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Earn money for good causes doing web searches

You can earn money for your favorite charity with every web search. One option is Goodsearch, which donates 50% of its revenue to the charities and schools designated by its users…You use GoodSearch exactly as you would any other search engine (it’s powered by Yahoo!).  The money GoodSearch comes from its advertisers.

A better model still may be Search Kindly. It’s a state-recognized non-profit corporation, which donates all of its advertising revenue to charity and allows users to select the charity that wins a monthly grant. It uses Google as the underlying search engine.

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The school as social center

What did Dewey mean when he imagined the school as social center of the community and as a site for building a democratic society? How is that different from just teaching history and government, or discussing the local newspaper in class? Are there any schools today that realize Dewey’s vision?

Dewey articulated these ideas in an early speech called “The School as Social Center.” He recognized even then that there were dramatic innovations in transportation & communication, the relaxation of social discipline & control, the growing need for knowledge in all affairs of life, and the need for lifelong learning. As a result, he saw the need to change the image of what constitutes citizenship and therefore the image of the purpose of the school. These ideas are developed more in an excellent new book called Dewey’s Dream.

One implication of this perspective is the creation of community schools, many of which are allied through the Coalition for Community Schools. Through that network, individuals and organizations share work on “education K-16, youth development, community planning and development, family support, health and human services, government and philanthropy.”

Other implications are to move beyond elitist models of service and to focus on reflective transformation of ourselves and our own organizations:

the creation of public spaces can be a seedbed for productive, pluralist, citizen-owned politics in an age of gated communities and privatized resources. We need to change the now dominant view of civic learning as community service or service learning, if we are to develop the political sensibilities of our students. Organizing involves understanding education as about transformation, the “reworking” of ourselves and our contexts. An organizing approach is what we need to develop, if we are to think and act politically. (Boyte, 2003)

A project at the Pedro Albizu Campos High School in Chicago is an excellent example of what Dewey meant. It embodies the community school idea, as well as ideas urban agriculture projectof transformation and collaborative inquiry to address community needs. In this case, “seedbed” has a literal meaning as well.

The project (Urban Agriculture in the Context of Social Ecology) began as a way for students to learn science with hands-on investigations of hydroponics and soil-based gardening. It has since expanded to include the study of urban agriculture, community wellness, and economic development. For example, students will grow the ingredients needed for salsa de sofrito, such as tomatoes, onions, garlic, green bell peppers, ajíes dulces, oregano, cilantro, and other spices. Growing these and making the sauce will afford a deeper understanding of their cultural heritage. Bottling and selling the sauce will contribute to community economic development as well as affording an understanding of economics and food processing.

See The Quill greenhouse project in Hartford.

References

Benson, Chris, & Christian, Scott (Eds.) (2002). Writing to make a difference: Classroom projects for community change. Teachers CP. Projects in which young people write for community change.

Benson, Lee, Harkavy, Ira, & Puckett, John. (2007). Dewey’s dream: Universities and democracies in an age of education reform. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

Boyte, Harry Chatten (2003). A different kind of politics: John Dewey and the meaning of citizenship in the 21st century. The Good Society, 12(2), 1-15.

Dewey, John (1902, October). The school as social center. The Elementary School Teacher, 3(2), 73-86.

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Messing about in technology

If we were to establish a hall of fame for reflective writing about teaching, especially for texts revealing deep, yet accessible ideas about pedagogical theory/practice, it would be difficult to find better candidates than “Messing About in Science” by David Hawkins (1965). The paper describes his work in a fifth-grade class teaching about pendulums as part of the Elementary Science Study, which grew out of his discussions with Eleanor Duckworth, another insightful science educator. Although the study was grounded in a specific setting, the ideas might be applied to any subject of study or types of learners, including learning about and with digital technologies.

Phases in science learning

Hawkins identifies three patterns, or phases, of school work in science. These phases induce different relations among children, materials of study, and teachers. If we substitute “mentors” or “colleagues” for “teachers,” we see that they apply fairly well to science work itself and to other kinds of learning and work. That’s not so surprising, given that the essence of the phases is that the form of inquiry in science is not that different from the form of inquiry in learning. In fact, Hawkins prefers the term “work” over “play” in his model, even though it might appear that he’s just arguing for allowing children to have time to play.

Hawkins has in mind the kind of work one might do on a boat, citing the famous passage by in The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame (1908):

“Believe me, my young friend”, said the water rat solemnly, “there is nothing…absolutely nothing…half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing…nothing seems really to matter, that’s the charm of it. Whether you get away or whether you don’t; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you’re always busy, and you never do anything in particular…”

slipping pennies into water

(Slipping pennies into water in an investigation of surface tension, in a school in Brisbane; note the name tape on the forehead!)

