Monday, September 29, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Wishing
I think I’ve already addressed a lot of this stuff, especially in my long “Weaving” post. How does one know when a project like this is over? I certainly see where this could go, if I had more time to take it there. I would love to learn more about the social context of the Singing Cowboy. I would love to know more about real cowhand life. The only thing I see myself doing just now is looking up some of the cool collections of music I came across. I wish I had more time. How do we give students enough time to do the kind of inquiry we’d like them to do? Is it possible to make design a project that does assess the process, allows enough time for inquiry, keeps students on track, and isn’t totally overwhelming to them? I think it is, but I think I’ll need more experience and time with real students to figure it out.
I am looking forward to learning more about the needs of learners at various ages and stages in their development. I think I have a better handle on young adults than I do on littler kids. I know that I have experiences that help and hinder me that children won’t have and that young adults may have to some degree. For instance, I have the maturity to see my way through frustration and to ask for help, where younger folks might not. I think that media specialists who are supporting kids though a process like this would need to be pretty good people-readers and have regular conferences to stay in touch with how kids are feeling about their projects. Kuhlthau talks about her Zone of Intervention and I definitely think that, if a teacher can step in then, when confusion and doubt are overwhelming kids, the child can be helped through to satisfaction.
This project required that I use almost all of the skills that fall under each standard. There was even a collaboration component, to a degree, as we were all required to follow one another’s processes and comment. In order to cover the range of options as far as sources of information and methods of presentation, students would need to have a lot of practice with multiple projects over the years. Really, looking at the standards, there are several that seem like components of information fluency, as defined by Callison. For instance, 2.2.1 talks about the student adapting techniques based on the resource at hand. 1.1.6 mentions using information form a variety of formats. These abilities reflect a true form of fluency and. It is exciting to think of being involved in and supporting students to gain such useful, fulfilling skills. I Wish I were starting right now!
I am looking forward to learning more about the needs of learners at various ages and stages in their development. I think I have a better handle on young adults than I do on littler kids. I know that I have experiences that help and hinder me that children won’t have and that young adults may have to some degree. For instance, I have the maturity to see my way through frustration and to ask for help, where younger folks might not. I think that media specialists who are supporting kids though a process like this would need to be pretty good people-readers and have regular conferences to stay in touch with how kids are feeling about their projects. Kuhlthau talks about her Zone of Intervention and I definitely think that, if a teacher can step in then, when confusion and doubt are overwhelming kids, the child can be helped through to satisfaction.
This project required that I use almost all of the skills that fall under each standard. There was even a collaboration component, to a degree, as we were all required to follow one another’s processes and comment. In order to cover the range of options as far as sources of information and methods of presentation, students would need to have a lot of practice with multiple projects over the years. Really, looking at the standards, there are several that seem like components of information fluency, as defined by Callison. For instance, 2.2.1 talks about the student adapting techniques based on the resource at hand. 1.1.6 mentions using information form a variety of formats. These abilities reflect a true form of fluency and. It is exciting to think of being involved in and supporting students to gain such useful, fulfilling skills. I Wish I were starting right now!
Wrapping and Waving
I knew that I needed to find a way to share what I found out that included audio and maybe also video. This is how I got hung up on technology. I didn’t get as carried away as I could have, though. Annette hipped me to a program called Audacious that lets regular folks like myself edit audio. I also had to look into the guidelines of Fair Use in audio. Annette also helped me there, and I felt a little silly that I hadn’t remembered the resource she sent me to. That resource led me to decide to use Powerpoint, since putting other people’s music, even in short clips, might not be ok online. Also, I knew that Powerpoint would let me insert media as needed. There was a learning curve with Audacious that cost me some time, but it was worth it. It is a pretty cool program and I can see other applications for it. Also, I am pretty sure that no one but my five-year-old wants to hear me yodel.
I think my audience is just my class and my family. I do think that this would be a good way to show my future students about inquiry, too, though, so I will certainly save it.
I think my audience is just my class and my family. I do think that this would be a good way to show my future students about inquiry, too, though, so I will certainly save it.
