(Filed under Fun with Art)

Teaching and learning doesn't always have to be drudgery, right?

I came across this site via my anonymous friends at Fipi Lele, a web/art collective that doesn't really exist (long story).

The series of photographs from the site Henry VIII's Wives are entitled The Iconic Moments of the 20th Century. The site and photos are the brainchild of a group of  pensioners in a home for the elderly in Glasgow.

From the site: A group of aged volunteers pose in their everyday outfits and in their daily environment (the vicinity of the Home) to re-enact the scenes from well-known newspaper photographs taken from history books and encyclopaedias. The images in question depict ‘historical moments’ that took place in their lifetime: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at the Yalta Conference during the World War II, the Napalm Attack and the killing a Vietcong from the Vietnam War, or the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald, which was depicted live on a TV programme. Each of these images represents an immediately recognisable cultural leitmotif of its époque, the representation that overshadows the event it documents.

These photographs offer us a chance to purposively remember and reflect on iconic events that shaped a generation and those that followed. The site urges us all to "remember the unclothed nine-year old girl Kim Phuc, the subject of the photo Napalm Attack, which toured the world inciting numerous political controversies: the Canadian photographer who took the picture won the Pulitzer Prize; the girl became the star of numerous humanitarian events and anti-war campaigns and also the hero of a bestselling book Girl in the Picture*."

The pictures also suggest an underlying sense of humor about them. While the moments themselves were emotional and iconic, there is something a bit subversive and silly about they way they are recreated by the pensioners. The stories and lives they represent are no-less important but he photo's message is somehow shifted a little, transposed onto another world and other lives.

As a teachable moment this site serves at least many purposes: one, to remind us of the importance of historical events and the impact they have on our perspectives and collective/individual psyches; and two, as a chance for students to study and recreate their own culture in more detail. This exhibition could be recreated as a teaching and learning activity wherein participants have the opportunity to share and publish the fruits of their vision and understanding.

What do you think? Let me know if you're familiar with similar such projects, slide shows, or digital storytelling that's tied to teaching and learning. I'd like to put together a wiki with such projects.

(* References: Quotations above excerpted from Jelena Velcic in Breaking Step—Displacement, Compasion and HUmour in Recent Art From Britain, Catalog, 2007 Belgrad.)

Setting

I recently sat down with Marilyn Ochoa, a university humanities and social sciences librarian, to talk about libraries and the Read/Write Web.

Marilyn shared an issue with me that I found fascinating, one I wanted to share with a larger public. She asked, (I'm paraphrasing) How close should the library be to students? I found this to be a wonderful, chewy question.

Full disclosure: I heart libraries and librarians. The librarians I know and have worked with I find to be amazingly resourceful, creative, knowledgeable, and natural problem-solvers. Most have this ability to dig, research, and find information and sources I might not have considered on my own. They are professional search engines. As an educational researcher, I consider librarians an essential part of my network--I would not be able to do my job as effectively without them. Yet here's the rub: how many students, graduate, undergraduate, primary, secondary, realize what valuable resources libraries and librarians can be?

In our conversation Marilyn understood where I was coming from. She's part of a team that is investigating ways in which students and professors, both on- and off-campus, utilize their resources, their resourcefulness.

Libraries

So what is a library? Conventionally, libraries are defined as a room where books are kept, a collection of literary documents or records kept for reference or borrowing. They are depositories, collections, catalogues, sometimes even museums. Some libraries are also shrines, e.g., a presedential library. Some are like tombs offering the remains of a dead, literate class. Libraries also offer the public a space to meet, interact, listen, view, discover and share with others.

Other ways to think about a library

Enter the Read/Write Web. Given the general affordances of many Web 2.0 applications (i.e., communication, aggregation, sharing, collaborative opportunities), Marilyn asked how these might be incorporated to better support library users? While there are a compendium of sites and communities associated with what is affectionately dubbed Library 2.0, I thought it would be fun to approach Marilyn's question from a participatory media angle.

Participation

While participatory media, the Internet, and World Wide Web have given us new tools to engage the world and each other, we as a public have not yet as a whole adjusted to the ways of the Read/Write Web. Perhaps this is because many of us are having to unlearn the way we grew up participating with the world. However, for many students today, being "online" is not an add-on; it is part of who they are.

Tech Savvy

Is Web 2.0 still for the tech savvy? How does one stay on top of the myriad of new applications being brought to market each day providing us new ways to engage and participate online? Who has time to keep up with such a fluid and dynamic market? How often can we be expected to pick up these new tools and add them to our resource lists?

The Library is People

Given that the Internet and World Wide Web have shifted the way many people/learners/teachers/researchers access information--information we used to physically go to the library for--what role should libraries and more importantly librarians play? The more I think about it, the more I begin to wonder how often students or the public associate a library with people?

