The Pandemic Stole Everything but the Internet....

    The relationship between Turkle and Wesch is an understanding that people need connection. I think they have different views on how to go about that connecting, Turkle seeming to be turning an about face regarding technology and Wesch using it as a co-teacher. Both of them talk about using technology as a place to “practice” real life but both shy from understanding or appreciating that for many, even at that time, the internet was home and very real. Turkle’s work around the Internet and virtual communities tells me that she knew that there was value in them. Wesh fashions a new version of geography and world understanding using maps and project based learning. I see them as allies because I think that they both want us to take (safe and detached) advantage of how human to human relationships buoy us and provide fruitful, thoughtful and rich connections.  I’m trying to give grace the fact that the article and the TEDTalk are nearing a decade old-a lot has changed. Especially the way that we engage with each other, our digital footprint  and how our environment plays into how we are able to access relationships.

    For the most part, both Turkel and Wesch seem to be speaking about people who are overall “well” when they speak about human connections and technology. Currently, I am trying to practice thinking about the ways my everyday life has changed due to my income, ability level and access to other adults. Prior to the pandemic I would have said I was absolutely an introvert and could do without people. What the pandemic showed me was that I had in fact, been building a community that came alive in a different way. For the most part I was healthy and able to function, but it wasn’t too long before I started having hiccups in my well being. It was internet friends that helped, that delivered food, that sent mail, that participated in my GoFundMe and continued mutual aid. So many of us were a part of some form of mutual aid and We help each other. Most of those relationships were people I knew in real life, but many were folks I met online from some group or post or who knows where at this point. What I did know was that isolation was not where I was safe or desired to be. Technology gave me the option to connect and be connected to in a way that was not otherwise available. Here is some other ways that online communities have been beneficial for people here

Our level of health and access are variables to our connections: Here are some ways that our connection to people in real life can be altered:

-Sickness

-Disability (almost 60 million Americans)

-Incarcerated (almost 3 million people incarcerated in the States)

-poverty (55-60 million people)

-Trauma

-Time

-Space

-Transportation

Our society continues to inundate us with information, violence and capitalist propaganda. We must be honest that we have embedded technology in almost everything that we do. We must continue to be careful about our engagement and be open to the transformational opportunities that online connecting us offersWe can have fruitful lives off and online and we do. I value the relationships that technology has offered me and I hope that I am able to continue to make new ones.

A status by Jana Lynne Umipig that says "The self only takes you so far in care and love. We must honor that we need each other."

You Can't Skip Caring!

I have to first admit, I love a good TedTalk. I spent half a year dedicated to watching one TedTalk a day-I needed to hear what other people were up to and how they were finding their way. Watch Mike Wesch reminded me of one of my favorite TedTalks by Rita Person about how students learn and how to value them.He talks about how students learn by being connected with and that every student has that innate desire to learn. Watch Pierson talk about her parents and her own legacy as an educator and champion for children. Every Kid Needs a Champion These two TedTalks feel like the intersection of how I engage with youth-through building a relationship. Wesch talks about being interested in the ways that his students learned that were not showing up in his classroom. He was interested in who they were and what they could learn in their relationship with themselves. Pierson talks about valuing her students as people and meeting them as people. The notion that they get to learn, make mistakes and be children feels like the first act to Wesch's college level second act. Both understand that there is power in relationships and were willing to do the work to offer students learning and growing opportunities where they were cared for by Pierson and Wesch. I'm thinking still of our "digital natives/immigrant" conversation this care is what was missing in the conversation for me. It lacked the humanity of dealing with human lives, emotions and inevitably their view of the world (even that view is them looking inward).

His yearlong project where the students become their own subjects feels profound because we do not offer that space as often as we should. Spaces that allow for curiosity, honesty and authenticity allow for connections and those connections often lead to community. When we are intentional and respectful of our charges to care for students we are more able to "know" who they may be influenced by. A student in a class where they are well connected can reach out to a classmate when they have an issue and may feel more comfortable building friendships that last longer than the class. That is the work that I want to do, connecting youth to each other. My hope is that the youth I work with have chances to meet, work together and get to know each other. Their relationship to me should be a connection to a wider youth and adult ally support network and I take that responsibility seriously. When we do the work alongside youth, sometimes that work is simply watching, we get to model what it means to be appropriately and well connected. I hope for more of this for all the youth we know!

I'm adding these two videos of my niece and my goddaughter from last weekend because I think it speaks to how quickly connection builds and adds to our lives. In the video my niece (in yellow shirt ) had already gotten on the wall by herself and got back down when my goddaughter (in blue shorts) was having trouble. My niece will climb, jump, tumble from and on anything and my goddaughter is much more cautious but they spend a lot of time together because of me. The way that they play together and separately, both being supported and cared for by adults, lets me know that they are getting it good. I love that she tries to help and looks back to me and when I say she can help her she trusts that she can. Watching them figure it out together with their little hands and no words between them reminds me that the connection to me should always include others in my network. We cannot skip caring on our way to impacting kids, the care is the impact.

Little Helping Hands

We Made It Together!

Digital Natives or Still Kids who Need Guiding?

I do not like the terms "native" and "immigrant" in this sense. It feels like it dilutes the words actual meanings and adds another log of misunderstanding of what it means to be native and immigrant to anything. I do understand what Prensky mean in his theory that kids are learning in a world that is different and so they are better and differently equipped for it. I also agree with Boyd that we play a reckless game with the safety and access of children when we do not teach or guide them when it comes to the digital world. I agree more with Boyd because the underlying "digital immigrant" portion of his theory feels like adult laziness.

I "hear" his words the same why I hear adults talk about "kids are our future" but do very little to be the kind of adults that show kids what the future can and will look like. Boyd's assertion that we make sure youth know how to manage and navigate digital spaces requires several things of adults. The first of which is that they understand and be able to navigate digital spaces well enough to give good guidance. Then we add on the work of supervising them while they play online, talking about danger, setting up ways to be able to vet information and the list goes on. Instead, we laugh at how easily they pick it up and set them off to find wonder and danger, sometimes in the same place.

We as adults must do the work to guide the youth we are in community with. Well resourced adults do not have to know how to do everything, but we should be able to find others that are able to help! Teaching this same resource sharing to youth is how we encourage them to be honest, open and able to explore.

Hi! Hello!

 Hi! Hello!

My name is Court King! I am a Providence native and attended the University of Rhode Island where I earned my bachelor's of arts in political science because I wanted to go to law school, very glad that plans changed. I have been working with youth for almost two decades in group homes, alternative learning spaces, after school program and as an adult in my community. For the most part, I base my youth development work in the neighborhood I grew up in. I am taking this as my LAST class to finish my Master's degree in YDEV so I am excited and tired all the time but the light at the end of the tunnel is getting closer and closer. One of the things I am not in class is lots of journaling (I am not an ambassador, but I love Moleskine journals)!  I like to take my thoughts and write/draw/chart/script about them. There are so many times that I am unsure about something and it feels really helpful to sit with myself and be honest. It always feels so good to start to see solutions come from my work and openness. It also helps me to keep track of things that are happening (debriefing) or that I want to happen (manifesting). My 2 year old niece, Nay, is a big part of my life and will pop up on Zoom at some point as well.  She was the cohort baby this year and it was a good reminder of why I do this work. Including this picture of me, smiling with all my teeth. Smiling isn't my natural statue but its where I want to be most often! 

Excited to get to know you all these next two weeks,

Court