Weaving and a Whole Lot of Reflection
Sorry, I started this post several days ago, but it has grown rather large and unwieldy during its gestational period. Every time I go in the tidy it up, I add more, so I decided to just post it.
As I worked to synthesize my findings, I found that my focus had shifted somewhat and I looked back to see what it had been in the beginning. It was the process of comparing the Swiss yodelers to the Western ones that made me realize that, though I could do that until the cows (or the goats) come home, it didn’t necessarily address the bigger question that I developed along the way. I think that the question I had after I had started- did real working cowboys and cowgirls yodel- was pivotal. Before that I had just assumed that since American cowherds did the same sort of work as Swiss herders, that they did use yodeling in their work. If I hadn't been looking for information about whether cowboy yodeling was real or just for the entertainment of all of us non-cowherds, I might have missed that there is plenty of reason to doubt that working cowboys really did yodel. So, what the shift meant for me was that I was no longer looking so much at the European styles of yodeling, but more at the culture of the U.S. Like a good inquiry project, it brought me new questions. I will want to do more research about the relationship between singing cowboys and the cultural climate at the time of their greatest popularity. For instance, ever since I was a kid, I have loved hobo stories and songs. I was surprised to find hobo songs on a Gene Autry CD and hadn't really connected Jimmie Rodgers with Western music. These matters are connected, though, and so hoboing and hobo songs are more related to cowherding and cowgirl songs than I had previously thought. (It's not just that both hobos and cowboys eat their beans from a can, which is of course related to their itinerant lifestyles.) I suspect that, as it always seems to turn out, it's really related to economics.
I think somewhere in our readings it is mentioned that as critical thinkers and researchers, we need to be seeking information to support our learning, not just to support our assumptions.
It's probably a learned agility and, as such, it's our job to teach it to students. It feels, now, like that is really doable. As a young person, especially being taught to do the standard “research paper” assignment in high school, this shift would have really derailed me. First, it meant the loss of the time I had spent looking for answers that were no longer important. In the traditional student research paper, there is no value at all placed on the work that students do that is not somehow used in the final paper. This is what’s great about this kind of project, isn’t it? We don’t really want our students to possess an extraordinary amount of information about the benefits of welfare reform or abortion rights or anything of those topics, but we want them to know how to learn and how to access, manage and process information. So, assessing their process as much or more than their product gives the process value in the kind of currency that matters in school. It occurs to me, too, that the “need gateway” that Sandy Guild wrote about in Chapter 7 of Curriculum Connections, is one that we need to help students see their way through over and over again, if we want them to really learn the kind of agility they’ll need as adult learners. Guild talks about effort, importance and affect as that gateway through which we pass as we begin an inquiry. If we, as teachers, address the affective aspects of the process via encouragement and maybe Kuhlthau’s intervention at the tricky spots, value student’s expenditures of effort by assessing their process, and allow them the freedom to pursue a course of inquiry that is important to them, not just us, we really can see them through that gateway as many times as they need to go in order to engage in real inquiry.
As I worked to synthesize my findings, I found that my focus had shifted somewhat and I looked back to see what it had been in the beginning. It was the process of comparing the Swiss yodelers to the Western ones that made me realize that, though I could do that until the cows (or the goats) come home, it didn’t necessarily address the bigger question that I developed along the way. I think that the question I had after I had started- did real working cowboys and cowgirls yodel- was pivotal. Before that I had just assumed that since American cowherds did the same sort of work as Swiss herders, that they did use yodeling in their work. If I hadn't been looking for information about whether cowboy yodeling was real or just for the entertainment of all of us non-cowherds, I might have missed that there is plenty of reason to doubt that working cowboys really did yodel. So, what the shift meant for me was that I was no longer looking so much at the European styles of yodeling, but more at the culture of the U.S. Like a good inquiry project, it brought me new questions. I will want to do more research about the relationship between singing cowboys and the cultural climate at the time of their greatest popularity. For instance, ever since I was a kid, I have loved hobo stories and songs. I was surprised to find hobo songs on a Gene Autry CD and hadn't really connected Jimmie Rodgers with Western music. These matters are connected, though, and so hoboing and hobo songs are more related to cowherding and cowgirl songs than I had previously thought. (It's not just that both hobos and cowboys eat their beans from a can, which is of course related to their itinerant lifestyles.) I suspect that, as it always seems to turn out, it's really related to economics.
