“There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth, not going all the way, and not starting.” ~Buddha

We have read so many articles during this semester that I am almost overwhelmed as I begin to write this paper, wanting to be able to say something practical and yet also something profound and meaningful. I do not want to make the mistakes Buddha refers to on this road to truth…about technology, teaching, making/viewing movies and aesthetics. We have read about the foreign language of computers, the Zen of comics, the making of documentaries, the most beautiful experiment, the theft of learning, the friendly, welcoming attitude toward change, the and much, much more. We have had discussions about the need (or lack thereof) for teaching keyboarding skills in schools, whether there is a difference between “films” and “movies,” and if letting go of expectations is a good idea or not, the advantages and disadvantages of on-line learning, and much, much more. In all of this, one question was asked by Punya that has stuck with me and I come back to quite often. His question, “What is the essence of CEP817?” For me, the essence of this course comes down to one word: process!

On Learning…about technology, about teaching, about making/viewing movies, aesthetics:

There are three main things I have learned from this course: 1) technology is a process; 2) there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to teaching with technology; and 3) making/using movies in teaching allows us to change the way we think about technology and life.

Technology is a process. The use of technology in the classroom is not new. We have been using technology in various forms for over a century. Technology is and always will be a moving target and therefore there are no “experts.” The mere nature of the word process implies that there is “something in development” and that the end product is not the focus, but rather the focus should be on the learning taking place through the process itself. I agree with this and live by it.

In my four and half years experience working with adults (with regard to technology) and specifically in the last two and half years working with teachers and technology, I have found that so many people think that they should just be able to take a class and suddenly they will become technology literate. There seems to be a misconception that simply by taking a class (okay, a class or two or even three) or putting a laptop computer into the hands of teachers (the TTI Program) that teachers would instantly become knowledgeable about and then integrate the technology within their curriculum. Let me say this very loudly. TECHNOLOGY IS A PROCESS! Process implies time. There needs to be a consistent effort made to learn new technologies (taking classes is a great start) and then a persistent effort made to understand the effects of technology on the learning process. Finally, there needs to be a passion for learning, with or without technology. Combining consistent effort, persistent effort and passion is a winning combination when it comes to technology. I am reminded of the poem that Punya posted in one of the Power Point presentations:

There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to technology. So many people like those that Postman talks about in “The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School” (1995) think that technology is some kind of God (capital G), that it can be the “be all, end all” answer to their teaching problems. It cannot be the only answer, even if it is a good answer. Technology offers choice and it offers many affordances for both learning and teaching (Wallace, MSU 2000.) Wallace discusses four affordances for learning, including: representation, information, transformation and collaboration. She also defines five affordances for teaching, including: boundaries, stability, and authority, pedagogical content and disciplinary context. When technology is added to a lesson for the sake of adding technology, without much thought given to whether or not it will enhance student learning, then technology is not a good answer.

Making/using movies in teaching allows us to change the way we think about technology and life. One of my classmates (Tim) wrote in a journal entry, “What's on the tape, stays on the tape, and provides students with a lifelong artifact, so that what they offer finally to the potential viewing audience will most likely be their best effort—‘giving themselves’ to the camera. Movies are magical to most of us as adults, and even more so to those people who occupy the chairs in our classrooms. The chance to actually participate in the making of a movie, I truly believe, would be strongly embraced by the kids.” I agree that movies are magical for many, if not most of us and to have an opportunity to make a movie is an extraordinary and magical experience. Through making movies, we are asked to consider not only what we see, but what others will see as well. This is the tricky part because each person who views the movie will be impacted in his/her own unique way. As the movie-maker, we must open our own eyes to all of the possibilities and rely on our instincts and the experience of others to create the movie which sends the message we wish to deliver.

On the process:

Our group, “Four for Film” collectively decided that we wanted to make a movie that would make a profound statement. At first, as we were given the guidelines for the PhD project, we were not sure what kind of topic would suit us. After viewing the films from David Wong and some of his students, Kurt had a tremendous burst of ideas and we literally went through his list of thirty some odd items one at a time, discussing the merits of each idea. We ended up deciding that a movie about civil rights was what we wanted to do. Of course, that is a hugely broad topic and we quickly found ourselves being faced with narrowing this to something that would make one, single, profound statement. This was not an easy task and took many lengthy discussions until we finally agreed that what we wanted to convey is the idea that we live in this great country where a man named Martin Luther King worked very hard and lost his life over civil rights for blacks and yet, almost forty years later we still have civil rights issues. This is so fragile. Where will we go from here? Is his dream being deferred today as we watch Muslims in this country now suffer from the same type of civil rights infringement?

We knew we wanted to use portions of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, but we also knew we did not want the focus to be on King, rather on what is happening today in our country. We initially thought about making this sort of a history lesson, using a timeline of the evolution of various civil rights issues. That idea was squelched as we realized that there was just too much information to include in a two minute film. Quite frankly, we were a bit dejected after first announcing our idea to the class and receiving some of the feedback we got. It was clear that our topic was very different than the other groups and the class did not seem to appreciate what we wanted to do. In retrospect, that was probably because we, as a group, were not totally cohesive on this yet either.
A cool thing happened though, at the end of that class session. Casey approached us and said she really did like our topic and then she shared what was happening to her in her classroom that directly related to what we were talking about. That was it! She was the missing piece for our film. We asked her if she would mind letting us film her telling her story. She agreed, with the condition of anonymity and we met one Saturday morning to do the filming. We used three different cameras so we were sure to get three different camera angles. This eliminated the need for moving the camera as we filmed her. We ended up having about fifteen minutes of film, which then needed to be edited. We met the next Saturday to begin this process.

Editing the film is a process in and of itself. We started by just looking at the tape and making notes of the pieces we thought might make good sound bites, keeping track of the start and end times on each piece. Once we had all of the footage we thought might be useful, we began to cut even more from there until we had about ninety seconds of film. Then, we took a closer look at the King speech, specifically looking for quotes that would fit well with Casey’s story and our overall message. We figured that with ninety seconds of film, plus some time for splicing in a few significant quotes from King’s speech, we would end up in the two to two and half minute range that we were given by Punya.
We also discussed whether or not we wanted or needed music for this film. Would it add to the message or detract? Would it evoke emotion? I found a copy of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” and we listened to it and read the lyrics. I liked this particular song because it was written in 1965, at the height of the civil rights movement and in the midst of much racial tension in the United States. I felt it was ironic then and I feel that the irony is still present today as we face the civil rights infringement of Muslims. We talked about using the music to fade into the first scene in the movie, but ultimately decided that we only really needed the last two ver ses to leave the audience (hopefully) with the thoughtful question, “Is this dream deferred?”