Before I entered the field of academic research, I used to consider the library as a giant, well organized book stall, part museum, part galleria, part social gathering space. For me, the library was about books, resources, and text-based artifacts. It was a place to study, a quiet place; for me, it was not about people.

Presence

Given the participatory features associated with the Read/Write Web, how close should a library be to students? What kind of presence should a library have?

Interface

Another personal disclosure: I heart bookstores. I especially like the ones where there's an employee's favorites section. I like to see what books people are in to. If I have a question about a particular topic or particular genre, I look around for Patrice who is into contemporary American fiction, or for cookbooks I can ask for Ronald.

Similarly, when I read the music review section of my local newspaper, I like to see the picks from a variety of writers and their perspectives. This helps me broaden musical knowledge and tempts me with new artists. For me, books and music are part of my identity. Like food, I am what I read and listen to.

What if library homepages were designed to include a "hot topics" or a librarian's faves section that catches my eyes when I hit their site? What if library's worked more like Amazon, providing me book reviews, both publisher and user generated, and recommendations associated with topics that I am interested in? What if libraries offered opt-in newsletters keeping me informed of artifacts associated with the areas of interest I select?

A library Internet site could be a combination of Wikipedia and Amazon. A school library could also provide links to specific courses, so I could see required readings, read reviews, and find helpful resources associated with course topics?

The Read/Write Librarian

Librarians are topic specialists. Their interests range the span of the human imagination. And they can all be connected to you through the Web. Yet how do we design an interface that can make all this information usable?

Where everybody knows your name: Libraries as user communities

I recently had a thought of a library as designed a la user generated content. Imagine a space where librarians upload mp3s, pictures (png, jpg), text (links to texts, outside sources/links), movies (mpg, mov, wmv). Associated with each file "pile" is a place for users/librarians to add comments, additional links, photos, user feedback/conversation.

There could be a linked discussion board, a top 100 popular piles link, search, find user, contact, settings, sign in/signout. Users could have an option of tagging content providers with rewards for the files they provide--approval points, disapproval points. These tags could also include a "this is controversial" tag (e.g., tmbo--this might be offensive) to alert users to a topic that could be considered taboo or offensive to some.

Each user could have a profile page. Users could upload to the various "piles." Their good and bad votes tabulated. A list of the last 20 files you uploaded by date with comment count a break down of votes by file.

Rather than being a popularity contest, which it will be for some, voting on files indicates community value, rank, authority, and shows a commitment to supporting the community.

Ultimately, it is not about votes--it's about comments. What makes comments valuable is when they offer something,  anything, witty, clever, insightful, silly, a pat on the back, a challenge to duel. It is also about community, about a place where I can go contribute, receive, check in with people, hang out with people. Where everybody knows your name.

Et tu?
So, I've given you a peek at my thoughts about the Read/Write library. What are your thoughts? Can you point me to examples of what you see as exemplary library sites? Have I completely missed the mark on this one? Your thoughts, links, comments and advice are always appreciated.

Here is a link to a wonderful experiment filed under creativity and change: Go Around Twice If You're Happy.

Shot in in Dubai in October 2007, writers/directors Vincent Fichard and Matthew Jones are out to prove "that while parrots repeat, cars talk."

I like how road signs serve us, I like what they offer: a message designed to be read/consumed while moving at accelerated rates of travel. These signs in particular are designed to both inform, as a public works road sign, and catch the reader by surprise. Construction signs often ask us to do things like, take caution, slow down, merge, etc.; they are official commands. These sign offered by the filmmakers tell motorists to smile, honk if you're in love, go around twice if you're happy. These signs demonstrate the power of suggestion and perhaps the hidden agency of signs/signage in our culture (inform/observe/obey).

Think of the fun one could have creating similar such signs in your neighborhood! What would your message be?

Here's another educational use for Twitter:

The Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) shows are widly popular here in the U.S.

While I am not a particular fan of this genre, I know many people who are. I wonder how people who watch this show might react to this scene. Does it make Twitter more appealing? Will some see it as a "stalker's paradise?" Will it help investigators solve certain crimes?

I like how one of the investigators notes that by keeping a blog and tweeting, the victim in the show must not "value privacy." His partner then replies, "They don't expect privacy. They value open-ness." This brief exchange quickly exposes two sides to the debate that has existed for years regarding Internet accessibility and the choices we make regarding how we represent our selves, and our identities, online.

I wonder how your average CSI fan interpretted this scene? Were they compelled to get a Twitter account? Or were their suspicions confirmed: the Internet is a dangerous place? While I oversimply this wonderfully poignant issue, I am reminded of the first investigator's comment after his partner shares the notion of valuing openness: "whatever." Oh dear....