12 posts tagged “dr. chris a. heidelberg iii”
By Chris A. Heidelberg III, Ph.D., Publisher & Producer & Isidra Person-Lynn
This is the final interview in a series of interviews with Professor Isidra Person-Lynn on my uses of blogging and social media in the classroom as part of my learner-centered approach called edutainment & convergence to learning, thinking, communicating and collaborating. I have to warn you that I call out some of my colleagues who are so old school that their thinking leaves out the school and it is just plain "old" thinking without a sense of the history behind why things are the way that they are in education historically speaking. The truth is that the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Greeks and Hellenists believed in the use of edutainment for learning. How do we know this? Well, education was only provided to the royal and religious class, and storytelling through religious ceremonies, festivals, dances, griots and artwork were used to convey important religious teachings to the masses (Heidelberg, 2008; History Channel, 2009; Pollard & Reid, 2006). In fact, religious temples in Alexandria actually competed for visitors through edutainment and ancient technology demonstrations to raise funds and attendance (Heidelberg, 2007; History Channel, 2009; Pollard & Reid, 2006). However, edutainment was taken from the anals of credible learning due to idealogy and religion. I often find it difficult to say this as a person of faith, but then again people have always used the name of God to justify everything from slavery to wars to sexism to discrimination so I should know better!
Professor Isidra Person-Lynn:
What direct message would you have for educators, especially writing coaches when it comes to blogging and social media?
Me: I would advise them to get over themselves and get with the program use these new school tools with their old school tools. Every educator and writing coach has greatness within themselves and the talent to change and transform the old with the new. How do I know? Edutainment is truly and old school tool that goes back to Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Alexandria, Rome and Paris.
However, Emperor Justinian was persuaded to close The Academy at Athens because of the "heathen" or questionable moral behavior of the Athenians, and then the Library and Museum at Alexandria was burned down by unknown events or persons. These actions literally took the interactivity and the fun out of education and made it the "sage on high show" where students got locked into everything from standards to the whims of some professors with axes to grind or on authority trips.The goal is to transform the student into a philospher-leaders to paraphrase Plato (since there are few kings left to be philospher-kings). This cannot happen when students cannot articulate in writing or verbally. Since human beings have been trying to communicate visually and verbally throughout the ages based on the Great Pyramids in Egypt and in South America and the cave paintings, it stands to reason that writing is the physically extension of the verbal story. Once we can teach a student to tell a story verbally in the correct manner; it is much easier to transform the written version of the student's story. We can even teach punctuation marks as signs along the road. For example, the period would be a red light and so would a question
mark. A comma could be a sign to pause and slow down for the speed bump and go slower after the speed bump because a light is coming up soon. A semi-colon could tell you to slow down because you have a speed bump, but then you can proceed at the posted speed again. A colon could be a green light for a long list of signs that are coming up like deer, falling rock, speed cameras, children crossing, hotels, gas stations, restaurants and super markets. My point is that for most people we have to start concrete and then we can move on to complicated abstract concepts like conflict, structure, and metaphors. Most people can learn this by doing it, and then we can explain to them what they have done in theory and in the deeper context of writing.
The interesting fact that I have noticed is that once many of my concrete learners understood an abstract concept they mastered it and never forgot it because they had been educated in a concrete manner that fit their indivdual learning styles. One of the first things that I did was to find out what types of convergence devices that my students owned (iPods, cell phones, gaming devices, computers, digital cameras) and what was there learning style. This is what happens in my class. You teach what you learn because you are the director, the producer, the writer, the casting agent, the location manager, the public relations person (who have to write a lot of persuasive copy) and the actor. The ultimate compliment to a professor is when his or her students can emulate them and add some of their individual style to what you have taught them when they teach their peers. All great philosphers and religious figures from Moses to Socrates to Christ to Mohammed to Confucius challenged their followers that they would do even greater things if they stuck to the teachings.
