Jennifer James, an urban cultural anthropologist, gave a fascinating keynote at the National Staff Development Council Annual Conference this week. Professor James made a number of wonderful analogies, thought provoking comments, and real challenges for us to take back with us. While I differ from her with regard to philosophy/belief system I still felt she had a plethora of valuable thoughts to share and I'll focus on what I believe impacts me most as an educational technology professional.
At the heart of James' presentation was an analogy of a tapestry of belief - our "mythologies", our beliefs, our traditions, our culture, our work, our wisdom, all that makes us comfortable and safe. Most of us can handle changes to that tapestry at a certain pace - a thread here and there. We are living in a time when that tapestry is changing very fast; it feels to many that their tapestries are being torn apart and that cuts deep into our being.
What can help? Someone needs to show people the "new tapestry". If your old tapestry is being torn apart and you can't see a new one you can be quite shaken. But, if you can envision the new tapestry being woven one can adjust to the changes more easily.
To me, showing people the new tapestry is my challenge. We're asking people to go into a technological future in which they don't understand the language, the culture, the traditions. Our job is to do more than "train" but to welcome them into a new culture. It's bigger than classes; it's bigger than workshops. We need to help people really see what's around the corner so we don't tear down their tapestry to fast or without helping them see how the new one is being created.
So an underlying question for me for the foreseeable future: how do I show them the new tapestry?
Some favorite quotes/notes from keynote:
“Civilization is the long process of learning to be kind.”
“Why is common sense not common practice?”
"We don’t care about many of our children. We seem to believe they won’t grow up – but they will…and they’ll move next door to you."
In extraordinary times like we have now the learning curve is STRAIGHT UP – we are constantly overwhelmed.
We have very little time to REFLECT in our culture and use everything we know.
1 comment:
This post is very interesting and thought-provoking! I especially liked the quotes you shared. Thank you for commenting on my blog; like you, I originally had no doubt in my mind that a tribunal was completely necessary and appropriate. With this project I am excited to be able to share my thoughts about Cambodia and the tribunal process! Feel free to comment again (once I get going:).
Post a Comment