Sixth Sense Technology

2D computing isn't quite sixth sense
After looking at upcoming sixth sense technologies, seamlessly linking the digital world with the 'real' world, I notice even more how ergonomically awkward our laptops are. Here's a creative way my students tried to overcome the digital divide this week.

Wikiwise?
Ever had a great lesson and then thought to go one better? In the past I'd given groups of students key terms from a new unit and set them off to write how they answered a key question for the unit. We then used these to think, rethink and rewrite with some great results. So, this year I think why not build a wiki right from the start! We can build in the links to the words and links to more ideas...it'll be boundlessly amazing. I set about arranging everything in great detail and off we went. The server was running slow, the groups were confused, the process was misleading...pretty soon there were squabbling students and a grumpy teacher with the timer running and me screaming, "Hurry!!!" And the thinking and writing was so awful I couldn't begin to see a way to work on it. The next day we moved on to something else. Note to self, don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. In my haste to make the product better, I lost the process with predictable results.

Email me
Why didn't I think of this before? One of the bonuses of taking a class with teachers is the new ideas you pick up. This week Jeff asked us to research and email him an answer by a certain time. We were racing to get that info-packed email in on time. How about sixth graders? I posed a question, gave some hints where to look and projected my inbox and the deadline. They raced to the task, eagerly watching my inbox and waiting for my email reply. And we're sitting in the same room! I've had them save documents in past to a common location on a public server, but something about the email format really ticked. Thanks for a great idea! Still trying to build up the courage to try opening a forum for chatting during class. Ever tried it with sixth graders?

Etherial

This week I add Matthew Taylor's blog to my reader. As chief executive of the Royal Society of the Arts, he's blogging as he works on his annual speech on the mission of the group: 21st Century Enlightenment. If you like TED talks but occasionally find them a bit processed, check out the RSA. If you're a humanities teacher, even better.

His thinking so far already encapsulates what I am only beginning to aspire to as a Humanities teacher. Granted it's only g6 but as we study early humans, what can we discover about who we are as humans? And then as we study early settlements and the beginnings of agriculture and civilization, what do we discover about our incredible abilities to adapt to and advance in changing environments? Both of these questions offer insight for the future. If only I could be half as articulate as he is!

The 21st century enlightenment recognises that human fulfilment must be pursued on the foundations set by human nature and within the finite limits of the natural world. Human efficacy is about understanding and adapting to those limits, not accepting less than we are capable of, but neither believing that we can ignore or defy who we are as a species and the world we occupy.

This is not pessimism it is wisdom. For example, the amazing power of our conscious mind can only be fully realised when we recognise that rational choice is only a part of what makes up our nature and drives our behaviour.

At the heart of 21st century enlightenment lies the ideal of sustainable citizenship; the way we must live to create the future we want. Combining the values of civic republicanism, the fast developing science of social behaviour and an enthusiasm for innovation in the public realm, the central quest of the 21st century enlightenment is for the ways of thinking, the forms of action and the types of institutions that will foster sustainable citizenship.

If only I could think of any comment to post on his blog. Any ideas?