So when an old school professor presents me with issues on technology based learning, I present them with the history of edutainment and how it can work with convergence. My question is this: why did we stop teaching the art of storytelling? This is what social media and blogging allow one to do.
We can all see the same event on YouTube, iTunes or our iPods repeatedly and then write ouranalysis of the event based on our unique perspective. As a professor, I believe that blogging enables a student to get it right on multiple levels. We worry so much about how many times students get it wrong , when our real concern is this: do the students get it right in the end when it is time to give them their final grade.
This is the measure of what they learned on their road to writing, but sometimes we as educators get stuck on what we do not have with our students instead of focusing on a learner-centered approach which I learned through reading Dr.Barbara McCombs who has written and researched extensively on this subject and I actually got to meet her and become acquainted with her on a more personal level through my friend Dr. Reid Cornwell. Get her books on Amazon LOL! We work together as part of The Center For Internet Research where I am the executive director, and we are continuing the search for innovative approaches to educations such as learner-centered principles, natural learning and edutainment and convergence which encompasses both of these approaches.
Seriously, I am a unique hybrid of a professor, researcher, edutainer, speaker, techie, working writer/producer/director and social media specialist and now that I realize that these experiences and gifts have helped me I am working on having books on how to apply edutainmentand convergence and my research (theoretical and applied) ready for fall online so stay tuned. It is one thing to tell folks to do something but it is quite another to show them and that is what I plan on doing. I really appreciate this opportunity to speak with you Isidra.
By Chris A. Heidelberg III, Ph.D, Publisher & Managing Editor & Isidra Person-Lynn
I have been contacted by many so many colleagues online over the past few years to explain edutainment & convergence that I finally relented to a series of mini-interviews with Professor Isidra Person-Lynn of West Los Angeles College. Neither one of us can recall who contacted who first online, but that is the point of edutainment & convergence or E & C as Isidra likes to call my techniques and approaches to learning, marketing, communications and technology: edutainment & convergence is collaborative, interactive, intuitive and yes, social.
This is my answer to the first question from Professor Isidra.
Professor Isidra Person-Lynn: Dr. Chris, why did you start blogging?
Me: I must say that when I first introduced the twin concepts of edutainment & convergence during my research in graduate school my professors loved it but some did not totally understand all of its ramifications. However, the department chair and my dissertation chair, Dr. Howard L. Simmons and Dr. Rosemary Gillet-Karam immediately got it and encouraged me from the first day I entered the program in fall 2003. In truth, I now realize that I was ahead of the technology as far back as 2001 when I predicted what would become the iPhone as my Master's professor reminded me when I debated him on this issue and he told that technology was way off in the future, but I digress LOL!
For me blogging is the future business model for many professors, researchers, authors, businesses, and students
because of its interactive and immediate nature. This is why Twitter, a micro-blogging tool is so popular! Think about it, you can now tell a story quickly on your blog and take a photo with your iPhone, Blackberry Storm or other smart phone. The significance of Ashton Kutcher beating CNN to one million followers and raising money for hungry people in Africa should not be discounted. This was a shot across the bow of mainstream media during tough economic times. The age of narrow casting is here to stay and that is why professors, researchers, students and businesses need to use these social media tools because they keep you in constant communication on how to refine what you do and create a better product.
I have been using blogs for the entire year at Loyola, and I used it from 2006-2008 with students who interned with me while creating their Master's or undergraduate portfolio. It has been quite successful even with some old school professors. Why? Because one can link in a PowerPoint, photos, videos, audio, music and text with my links in one place across multiple platforms.
Copyright 2009 Edutainment & Convergence
By Dr. Chris A. Heidelberg III
As usual my fellow producer and professor extraordinaire Professor Jay Dunmore told me about one his star students: Luke O'Brien! Luke is really taking YouTube by storm as he closes in on 5000 views since last Saturday with this rap anthem titled I love knowledg
Loyola student producer/director Grey Shannahan joined creative forces with Luke to create this instant classic that promotes education through edutainment and convergence. If you think you have the talent to promote education through rap or hip hop find me on Facebook because we are looking to produce and direct you.
