inquiryBITES

Avatar - watch with one eye closed

DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT THE ENDING REVEALED!

29 January - Update - for more analysis, commentary & opinion on the gender/race/colonising politics/themes of the film, go to Sociological Images (Thanks SRP for the link)

Update 2 - Another analysis on Avatar on the blog - As The Teaching Drum Turns blog.

Just a quick blog to start myself blogging again. Went to see Avatar on Christmas Eve with the kids. It was good. Everyone loved it. Everyone seems to love it. I guess I liked it. But there's a couple of ways I'm reading it - or maybe there's a few different perspectives I'm viewing it from.

The first view is that it was visually very good. You couldn't tell where the animated beings started and human beings ended. The "real landscape" which must have been animated because there are no landscapes like that on earth - was completely convincing.

The second view is that its probably a good text for students who are wondering about the experience of Indigenous people. There are two completely different world views/systems fighting for the same piece of land - they're are and always be completely incompatible. Yes, Invasion Day is coming up soon in Australia - so its kind of fitting - not a bad text for stimulating discussion.

The third and problematic view however is that, do we really need a whiteman to fix the problem again? Just like Dances with Wolves and a host of other movies I've seen. Or its like the movie where despite there being much more capable women & men in the landscape - apparently only this new dude is capable of saving the day? Its actually pretty offensive, though a popular Hollywood/Western theme.

Of course, most Indigenous people are still fighting have their sovereignty recognised and unlike the Avatar ending - there is no happy ending.

I supposed I liked it - but only with one eye closed.

A Must Read - Australian Critical Race & Whiteness Studies Association

Here is another selection for the other resource for the non-institutionally-affiliated-student or Life-Long Learner.

The Australian Critical Race & Whiteness Studies Association examines Whiteness in an Australian context, exploring the racialised nature of our country.

They hold regular conferences with a regular journal published that you can access from the website.

The Critical Classroom - A new space for learners/teachers

Well Lisa & I are starting a new blogging project - The Critical Classroom. Its still in development & I'll start getting the url out and about in a jiffy.

What is the Critical Classroom?
Is a space where we can work to share and develop resources for classroom teachers to foster critical thinking about embedding Indigenous perspectives into the classroom.

Who should participate?
Pretty much everyone - community, teachers, pre-service teachers, academics. Pretty much everyone.

What will it offer?
Posts, Links, Resources, Reviews.

Make the Critical Classroom an integral part of your PLN.

What about inquirybites?
I still love this space - it will be for those interesting bits & pieces that won't fit into The Critical Classroom - but are still interesting. I also share lots of links via my google reader, facebook and now my posterous blog.

10 Incredibly Inspiring Self-Taught Scholars - a lesson for all learners

Amber from Online Universities Weblog sent this link to 10 Incredibly Inspiring Self Taught Scholars this afternoon.

It made me think about how we as adult learners/teachers fail to engage with what we're learning/teaching and we underestimate the role of self-teaching. I gave a guest lecture yesterday at QUT for pre-service teachers. It was in one of those gigantic lecture theatres (you know the ones that are kind-of cost-effective because they fit all your first years, but don't really allow you to really connect?).

What I noticed though, is that the majority of the students were sitting up the back of the theatre and there were many not even present. What I wondered today as I was reflecting on yesterday, is "what kind of teachers will these learner make?"

If you're learning something because you "have to", because the university is "making you do it", then that's one heck of an uninspiring place to engage.

I've been guilty in the past of prefacing an upcoming lecture with a 'you just have to learn this because the course outline says you have to' statement. Thinking about that today, I can't believe that I would say something like that. How dare I influence another person's engagement with a topic simply because I've not bothered or had the energy to find a point of engagement.

I think that's the task - find a POINT OF ENGAGEMENT. A place where you can connect with the subject.

When I was teaching Indigenous Art, Protocols and Practices at Queensland College of Art, I would have many international students in my class struggling to understand concepts of appropriation of Aboriginal iconography and cultural knowledge. But I tried to relate it to their own culture. Many of the "Asian" students could understand cultural appropriation because they could see it in every second Hollywood blockbuster - where every leading man is a martial arts expert who had appropriated the surface of the art, removed it from its context and altered it.

This, relating the learning to your context is a POINT OF ENGAGEMENT. The students, many of whom would return to their countries and more than likely never engage with Indigenous Australians again, were able to connect with the course.

We can take a lesson from the inspiring self-taught scholars - find a POINT OF ENGAGEMENT. Something that draws you in to a subject and allows you to develop an intrinsic motivation to learn.

That's the kind of learner-teacher I'm trying to be.

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Knowlege & World Views in the Critical Classroom: a journey of on-going inquiry

These notes are to accompany a lecture given on 31st August, 2009 for pre-service education students enrolled in EDB007 Culture Studies: Indigenous Education (mid-semester) at Queensland University of Technology. This post can be conjunction with the slides on slideshare.net/leesawatego

So far in this semester, students have explored concepts such as standpoint, epistemologies, the power & privelege of knowledge.

In this lecture we expand these concepts, but also include the idea of the critical classroom & inquiry to highlight the importance understanding & incorporating different knowledges and world views into your practice.

