Greeting for the First Day of our Teacher Academy Program in Summer, 2013.
http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=7518198&height=267&width=200
周杰伦 公公偏头痛：
Uncategorized
Critical Reflection on Creative Activism
Whenever we hear the word activism, we typically associate it with some political or social issues.
Activism is the doctrine or practice of vigorous action or involvement as a means of achieving political or other goals, sometimes by demonstrations, protests, etc. (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/activism)
And if we prefix it with ‘creative’, we tend to associate it with creative people, such as filmmakers, photographers, artists, designers, digital media practitioners etc. (http://www.creativeactivism.net/about/)
For our team project, I was trying to identify something other than the above stereotypes. I wanted it to be more appealing to our everyday life, for everyone, something reasonably easy to achieve. I like Dr. Crissman’s BlueBird House inspiration, and I appreciate our fellow classmates’ Arbor Day initiative.
The Reversed Graffiti is a scalable idea. It can be as huge as what we saw from the Google Search results:
Or, as manageable as cleaning a neighborhood’s abandoned wall, kind of like Candy Chang’s ‘Before I die‘ wall in New Orleans. (http://candychang.com/before-i-die-in-nola/)
The other idea that I had was inspired by a popular video ‘where the hell is Matt‘. The creative activism of which is dancing badly with Matt. What attracted me most about this idea is that one does not have to be a good dancer so that everyone can be comfortable participating.
I think Matt did a good job connecting with different cultures around the world. So next time when I travel, I might just follow his footstep and try to do this silly dance with the local people, to make our interaction more meaningful and fun. Imagine… if half of the travelers around the world would do this on a daily basis, what will that be like….?… !! Maybe, world peace will not just be a Miss America’s slogan.
In the process of making the video documentary, I pushed myself to try different things. First of all, the very uncomfortable (to me) selfie – my arms are simply not long enough to take in a better view. I was simply not able to film myself doing the scrubbing work. I had to make some decision while cutting out most of the uncomfortable scenes and keeping just a few seconds of the remaining. Secondly, in iMovie, I tried to edit a sequence of my ‘artwork’ to illustrate the time lapse (i.e. waiting overnight). It was a great learning opportunity for experimenting the video functions. I was getting more comfortable with iMovie, and did not encounter too much difficulty. I was happy with the end result. Check it out and let me know what you think – http://youtu.be/dadD1QMR3rs?t=51s
Critical Reflection on Meaning
‘Meaningfulness’ is the element that makes something interesting, and thus, adds value.
When I was working on the Roots and Wings project, images of the videos that I took in my classes flashed back. It struck me that those were the ‘play’ moments Thomas and Brown were referring to that brings out so much energy to share knowledge and to participate. I found a good use of those old clips where they add meaning the point I was making.
The series of Web 2.0 tools that I included in the project were from one of the training programs that I presented. The intention of incorporating them in my bookcast video is to make a point that these tools are abundant, that we cannot possibly teach every one of them nor do we need to. The students are developing the skills to learn new tools on their own. From the comments during studio time, I realized that I made a common error of forgetting ‘more is not necessarily better’.
‘JDLR’ is another comment I got that referred to the bullet points that I used to showcase the 3 key points of my book response. I thought about adding pictures or video to convey the 1. play, 2. how to fish, and 3. collectives, but the schedule did not allow me to do so. However, had I been able to, I would probably still keep the text and the imagery. A visual-and-text combo is what I, personally, need to learn and remember. Whether I am reading a book, listening to a speech, watching a TED talk, it helps me when I scribble notes to register the key points into my head. When I hear a new word that people use, my typical reaction is ‘how do you spell that?‘ Then I will air-write it on my palm to ‘see’ the text, because it helps me remember it. That is the same reasoning when I decided to have 3 simple slides of key bullet points. Adding some imagery alongside would be a good idea.
Understanding the connection of meaning and creativity, I would like to share with you some of my favorite Meaningful Creativity from Art and Design.
Reflection on Metaphor
‘Catching up is no fun! Do not ever get yourself in the catch-up mode!’ I always give this advice to my student. So if nothing else, I should know.
The worst is the anxiety. It is so powerful as if it comes with saber-tooth and it chews up all traces of creativity and patience, but mischievously deposits a sense of panic.
Anxiety!