Tonight we discussed, debated and performed on the subject of television in George Rodman's book titled Mass Media
In A Changing World (2009). Rebecca Cammarata was the director for the night and she was assisted by Pat Smith. The title of tonights skit was The Effects of Television on children. The group that created the play was Danielle DeGregoris, Steph Deisher, Julie Funk, Erin McDermott, and Danielle Calcara.
The class gave the presentation two thumbs up and they were rewarded with a $27 bailout for Starbucks or whatever they felt like doing at $5 per person. Since Dr. Chris believes students should be rewarded for outstanding scholarship he created a game show to give real money to students. Mandy Vissichelli was clear winner earning $16 for answering correctly. William "Big Willie" Potter and Megan Brown also earned cash prizes.
This was the first time the class itself directed a skit.
By Chris A. Heidelberg III, Ph.D.
Publisher & Producer
I have heard from many of you during my extended absence to focus on running The Center For Internet Research, teaching, researching, writing my book, and producing my new Edutainment & Convergence show which should be airing online in a month. However, I have a new class Introduction To Communications at Loyola College in Maryland. My site has a green look during the semester. I will be using my other sites too! Naturally, I have added Edutainment & Convergence methods to the class. One of my students Julie is now a friend on this site. The final exam will be a combination presentation, online blog on Vox, a Facebook evaluation, and a written research paper that will be comprised of their blogs with research.
For everyone reading this post, your homework today is to review the Barack Obama address to Congress and the Republican response from Governor Bobby Jindal of Lousiana on YouTube, Facebook or any online source. I want you to review each speech and identify their three key messages, evaluate their credibility, evaluate their confidence, evaluate their body language and voice tonality, evaluate their emotional appeal. Finally, explain whether or not they were both effective or ineffective. Who was more effective as a communicator based on your evaluation and explain why? Who was credible based on the facts of what they said and explain why? Do not fear using factcheck.com or org to assist you on this point.
Feel free to Facebook friend me as Doc Chris to keep up with class for the rest of the semester.
By Chris A. Heidelberg, III, PhD. Publisher
If you are one of my former 1600 Facebook friends, don't even bother trying to contact me because you can't! I don't exist! I am officially disabled which really means excommunicated!
I guess the YouTube video to the left describes how I feel right now. One of the biggest problems of dealing with many online companies is knowing what the terms of your agreement. Like Internet veteran Rob Scobie I recently had my Facebook account disabled after receiving a warning email that I might be disabled. I think that there is a huge difference between getting a warning email and being straight up cut off by the powers that be at Facebook. My "warning" from Facebook turned into being banished from Facebook in a manner that would have made Charlton Heston's Moses look like he was still included in the Egyptian Royal Family. I was kicked out, thrown out, and literally made an example of because I betrayed the terms of my agreement.
Here is a quick quiz: how many of you really understand the terms of the agreement when you signed up for Facebook
My point here is that I love the Facebook platform, but in their zeal to prevent spam they are persecuting amateurs like me who have no intention of spamming and only intentions of networking. Maybe they should borrow from LinkedIn and allow people to network who belong to the same groups. In my case I was experimenting with teaching a class in South Africa and here simultaneously before taking a trip. So I networked through one of my friends and that was considered a violation because I was adding too many friends too fast.
I have written Facebook several times and I have only received an initial response and after that I have received no response email from Facebook. This is disturbing to me that a company of this size would treat its customers like this and not even both to respond to email with at least a form letter. Hey, I work with the government and even they send you a form email to respond to your email. I realize that I will probably not get my account restored for writing this post but after trying to correspond with them and promising to reform from my "wicked ways" that I did not know I had. All I want to do is network with my academic, technology, media and student friends. I am so disappointed because I feel that the heavy handedness of Facebook is a shame because I think it has the potential to become the platform. I have always liked it better than MySpace but it appears that they don't want me.
