Beauty and The Classroom

So many books, so little time

2011-01-11T01:22:00.000-08:00

Thanks to continuous online presence now enabled by my new smartphone, I am faced with the reality of having to learn ruthless and disciplined information management skills. So many books ... so little time.

Thank goodness for Google Books' "Still to Read" function in My Library. Remember to track down the Jim Martin 2010 release.

Power to the Palms

2010-05-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

I remember, about fourteen years ago, watching a video broadcast of Bill Gates, who was visiting Johannesburg. Back then, he said that the future power of computing would be compacted into the palms of people's hands. It seemed hard to believe.

Now, having finished my initial research into Adolescent Literacy Practices, and watching my teenage son access the world from his mobile, I am awed at the accuracy of that informed prediction.

The hope for Africa - for rural, disempowered South African young people - that this has, is so tantatalising. If there could be forged a link between Internet-enabled mobile phone use, and education, young people in the farthest rural reaches of our country could see and know the world in the palms of their hands.

Another conclusion

2010-05-16T13:10:00.000-07:00

I am slow to catch on: using a blogspace as a private online journal cannot coexist with using it as a public 'face space'.

The Return ....

2010-05-16T13:06:00.000-07:00

I have come to the conclusion that I will only be able to be a consistent blogger when I get a 'proper' cellphone: my R179,00 NOKIA just doesn't cut it. I could use up so much 'white time' usefully blogging IF I had a decent phone. So.... until a Blackberry appears under the Christmas tree, my blog will be a very sad space...

A little of my own older magic

2009-12-16T23:19:00.000-08:00

Went back to my old blog and decided this needs to reappear on my new one...

I must follow up on this HULL REFERENCE:
Locating the semiotic power of multimodality. (Part 2)
Hull, G.A. & Nelson, M. E. (2005): Locating the semiotic power of multimodality. Written Communication, 22, 224-262.Link to video in research paper : http://www.oaklanddusty.org/videos.php

Friday, April 10, 2009

Implications of Eureka for Theoretical and Conceptual Framework

So, in considering social semiotics, semantics and new literacies, could we extrapolate from Pinker along the following lines:

1) elementary concepts underpin word meanings in all languages: could this mean, then, that these same elementary concepts underpin other semiotic modes?

2) word meanings can be precise because some aspects of reality are more salient than others: can one, then, infer a) the semantic variation across languages is a result of differences in what is/was salient to the people/culture amongst whom the language developed? Further, can one then infer that this is what gives rise to variation in languages' precision to describe/explain the same phenomena. For example, English is probably inadequate to precisely describe all things pertaining to Nguni cattle. Similarly, isiZulu is known to be imprecise in explaining concepts relating to physics. Could the inclusion into Early and Middle English of Latin and Greek terminology be viewed as a practical way of making the developing lingua franca more precise, because new concepts were having to be described that previously were not salient to Anglo-Saxons?

So, this means, (if my conceptual structure is operating correctly!), that all human languages have the same underlying conceptual structure (space; time; causality; objects; intentions; logic) - but different "portfolios of meanings" linked to what was salient in the development of the language for the people who speak it. BUT, TO WHAT DEGREE DOES THIS CORRELATE WITH COGNITIVE DIFFERENCES ACROSS LINGUISTIC GROUPS?

SO, WRT New Literacies and multi semiotics, could this mean that modes other than language have varying degrees of precision, and that, therefore, the burgeoning and ease of creation of multimodal texts IS possibly a COMMUNICATION REVOLUTION because the range of semiotic resources available to express meaning is potentially infinite (on web) therefore degree of precision extended? Could this mean, then, that today's adolescents could end up being better communicators than their predecessors?

For example, with regard to PRECISION, in a multimodal instant message, text would have a degree of communicative precision; emoticons another (affective precision?); songs another and vibrational sequences, yet another level of semantic precision?

And, wrt NEW LONDON GROUP's Multiliteracies Framework, then, could one say that , a la Pinker, the 'PORTFOLIO OF [multisemiotic] MEANINGS' available to adolescents today makes their Available Design options immense, and the processes of Redesigning also extensive because of the affordances of technology? I.e. 'portfolios of meanings' analogous to Available Designs and Redesigned?
3) word meanings can support our reasoning: similarly, can we extrapolate this to other semiotic modes? (What would Kress say?) Can we say that other modes support our reasoning in terms of space; time; objects; intentions; causality; logic (where does Pinker put people and relationships in this conceptual structure? Objects? Can Halliday and Pinker co-exist?) Do pictures support our reasoning?

Mmmm ..... much work for my conceptual structures to do....

Eureka Conceptual Semantics!?

Pinker says: each of the radical theories about language and thought refutes one of the others in a game of rock-paper-scissors. Differences amongst languages, the point of pride for Linguistic Determinism, is a headache for Extreme Nativism which assumes that concepts are innate, hence universal. The precision of word senses, which Extreme Nativism uses to discredit definitions, casts doubt on Radical Pragmatics, which assumes that one's knowledge of a word is highly malleable. And polysemy, which motivates Radical Pragmatics, spells trouble for Linguistic Determinism, because IT SHOWS THAT THOUGHTS MUST BE MUCH FINER-GRAINED THAN WORDS.

The theory of Conceptual Semantics, which proposes that word senses are mentally represented as expressions in a richer MORE ABSTRACT LANGUAGE OF THOUGHT, stands at the center of the circle, compatible with all of the complications. Word meanings can VARY across languages because CHILDREN ASSEMBLE AND FINE TUNE THEM FROM MORE ELEMENTARY CONCEPTS. They can be PRECISE BECAUSE THE CONCEPTS ZERO IN ON SOME ASPECTS OF REALITY, and slough off the rest (i.e. salience is key). And, they can SUPPORT OUR REASONING because THEY REPRESENT LAWFUL ASPECTS OF REALITY - space, time, causality, objects, intentions, and logic - rather than the system of noises that developd in a community to allow them to communicate. Conceptual semantics fits too with our commonsense notion that words are not the same as thoughts ... not mistaking one for the other. "Words are wise men's counters" wrote Hobbes; "they do but reckon by them; but are the money of fools". Centuries later, Siegfried Sassoon invoked a similar association when he wrote:

Words are but fools
Who follow blindly, once they get a lead.
But thoughts are kingfishers that haunt the pools

Of quiet; seldom-seen.... PINKER, p. 150

Abracadabra.... they are not becoming illiterate!

2009-12-09T10:54:00.001-08:00

For anyone interested enough, follow the link on the left to see some (admittedly) raw data and discussion which suggests that teenagers are not rendered hapless victims of evil online word enchantment that makes them idiots of English!

Let me explain...

2009-12-08T12:28:00.000-08:00

Right, I am not the beauty in question. What I have been thinking is that a certain magic has come into my classroom since I got my Interactive Whiteboard, and since I started researching adolescent literacies. The magic, you see, has transformed a beast into a beauty: there is something so wondrously miraculous in teaching and learning with digital technology. There is something so fantastically enchanting about what young people are designing, creating and communicating using multimodal, multisemiotic off-the-pedagogic-radar gizmos and language varieties. Even a time-travelling Charles Dickens might be inspired to write a 21st Century version of Hard Times. What - I wonder - would he call it: Wow Times? So, you see, the evil educator's spell has been broken; the masses have awoken (forgive the mixed fractured fairytales). And life, communicating and learning are all seamlessly interwoven. Magic indeed. And so, this space is where I hope to share some of the magic I play with everyday... I am learning so much.