God and I Versus All

April 3^rd, 2008 10:00 AM GMT+09, something new happened to my life. Well, yes to quote me that was my “first time Skyping for real-purposes” and, of course, “with bunch of White-people” that lasted more than an hour hosted by a group called TeachersTeachingTeachers (not to forget mentioning Clay Burell’s impression that it was more like StudentsTeachingTeachers . Many feelings crossed my heart. Oh well, yes, I was pretty nervous at first I won’t deny (so childish!). And at the same time I was very honored to join this group of 9 out of 6 billion, members consisting of Clay Burell, Paul Allison, Susan Ettenheim, Madeline Brownstone, Lindsea, Hannah, Alan, Mr.Mayo, and Ben, talking about the leading form of education that all world will eventually have (sorry that I couldn’t link all names; please tell me your addresses). Paul told me during the conference that my tweet in YouthTwitter: just my opinion about youthtwitter: schooly. concrete was one of the key inspiration for opening such meeting. Actually, when I decided to tweet that I was afraid if I offended anyone in YouthTwitter but I decided to become honest because I wanted YT to improve. I’ve been blogging since last year, connected since about a month ago, and now I made a difference. Very meaningful.

(Oh yeah, I should have screen-captured the conference call window so I could put images here so this post would look less boring… guess I should get in a habit of doing that )

Although I was one of the people who raised the issue (and now I feel self-conceited), my brain wasn’t cleared enough to talk about the topic. My words actually weren’t very lucent and I mumbled a lot (my another excuse is that I am not a native speaker but English is my second language). Anyways, that was kinda embarrassing (hope Paul would edit that out well )

Overall impression over the conversation was that, frankly, it didn’t quite feel different from English Literary Discussions I have every other day. Except in those cases I’d talk about Jane Eyre, Dracula, and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or as eerie as ‘Vindication of Rights‘ by Mary Wollstonecraft and Virginia Woolf. Methods and procedures of discussion were almost identical; I should say that my first Skype conferencing with people half-globe around felt familiar. (Thanks Ms.Patterson for training me on the discussions!)

It was just another discussion, but an un-graded and real-world one. By this recorded conversation, many students around the world will be aware of becoming ‘unschooly’ and the following benefits. That was probably why I felt more engaged than in school debates. We were making difference to the world, not grades.

So what was Unschooliness? It was a studnet-inspired, and self-inspired work or projects that wasn’t forced to do by any other one. Kuddos for Alan and Hannah for making the definition solid. I mentioned that beginning tweets of YT were “schooly and concrete.” That was true because, seriously, “every tweets looked the same and they were so obvious homework-assignments.” Oh yes they were. After my acrid tweet, YT graduated Medieval Age (the time period where people obeyed King and Clergymen pliantly). Students started engaging themselves in conversations, asking each other about favorite musicians or taking a survey for their projects. If YT was a world history, this would be equivalent to Age of Exploration (except that in the internet no violence are involved) when civilizations start to meet each other and develop themselves inwardly through Industrial Revolution. Profound improvements from previous robotic and systematic tweets. Now only problem is that students will have to get beyond the factual talks. Talking about favorite kinds of music, baseball players and other personal priorities will be great at knowing each other living in different regions of the world. Well, but still they are pretty plain and basic. Less schooly but still concrete. Maybe ‘cliché’ is the right word. In order to jump into the abstracts (the modern age) learning how to make connections and the mastery of art of noticing is crucial. This post of a friend of mine clearly demonstrates exemplary skills at connecting personal thoughts to real events. In addition to that, I would also like to recommend this very special post, a post (actually the whole blog) filled with 100% school related subjects but 0% schooly impressions. I would categorize those two as ‘natural bloggers’.

As I mentioned in the conversations, I believe, that “time” and “exposure” are only things we need to get to the beyond-level. Oh yes and adding to that, I stressed the importance of time and importance because I said teachers can’t really teach a student to become opened; such truth made Clay Burell go “OUCH” :-p (EdTechTalk was similar to Note Passings in Model United Nations activity). Last comment about YT. Students there need to advertise their blogs a little more. I am very interested on hearing them beyond 140 words.