My real problem with Facebook is that when you try to find out how many friends that you can add they cannot tell
So here are my questions: what does one do when they run afoul of the undisputed king of social networking? What would you do? In the meantime, if you want to contact me by Facebook you may be eligible for retirement by the time I even get a response, so don't hold your breath waiting. Come on Facebook give me one more chance and loosen up because you are starting to act like Microsoft used to act before they re-discovered customer service.
If you're reading this and you are on Facebook, I hope you learned what I did: Facebook can do whatever they want to do; Facebook will cut you from the squad quick and then tell you to read the vague rules that they wrote to protect themselves legally; Facebook will not give you specifics in plain English on how to stay out of trouble once you have run afoul; Facebook will not give you real due process and you will be punished with a snowball's chance in hell of being reinstated with all of your existing friends; Facebook will not respond to your requests for reinstatement even when you promise to change; Facebook has created rules similar to the credit card companies and you know you can't win appeals with them unless you are F. Lee Bailey or loaded; and Facebook has the best social networking site in the world that will make you an addict as I am finding
Hey I have already lost my privacy, due process, and right to protection against self-incrimination with Facebook. So I
better use my First Amendment right while I still have it! I guess I feel like the guy getting lectured to by Clint Eastwood as Clint is holding the gun to him and promising this gentleman to, "Go ahead make my day!" You never get a straight answer when the person holding the gun is holding all of the cards, has cut you off of Facebook,
and has already shot at you quite accurately. Don't bet on me getting reinstated, especially after this post!
By Chris A. Heidelberg III, PhD., Publisher & Producer
As I was reading All Things Digital on The Wall Street Journal online portal, I noticed that my Facebook friend Rafat Ali had sold the popular digital news site paidContent for approximately $25-$30 million dollars to English publishing conglomerate Guardian Media. Under the terms of the deal Guardian will take a hands off approach and let Ali and his team do what they do best: keep us informed on the latest technology news. What a concept! Guardian Media is a UK firm and they appear to get it: if it is not broke, don't fix it, buy it and get paid. Here is the link to the interview with Kara Swisher of All Things Digital and I also added a snipet of Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates together at the D6 Conference before Gates retired from Microsoft, but you have to read further down to get to it. Speaking of getting it, I have to give to give credit to The Wall Street Journal for a similar approach to All Things Digital and this is why Swisher and Walt Moss produce such great work and are not afraid to be transparent about their industry ties and investments. Great job Kara and Walt!
Normally, I am not a fan of media consolidation; however, my concerns are usually when big companies merge. I actually am more of a fan of deals like this when social media pioneers and gurus like Ali are financially rewarded. Why? First, it will encourage more blogging teams to produce quality content that draws eyeballs if they want the same financial rewards. Second, it brings new players into the media game with new ideas and approaches to reporting that is sorely needed. Third, it demonstrates that the big companies are willing to pay real dollars to become real players in the digital media world.
Media consolidation is not always evil; however, it has to be regulated. Now I know that this may not be popular with
To be sure, the media conglomerates are finally beginning to understand that social media is different and cannot be controlled and manipulated as easily as traditional media because of the democratizing effect of the Internet and social media. Politicians and big business are just beginning to learn these lessons, but the Google mantra of "do no evil" is a start. Even though, Google and these companies are far from perfect, the idea of dealing with the public in a forthright and transparent manner is what is driving the web. I guess the moral of the story is don't hate, congratulate and one day your day will come to get paid. I sure would not turn down $25-$30 million for this family of publications right now LOL!
By Chris A. Heidelberg, III, Ph.D., Publisher & Producer
I was sitting around enjoying the holiday when I realized that because of convergence technology like my cell phone,
As I sat here for a moment after being busted by Facebook for unknowingly adding too many friends too fast. Hey, I am a popular guy with a huge family and friends and they ought to set a limit and make it transparent. Yet I digress!
