Very intriguing video. I
thought that his reference to how the census changed the way people
acted and the process actually changed the culture was powerful; and
once these changes begin to happen, everything changes and people can't
"opt out". Some of the ways the village and villagers changed were:
names became more formalized, the blueprint of the housing layout was
modified, the way people interacted and resolved conflict changed as
well. It was astounding and a little scary to see how quickly these
changes in people and around the village people happened- not over a
generation, but within a few years. The way they dealt with each other,
their relationships changed. This had been an integral part of their
way of life and the new process of census taking changed it.
This makes me think about life before computers and smart phones. I remember when I used to have to be tethered to my home or campus dorm room in order to type on my typewriter/word processor. Now I can bring my smaller and more powerful laptop anywhere. I can communicate just about instantaneously when I need to do so. Work time and leisure time used to have more of a separation, but now, we can work from almost anywhere. People can reach each other anytime- which has both benefits and drawbacks. I think because the lines of work and home time have been blurred, that at times these relationships suffer. I also think that some of our young people who may have never experienced being out of this technology all around us life may have difficulty with person to person relationships, collaboration and just knowing what to do with "down time" or being with one's self.
Alternatively, our young people can be very adept in gathering information and working quickly through tasks, we as educators just need to get out of our comfort zones of the lecture style of instruction, get used to the learning talk (versus a quiet classroom) and give students the chance to do some meaningful, thought provoking projects that require them to look at a problem, research it, work together, come up with a well thought out solution and present it in a meaningful and creative way via technology and or written/oral methods. One of my grade levels is starting a research unit. I introduced an alternative form of presenting the information by doing a digital story. The reception was very positive from three out of the four teachers. The last teacher is very traditional and couldn't quite wrap her head around deviating from the regular oral report. We're working on it, though. I think if we do some modeling for her, she will be less anxious about this possibility.
This makes me think about life before computers and smart phones. I remember when I used to have to be tethered to my home or campus dorm room in order to type on my typewriter/word processor. Now I can bring my smaller and more powerful laptop anywhere. I can communicate just about instantaneously when I need to do so. Work time and leisure time used to have more of a separation, but now, we can work from almost anywhere. People can reach each other anytime- which has both benefits and drawbacks. I think because the lines of work and home time have been blurred, that at times these relationships suffer. I also think that some of our young people who may have never experienced being out of this technology all around us life may have difficulty with person to person relationships, collaboration and just knowing what to do with "down time" or being with one's self.
Alternatively, our young people can be very adept in gathering information and working quickly through tasks, we as educators just need to get out of our comfort zones of the lecture style of instruction, get used to the learning talk (versus a quiet classroom) and give students the chance to do some meaningful, thought provoking projects that require them to look at a problem, research it, work together, come up with a well thought out solution and present it in a meaningful and creative way via technology and or written/oral methods. One of my grade levels is starting a research unit. I introduced an alternative form of presenting the information by doing a digital story. The reception was very positive from three out of the four teachers. The last teacher is very traditional and couldn't quite wrap her head around deviating from the regular oral report. We're working on it, though. I think if we do some modeling for her, she will be less anxious about this possibility.
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