In the past I've regularly used a quote by Gale about the impact of book on Indigenous readers. She states:

"books can be dangerous to Indigenous readers if they

• do not reinforce our values, actions, customs, culture and identity;
• when they tell us only about others they are saying that we do not exist;
• they may be writing about us but are writing things which are untrue; &
• they are writing about us but saying negative and insensitive things which tell us we are not good."

Re-reading this quote this morning, I've realised that above is most certainly true, but less true in a critical classroom. In a critical classroom, you're not just interested in "what the knowledge says" but "how did we get that knowledge in the first place".

A critical classroom expects a constant tenor of inquiry that questions and reflects on what is written/said, who wrote/said it and why.

Many parents of Indigenous children in Australian clasrooms do not see this idea of the critical classroom in practice. For many parents, the singing of the national anthem & the flag is problematic. In addition, many schools in Australia still only have a single flagpole (for the Australian flag).

What impact (for better & for worse) does our world view have on our education practice? How can we "alter" our practice to make it more effective?

Two examples in the key learning areas of art/SOSE and science show that it is possible to incorporate different ways of seeing into the everyday classroom, not just at NAIDOC week.

Some links for your PLN

On slideshare.net

• Kurt Love
• Tony Ward

A few blogs to get you started (not many of these are on "cultural studies" or "Indigenous education", but they're education blogs about transforming teaching practice in all areas)

• Ecology of Education
• Teach Paperless

Other stuff to add to your PLN

• Sir Ken Robinson's TED talk Schools Kill Creativity

 

Hey Super Geek! Have I got an untapped market for you!!!

Update 28th August, 2009 Have just found this blog. There is also a free e-book related to free-technology available from the website.

Are you a supergeek service?

You know, the kind that goes around fixing up ordinary folks computers? Or ordinary folk bring their stuff to you? And sometimes their problems are hardware, but quite often is software?

Do your customers struggle with the new-fangled things like that friend-book thingy or that twitter stuff that they've heard about on the news or read in the local paper?

Is this you??

Here's an untapped market - PARENTS OF SCHOOL CHILDREN.

I reckon there's an invisible wall between home & school in relation to technology and learning. You could be the link. Be able to answer questions like:

1) which kind of computer I should buy on my limited budget.
2) I tried to save money and space on the mini-computer I bought, so i got Compare Office not Microsoft Word, how do I help my kids take their files between two softwares at home & school.
3) What's this blackboard thing about? (or whatever system is used in your community)
4) How do I help my child remember all their passwords? why so many passwords?
5) What's google docs? And other free-software? Should I use it? How do I use it?
6) How do they access email?
7) How do I connect to the internet?
8) What's a modem?
9) How do I keep my child safe?
10) What's a firefox?

See how mundane these types of questions are? Imagine all the learning that is being stifled because these questions are in the way?

You could easily answer those questions & be paid for it.

How would you do it?
* First, you need to get to know what teachers are doing in the classroom. Get around the education networks (#edchat on twitter for instance), know about moodle, edmodo, wikis etc.
* Second, get to know parents - their needs & gaps in their knowledge etc.
* Third, get yourself a parent/family client.
* Fourth, provide them with the BEST service ever, answer ALL the questions. If you can't answer a question, go and find the answer and get back to them.
* Fifth, call them up a week later & check how the family* is doing.
* Sixth, repeat.

I reckon Word-of-Mouth will keep you busy for a long time.

* Notice I changed from Parents to Families - technology (take-up & resistance) influences & involves the entire family. It impacts of family dynamics positively & negatively. Your great service can have a positive impact on individual families & communities.

Schools don't have time, teachers don't have time or the expertise (many teachers are still technology novices themselves), but you school super geek, could fill this gap.

So, if you want to be the SUPER-IST SUPER GEEK in your community, why not niche yourself to become my family's SUPER GEEK.

Remember: No school in Australia would be permitted to endorse you or your services, but official endorsement is not what you're looking for.

Free-Range Scholar Support Service

I'm making up an acronym -  Free-Range-Scholar (I think I've plagarised it from @blogdiva - but because we're free-range its okay). I've referred to myself in recent years as an academic refugee - its like a Life-Long Learner, but kinda not, because despite ourselves, we do look for the rigour of academia (even if we don't always achieve it).

But I think we FRS' love reading academic texts - newspapers really are not enough & some stuff on the web is dodgy (not all - but some. This is fine if you're a university student or staff member, then you will have access to that stuff through your library's databases.

However, if you're NOT then its really hard to access some journals. They cost $$.

So, under the blog category of free-range-scholar, I'm linking good quality writings from the web (readings, journal articles & ejournals) about all kinds of topics.

The first is the International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies. They're based at the Indigenous Studies Research Network based at QUT, Brisbane, Australia.

If you know of any good journals on the web, drop me a line.

Thanks, Leesa

Reviewing Cathy Vatterott’s “Rethinking Homework”

I'm buying this book tomorrow!

Reviewing Cathy Vatterott’s “Rethinking Homework”.

Reviewing Cathy Vatterott’s “Rethinking Homework”

Presentation Strategies

10 Strategies for Improving Student Presentation Media

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Dr Boyce Money: What Do Black Female Entrepreneurs Go Through?

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