I think somewhere in our readings it is mentioned that as critical thinkers and researchers, we need to be seeking information to support our learning, not just to support our assumptions.
It's probably a learned agility and, as such, it's our job to teach it to students. It feels, now, like that is really doable. As a young person, especially being taught to do the standard “research paper” assignment in high school, this shift would have really derailed me. First, it meant the loss of the time I had spent looking for answers that were no longer important. In the traditional student research paper, there is no value at all placed on the work that students do that is not somehow used in the final paper. This is what’s great about this kind of project, isn’t it? We don’t really want our students to possess an extraordinary amount of information about the benefits of welfare reform or abortion rights or anything of those topics, but we want them to know how to learn and how to access, manage and process information. So, assessing their process as much or more than their product gives the process value in the kind of currency that matters in school. It occurs to me, too, that the “need gateway” that Sandy Guild wrote about in Chapter 7 of Curriculum Connections, is one that we need to help students see their way through over and over again, if we want them to really learn the kind of agility they’ll need as adult learners. Guild talks about effort, importance and affect as that gateway through which we pass as we begin an inquiry. If we, as teachers, address the affective aspects of the process via encouragement and maybe Kuhlthau’s intervention at the tricky spots, value student’s expenditures of effort by assessing their process, and allow them the freedom to pursue a course of inquiry that is important to them, not just us, we really can see them through that gateway as many times as they need to go in order to engage in real inquiry.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
All over the Twister board
As I wrote in my comment to my post from a couple of days ago, I feel like I have body parts in several steps at once and this is not unique to this part of the project; I think I do things this way all the time.
I was feeling a little bit uncertain about what is ending up as my main source of information about yodeling in general. I read the preface and the author admits that his qualifications for writing the book are a bit weak. That doesn't mean that the book is unreliable but it does make me feel like I need to look a bit more at other sources to verify. I wish there were more sources! I am just a little shaky about his authority. This was validated for me when I revisited the table in Callison's book about "Six Questions to Ask About Any Media Message." (p.77) As the parent of a small child, this is something that I think about all of the time and what I try to teach to her: always ask yourself "who has a stake in my consumption of this information." Since she is just five, it looks a little simpler.
Ginger: Mommy, why is there a fairy on that (fill in the blank)?
Me: Why do you think?
Ginger: Because they know little kids like fairies and they want us to buy that (fill in the blank again.)
It makes a mother proud. Anyway, I came across a great quote during my readings last week and emailed it to my friends. It was this:
I love the way that illuminates the issue.
I don't necessarily think that Bart Plantenga is trying to sell me on yodeling, but sometimes it just seems like he isn't saying anything, or he is too concerned with being clever than he is with being comprehensible, which makes me a tad worried that maybe he is more interested in being clever than he is in being accurate.
So I went to the Eiteljorg Museum of Western Art today and talked to the folks in the resource center. They found me a book with musical scores of Western songs. They each had notes about the songs but I didn't see any mention of yodeling anywhere. This fit with Plantega's assertion that there is no written or recorded evidence of yodeling in any authentic cowboy songs. So, maybe Plantega's right.
I am at risk of getting way bogged down in the task of preparing my final product for this project. I want to use at least audio clips and so I took our kind professor's advice and downloaded the Audacious software so I could cut out short clips of songs. I am spending a lot of time fiddling around with that. We'll see how it goes.
I was feeling a little bit uncertain about what is ending up as my main source of information about yodeling in general. I read the preface and the author admits that his qualifications for writing the book are a bit weak. That doesn't mean that the book is unreliable but it does make me feel like I need to look a bit more at other sources to verify. I wish there were more sources! I am just a little shaky about his authority. This was validated for me when I revisited the table in Callison's book about "Six Questions to Ask About Any Media Message." (p.77) As the parent of a small child, this is something that I think about all of the time and what I try to teach to her: always ask yourself "who has a stake in my consumption of this information." Since she is just five, it looks a little simpler.
