"Gute Radiomoderatoren halten sich an einfache Regeln. Den Hörer wie einen erwachsenen Menschen ansprechen. Nur reden, wenn es was zu sagen gibt. Und den Alliierten ins Spiel bringen: die Fantasie! Denn die Bilder, die das Radio in der Vorstellungswelt seiner Hörer inspiriert, bekommt das Fernsehen niemals hin. Also, junge Leute: entdeckt das Radio, kämpft für das Gute!"

Jörg Thadeusz, moderiert u.a. in Radio Eins "Die Profis". Das Zitat stammt aus seiner Kolumne in der Berliner Zeitung vom 19. Juli 2008.

"Ich habe den Eindruck, dass sich die Gesellschaft entsolidarisiert. Sich persönlich einzubringen, für eine Sache geradezustehen und notfalls Schwierigkeiten in Kauf zu nehmen, das nimmt ab. Mir fehlt auch der Austausch über die Lager und die politischen Schranken hinweg. Wir leben in so einer Pseudo-Konsensgesellschaft, wo Menschen abgeschottet in Insidergruppen unter sich bleiben. Ich nenne das Kastengesellschaft, nicht Klassengesellschaft."

Günter Wallraff im Interview mit Thomas Öchsner auf sueddeutsche.de

«Jésus n’est pas mort sur la Croix et ressuscité des morts pour que nous priions davantage à la maison et que nous soyons un peu plus gentils avec le voisin d’à côté.»

«La religion, la politique, la justice sociale : voilà précisément les choses dont nous devrions parler. Rien d’autre n’importe vraiment. Que peut-il y avoir de plus important que la foi religieuse, qui s’occupe du sens ultime de la vie, et la politique, qui s’occupe de la manière dont nous devons organiser nos vies ensemble en vue du bien commun ?»

Ici.

"Den heutigen politischen Fernsehmagazinen attestiert Alt, nach wie vor „gute journalistische Arbeit“ zu leisten, „investigativ und meinungsfreudig“ zu sein. Seine Kritik richtet sich an die „Obrigkeiten“, die die Sendungen um ein Drittel gekürzt und zeitlich nach hinten geschoben hätten. Dies solle rückgängig gemacht werden, fordert der frühere Moderator. Er klingt gelassen, das Fernsehen scheint gegenüber dem Schreiben – er ist nach eigenen Angaben Autor bei 40 Zeitungen und verfasst jedes Jahr ein Buch – an Stellenwert verloren zu haben." aus: Der Tagesspiegel vom 17. Juli 2008.

mehr

SWR 1 präsentiert auch das Panikpreis-Finale 2008 am 12. Juli 2008 in Calw ab 17:30 Uhr. Anschließend spielen Udo Lindenberg & das Panikorchester. Karten gibt es hier.

Nachtrag vom 29. Juni 2008:

Das komplette Gespräch gibt es hier zu hören.

You'd think the Obama vs Clinton contest was the actual Presidential election itself — and from the other side of the Atlantic, it's strange to think of such a long and involved (and quite frankly, mystifying) process as being anything other than a distraction. Or at least, that's what I was thinking until I saw a New York Times headline that caught my eye, namely:

Is Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC?

Of course, I was immediately interested because this was (finally) an analogy I could understand. Even better, the article pointed me at Doug Kendall's column from the Huffington Post which is almost worth reading for the comments alone. I'm an English teacher and this is a brilliant example of the extended metaphor that I can use to clarify John Donne, Shakespeare (William, not Heinemann), or Richard Brautigan… all masters of the technique…

Inevitably, the articles took me to the candidates' own websites and this is where my interest really fired up. There's a whole Modern Studies or Media Studies lesson in the fact that Hillary's website looks like an old fashioned, traditional site with far too much information (and rather tellingly, appeals for funding) while the New York Times said that:

“…Mr. Obama’s site is more harmonious, with plenty of white space and a soft blue palette. Its task bar is reminiscent of the one used at Apple’s iTunes site…"

Actually, they are wrong. Obama's site doesn't look like Apple's website, it looks like a blog — even down to the text on the left and ‘widgets’ down the right.