It was under such emotion I started looking for Photoshop. I actually had a silhouette of what I wanted to compose for the project, but was struggling for the semantics of what a metaphor is. I looked it up. I had no trouble differentiating metaphors and similes. I can comfortably recite some of the classic metaphors, Life is a journey. America is a melting pot. It seems that metaphors usually have a verb in the phrase. So can it be a metaphor without a verb? Yes! I was happy to find Joe the Plumber on the top 10 metaphors in 2008! And Prince Charming is also a bona fide metaphor. A relief. My Imperial Doctor ‘Wen Tai Yi’ is a legitimate metaphor.
My next challenge is to make my product interesting and effective, to compensate the lacking of photo-editing elements. I would tell a story, with a beginning, a middle and an end, in an interesting way. I collected all the essential ingredients and verified their Creative Commons attribution.
I usually don’t seem to have any problem coming up with ideas. But I seem to encounter road blocks when it comes to implementation and using new tools. That is, actually, quite ironic. I always consider myself a 21st Century teacher who embraces technology, and has no trouble learning something new. But when it comes to Photoshop (which is not only a new tool, but an extreme tool), the YouTube Tutorials are no longer enough. I needed the time, and a More Knowledgeable One in a Zone of Proximal Development as suggested by the Social Development Theory by Vygotsky.
MKO / ZPD
My technological attention shifted to iMovie which I used briefly approximately two years ago. Relearning should have a lesser curve, I was optimistically calculating. Once I got the ‘distractions’ out of the way, I was able to indulge in the creative process. It took me around six hours to put all the elements together in a way that I am happy with.
So advice from me to me: do not put myself in a catch up mode again.
Lost in Metaphors (belated)
A couple of months ago when we were discussing Chinese idiomatic stories and Chinese metaphors in my high school class, I used some of the commonly used English ones as examples. My students looked at me as if I were speaking Martian when I mentioned the phrase don’t throw the baby out with bath water! Their expression went from puzzlement, to horror, to disgust, to doubt .. well, that was quite common. Since English is my second language, when they do not understand me, one of their habitual reaction is that I say it wrong. Some of them quickly did a search online, and was still confused or even more terrified because they somehow left out the ‘don’t’ in the phrase.
Don’t throw baby out with the bath water!
We eventually burst out laughing about it. But the really funny thing is they have absolutely never heard of the phrase!
As I went on to bring in the second one, there was another round of disagreements and laughter. And, of course, more Google Search. They insisted that it actually meant, literally, the cats and dogs were being dropped from heaven when it rained! And they found a picture to prove it!
Raining cats and dogs!
This was what they found: Raining animals is a rare meteorological phenomenon in which flightless animals “rain” from the sky.
This was what I found: raining very heavily. However, the etymology was slightly different than what I used to envision… dripping cats and dogs on the streets during a heavy down pour which is so heavy that even the poor creatures have nowhere to hide.
Nonetheless, we have this gap in literacy that a good representation of students today do not know/appreciate/understand these metaphors? how did the gap occur? These metaphors sound very ‘foreign’ to these post-90’s teenagers! They either have not heard of it, or have a different understanding of the metaphors. Is it an issue with the education (an easy target for criticism)? Retrospectively speaking, I did not learn neither one of these phrases in school, I learned them from TV or reading, then I looked them up in a dictionary or asked the native speakers about them. We all say that information is ubiquitous nowadays, then… what has happened to learning?
I believe that it is the attitude. I recently read a posting that goes something like this:
It is the mindset that drives one’s attitude,
the attitude drives the behaviors,
the behavior drives the habits,
the habits drives the personality,
and the personality drives one’s lifetime!
So what is the ‘mindset’, how is it formed, can it be influenced, are we born with it, do we acquire it? I don’t have an answer to these questions. What I do know is that in Chinese culture (does not mean that it is correct, I am just sharing what I know) , we do not speak of ‘mind’, but we speak of ‘heart’. We believe that everything, i.e. thoughts, desires, dreams, decisions, etc., originates from our ‘heart’, not in terms of the physical organ, but by a metaphorical inference. ‘Heart’ is what gives one’s livelihood. e.g. Home is wherever one’s heart is.
So if our ‘hearts’ are not in the right place, then we will not have the attitude we need for positive behaviors or productive habits to determine our lives. I can reiterate this message to my students till the cows come home, but for some of them, they have very apparent priorities that go the other directions. So in the end of the day, the best that we, as educators, can do is to lead a horse to the water but we cannot make it drink.
… cannot make the horse drink unless it wants to.