Also Lindsea standed out as an ideal archetype of a successful unschooly student. Personally, her blog posts taught me a lot and her various activities out-of-boundaries, such as PGC and involvement in other classrooms via skype, encouraged me. Her commitment will inspire many other listeners as well. I mean, how many students around the world are promoting global-scale projects? Simply her existence enhanced the quality of the conference.

And Clay Burell asked a question: “How can a teacher grade if assignments are structure-free? (something like this)” and it made whole people in the EdTechTalk chat room go “Nice Question”,”Good Question, Clay” and “Good Question.” I didn’t get to answer this in the conversation, but I soon realized that he already answered that question to me in Twitter couple of weeks ago, and similar answer was produced in the conversation as well. Students grade themselves. Assignments, such as blogging can be varied from a single video-post to a 3000 word formal essay. There are currently no set rubrics to judge such amorphous works. But still teacher could judge a student based on how they incorporated the 6-traits of Writing and other literary skills taught?

And what else were there? Ben contributed his experience on how getting involved in NYC blogging changed his perspectives. It was pleasant to hear because he shared similar experiences. He was relatively new also and he felt the similar way I did. Felt belonged, learning the size of the world, and learning how to make a difference. For internet-technical issues at home :’( it’s difficult for me to connect to any of blogspot blogs and Google Docs. Which means I can’t read NYC blogging often, and I also have limited opportunities to explore Space, sponsored by MrMayo. Space is another type of a collaboration along with 1001 Flat World Tales I experienced last year except it’s dealing with digital artwork which I am more confident in than writing stories. Artwork and poetry from students around the world, that is the I would label as ‘aesthetic’.

The more I get involved in this, the more I get something.

And my final comment was that (why do I only remember what I said) students reject blogging and free-structure because 1)they don’t feel connected and 2) they don’t know how and why. Many of my friends are excellent potent blogger–all they need is a connection. Some of my friends complained that blogging was very boring because no one commented and there was absolutely no sharing. And that would result in 300 people joining my twitter network overnight, and I thought that was impractical because I only have about 70 people following, and suddenly if number increases to 370 I wouldn’t be able to catch all their notifications. Yeah, but I guess that limits to me because Clay Burell responded right back saying, he is already following 400 people, and extra 300 wouldn’t matter. Also regarding the connection problem most students suffer, he suggested about being connected before blogging. Creating a audience before the show, that’s one sure way to get comments on first posts.

And how do we convince the students about the ‘purpose’ of being unschooly? Relying on “time” as I said will take ages. I do not remember who said it (my bad) but someone mentioned that they need to be exposed to exemplary works, watch what other students are doing, and then start to understand the importance. Yes, no one can’t really teach other about this. One can ‘guide’ and show the opportunities and only the student may decide to join or not. Like MySpace and Facebook did, at one point, who knows student body in the blogosphere will grow exponentially?

Lastly I couldn’t resist mentioning Tyrone Kidd. He skyped me, right after the conference for clarifications on the major points. He introduced me as a student in US, and noted the power of connection: Me (is it I?) in ROK talking with a guy in US about technology input in youth education was not a thing happened few years ago. We, once again overcame the natural barrier called Pacific Ocean.

Well this is definitely one of the longest posts I’ve written before, seems like this is a good place to wrap up. Ginormous thanks to Paul and Susan for facilitating and being the discussion leaders for the historical event. Wholeheartedly appreciated it.

Hope this 1 hour conversation would bring a difference to many student bodies,

and again, Thanks for the collaboration everyone! And also thanks who used up precious time to listen to us in EdTechTalk

Soojin

Similar Posts:

• After 1 Month of Blogging
• We Don’t Need the 1:1 Laptop System
• The Internet vs Real Life
• Blogger’s Burden 3.0
• Youthnet: Opening to Neo Era of Student Learning

Technorati Tags: Teachers Teaching Teachers, EdTechTalk, Education, Unschool, Student, Skype, Youth, Blog

4/1, traditionally we have to trick people, or lie to people.

