A Few Words on Words

Photo Courtesy of RETN: 29 Jan 2016

Last night, while reading Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott, I was struck by something she said about writing being a "desperate endeavor," driven by our deepest needs "to be visible, to be heard...to make sense of our lives, to wake up and grow and belong," to better understand ourselves and connect with others.

In pondering this raw truth, it occurred to me that while I routinely document things I've discovered while playing with tech tools, I don't spend nearly enough time writing about the meat that matters.

One of the triggers that got me thinking about this, was a blog post written by Bonnie Birdsall, referencing the impact of work that I was lucky to have done alongside Doug Dunbebin prior to his untimely passing. Drawing attention to the fact that Doug's legacy lives on through media creation, partly as a result of our collaboration, made me reflect upon the importance of human connection and the intricate web of our interactions and relationships.

I met Doug in July of 2014, while taking Jay Hoffman's powerful course “From Idea to Impact: Harnessing the Power of Video in Your Classroom."  That experience, coupled with my first foray into the Create Make Learn Summer Institute, whet my appetite for digital story-telling and eventually led to my exploration of green screen video production.  After showing Doug some projects I'd been working on, he encouraged me to keep creating and agreed to co-present a workshop at Dynamic Landscapes in 2015.  The workshop was so well-received that we continued our collaboration, and I had the benefit of learning a great deal about myself and the power of words.

When I started working with Doug, I was terrified of presenting to an adult audience.  At one point early on, I made a disparaging comment about something I'd shared while presenting to a small group.  Doug addressed this later, in such a kind and powerful way, that it awakened something in me, fundamentally derailing some old patterns of thinking.  I look back on this conversation with gratitude, and consider the importance of words.

The last time I saw Doug was at the RETN/VCAM producer's party in late January, where I was honored with a Lifelong Learner Award.  Because he'd given me a little advanced warning, I was able to express a few heartfelt words of appreciation to Doug that evening.  I didn't really have much time to fully reflect upon the experience, however, because my father passed away a couple weeks later after a battle with Alzheimer's disease.  My father's loss was followed by Doug's passing three weeks later.

It's taken a while to process these events and begin shaping my thoughts into words, but I think that the heart of the matter is this:  the words we tell others and the words we tell ourselves are powerful.  We cannot underestimate the power of our words to inspire and heal others; but, this can only happen if we share them.

Reflection on Dynamic Landscapes 2015

At the beginning of the year, I listed some goals for myself.  One was to actively practice stepping outside of my comfort zone by teaching workshops for adults, with the ultimate goal of presenting at a conference.  I am happy to report that I achieved this goal over the past two days at Dynamic Landscapes!

While this is something that I'd been wanting to do for some time, I'd been reluctant about presenting to an audience of colleagues. The thought that teachers can be some of the toughest critics was not helping; I was terrified to make myself the center of attention for an adult audience.  With the support and encouragement of other educators, I was able to overcome my fears; I am grateful to Joanne Finnegan and Doug Dunbebin for helping me make the leap.  Thanks to you both for taking this journey with me.

Although I wish that I hadn't been clutching my notes so tightly during my introduction,  my first presentation, "Radical Remixing with Creative Commons," went better than I had hoped.

I was lucky to have a supportive, curious audience of about 15 people. If I'd had more time, I would have shown more examples of places to find Creative Commons licensed media.  My presentation highlighted Flickr as a go-to resource, but there are many other resources for remixing that educators can explore.   Perhaps, I will design and share another presentation that focuses more broadly on Creative Commons resources across the web.

My second presentation, "Delving into DoInk:  Adding Animation to Green Screen Videos to Tell Your Story," was for a slightly larger audience (22 people).  Although the space was not quite large enough to accommodate that many people, all trying to record video and audio at the same time (it was quite loud), I enjoyed this workshop even more.  Unlike the first presentation, which was less interactive, this one was a two-hour hands-on session, allowing me to circulate and talk to people as they practiced and played on their own.  I prefer this type of teaching to the "stand up and yammer" model.  Teaching other teachers in this type of setting is not much different from the way I teach kids, so I felt comfortable.

As a result of this experience, and my desire to continually improve my practice, I am going to be submitting another proposal for VT Fest, coming up in November.  I am grateful to Vita Learn for their support of educators' professional growth.