Food 4 Thought & the Web Forum Report
By Tracey Mollins
Five lessons from nature
A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because
it has a song. —CHINESE PROVERB
Be like the bird that, passing on her flight awhile on boughs
too slight, feelsthem give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing
that she hath wings. —VICTOR HUGO
People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad
with joy the whole time to have such things about us. —IRIS
MURDOCH
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more
painful than the risk it took to blossom. —ANAÏS NIN
I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you
could not ignore its beauty. —GEORGIA O’KEEFFE
The November 2007 Web Forum In November 2007, we held our first-ever
blog web forum on working in literacy. Literacy workers from
across the country joined a lively conversation about working
conditions, how working conditions affect learning, and why,
despite the sometimes challenging environments in which we work,
we love working in literacy. Once again, literacy workers proved
that they are innovative, creative, compassionateand deeply knowledgeable.
Check out the conversation at workinginliteracy.blogspot.com.
The conundrum of communicating at a distance
The literacy community has struggled with this. Not with the
technology—we are amazingly adept at adapting to new mechanisms—but
with the quality of the experience. Our favourite way to network
is to get together in the same room at the same time to talk and
listen and reflect and create. Those rare opportunities are so
rich and inspiring that at-a-distance options often seem to be
pale approximations. Whether we choose to communicate synchronously
by teleconference, web chat, web conference or asynchronously on
web boards, listservs or blogs, the conversation can feel stilted
and creaky. There is no consensus on which approximation is best.
Different people like different mediums and express very good reasons
for their preferences. So, what to do?
After each web forum we evaluate the experience. We look at the
feedback from participants. We look at the number of people who
joined us and the number of posts they made. Sometimes we conclude
that we should try a new technology. Sometimes we conclude that
we should focus our energy on face-to-face networking. But then
time passes and we start to reflect less on quantities and critical
feedback and look more to the quality of what happened and how
these conversations shape and enhance the way we think about Literacies and literacy work.
Synchronous communication allows us to be dynamic and spontaneous—sparks
fly. Asynchronous communication allows us to set our own pace and
research and reflect before responding—embers glow. And they
glow with such promise. We carry them around in our pockets and
warm our hands on them. They become our worry beads. And then one
day, when the moment is right, when the stars have aligned, we
toss that ember onto the table and—sparks fly.
Five lessons from literacy workers who joined us at the
Fall 2007 Web Forum
It is commonplace for “poor education” to be cited
as a cause of “low employment”—and for literacy
programs to be promoted as a way of raising employment figures.
But literacy programs don’t increase job opportunities: they
increase literacy. Jobs come from tax policies and infrastructure
resource allocation and decisions made in a thousand boardrooms,
large and small. If people in my city are underemployed, poor and
increasingly desperate and despondent, that’s not my fault.
I just help them with things like reading, writing, math and some
computer skills. —WENDELL DRYDEN responds to literacy
for what?
Yes, some adult learners want to improve their skills so that
they can find employment or “better” employment. The
situation we’re more and more finding ourselves in, though,
is that employment is being seen as the only “acceptable” reason
for improving skills. It’s as though there’s only one
right answer to the question “why are you setting out on
this learning journey?” The only destination can be a job….If
learning only supports us to fit in and does not support us to
question and to critically review, what does that mean? —MAIRE
responds to literacy for what?
I like to operate as a literacy practitioner from my ideal place,
and I find it more and more spiritually draining and challenging
to my integrity to be caught up in the global thrust—the
numbers game, the administrative accountability game—to prove
that it is valid to help people increase their literacy skills. —NANCY
FRIDAY responds to literacy for what?
Current governments, in Canada and BC, at least, don’t care
about the same things literacy workers do. They care about getting
and keeping power, not sharing it and giving it away. They care
about profits. Practitioners can “focus on accreditation,” or
marshal columns of learners, or insist on giving up all pay and
benefits and join barefoot orders to work for nothing, or whatever
other strategy we dream up. It will not make current governments
care about oppressed people; it will not make them care less about
power and profits. —KATE NONESUCH responds to have we
shot ourselves in the foot?
So the simple idea of a learning place just makes my head and
heart swell. The learning place I envision would be itinerant,
would go to where people are—and one of
the tools I’d need is a wheeled cart that folds out, accordions
out with tons of drawers and containers full of nontraditional
art materials, writing materials, supplies that encourage play—a
mobile zipper workshop even. And the people who are teaching, instructing,
would be from all sorts of backgrounds, education levels, ethnicities–they
would speak the language(s) of the communities, they would be open
to learning themselves and they would be paid in
some form (money is not the only currency). The learning place
would be embedded (and have sustainable funding) within schools,
community organizations, and have a presence at events, festivals,
etc., so that “learning” and play become
more entwined. Oh, I love dreaming of this—thank you! —BONNIE
SOROKE responds to places to learn
Five quick read blogs that cheer us up
Witty inquiry: Wendell’s Blog – wendell-communitylit.blogspot.com
Wendell is a literacy practitioner exploring technology and learning
with literacy learners through a lens that is hilariously grumbly
and visionary.
Witty metallurgy: Bent Objects – bentobjects.blogspot.com
Terry makes little characters out of household objects and wire
and puts them into amusing scenarios. Sometimes he holds contests
where you can win characters.
Witty alchemy: Life in Combe Martin – combemartin.blogspot.com
Martin takes photographs of his Combe Martin neighbourhood, exposing
the many twists and mysteries of life in North Devon, England.
Witty gratitude: 3for 365 – 3for365.blogspot.com
There are lots of blogs where people document three things that
make them grateful every day but I like Julia’s pithy posts
the best.
Witty observation: Flip Flop Flying – www.flipflopflying.com
Craig creates odd little 21stcentury characters and documents
his travels through a lens that is oddly postmodern and quixotic.