I don’t know why such dates exist. It’s not practical at all.

But such randomness reminds me that we are ‘Humans’, not robots.

Humankind require fun and digression as essential part of life while robots only require oil and latest software updates.

Anyways, does people feel ‘oppressed’ for being honest, and being not-sly? People legalized one precious day out of 365 days we have in a year to make sure we lie and make fun of other people. Well, and since such a day exist, people would feel ‘illegal‘ to lie in a date that’s not an April Fool’s day. 364 days of honest days out of 365 days a year, sounds quite peaceful, eh?

Whoever made it April Fool’s day, that was pretty SLY

And since it’s April Fool’s Day, April’s Fool day or whatever, I am posting pictures of conventional paradox.

Flavor Without Equal
Welfare Without Compromise
Real Food Guarantee 100%

Deciphered:

We produce food with distinctive taste
We ensure your health at all sacrifices
We guarantee that this food is 100% organic

So obvious that those words were directly transcribed from Korean to English by using one of those Internet Translators. “Flavor without Equal,” it sounds okay if it was articulated in Korean words. Well, the company probably thought that there would be no people fluent at English to be one of their customers.

You mean ‘Piece of Memory” Even that sounds awkward.
How many years does it take for people to learn that ‘remember’ is not a noun?

or just as simple as ‘memoir’

I’m scared if Korean public schoolers who buy these utensils would accept those internet-translation as correct grammar. Ministry of Education should intervene in such issue.

Right, Jane?

Imperfection: is the thing that makes us human, not god or robot. And I love being a human because 1) it’s so much fun going ups and downs 2) we’re all going to die and 3) what’s the point of living if we’re all perfect?

Technorati Tags: April Fool, Imperfection, Egotist, Human, Grammar, Philosophy, Anthropology, Time

January 20, 2008 I wrote my first official blog post in a connected state. According to the archives, I’ve written blogs since autumn of 2006, but those were just random scribblings of what I define now as homework. Please allow me to state I started blogging since January 20th.

Today is March the 29th, I’ve been blogging for approximately two month and nine days. A mere month of experience and I have a major question that I want to ask every experienced bloggers.

I define web logging as a form of expression, a form of a public diary that may regard the profession of the writer.

• Should we write the blog posts in order to attract readers? Or should we consistently write blog posts even no one is reading?

Recently, I was disappointed at the decreasing number of visitors to my blog and it kept me down. My average page views used to be around 80’s a day a week ago, and now it’s under 30 views a day. The fact that people didn’t read my thoughtful insights (or no comments) frustrated me; why am I blogging if not many people are even reading it? What is the difference with paper if no one will read? I really liked how April, Mr.Burell, Diane and Ginger used to leave thoughtful responses to my previous posts.

Other’s interests in my blog was what encouraged me to keep posting. Now majority of my visitor seems to be gone, and I was discouraged from becoming in the part of cycle.

Wait a second, I can reverse this. If I want attention, others would want attention as well. Well, too bad I can’t connect to any of Blogspot blogs with my home internet adaption. I’ll be the first commentator to other’s blog. It was interesting to have a random commentator out of nowhere like Hannah and Randa.

So lets now deal with the original question, should we write necessarily to attract? If a writing attracts readers, than that means the writer’s got some skills. But I don’t think a blogger should deliberately elaborate the posts for popularity. Writers just write posts of unfiltered insightful thoughts that are not necessarily eloquent to every age groups, naturally mature readers will follow.

That is my belief. Am I not yet in the stage?

As I am slowly realizing that Björk is actually a harder listening than Enslavement of Beauty, I click ‘publish’ button for the 23rd time since I’ve been blogging.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Web 2.0

First, I want to state my opinion about this never ending thread.. I personally am very convinced by both pros and cons. Some maniac killers deserve to die, but ethical problems deny me from thinking such, but horrible actions of the convict urge me again to agree to execute. However I concluded myself that I have and will have more opportunities to speak against Capital Punishment. I believe in Christianity, and I am a delegate of my school MUN. I’m officially discouraged from favoring execution.

