display here or is it co-opting the idea of Participatory Culture for financial gains? This is an idea explored in other ways in the book that we have been slow-reading, right? This is a twist -- using the elements (remix for opposing point of view) for advertising gain (show me the money)

This is a brilliant idea to read the ads. I saw the second one the other day during football and thought of the first one, and remember thinking: Hmmm. Then I forgot it. Hmmm

Great point and important one, too, as we acknowledge the path is not all rosy and flowing optimism .... we still got work to do ...

In a nutshell ... how the forces of change are lining up ... who paves the way forward? the kids or the companies? (The kids, damn it!)

no student in sight?

You see this weave through all of her writing (and others, too, including ours) ... where is the agency for the student? In the technology? The device? Or in the discovery? The inquiry? Or it it in the teacher? The lesson plans?

The most essential questions we can ask ourselves: Why are we doing this?

This was the anchor of my audio letter to Mimi Dear Mimi

It sure does ... and we see it all the time. Pushing back on this seems like a Life Mission. Doing it with others who have similar ideas of immersive learning (like all of you) makes it seem like a movement as opposed to an isolated experience (we draw energy from each other to keep on keepin' on)

Thanks, you guys, for marking up the margins of the page.

Dang right. Sometimes, it gets crowded, but it is always interesting ...

https://media.giphy.com/media/7CaHmP2XVqrWE/giphy.gif

This is crucial ... and Terry is talking right now about videocasting annotation activity to show the work you are doing (but we do lose real authenticity? Are we annotation for the camera?)

Intrigued by how this would work ... the management of it ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv2r6STbXhE

I love this idea ... particularly in this political season ... prove something right/prove something wrong ...

like this?

Is this for him? Or for the world? You wonder about intention with annotation, and the value of it. Sometimes, I notice annotations get lost in the mix, and I wonder the real value of doing this: is it for me, to better understand? Or to gather with you, to share understanding? Both?

I like Hypothesis and the others here, but none feel like a natural fit for me in terms of conversation. I like this threaded element, but it still feels as if some of the bars for entry and participation leaves some folks out (unintentionally). I think we are making strides, though.

Catch-phrase of the Common Core era ... but probably a selling point for many teachers to consider digital annotation ....

I love the annotation of maps, and the various tools that bring life to mapping ideas ... including the multimedia aspects of annotation .... showing us dark corners of the map and forgotten corners of the world ...

I wonder how many people see graffiti as social annotations.

This is so important, as a rationale for teachers to consider online annotation ...

I like sticky notes. So do my kids. But I know they fall off ...

Like us ... here ... trying to participate in a conversation with the book and authors when hurdles are there: lack of tools to make it fully participatory, no feedback from the authors themselves, etc. We cobble together our experiences, and probably leave a lot of people outside the door (inadvertently)

I wonder if school environments are the place for this or not? Of course, as a teacher, I say, yes. But the reality is that school-based learning are not always authentic places for young people to explore, make mistakes, do inappropriate things (and learn from them) and more. It reminds me of my eternal questions about my video game design unit: have I sucked the fun out of video games by making it a learning experience?

I see this with teaching colleagues at times ... less so now than just a few years ago ... so, progress ...

I find this fascinating and remember her exploration of this in her book ... the invisible culture right in front of us ...

This is another key insight -- where do things happen as opposed to where we (adults) think it happens, and maybe it is a control issue, too.

One of the best things (potential exposure to new ideas outside your small geographic sphere), and one of the very things that makes so many parents nervous.

Interesting, though, how when adults went to MySpace, the kids all left. As adults staked out Facebook, the kids began leaving. What's next? Will adults start using Snapchat now?

Guilty, I suspect, even without always realizing it ...

Still the case? I wonder ...

Yeah to comic books for disrupting the world!