Food Truck Vendors Segment Reflection
The Food Trucks report on the Live Radio Show was an opportunity for our team to embrace the aptitude of Symphony, i.e. balance, symmetry, harmony, unity, in our final products.
How is my ability to put together the pieces?
Brainstorming for an overarching topic was a lot fun. As soon as the Food Trucks topic was decided, we sprang into action, and pretty much had just the weekend to produce our artifacts. Preference and Courtney are pro’s who seemed to know exactly what to do and started making things happen while I was still contemplating how and when to meet up with which vendors for the Vendors Segment of the show. I tried my luck with the first truck that came on campus the next day as I was pulling out of the parking lot heading toward my afternoon classes on a different campus. However my limited time did not allow me to talk to the vendor in great details, we decided on a phone interview the next day.
Relying on social media for marketing and promoting.
It was then I found out that iPhone prohibits audio-recording while a phone call is taking place. I had to bring my iPhone really close to my Mac, and then start up Audacity to record. The audio quality inevitably suffered via the two hops (from cell phone to ), although if you listen very carefully, you can still hear most of the content.
How is my ability to see the relationships between seemingly unrelated fields?
I once had a dream to be a radio host, only to be talked out of by a friend who commented that my voice is too ‘scattered’ to grab listeners’ attention on air. Even since then, I have had problem listening to my own voice on a recording. This whole segment about producing a Radio Show was the opportunity for me to live my dream!
While editing the sound track on Audacity, I felt that I owed it to the vendors whom I interviewed to deliver something that reflects them truthfully, I wanted my product to be better than good.
Finding appropriate sound effects from http://www.freesound.org was quite successful. I was pleased to find the tune Taratata which I broke up and intertwined the pieces between the segments of Porchetta‘s interview. Because of the poor sound quality of the phone interview, I made the choice to use the happy tunes to advance the conversation, and did not include any background sound effects.
Ordering….
Learn Chinese while waiting for your order.
The proud vendor sharing the 100% Sanitation grade.
Frying dumpling, Steaming dumpling.
Did I invent something new by combining elements nobody else thought to pair?
Years of listening to NPR in my long commute days inspired me to begin the Chirba!Chirba! segment with a humorous tune I will follow him because I indeed email-stalked the vendor for two days to find out their whereabouts that Monday evening, and I followed him!
The business owner’s childhood in Taiwan prompted my mental search for a tune that is related to Taiwan. One of the songs I frequently use in my classes, Sorry, my Chinese is not good, popped into my head because the song opens with a Caucasian customer ordering dumpling from a vendor! I was also able to find sizzling audio and doing-dishes audio to be the background of the Chirba!Chirba! interview. When he was describing the pleating session as if it was a party, I dressed it up with a sound clip of people chatting at party.
At the end of the Chirba segment, I included a couple of sound effects of closing the door on the food truck and the revving engine as it was pulling away. Fade-in and fade-out were used sparingly. I adopted the reminiscing monologue to begin and end the segment.
I hope I have produced a unified and pleasing sound that successfully built a relationship between the audience and the food trucks.
My trusted tools for the Vendors segment: iPhone, Audacity, MacBook, and freesound.org!
what about design?
I first saw the poster in the local Apple store, and I fell in love with it instantly!
It reminds me of Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell.
Despite of being called genius, crazy ones, outliers…, these are individuals who are committed, engaged, and possess a great amount of perseverance! They don’t follow the status quo, they don’t follow the norm. But, they make a difference!
How would I make a difference…? By communicating effectively… via visual communication!
Design, to me, used to be an intuition,… at a moment,…. spontaneous. I knew I was missing something, but what?
St. Clair’s explanation of Visual Grammar and Visual Principles showed me a new perspective in understanding design. The Visual Space actually has its organization!
The discussion on the left and right hemispheres (note 2) helped me understand why left-brain dominant people sometimes have such difficulties understand the right-brain counterparts.
Gestalt claimed that human beings have the natural ability to organize images based on similarity, proximity and others. And mostly the interpretation can be drawn from personal experience and familiarity.
With these in mind, I am starting to see my surroundings differently now. To start off, my two favorite artists immediately came into focus, Kandinsky (1866-1944) and Mondrian (1872-1944). Their compositions portray a series of emphasis on colors, patterns, repetition, balance, …..
Kandinsky Pattern, Variety
Kandinsky was also an accomplished musician, he used color in a highly theoretical way associating hue with pitch, and saturation with the volume of sound. He even claimed that when he saw color he heard music.