That’s me. Several days ago, a horrendous, terrific, and unimaginable crime was committed in a not-so-far neighbor of my city. A middle aged man killed a little girl, sliced her into 10 pieces, and buried all of the parts separately (don’t worry there are no images of it:P). And police somehow found few of those pieces, and caught the killer. Is the killer going to be killed? I don’t know, but he is currently being asked questions with serial kidnapping of women in similar area.

This kind of guy pisses me off, but seems like he’s still a human because he showed tears and formally apologized. I spontaneously felt sympathy as I read the Korean article off, because, you know, a special ed. cannot be helped but he’s just the way he is. But this murder left deep, traumatic psychological consequences on the victim’s family and her neighborhood.

After WWI, Woodrow Wilson proposed 14 points not to heavily judge Germany and the Central powers. But there was no way England and France was going hide their vengeance and hostilities upon Germany.

After the WWII and the holocaust, the prime minister of Germany apologized to the globe with tears, and now Germany is treated equal, and was politically ‘forgiven’ for the faults. Should we put the same measures for this killer?

This video gave me lots of sensations about the execution and the order of society.

Its core message of the video is at .. around 1:40 mark.

This video is a parody of Death Note, a story about a Japan’s top national student, Light, picks up a note that can kill anyone you know a name and a face within 40 seconds. He decides to kill off the criminals and the lesser kind of people and he thinks that will create peace.

It actually does. Until Light’s defeat at the end, there are barely any crimes happening in the world. After this mass killer (of the criminals) die, society turns back to its normal state. Pretty ironic.

“But then you will be the only bad guy left”

I really liked this comment by the ghost (supposedly, Ryuk). If law kills off bad people, law’s going to be the only killer left in the world.

“I am the top student of Japan, and I will be the new world GOD”

But he is trying to justify the murder with totalitarian authority, which is the way it is widely done.

Should we leave a government that

accept warm-hearted people it accepts for peace and security purposes?

or is that kind of a ruler
?

These kinds of questions seems to far fetched and too abstract for peaceful me and the world.

Back to the beginning. So should Jung (murderer) be killed? Hopefully they find the most peaceful way for the society.

Video Credit: InvaderZim1000
Photo Credit: Tsugumi Ohba & Takeshi obata
Technorati Tags:Execution, Capital Punishment, Jung, Murder, Deathnote, History, politics, Crime

Since it was first announced at the end of year 2006-2007, I really liked the new 1:1 laptop system that was going to be applied. As immature freshman, I was just excited about how I finally could have a computer of my own, and was itching to totally customize the computer to my style which wasn’t going to be shared with my family.

Anyways, that was me last year. Recently, my thoughts told me that my school KIS didn’t actually needed the 1:1 laptop curriculum. In other words, we are not using it in the right place. We used to have a laptop-cart system where set of 24 school-owned laptops were delivered to a class with internet connection and wireless-print set ups. Primary uses of those laptops were

• Incorporation of wikispaces in group activities and
• in-class researches.

And what do we have now with the 1:1 laptop now?

• Incorporation of wikispaces in group activities,
• In class researches,
• To conveniently record podcasts or edit videos
• To conveniently print off homework in school
• To play games and update facebook more often
• to stay online on IM 24/7

and there are thousand other ‘benefits’ we students received due to the 1:1. Only real benefit we have is the default iMovie and Garageband installation in MacbookNow let’s look at the original purpose of 1:1 adoption in KIS.

• To make the standard of school levitate “like other advanced schools like Shanghai American School”

Well, this is definitely working out because KIS is the only international school in Korea so far with 1:1 laptop system. We stand out (in the surface).

• To be connected!