If the man chasing the most important job in the world is going to great lengths to appeal to the 2.0 Generation, why are the education institutions doing all they can to cling on to the 1.0 world? And make no mistake, Obama is streets ahead of Hillary when it comes to genuinely understanding 2.0… here's the next teaching point for you.

At the bottom of their respective sites is a little box with a list of their Web2.0 activities... Quite apart from the fact that Obama has more ‘connectedness’, he is also hitting a greater demographic with his presence on AsianAve or MiGente. Hillary has played it very safe and traditional… dare I say it, she is present on the sites your parents might have heard of not your kids…

For me, the final lesson lies in their uses of these connected sites. I decided to follow a hunch or suspicion about the candidates and visited their flickr sites. I've indicated the fundamental differences between their understanding of the 2.0 world on the following screengrabs:

Click picture to embiggen!

Obama's pictures are Creative Commons — Clinton's are Copyright

Some of Obama's photos look as though they were actually taken by him — Clinton uses a photographer

Obama has comments — Clinton doesn't…

You can learn more by looking at how many photos each has uploaded… or look at when they joined flickr… or looking at the other photos they've uploaded - the ones which don't feature the candidates. There are so many worthwhile and (hopefully) interesting lessons to found in this campaign and, truth be told, this is really just the start. To use an analogy, the use of Web2.0 to fight the Nomination campaign is the equivalent of the pioneers who photographed the American Civil War. It is the thin end of the wedge, and before long, it will be the norm.

Obviously, these ideas are just that, ideas. They'd need fleshed out before they could be used properly in the classroom but feel free to take/use/adapt/rehash or make suggestions... oh, and for the record... I use a Mac! ;)

Derek Robertson and Ollie Bray have their work cut out if they're going to get up to the required standard to mount a Scottish challenge to the record... Maybe the Musselburgh Transition Project will beat them to it!

I just hope the record holder spends as much time doing his 'school work', but somehow I doubt it…

I should start by explaining what TinEye actually does. It is a means of finding where a particular photo appears on the web. To do this, you can either upload a picture from your computer, or type in a URL and then leave TinEye to go and search for you. Where it gets clever is that it is comparing the images rather than the file names, so you don't get too many false positives. It sounds simple, but the maths is bound to be immensely complicated...
The picture on the left is a grab of the search results. What really impressed me was the ability to find partial matches… and a quick look at the TinEye 'Cool Searches' shows that the '…for Dummies' series of books generates the greatest number of 'hits' (so far). And this suggests that there are some really clever algorithms involved if it's comparing shapes/colours/proportions… this could be an art/design/maths teacher's dream for finding comparisons… not to mention the ability to identify derivative works from your own originals (or vice versa). Or how about a history lesson where you take the 'Your Country Needs You' poster and trace the derivatives from it…

Where Did I Find It Again?

I'm really bad for finding clever photos/pictures on the web, saving them to my Mac and then losing the source info if I want to use the image in a presentation… NOT ANY MORE! I've already found 3 out of 4 images by using the search… I'm very happy! And this personal use made me realise that it does have the potential for some classroom use. As we move towards asking pupils to create more presentations and other artefacts, we need to stress the need for attribution of the work. With TinEye, we have a tool to allow us to check these, or add them if the pupil hasn't.

Feel free to add any more uses you think of…

I think it's a great way for English (Literature) teachers to introduce the fact that many stories share the same basic structure and that even just a few changes can give the impression of a completely different tale. Of course, the real skill of an author comes from characterisation and description and the myriad other aspects that typify good writing… The basic plot is not as important as the skill used to create the final artefact.

What this also reminded me of was that I was once told that there are only 7 fundamental stories. Everything written is merely a variation of something that's gone before:

• Harry Potter and Star Wars are really just re-workings of the “David and Goliath” myth.
• Pretty Woman is merely Cinderella under another guise.

…and after that, my mind goes blank. Am I mis-remembering this in my old age? Or can you help me identify the seven fundamental stories from which everything else is derived? Please post any ideas and/or links below and put me out of my misery…

The MEME

SO... let's get all 2.0 on the idea and make it a proper meme. Here are the three questions Karyn asked

• How did you get started with social media?
• What was your introduction, and how did the journey unfold?
• What difference has it made in your professional practice?