Ginger: Mommy, why is there a fairy on that (fill in the blank)?
Me: Why do you think?
Ginger: Because they know little kids like fairies and they want us to buy that (fill in the blank again.)
It makes a mother proud. Anyway, I came across a great quote during my readings last week and emailed it to my friends. It was this:
A way to approach Media Literacy is to "take materials directed at the senses and reposition them within the framework of critical reason and thought."
Stuart Ewen, Chairman-Communication Department, Hunter College, NY
http://digitalliteracy.mwg.org/studies.htmlI love the way that illuminates the issue.
I don't necessarily think that Bart Plantenga is trying to sell me on yodeling, but sometimes it just seems like he isn't saying anything, or he is too concerned with being clever than he is with being comprehensible, which makes me a tad worried that maybe he is more interested in being clever than he is in being accurate.
So I went to the Eiteljorg Museum of Western Art today and talked to the folks in the resource center. They found me a book with musical scores of Western songs. They each had notes about the songs but I didn't see any mention of yodeling anywhere. This fit with Plantega's assertion that there is no written or recorded evidence of yodeling in any authentic cowboy songs. So, maybe Plantega's right.
I am at risk of getting way bogged down in the task of preparing my final product for this project. I want to use at least audio clips and so I took our kind professor's advice and downloaded the Audacious software so I could cut out short clips of songs. I am spending a lot of time fiddling around with that. We'll see how it goes.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
This is the graphic organizer I have started to look at my topic. Inspiration is fun! I don't work in a school so I had never tried it before.I am reading about yodeling (or rather "wreading!" Naw, I guess you might call this Wiggling, were you inclined to do that sort of thing.) I have found that there are not easily identifiable sources on the Internet about this aspect of yodeling. Mostly there are sites used to promote professional yodelers. I looked at the University and didn't find much there. I am using my noggin about this. When I was planning my search, I decided that this might not be the kind of topic that would be likely to be found in a journal. I doubt there is a lot of new information about this being generated in the golden halls of the Academy. So, that leaves full-sized books. This is the kind of topic that I would enjoy reading whole books about, so it is requiring the use of some of the kinds of skills that a content literate adult like myself might use. I just don't have the time to read these books cover-to-cover. I am also jumping ahead a bit in my thinking to just how I will communicate this to you all. I would like to do a short video but I haven't experience with video editing and I am worrying about intellectual property issues. I would like to be able to play some audio of yodeling and such but I have to figure out what's legal first.
To tell the truth, I have been thinking about this aspect of the project from the beginning. I am not sure if it's the sort of person I am or the sort of project this is that makes it hard for me to do a task like this one step at a time.
Anyway, I plan to keep adding to my graphic organizer as I acquire and synthesize information. This is still fun.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
More Webbing Stuff
I am having mixed success with my searches for information. I didn't find a single thing in IUCAT but I found several at IMCPL that look like they might address my questions. I am especially excited about a couple of books. They have names like: Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo: The Secret History of Yodeling and Singing Cowboys and Musical Mountaineers: Southern Culture and the Roots of Country Music. I have an idea for a couple of people to ask if I get stuck and need some leads, too. I can see how this could turn into something bigger. I am seeing this in the context of the Pathways to Knowledge model by Pappas and Tepe, as well as in the 8Ws of our fearless leader. For some reason, the Pathways language is really resonating with the part of me that finds this process joyful. My curiosity about my topic certainly is rooted in an appreciation of what I've experienced with my senses so the Pathways model of the appreciation stage seems just right for me. (http://www.sparkfactor.com/clients/follett/appreciation.html.) I am starting to better grasp the idea of a genuine inquiry project and model.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Starting to do webbing
I have been thinking of a search strategy. I have never had much luck finding information about this topic via Google searches. I am going to look for books, of all the sweet things. I have looked in books before but mostly I've only found books with musical scores in them and they are not so analytical. The video and audio I've found is all instructional or for pure entertainment. I am going to check the public library and University Library. I may also check some of the UL's databases. I'll search for "cowboy music" and "cowboy yodel" and "yodel" for starters. I might also go to the Eiteljorg museum. They host western music groups sometimes so there might be someone there who can help me. If all else fails, I may try to email a cowboy yodeling singer. There are piles of them on the Internet.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Trying to start webbing..or something
I am working on organizing my thoughts but it's not working so well. I tried to map it out but I only got as far as one ring out from the main idea. Then I did a KWL chart. That helped some. It's not such a linear topic for me. I tried out a couple of the search tools on Annette's site, but I am a litle worried by how much trouble it is to find information on this via regular search tools. I hope I have more luck when I start looking in more academic places.