Kandinsky – Variety, Unity
Mondrian Proportion, Rhythm
Mondrian believed it is possible that, through horizontal and vertical lines constructed with awareness, but not with calculation, led by high intuition, and brought to harmony and rhythm, these basic forms of beauty, supplemented if necessary by other direct lines or curves, can become a work of art.]
Mondrian – Rhythm, Irregular, Proximity,
Wright – Lines, Pattern, Harmony
In the same timeframe, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) also playfully employed straight lines and colors into his works.
Wright – Variety, Emphasis
As a teacher of the Chinese Language, I am more reminded of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences which suggested the natural intelligence of each individual determines how one best learns. It is critically important that my instructional design includes the variety of visual principles to aid my visual communication with the students. Particularly when it comes to explaining the etymology of the characters, I must draw their attention to the visual elements of each characters. Design, as Daniel Pink puts it, is utility enhanced by significance! … and I’ll be on my way to change the world!
The following two video clips explain the significance of understanding the etymology of characters for anyone who may be interested to know a little about Chinese characters.
Footnotes
Note 1: St. Clair explained that Visual Grammar distinguishes dot, line, shape, space, color, texture, value and form, and these elements are further arranged into Visual Principles of Unity/Harmony, Variety, Balance, Emphasis, Rhythm, Movement, Pattern, Graduaion and Proportion. Visual thinking is spatial thinking. Bicognitive refers to the ability in visual thinking as well as linear thinking. Arnheim noted that artistic expression is a form of reasoning.
Note 2: The left hemisphere is specialized for linear thinking, logic and analytical abilities. The right hemisphere is involved with concrete thinking, processing of spatial patterns relations and transformations. It appreciate the complexity in complex sounds, music, voices and tones, and face recognition. The right hemisphere is the imaginative and creative part of the brain.
Daily Create Reflection
Creativity is not a talent; it’s a way of operating. ~ Cleese
I have been told that I am very creative, resourceful and spontaneous.
I have only skimmed though the Csikszentmihalyi’s transformative theory of Flow and John Cleese on Creativity before I started the Daily Create activities. It’s not until after the 7th DC, I sat down again and watched these two video clips in greater detail.
After I finished watching them, I was able to reflect on the 7 DC’s that I completed. I was kind of glad that I did not watch the clips in detail in advance, otherwise, I would not have had the same realization that I had then. I would have been too purposefully trying and looking for all the fine points the two speakers made – it would have ruined the spontaneity in my creation.
You see, I am a ‘serious’ person when it comes to work and assignments. Somehow I have a clear distinction between work time vs. play time. Doing work with a playful mind is a big stride out of my comfort zone. This old baggage is mostly because of the choice of words. Growing up, I was taught that ‘play’ are what you do to relax and is never productive, whereas ‘work’ is productive. )
#1 tdc 359
Decision… Decision… (photographed by Joanne)
… start generating random connections, and allow your intuition to tell you if one might lead to something interesting. ~ Cleese
I took a few minutes to ponder the daily choices I have to make… Walking around in the kitchen trying to find inspiration, checking out the items in the refrigerator, moving from the kitchen into the garage… and saw a few of my crocs lying on the floor. I have over 10 pairs of crocs! And every morning I will decide which pair to wear. On some days, I may have a green on my right foot, and a yellow on my left foot. Running late … and do not have enough time to ponder.
#2 tdc 363
My most valued tools..! (photographed by Joanne)
… step back and contemplate the wider view. – Cleese
It did not take me long to have an idea about this prompt …. I AM a nerd and, in some ways, like to do certain things in an old fashioned way! I do not own a microwave oven. I use the regular pots-and-pans for reheating leftovers… just like my grandma. The first idea I had was actually my round-bottomed wok. It was when I started writing the idea down on a piece of scrap paper, I noticed the pencil and paper that I was using. YES! I still like to write myself a note with them. In fact, I worry about some of my students’ inability to write without using a keyboard.
So I might add… personal experience contributes greatly to being creative.
#3 tdc 364
Paired opposites… (photographed by Joanne)
it’s also easier to do little things we know we can do, than to start on big things that we’re not so sure about. ~ Cleese
“What happens if I do this? What would happen if we did that? What if…?” ~ Cleese
The ultimate opposite that came to my mind is black and white.
I have a black and white Border Collie.
I contemplated switching the two colors around, but quickly realized that I probably need Photo Shop to do that. After trying 30 minutes with the limited editing tools I have, I came to decide that I would switch out the background on the image.