Below is my response to Karyn, and in order to turn it into a meme, all you need to do is answer the same 3 questions she asked, and then post a link to your response as a comment on Karyn's post. I'm going to nominate 5 people to answer (in time honoured meme-fashion), but I think this is too interesting and valuable thread for you to wait to be asked, so feel free to share and link to Karyn! Here's what I wrote...

I started about two and a bit years ago when I was a lowly classroom teacher.

I started by reading some blogs and following their links. As I did so, I became more engaged… I could appreciate the points being made and came to understand the ‘lingo’… I also started wanting to chip in my thoughts. I encountered something that I thought was important, but as I didn't have my own blog at the time, I posted (email) the link to Ewan Macintosh. He wrote a post about it and challenged me for not having a blog. I began that day.

Since then, I have used blogging and RSS reading to expand my own vision and knowledge of education and teaching practice. I have written my own blog (with varying degrees of regularity!) and commented on countless others (well, actually, since I found cocomment, they ARE countable).

I have discovered wikis and RSS and have introduced pupils in my school to the trinity of Blogs/wikis and RSS… again with varying degrees of success. One great success has been seeing one of my pupils become Sean the Bassman… http://thebassplayersblog.blogspot.com/ and the only UK blogger on http://students2oh.org/

I've been asked to deliver in-service training at school and authority level as a result of the knowledge I've gained. I've been invited to participate in a number of committees and consultations that I would never have been able to had I not become a ‘social networker’… and the knowledge I have gained from this has helped me become a more reflective practitioner… and more importantly, it has rekindled my enthusiasm for teaching.

As a result, I have gained the skills which made it possible for me to apply for, and be appointed, Principal Teacher of English in my school. I am also going to be delivering a seminar on wikis at the Scottish Learning Festival in September.

In short, I can honestly say that social networking has helped me develop and progress as a teacher and in ways that I could never have predicted — but the bottom line is that I do it because I enjoy it and it's great fun…

So... that's what I said and now I 'm going to tag: Ewan Macintosh, David Warlick, Vicki Davis, Will Richardson and Jeff Utecht... Remember... don't wait to be asked - and link back to Karyn's blog!

Dean Shareski has just posted a really interesting presentation about the importance of sharing on Slideshare. As well as giving a great insight into why he shares as much as he does (and it's a lot!), he also makes a compelling point about professional responsibility. As he says in his excellent voice-over, we are there "…to do more than just teach our own students…". In the past — and with apologies to any music instrument teachers reading — this might have created nightmare inducing visions of peripatetic teachers being carted from school to school in order to deliver their latest series of lessons. Not any more.

Connected learning means that we can all learn from each other, and more importantly, share with each other. As part of my own drive forward, I'm intending to post most of my lessons online over the next year. I'm hoping that this will force me to be a better teacher, but also it is intended to start a discussion about actual lessons and the mechanics of what I do in my English classroom. The reason for this is simple: I want to make the learning experience for my pupils better and that means asking for advice and help and hints and tips — not doing the typical ‘closing-the-door-and-getting-on-with-it-because-
I'm-an-expert-and-have-nothing- new-to-learn’ that we have all seen…

It's no secret that lots of teachers don't share with their colleagues because they feel that the materials aren't good enough… I've felt it often enough myself, but as so many people have said, we have to be prepared to fail if we are going to move forward…

It goes back to another of Shareski's points. As teachers, we stress the importance of sharing with our pupils and students. What is group work if not sharing of ideas? If we truly believe that there is value in sharing of ideas and knowledge, then it is up to us to model this behaviour by sharing our amongst ourselves.

I'll be using a separate blog or more wikely, a wiki, for the purpose. Stay tuned for the URL and my first batch of lessons… and while you're waiting, go and check out Dean Shareski's entertaining rationale for sharing!

The concept behind BoostUp is simple… by giving some encouragement it is hoped that they can reduce the 40% of American kids who fail to graduate from High School.

The 'boosts' can be delivered through MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, text and email, and there's a really nice flash screen which will show a symbolic representation of all the 'boosts' the pupil has received.

I think the site is a pretty good idea in principle, but I do feel slightly uneasy that they only appear to be encouraging a handful of students (but I may be missing something).

I sometimes wonder if I do enough to 'boost' my own pupils… and by extension… if we do enough to encourage all our pupils. Maybe a little bit of encouragement could be enough to direct the kids away from becoming NEETs?