My good friend Jack Yan in New Zealand and I may live worlds apart physically, but we are definitely of the same mind. Jack recently wrote a scathing post about the practices of large bank in New Zealand. After reading Jack's post on Facebook, I was instantly re-routed to Vox where we are also friends and wrote a comment.
Think about that, I sent a message across the globe to comment on an article by a person who has become a friend all through the global village of the Internet as McLuhan (1968) predicted. Yes, the medium is the message, but I also believe that people are increasingly becoming the message. Jack's stance against the bank, and my current problem with Facebook, illustrates the power of the web for one to voice one's satisfaction or dissatisfaction with goods and services. While I have an issue with Facebook's policy, I wish when you receive a warning that it told you what the limit is. This is what I like about Apple, they give you the limits for computers upfront so that you can make an informed decision. Microsoft has a similar policy, so does Google, and so does Amazon.
Where am I going with this argument? The point that I am making is that ordinary people, even those of us with PhDs, do not fully understand all the agreements that we have to sign in order to use online services. I am a Facebook fan and they are by far not the biggest offender when it comes to being transparent, listening to your customers, and communicating with customer in non-legal language. What bothers me is that the law is supposed to interpret against the drafter of an agreement when there is a dispute according to my old contracts teacher Professor Korzack. The rationale is that when you draft an agreement, you know exactly what you want, but the other side may not understand the totality of this want.
So I guess I will serve out my punishment like a good cyber bad boy, but I want you to consider how the magic of the Internet has enabled us to literally have a freedom that was totally unimagined, yet hoped for by the Founding Fathers as we celebrate the Fourth of July holiday weekend. The Internet has provided us with wonderful freedoms, but if we are not careful to insist that the companies that we do business with are held to a high standard of transparency.
If we do not make our voices heard through cyberspace, we risk becoming victims of the same type of tyranny that the Founding Fathers did anticipate that is why we have a Bill of Rights. Even though the Constitution has been diminished in recent years by both corporate and government interests, often acting in concert together, we still have the right to question authority en masse to protect our privacy, our sense of fairness and our basic sense of human dignity. Which is why the embedded videos on this post are all people questioning authority and the policies of big companies. Some of these videos are classic! This will become a regular feature on Edutainment & Convergence so send me links or your video protest here or on my Facebook page.
In final analysis, when you deal with online companies it is a lot like the large bug trying to talk its way into your home from the extermination company ad: you never know what you are letting into your life and how much pain they can you once you let them into your life. Remember, freedom is not free, and it is not for free or for wimps! So while I am serving digital timeout based on no due process, you just remember that freedom is not free. Enjoy your holiday and never give up the right to protest or peaceably assemble for the redress of grievances! Fight back! Unless you love Facebook like me! If you like this post make it viral and send it out!
Now that's edutainment!
For the past five years I have been researching, writing about and speaking about edutainment and convergence. Somewhere around 2005, I began to find that edutainment and convergence is all about creating a learner-centered environment (Heidelberg, 2007, 2008; McCombs, 2003, 2005). I may sound like my colleagues Dr. Bill Spady (2001), Dr. Barbara McCombs (2003, 2005) and Dr. Reid Cornwell (2008) but they are absolutely correct in their assessments that the currrent educational system from K-20 is n ot learner-centered.
Why does the military utilize gaming? Because they are relevant to young people and they work! Video games are relevant to young people because the y are interactive, exploratory, competitive and fun. Young people are digital natives with a natural affinity for all things digital (Gee, 2004, 2005; Prensky, 2001, 2006). Video games create relationships between the players, the game and the knowledge embedded in the game (Gee, 2004, 2005, 2007; Prensky, 2001, 2006). Finally, video games are full of the rigor that increases as the learner advances through the game, and video games can be played online and updated for the gifted students (Gee, 2001, 2006; Prensky, 2001, 2006). Video games of every stripe have the ability to digitally access students (Wisher, 2000).
There are other convergence tools with edutainment capabilities that can also be utilized by learners. For example, i
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