After spending a few class periods doing some seriously creative brainstorming, our big group project for Digital Ethnography has really started taking shape. Collectively, we're embarking on a critique of the modern education system, with special emphasis (among other things) on how students are mediated and how this mediation affects their educational experience. Each person in the class will be working on a certain section of the research "narrative" and eventually create his/her own mini-sode. We've set the narrative up in a way that will allow each minisode to naturally flow into the next, leaving us with what will hopefully turn out to be a compelling and insightful whole.
The section I'll be working on deals with "walls" in the education system, and it will come right after a segment about "College Unbound," which generally refers to an alternative form of education that breaks from the "standard" educational experience (see Haley's post for a much better explanation). The nature of my section, however, will be like a critique of the critique--in essence, a dialectical response to the main concept of the project overall. While I wouldn't think of denying that there are serious issues with the system as it is, I want to explore the idea that there's a great deal of good in the traditional system--that its "walls" can be a boon instead of a bane and that they are worth saving. The centerpiece of my minisode will be a story about a Topeka high school's unsuccessful experiment as a "school without walls," followed by my attempt to understand why altering the structure didn't work in this specific case. Here's a more detailed breakdown of what I envision my research process/schedule to look like:
Week 1 (2/20/11-2/26/11)
- Read Dewey's "Education and Experience" (have completed by 2/23)
- Try to find recordings, video of Dewey speaking (?)
- Do a quick lit review of "radical" education reform (library catalog search; online databases)
- Contact Seaman High School alumnus (Caitlin's mom) and set up interview
- Use Evernote, note cards, Onenote (for now, the trial version) to document and organize thoughts, sources, material
Week 2 (2/27/11-3/5)
- Continue to research examples of "free school" and "school without walls" experiments (like the Free School in Albany, NY, the School Without Walls in Washington D.C., etc.) (hopefully have much of the research wrapped up by 3/3/11)
- Research Seaman High School experiment with education in the 1970s
- Contact SHS; attempt to find newspaper clippings about the story
Week 3 (3/6/11-3/12/11)
- Hopefully have interview with Caitlin's mom completed by 3/7/11; try to get old year books, contact information of other alumni
- Interview and/or tape record interviews
- Visit current SHS and get footage of school; try to find pictures of of SHS "without walls" (3/12/11 - tentative)
- Try to find solid and cooperative KSU professor who thrives on--and whose students enjoy--the traditional style (but of course slightly reformed)
Week 4 (3/13/11-3/19/11)
- Interview other SHS alumni (?)
- Interview KSU professor (possibly Dr. Wesch?) on benefits of traditional style education, complete with walls
- Return to literature; find information about benefits of traditional education, inquiry method (Postman), sacred "third" space