This is the main point of 1:1 laptop system. How many of us are connected? Except for certain English teacher I had last year, none of my teachers are using laptop as a global collaboration for projects, etc. If we only use laptops for closed purposes, what’s the difference of having a shift from the Laptop Carts? What’s different from having a computer lab in class?

Every high school students blog. And how many of them are actually connected? From my grade, I only see Patrick. He actually makes quality podcasts with a sustainability star Bill Farren. It was very impressive and astounding to see actually a young teen making meaningful contacts with people half-circumference away.

A lot of senior bloggers in my school deserve to be recognized. They are making true connections in their AP Literature class. But it was sad to see that Seniors had to use the laptop carts for classes because the school didn’t require seniors to buy laptops. They are kinds of people who, frankly, needs 1:1 laptop in their life.

Most of us don’t connect, and most of us don’t realize the power of connection. Yet I am trying to get some people interested in by sharing their posts on twitter. Cathy, Susie, Jaimie, Keunwha, Kenny, and Jane are some people around me who managed to get attention or comments due to my linkings (and new dots in their clustrmaps =p)

We need connection. It’s still not a year since we’ve been using it; we don’t know the 6 W’s yet. At current state, laptop system in our school is not being used to its fullest potent.

“How are you helping my child become literate in the 21st century?”

I really liked that quote from the video.

Photo credit: PinkCakeBox

Video Credit: Karl Fisch

Technorati Tags: 1to1, KIS, Laptop, Post Modern, education, Technology

Two days later, the 3rd quarter ends.

Well, yes like any other last-days-of-end-of-quarters, my schedule is jammed with projects and exams (not quizzes, EXAMS) with all my subjects. This week and the week before had been my busiest life in high school so far, if excluding finals.

I mean, it’s not even finals. Usually teachers equally distribute the dates for exams and due dates, but at this time they were all in unison, nice in harmony, a symphony of destruction for the capability of my brain, soul, and body.

I’m not kind of a student very ambitious in grades; I’ll admit it. But I certainly want to earn decent grades, and be recognized. I’m not kind of a student who can stand for more than 2 hours of continuous studying; it’s just not my thing.

That’s why there are lots of blank spots in the calendar in the left hand corner this week.

As I grabbed on to more pencil, my fingers became and stiff and I couldn’t play the piano as well as before. But that didn’t mean I necessarily got better grades. It feels like everything is rejecting me; where should I go?

I really felt rushed this week. Too much information shut into my brain in short time, and too much usage of brain in short time.

I was like Rooney. I just had too many obstacles at me at short period of time. I couldn’t steer through

But I think the problem lies on me, because there are actually kids out there who get perfect grades even in a time like this.

Yo no se. I’ll just shut up and study
Photo: GettyImages

“cycle complete”

It’s a very simple presentation of world-wide effects of the Internet on the people.

Some of my friends say to me, “Get a life, man!” because I am one of the most diligent blogger in my school. I am not sure about that comment, because I don’t neglect reality, but I sometimes think I’m obsessed with the virtual world also.

Internet is part of life as new means of communication. Globalization is no longer promoted by ships but underground wires and satellites. However it is also true that most internet sites I access are not necessarily going to raise my lowly grade point averages and guarantee a 5 in the AP World History exam I’m taking exactly 2 months later.

The Internet doesn’t possess dignity. Usage of Internet is just a fun to the people, they look down on the ‘internet geeks’.

But according to my observations, pretty much all the people who have countless connections and fame in the virtual worlds are as equally powerful in reality. Both are realities after all.

So my conclusion: Be cool in life and 2.o at home.

Video Credit: mememolly
Technorati Tags: Internet, reality, mememolly

I humbly present my first ever ‘original’ artwork. I’ve done quite a few mixing before, but it was my first time of making a tune of my own.

(Actuall I don’t want to consider that as an ‘artwork’ because that was a practice)

I worked for approximately five hours, and yet the outcome is 1 minute (wonder how Rachmaninov wrote his concerto no.1, which is 24 minutes long).

