#edcmooc and me – Sunset Observer #20 …by Whitney Farmer – Un Pop Culture | @MDWorld

November 7, 2013 Whitney Farmer 7 Comments

 

On Sunday night at midnight, I went back to school.

The University of Edinburgh launched a course on E-Learning and Digital Cultures on the other side of the world, online and free. I enrolled in September after I got back from the Gypsy project in Le Gua along with perhaps 17,000 or 17,000,000 fellow peers. What now defines ‘peer’ in my lifework is one of the basic questions that I want to explore. Education ain’t what it used to be.

Apologies. My American is showing.

Despite the electronic delivery, themes, and interaction, I felt uncomfortable not having pen and paper as I organized my desk to begin. Digging through a box, I found what might be the last college ruled tablet I own. It was from the Club and only had two pages used. Those pages plus the midnight hour brought me back to a loved but past place.

One page was dedicated to property corrections dictated by the fire marshall to me during our annual walkthrough. Another page was dedicated to notes from a management meeting which went over upcoming shows.

Dick Dale was coming back…We had a promoter who worked with many bands from the 80s, so names that I knew from the time when I was a wee lass were scheduled: The Motels, The Fixx, John Waite…Reggae artists: Pato Banton, The Wailers…Plus new bands who messed with my ears and made me love working all night: Welcome to Concrete, Dive Bar Stickup, BARLEY Legal…

I didn’t tear out these pages in the tablet. I just turned the page, and class began.

A question has brought me to this desk with pen and paper which in a past time were technological innovations: What can I do about the Gypsies? As coyotes howl and hunt outside towards the marshes near here and well-groomed little white dogs sleep inside, I remember the kids in Le Gua. They were unable to read and write, but able to navigate through a maze of apps on their smartphones. The visual icons and facility of these mechanisms combine with their imaginations and pull them into learning. Selling a culture of learning fails with these young ones if it is dependent on a traditional educational structure which has denied them access or hasn’t incorporated a migrating tradition. They know what it’s like to see classmates pulled off buses and deported to Hungary. They know what it’s like to hear mayors say that Hitler didn’t kill enough of them. Give real reasons why they should let down their guard, and in their minds the HOW to educate then becomes the determinant variable rather than WHY.

If they have a chance to introduce themselves in the electronic world and write their own stories, if they can learn skills such as a language or music or design or e-marketing that can help them establish themselves as the next generation in a culture known as entrepreneurs? These are potentials which capture their attention. This is the same reason why I am losing sleep to go to school: There is no promise of sheepskin, but there is a chance that I can learn stuff that I can use.

Good idea. This is why I hit the ENROLL button.

Our course question of the week is whether this digital frontier presents us with an emergent utopia, or the stuff of nightmares.

Good question. The answer is C, all of the above.

Rather than call this technology a tool, perhaps it is best described as an instrument. It is able to be used as an instrument of destruction, but hopefully more often to build and to create. Fewer swords, more hammers and trumpets. What I see now with the Gypsy kids is that the Net truly is being woven into a net. The goal is to catch fish, but not be caught.

 

NEXT TIME: Enlightenment, perchance…

NOTE: When asked, I was told by our patron in the Le Gua community to call them ‘Gypsies’ rather than the politically championed term ‘Roma’.

Picture of me studying, drawn by Me.