Procrastadabbler

Now that I’ve had a few days distance from AERA and my jangled noise assaulted nerves have been calmed by the chirping of spring birds (yes, the birds are arriving even here in frigid Rochberg), I’m able to reflect a bit on what I learned at AERA.

I was feeling badly because I didn’t go to that many sessions, but now I realize that the sessions I did go to were extraordinarily meaningful to me. From each one of them, I was able to pull something salient for my research and I was able to make connections with some excellent people. So, I conclude that in the end, conferences aren’t so much about going to lots of sessions, it’s about making connections either with ideas or people.

I’m feeling pretty good as an intellectual right now. I have something like five articles bubbling and people who are actually interested in them. That’s really thrilling. The key is that I have to follow through, and I am determined to do so.

In terms of ideas, what came out of AERA is that I need to continue to thinking about the nature of participation in various literacies practices. First, I want to move away from the dichotomy of new/old literacies. I don’t think that conversation is production anymore. We need to consider them all literacies with the understanding that they represent different social practices and different modes. But we also need to understand how we move between and amongst and through the various modes and how those modes support one another. We also need to move beyond romanticized notions of what youth are doing outside of school. Yes, some are doing totally cool stuff, but not everyone is. Jenkins model of the participation gap is becoming more important to me. It’s the practices and the implications of those practices that are important.

It’s also illuminated some issues for me in terms of teacher education as well. I’ve often railed that undergrads lack intellectual curiosity and that they are more interested in the grade than learning. And I recognized that it’s the way they’ve been socialized. Michele Knobel talked about how learning in the digital world involves “mucking about” and “seeing what happens” but schooling does not permit this to happen. My students get very uncomfortable when I tell them to experiment, to just try things, to figure things out. They’ve been socialized by our rubricated world to want to know exactly what is expected. I don’t blame them; I blame the system. I wish I could do a better job of creating a safe learning environment where they can break through that socialized fear, at least for a short time.

I’m feeling energized and excited about my writing projects. A little frightened to be honest by the sheer volume of what I want to accomplish. I fear I’m trying to do too much. I’m also feeling hopeful about my teaching. My desire is to be able to have my teaching and writing be symbiotic.

AERA=Good

even if I didn’t recognize it at the time.