I hadn’t learned any sort of formal education of music theory. Only thing I know about music is that I had acquired some ‘common sense’ after memorizing 1400 songs in my iPod. …Okay I just realized I was unschooled? :=p

I tried to make something serious and grave like Yiruma and George Winston, but then I ended up making a jazz:P. Well, it’s not even jazz it’s an undefinable work of mouse-clicks.

Inspiration really matters. On my walk home, I was trying to call my friend, but accidentally I called an upperclassmen girl. I said sorry (I think) and right after I hung up, like a lighting, a feel came to my heart WHICH WAS TOTALLY DIFFERENT THAN THE CRAP ABOVE.

After producing a 1-minute earwax, I realized in my bottom of heart that p2p downloads were bad for the first time. Like my friend says “You need a lot of time and effort to have one song. But it’s so easy for us to download…” If I produced a music as a band, I wouldn’t want my fans ripping off my 1000-hour worth of music.

It is very difficult to produce sound with MIDI instruments. My piece up there really sounds unnatural, artificial and computer generated (and I never liked the quality as well); plus I still don’t get the nature of automation and other techniques. Most pop musics are computer generated, yet they are smooth. How good a person has to be in order to be in that level?

Like my other friend says, this is my first step. This is where I am, and I can’t help but admit it. Yes, I just made my first step towards my goal behind hazy turmoils. Long way to go….

…Until I can be like this guy and make the same 1-minute sound better…There are many people (teenagers) who are already a few hundred steps ahead of me. Only job left is catching up.

Technorati Tags: Logic 8, Unsigned, Original Art

I am an ordinary student who struggles with living.

This is my room. My sweet, cozy, and disgusting room.

I am a student, and that is an undeniable and inevitable fact.
I accept my responsibilities, and I accept what I need to repress to myself.

Then, one day, my parents scolded me: “Why is your room so messy? Can’t you clean it up?”

Well, why? I thought, at least ‘my room’ was a place for my own freedom.

I perfectly clean my room up when there are visitors, and I am totally cool with it.

I have a place to live, sleep and eat, but that doesn’t give me my own private and free area. I deserve my own rights to decorate my room accordingly to my will, like I choose a theme for my blog (even blog is not private)

I don’t get offended when my mom talks about my missing assignments and bad grades (damn you edline). Nonetheless when she talks about my room, and my own choices that will not affect others whatsoever, my heart is staked.

I reserve the right to keep my personal call, personal text messaging, personal chatting, personal acting, personal organizing and personal thoughts to myself.

Here ends another childish whine of mine

technorati tags: Freedom, Privacy

Just play this video

Ladies and Gentlemen, now I introduce “Clockwork of Time,” written by Danish band Illnath.
Be honest with your first feelings. This song is GOOD.

I got to know this band recently, and I am in love with them. Every time I listen to this song, I feel as if my soul is being cleansed.

and… how many people knows this band? There are heck a lot of metal-maniacs in the world who are ready to listen to another ear-ripping music, and why isn’t Illnath recognized? There are rarely any videos of Illnath in Youtube, and all the view numbers are around 200-300. Pretty sad stats. This band is praised as the “strengths of Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth” (which are my favorites also) and this band is yet no more than a mere underground.

The same Danish artist Within Temptation is way more famous, but I call that song qualities of Illnath are better.

Last Autumn’s Dream, which is a band i’m currently writing a review of, they’re not even in Youtube. However, their songs like Pages and Skyscraper melt down my brain and heart.

After listening to these ‘underground’ and ‘minor’ music, some mainstream in MTV like My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, Linkin Park and all those pop, rap look like the sissies of music branch.

Their songs are not sophisticated, have no meanings, and seem to have taken much less effort.

Some artists devoted to skills had managed to become popular, but that was since they touched the territory of ‘mainstream.’

It’s more than it’s because they’re in different genre’s.

Seems like someone who wants to be a musician should choose between path of Fame and Skill.

Video(song) credit: Illnath
Technorati Tags: Mainstream, Music, Illnath, Denmark, Last Autumn’s Dream, Musician