The day consisted of a panel discussion and Q&A session, followed by an 'open conference' where people could make opening statements and then break off to discuss them in groups. This second part was a new thing for me and I was surprised how effective it was… though I think I'd struggle to employ the format in the classroom.

The panel members were:

Charlotte Black — Talent manager for Ch 4

Rob da Bank — Radio 1 DJ

Guin Batten — Olympic Silver Medallist / UK Youth Sports Trust

Hannah Brown — Headhunter

Darius Norell — Publisher and Entrepeneur

Katie Atkinson — Talented Youngster who's going to be working for H&M.

After a warm welcome from Janey Walker, Channel 4's Head of Education, Lucy Parker as Chair of the Talent & Enterprise Task Force (DCSF) gave the introductory address. She started by pointing out that as far as Britain is concerned, “…talent is all we've got left…" in terms of the world economy. This rather sobering thought (accompanied by a brutally simplistic illustration) set the scene for the subsequent speakers.

Charlotte Black pointed out how, in her job as a Talent Manager for Ch4, she is always on the look out for people who can say things in a "fresh way". This struck a real chord with me because I deal with pupils every day who are convinced that there is only one 'right' way of doing everything.

The two panellists that made the biggest impression on me were Guin Batten and Darius Norell.

Guin Batten is an excellent and entertaining speaker who highlighted how she wanted to “…go to the Olympics from the age of 12 … but didn't know how to get there.” What struck me about her words was the acknowledgement that, all too often, we have no idea what the pupils want to do… what drives them. All too often, they don't know what drives them…

The speaker that most impresses me was Darius Norell. His magazine RealWorld bridges the gap between graduation and finding a job. He opened by asking what it means to be talented, and what one is going to do with that talent? More importantly, he also made the point quite forcibly that there is very little correlation between grades and talent. The anecdote he used to illustrate this is worthy of a post on its own… stay tuned! I think it's fair to say that he finds that many graduates undervalue themselves, and from my own experience, this problem is magnified in the school setting. We all meet the pupils who “can’t do it” — maybe we need to start finding ways to allow them to develop the confidence in their own abilities and talents to excel… Mmm… A curriculum that encourages excellence… where have I heard that before?

The one theme that came through loudly and clearly from all the speakers was that talent and creativity are closely related. Stifle one and you lose the other… which rather begs the question “How can we encourage talent and creativity in schools?” If only there was some sort of Festival that highlighted pupils' diverse talents…

I'll be devoting my next couple of posts to the open conference session and the anecdote Darius told… but first I have to sort out my department timetable for next year. Stay tuned!

[dailymotion id=x3j11o&v3]

George Clooney, What Else? Ironique hommage au charme de l'acteur, voici une campagne "clin d'oeil" où la star joue à merveille d'auto dérision.

Every now and again, I have to supervise ‘detention’. I sit in a room with the Usual Suspects and growl at them if they dare to raise their heads from the laminated edition of the school rules they are copying. I have often suspected that the theory behind detention is to create an environment of such stultifying and oppressive dullness that the pupils would rather behave than be assigned after-school detention… except it patently does not work. As I've already mentioned, the fact that detention is the resting place for pretty much the same people week after week after week after… means that rampant boredom is not too effective as a deterrent. This is not good…

I'm an English teacher first and foremost, and so part of my passion is directed towards encouraging pupils to read and write. I love books and literature and do try to get this across to my classes with varying degrees of success. In any given class, I can expect to find the full spectrum of ability — everyone from the fluent to the strugglers. Sadly, one thing is reasonably predictable in all this and that is that the strugglers make up most of the ‘detention’ clientele. So... here's the really obvious problem that was pointed out to me by a pretty smart colleague:

Why are we using writing as a punishment? What message is this sending out? How can we ‘sell’ writing as something worthwhile and fun… while we are using it as a punishment?

Given these questions, it's not really a surprise to think that there might be a relationship between using writing as a punishment and kids becoming even more reluctant to write… I'm certainly keen to move writing away from being a punishment as soon as possible, but what should I try as an alternative? My sense-of-humour thinks I should get them to draw pictures in an effort to make them hate art, but I'd rather be positive instead.