Hawkins discovered that in order to learn in science we need ample time to “mess about.” Because it may appear that we don’t “get anywhere at all,” this phase is often neglected and undervalued. Thus, he devotes most of his article to the circle (◯) or “messing about” phase, in which learners engage in “free and unguided exploratory work” (p. 67).

In the pendulum study, Hawkins had planned to allow the children to explore for an hour or two, before getting into the science lesson per se. But he soon discovered that they needed more time to become familiar with the materials. Moreover, the materials provided a structure to their investigations. Their messing about was far from chaotic or undirected. In fact, as they messed about they began to generate the very questions that the lesson was intended to address, but in a way that was more involved, and connected to their direct experience.

Hawkins goes on to describe two additional phases, which he sees as essential, but more often included in science teaching. The triangle (△) phase, involves “multiply programed material” to support work that is “more externally guided and disciplined” (p. 72). The square (▢) phase is for “discussion, argument, and the full colloquium of children and teacher” (p. 74). The phases are unordered, and all are important. Learning in science requires the opportunity to experience al of the phases in a connected way, and to move easily among them.

Franz and Papert (1988) build on Hawkins’s ideas in a paper about students learning how to measure time. They argue that using computers well for learning requires

open-ended projects that foster students’ involvement with a variety of materials; …activities in which students use computers to solve real problems; …[connection of] the work done on the computer with what goes on during the rest of the school day, and also with the students’ interests outside of school; …[recognizing] the unique qualities of computers; …[taking advantage of] ow-cost technological advances…, which promote integration of the computer with aspects of the students’ physical environment.

Youth community informatics

In our Youth Community Informatics project, middle-school students make podcasts of stories important in their lives. Their work (learning) appears to follow the models we see in the pendulum and time projects, especially in terms of the value of messing about. They need time to explore, experiment, and become comfortable with the technologies.

In the project, young people select images from the web, scan in family photos, create graphics, find and download music, create audio files, edit audio using Audacity, and create presentations. They learn about copyright and citing sources, as well as about design and story-telling. More importantly, they use the podcasts as a way to connect with and talk about their families and their lives outside of school.

Like Hawkins, we see the value of guided inquiry (△) and of full colloquium (▢) in this work, but we have seen increasingly the need for ample time to mess about (◯) as well. Doing that allows students to make the technology part of their lived experience and not something divorced from it.

References

Hawkins, David (1965). Messing about in science. Science and Children, 2(5), 5-9.

Franz, George, & Papert, Seymour (1988, Spring). Computer as material: Messing about with time. Teachers College Record, 89(3), 408-417.

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The Quill greenhouse project in Hartford

Tending the plants Tending plants in the greenhouse Writing at the one Apple II computer Writing at the one Apple II computer

The images here are from 25-year-old 35 mm slides, so they’re not very clear, but the story is still relevant.

In 1982-84 I did some work with the Mary Hooker elementary school in Hartford, CT. We had developed a computer program called Quill, which allowed children to write and send email. Our test classroom at the school was taught by Jim Aldridge, who learned a week before classes started that he was to teach 6th, not 3rd, grade, was to work with the local garden club on a greenhouse project, and was to be a test site for Quill.

Jim’s class had 35 students, all from Puerto Rican, Cuban, and African-American backgrounds. There was a high level of transiency. Some students spent large portions of the winter in Puerto Rico; others simply didn’t come to school. The school was under-resourced and had policies such as requiring students to specify in advance how many sheets of toilet paper they needed for a bathroom trip, since students weren’t trusted with full paper rolls.

As a fairly new teacher, Jim was naturally a bit concerned. We worked out a way to use the Quill Planner feature for students to do lab reports on the plants in the greenhouse. This at least made the innovations more manageable. As things settled down, we found that the greenhouse became a focal point for learning. Several students who were on the verge of dropping out stayed in the class so they could work with the greenhouse and the computer. Some of this work is described in Electronic Quills: A Situated Evaluation of Using Computers for Writing in Classrooms (B. C. Bruce & A. Rubin; pub: Erlbaum, 1993).

It’s exciting to see how far we’ve come with similar projects today, such as Urban Agriculture in the Context of Social Ecology at the Pedro Albizu Campos High School in Chicago, which exemplifies the idea of the school as social center.

Seed packets and Planner notes
Seed packets and Planner notes		 GreenhouseGreenhouse
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Writing for a Change

As you all may know, the campus has an effort, led by Libbie Morley, to establish a National Writing Project site here. There will be an opening reception at Levis Faculty Center on April 3.