#4 tdc 366
Happy Birthday, DC! …..(photographed by Joanne)
Intermediate Impossibles – try loosening up your assumptions by playing with deliberately crazy connections. ~ Cleese
Humor is an essential part of spontaneity, an essential part of playfulness, an essential part of the creativity… ~ Cleese
While pondering what I should portray, I decided that it would not be a regular celebratory item for birthdays or anniversaries. I wanted to highlight the objective of DC, and encourage the audience to participate in the creative process.
#5 tdc 367
A poem about Cats….. (written by Joanne)
Creativity is not possible in the closed mode. ~ Cleese
This DC prompt caused me the longest pondering time! I am a DOG person, not a cat person (although I do like Garfield and Hello Kitty)!
To help me loosen up, I started going through the checklist of the 5 conditions: Space, Time, Time, Confidence, Humor. I stumbled right there on #4:confidence and #5: humor ! I am not good in writing poems. In spite of maximum pondering time, this one did not turn out as I had hoped for.
#6 tdc 368
Is the background blurry…. nah….(photographed by Joanne)
When you’re playing, nothing is wrong. ~ Cleese
This is actually my first DC, as I started the assignments in the evening of Jan 10.
When I first read the description, my Closed Mode kicked in! I started to get a little tensed. My first thought was: I don’t have a real camera, nor a lens that can help me to blur the background. I went straight to the posted tutorial hoping to get some ideas. I then googled the topic ‘panning’ on iphone. I found a couple of articles about using the ‘panorama’ option to ‘pan’. I thought about standing on the street corner to photo the passing cars, but then scratch the idea because it was already too dark outside.
The rolling apple example gave me the idea of a rolling orange. Using the panorama feature on my iphone, I must have taken 50 different shots with different moving rates… only to find out later that panning is not ‘panorama’. But the bright side? I have learned how to use the panorama feature while taking a picture. Here I come, Great Wall, and Grand Canyon!
#7 tdc 371
Excuse …(written by Joanne)
Humor is a natural concomitant in the open mode, but it’s a luxury in the closed. ~ Cleese
Give your mind as long as possible to come up with something original. ~ Cleese
If writing is one of my worst skills, then humor is the runner up! This is an area that I could work on.
#8 tdc 372
My favorite place to work…(photographed by Joanne)
You must make a quiet space for yourself where you will be undisturbed. ~ Cleese
This is my favorite (& normal….) work space where I can spread thing out and be messy. But I know where things are…. The other quiet ‘space’ is when I lie down in bed at night, moments before falling asleeep … my mind will travel through n dimensions and sometime generates the most creative and productive ideas.
#9 tdc 374
Food, Glorious Food ….! (photographed by Joanne)
these new connections or juxtapositions are significant only if they generate new meaning. ~ Cleese
I like to cook. I like taking pictures of the food I cook or eat.
Having a Flickr account now gives me an idea to compile a ‘menu’. Whenever I offer to cook for someone, they can just go to this ‘menu’ and ‘order’ what they like to have.
#10 tdc 375
Bridge over fast-running water.. (sketched by Joanne)
Nothing will stop you being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake. ~ Cleese
….while you’re being creative, nothing is wrong. There’s no such thing as a mistake, and any drivel may lead to the break-through. ~ Cleese
I can’t draw!
Granted, in my class, I often doodle stick figures to make a point. And my students will laugh about them.. but the laugh also helps them recall the content. So is it the ‘Open Mode’ on their part such that the affective filter is lower and they are more relaxed to seize the learning moment?
Conclusion:
The very essence of playfulness is an openness to anything that may happen, the feeling that whatever happens, it’s okay…. ~ Cleese
In John Cleese’s speech, he described that Creativity occurs when one plays for one’s enjoyment. Though I don’t disagree, I would submit that if we enjoy our work so much that ‘working’ is just as much fun as ‘playing’, not only we would be highly creative, but we would also be in flow as suggested by Csikszentmihalyi’s seven indicators in his Flow theory.
Edward de bono, a pioneer in lateral thinking, described the PO tools of Intermediate Impossible, Random Juxtaposition, and Change without Rejection, which led to his later work of using the Six Thinking Hats method in communicating and establishing productive work teams.
You can act without certainty – your action might not be right in the absolute sense, but you are ready to “change it as soon as circumstances demand”. ~ De Bono
Joanne 老師 - Enabling the dreams of others . . . 