So, having already been given occasion to think by one teacher, I'd like to know what suggestions you might have. Is it possible to have ‘punishment exercises’ that are not going to further dissuade reluctant learners, and if so, what are they?

Mais il paraît que tout cela n'est justement qu'une boutade.

Passons. Si toi aussi tu es plutôt anarcho-libertaire von-miso-randien, anti-système, et que tu ne perds pas ton sang chaud, je te conseille de lire ceci. Nicolas Gomez Davila, un vrai.

Cédons à la citomanie. Entre autres fulgurances :

« Le monde moderne est arrivé à institutionnaliser avec une telle astuce le changement, la révolution, l’anticonformisme que toute entreprise de libération est une routine inscrite dans le règlement de la prison »

« L’amour est l’organe avec lequel nous percevons l’irremplaçable individualité des êtres »

« Les choses ne sont pas muettes, seulement elles sélectionnent leurs auditeurs. »

« L’âme cultivée, c’est celle où le vacarme des vivants n’étouffe pas la musique des morts. »

« Tout est banal si l’homme n’est pas engagé dans une aventure métaphysique. »

« La volonté générale, c’est la fiction qui permet au démocrate de prétendre que pour s’incliner devant une majorité, il y a d’autres raisons que la pure et simple couardise. »

« L’absence de vie contemplative fait de la vie active d’une société un grouillement de rats pestilentiels »

« si le seul but de l’homme est l’homme, de ce principe dérive une vaine réciprocité, comme le double reflètement de deux miroirs vides »

« Est démocrate, celui qui attend du monde extérieur la définition de ses objectifs »

« Seuls conspirent efficacement contre le monde actuel ceux qui propagent en secret l’admiration de la beauté. » (phrase qui pourrait finir en haut de mon blog pour illustrer mon concept de blogguing comme mise en devanture de rayon des traces de Grâce ; mais, avouons qu'écrire quelques vaniteuses balivernes plus ou moins subversives sous le patronage du colombien, ce serait presque blasphématoire )

Et la seule Vérité pour la fin, sublime :

« Dieu n’est pas le monde comme un rocher dans un paysage tangible mais comme la nostalgie dans le paysage d’un tableau. »

„Polylux war zwar Ziel der Aktion, steht aber stellvertretend für weite Teile der Medienlandschaft, für die Recherche in erster Linie ein Kostenfaktor darstellt. Zentrale Bereiche des Journalismus werden an unterbezahlte Praktikanten ausgelagert, denen es aufgrund prekärer Arbeitsverhältnisse und des daraus resultierenden Drucks schwer möglich ist, ausreichend Zeit und Ressourcen in ihre Arbeit zu investieren.“

„Mit dem Charakter ‚Tim’ wollte das Kommando außerdem darauf hinweisen, dass in der so genannten Leistungsgesellschaft ein nicht normgerechter Körper ein Ausschlusskriterium darstellt. Dieses Thema lag uns wirklich am Herzen. Wir danken Polylux für die problemlose Umsetzung unseres Themenvorschlags, freuen uns auf zukünftige Aktionen im öffentlich-rechtlichen wie privaten Bereich und empfehlen: Journalisten, gebt euch einfach mehr Mühe. Alle.“

Ingrid Hüpenbecker, "Kommando Tito von Hardenberg"

mehr in Welt Online

via

Ergänzung, 18. April 2008: Das "Kommando Tito von Hardenberg" hat sich aufgelöst und gibt diese Erklärung ab.

Je suis en train de relire du Steinbeck et j'aime par dessus tout son signe, le Pigasus (contraction de Pegasus et Pig). Par esprit taquin pour commencer, puisque chacun sait que le porc n'est pas le plat de prédilection de nos amis patriotes, modérés et tolérants.

Ensuite, la symbolique de la terre (le porc est on ne peut plus terrien) et de l'élévation (Pégase, figure céleste s'il en est mais en même temps étymologiquement, c'est la source). Bref une association d'images que j'apprécie. Le symbole steinbeckien vient d'un nobliot florentin. Enfin, lisez la femme de Steinbeck, elle explique tout. Bref, j'aime croire que cela me correspond et qu'il en est de même pour tous nos camarades de lutte.

A Special Citation to Bob Dylan for his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.

Ici et ici.

Petit hommage :

Et puis on va gentiment s'arrêter là.