Among the materials we’re reviewing prior to submitting a proposal for the site is a new book, Writing for a Change: Boosting Literacy and Learning Through Social Action, edited by Kristina Berdan et al. (Jossey-Bass, 2006). It reflects a collaboration between the National Writing Project and the Centre for Social Action at De Montfort University in Leicester, England. I was struck in reading it how close the goals of an NWP site could be to what we’re doing with Community Informatics.

Below is an abstract, although it doesn’t do justice to the social action dimension as shown in the book:

Writing for a Change shows teachers how to engage students in “real world” problem-solving activities that can help them to acquire voice, authority, and passion for both reading and writing practice. Written in collaboration with the Center for Social Action in England, the book describes the innovative Social Action process for encouraging students to collaborate on problems of their own choosing—to analyze options, develop action plans, discover solutions, and finally to reflect on their work. Featuring stories by teachers who have successfully used the method, the book shows that first graders as well as high-school students can enjoy this exciting and educational process. Practical guidance for applying the process to any curricular area is provided along with an extensive list of classroom activities.

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We Make the Road by Walking

I’ve been reading We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change, by Myles Horton & Paulo Freire (Temple University Press, 1990). I was reminded of it by Patrick Berry. If you haven’t read it, I recommend it highly. Meeting at a conference in 1987, Freire had invited Horton to join with him in “speaking a book.” The result is essentially a transcript of their lively and provocative conversations.

One section especially caught my interest. It’s called “Is it possible just to teach biology?” As Freire asks, “Is it possible to discuss, to study the phenomenon of life without discussing exploitation, domination, freedom, democracy, and so on?” As I expected, neither one answers “yes”; they reject the idea of neutrality in teaching anything. Many people might read that as advocating the imposition of one’s own ideas on others. But both Horton and Freire talk about sharing their ideas in a way that shows how they actually create more space for students to disagree, or to find their own path to greater understanding. They create a space in which everyone comes to a richer understanding of the subject at hand.

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Tour of Paseo Boricua during AERA

speaker

John Dewey Society Sponsored Off-Site Program

Date: Wednesday, April 11

Time: 4:30 p.m. – 9:30 pm

Location: Puerto Rican Cultural Center, 2739-41 W. Division Street

Cost: $30 (includes bus transportation, program, and dinner)

Transportation: A bus will collect participants from the front of the Fairmont Chicago hotel at 4:30 p.m. and return there at 9:30 p.m.

Paseo Boricua, with its motto of ‘live and help others to live’ is renowned for its multigenerational and holistic community activism around human rights and social change and, in particular its model of learning in which ‘the community is the curriculum.’ With its many academic partnerships, Paseo Boricua also provides an outstanding example of university-community collaboration in research, teaching and public engagement.

The one-hour tour will visit the Puerto Rican Cultural Center and key organizations in the neighborhood, including the community library and media center, the Family Learning Center, Café Teatro Batey Urbano, and the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School. The tour is followed by dinner and a program presented by the National Boricua Human Rights Network: “Political Repression and Human Rights in the Puerto Rican Context.” Special speakers at the program include Dr. Luis Nieves Falcon, noted sociologist and educator who has played a leading role in the campaign to free Paseo Boricua’s political prisoners.

Organizers: Bertram (Chip) Bruce, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, chip@uiuc.edu; Laura Ruth Johnson, Northern Illinois University (lrjohnson@niu.edu); Alejandro Luis Molina, National Boricua Human Rights Network and Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School (alejandro@prcc-chgo.org); and José E. López, Executive Director, Puerto Rican Cultural Center.

Please RSVP to Chip Bruce: chip@uiuc.edu; 217.244.3576

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Pragmatism in Romania

On September 26-29, 2007, the second international pragmatism conference will be held in Babes-Bolyai University, in Cluj-Napoca, Romania: The Philosophy of Pragmatism: Salient Inquiries. I’ve proposed speaking on the following:

From Hull House to Paseo Boricua: The Theory and Practice of Community Inquiry

The social settlement called Hull House provided services including kindergarten facilities, an employment bureau, an art gallery, libraries, a cooperative residence for working women, the first Little Theater in America, a Labor Museum, and a meeting place for trade unions. Hull House exemplified John Dewey’s version of pragmatism, requiring a faith in “the potentialities of human nature.” In our work on “community inquiry,” we have attempted to continue that spirit through social action projects in which a key question is “What happens when community members are not merely recipients of services, but as Dewey argues, become part of the process of authority?” The talk focuses on the theory of community inquiry and our work with Paseo Boricua (Chicago), a modern-day version of Hull House.

Map

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Libr@ries: Changing information space and practice

Libr@ries examines the social, cultural, and political implications of the shift from traditional forms of print-based libraries to the delivery of online information in educational contexts. Despite the central role of libraries in literacy and learning, research of them has, in the main, remained isolated within the disciplinary boundaries of information and library science.

 

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