I've also been listening to recordings of cowboy and cowgirl music, and a new question occured to me: How do I know if real cowboys and girls really did yodel? For all I know, with the information I have right now, it's just the Hollywood cowhands who yodel. I think that answering that question may be the place to start. I am working hard at following the steps but I am antsy to get to the Wiggling part.
My plan is to begin looking at the University databases for information on whether or not real cowpunchers yodel(ed).
I've also been listening to recordings of cowboy and cowgirl music, and a new question occured to me: How do I know if real cowboys and girls really did yodel? For all I know, with the information I have right now, it's just the Hollywood cowhands who yodel. I think that answering that question may be the place to start. I am working hard at following the steps but I am antsy to get to the Wiggling part.
My plan is to begin looking at the University databases for information on whether or not real cowpunchers yodel(ed).
Thursday, January 24, 2008
8Ws Context
I think I've been doing the "Watching" behaviors about this topic for a long time. I explore music in an attempt to learn more about the world around me. Sometimes I'll just browse a library's collection and pick up random things like prison work songs or music from Brazil or Judy Garland's hit songs. That's how I first discovered cowboy music. We call it "cowgirl music" in our house, though there aren't as many recordings of women singing cowpuncher tunes. I share the interesting stuff I find with people who might appreciate it, especially my brother. We discuss what we find and share our observations.
As for Wondering behaviors, when I was considering topics for this project, I did think of some other things I'd like to know more about: hobo culture, early French film (yes, I just read Hugo Cabret!), some nature topics, especially acorns or owls, monkeys and apes. I have a lot of ongoing interests that I find myself without the time I'd like to explore them. I've always wanted to know more about cowboy and cowgirl music, though. I like the Hollywood stuff as well as the more authentic songs. I'm also curious about yodeling and how it came from the shepherds of Europe to the cowhands of the American West. In the future, I may use a Venn Diagram to compare the two but I have my topic narrowed quite well just by my curiosity.
As for Wondering behaviors, when I was considering topics for this project, I did think of some other things I'd like to know more about: hobo culture, early French film (yes, I just read Hugo Cabret!), some nature topics, especially acorns or owls, monkeys and apes. I have a lot of ongoing interests that I find myself without the time I'd like to explore them. I've always wanted to know more about cowboy and cowgirl music, though. I like the Hollywood stuff as well as the more authentic songs. I'm also curious about yodeling and how it came from the shepherds of Europe to the cowhands of the American West. In the future, I may use a Venn Diagram to compare the two but I have my topic narrowed quite well just by my curiosity.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Wondering about Yodeling
I am thinking of doing my project about yodeling. What I've always wondered is, what is the connection between cowpunchers and goatherds? Well, there's the herding. So what purpose does yodeling actually serve in the task of managing itinerant livestock? What makes yodeling different from regular singing in that context? Is it true that cowboys sing to keep the herd calm?
I've wondered about this before, and done a bit of looking around, but never found a lot of answers. I did a quick Google search, just to see what comes up when one searches for "why cowboys yodel" and I mostly found information about specific yodeling western singers. I'll be thinking of this more in the next few days.
I've wondered about this before, and done a bit of looking around, but never found a lot of answers. I did a quick Google search, just to see what comes up when one searches for "why cowboys yodel" and I mostly found information about specific yodeling western singers. I'll be thinking of this more in the next few days.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
First Post
Just wanted to get something in here to see how it works. I am starting this blog to fulfill an assignment. Not sure about the topic just now. Some sort of inquiry project.
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