DML2015 Ignite Talks - Anna Smith & Antero Garcia
0Although it's all the fashion to paint the learning happening in schools with a thick, broad brush labelled "disconnected, dated and dreary," thousands of teachers are working with youth in ways that defy these characterizations. They are working within and against "the machine" to make their classrooms connected, and the learning in them rich with social, iterative, academic and thoughtful creation, construction, hacking and playing. This Ignite will pack in as many examples of these inspiring connected classrooms as we can to spotlight and celebrate specific teachers and their expansive approaches to contemporary composition and literacies, such as Jack Zangerle and his students who are studying the moves of argument by constructing interest-driven contemporary public service announcements; Erin Klein and her students who are building augmented realities to understand multiple perspectives in texts; Kevin Hodgson and his students who are designing games with rich narratives; Aram Kabodian who is working with his students to use social media to be social activists working to humanize otherwise stereotyped individuals in their community; Gail Desler and her Kindergarten students who are interrogating what it means to be a fellow global citizen when engaging with strangers online. The list continues from transmedia storytelling to coding to youth participatory action research to...You catch the drift. It will be fast-paced yet articulate, inspiring and fun. We will also make sure to represent a range of ages, school designs and demographics, locales and approaches. (And if we can get the metaphors right, there may even be a few call-and-response Star Wars sound effect moments.)