Sugata Mitra: "Build a School in the Cloud" @ TED2013

 

One year ago, Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences (@secls) at Newcastle University (@StudentsNCL) Sugata Mitra (@Sugatam) won the 2013 TED Prize (@TEDPrize).  At TED2013, he delivered his wish that the world help him "build a school in the cloud."  He essentially called upon educators, parents, and students to assist him in designing a learning experience whereby all children - located all over the world - can interact with technology and pursue meaningful questions in environments in which adults merely support and encourage them.  He also addressed these same populations to implement Self-Organized Learning Environments (SOLEs) (@schoolincloud) and to forward him the data to serve as the raw materials for upcoming publications.

What results has Mitra's "wish" engendered far? SOLE Central (@NCLsolecentral) and the beginning of classroom-based implementation of SOLEs.  

The learning revolution begins.  Will we soon see SOLE-based classrooms at Kildonan...?

So what's happening here? I think what we need to look at is ... learning as the product of educational self-organization. If you allow the educational process to self-organize, then learning emerges. It's not about making learning happen. It's about letting it happen. The teacher sets the process in motion and then she stands back in awe and watches as learning happens. I think that's what all this is pointing at.

For our previous post on Sugata Mitra's "The child-driven education," please click here.  For a link to Mitra's TED Book, Beyond the Hole in the Wall, please click here.

(SOLE Central, pictured above.  Photo located at ncl.ac.uk.  Kildonan and its IP program claim no ownership over this image.)  

For a post discussing Mitra's "The child-driven education," please click here.

For a post discussing Mitra's "School in the Cloud: What Happened after TED Prize 2013," please click here.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

From the IP faculty, wishing all of our IPians, their families, and the Kildonan community a Happy Thanksgiving.  We are thankful for YOU!

Khaled: OCPD

As he progresses further and further into his graphic novel, Khaled (affectionately known as "K.") has begun to refine the characterization of his protagonist, Desmond.  Possessing both the spirits of Order and Chaos, this man is diagnosed with bipolar disorder and oscillates between stoicism and wildness.  He also happens to possess OCPD:  Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder.

OCPD is NOT to be confused with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).  Whereas OCD is specifically an anxiety disorder, OCPD is a personality disorder marked by an overwhelming desire to control one's own environment.  As defined on psychology.com, it is "characterized by a preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and mental and interpersonal control, at the expense of flexibility, openness, and efficiency."

K. found OCPD through a humorous song produced by the YouTube channel Rhett and Link (@rhettandlink).  As they go on to explain in the following video, however, neither OCPD or OCD are a laughing matter.  And this pain is EXACTLY what K. intends to bring out in his graphic novel.  How he will do so remains to be seen...

Khaled: The Hero's Journey

"The Hero's Journey," pictured above.  Photo located at lincoln.debbieyoon.com.  Kildonan and its IP program claim no ownership of this graphic.

Ever the fantasy and graphic novel aficionado, Khaled (affectionately known as "K.") has been researching American mythologist, lecturer, and writer Joseph Cambell (@jcf_org).  Until his death in 1987, Campbell explored comparative mythology and comparative religion in such works as The Masks of God, The Power of Myth, and The Hero with a Thousand Faces.  K. found the latter particularly fascinating in that Campbell proposes a sort of pattern according to which, hypothetically, all fantasy narratives unfold.  He termed this form "the hero's journey" or "the monomyth"; this second term is especially meaningful in that it imbues this structure with progenitive power as a sort of "parent" to all fantasy stories across the world. 

Theoretically, "the monomyth" holds that fantasy narratives consist of twelve to seventeen steps:  (1) the call to action, (2) refusal of the call, (3) supernatural aid, (4) crossing the threshold, (5) belly of the whale, (6) the road of trials, (7) the meeting with the goddess, (8) woman as temptress, (9) atonement with the father, (10) apotheosis, (11) ultimate boon, (12) refusal of the return, (13) the magic flight, (14) rescue from without, (15) the crossing of the return threshold, (16) master of two worlds, and (17) freedom to live.  As the following graphic shows, this journey occurs between two worlds:  the "known," or ordinary, world and the "unknown," or supernatural, world.  Though various scholars and writers warn that "the hero's journey" can act as a catch-all that prevents genuine literary analysis, "the monomyth" does seem to support such well-known narratives as George Lucas's Star Wars and J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

"The Hero's Journey," pictured above.  Image located at en.wikipedia.org.  Kildonan and its IP program do not claim any ownership of the graphic above.

How will K. incorporate this structure into his own evolving fantastical narrative? Any questions or recommendations for K.? Please post in the comments below.

For an "IPian"-esque graphic of "the hero's journey" resembling an octopus, please see below.  Picture located on thethinkingbusiness.com.

Brad: Beginning a Business

A passionate fisherman with an interest in the Montauk area, Brad is not unaware of the startling decline in the striped bass population.  After much research into the history of the charter fishing industry, he has determined that overfishing and various illegal fishing procedures have contributed to this trend.  He believes that the public needs to awake to the danger posed to this fish.  He sees himself as a future charter fisherman, as a guide who can startle the layperson into demanding reform.

But such a vision, Brad wisely reasons, is bound to the future and, perhaps, does not utilize all of his talents.  To this end, he has decided to combine his interests in economics and art to begin an advocacy business for the striped bass.  His plan is represented by the graphic above.  Currently, he is producing paintings and drawings of the fish in the hopes of selling these and using the money both as donations and in order to finance his burgeoning ventures.  He is also constructing a public awareness flyer that he will send to tackle shops and conservation agencies.  From there, he will begin to prototype logos for various merchandise (e.g., stickers, T-shirts) and promote his work through a website and Kickstarter profile.

Any advice for - or resources to share with - Brad? Please post in the comments section below.

Descriptions of images:  Brad's business plan, top middle.  A striped bass, pictured middle right.  Second photo found on commons.wikimedia.org.  Kildonan and its IP program claim no ownership over this image.)

Tim: The Threat of ISIS

An astute and critical researcher, Tim is currently engaged with various projects.  In addition to learning game design through GameSalad.com and repurposing a car from which to launch a drone with a fellow IP student, he is currently examining drone operation alongside the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and Islamic State (otherwise known as ISIS or ISIL).  Tim recognizes that the nature of ISIS - along with virtually any other story addressed by mainstream media - depends (in part) upon the news agency (international or otherwise) that a person decides to consult.  Though he encourages the reader to evaluate any story by consulting a variety of sources (such as the links below), this post will primarily utilize information from CNN.com (@CNN).

ISIS, led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (a.k.a. Al-Khalifah Ibrahim), began as a splinter group within al Qaeda.  Its aim, simply stated, is to "create an Islamic state across Sunni areas of Iraq and Syria."  Tim argues that, in some ways, the organization is already operating as a "nation" by instituting independent police and food-distribution networks over its "constituents."  Over the past year, the group has garnered international attention and alarm by the United States for its gruesome executions (including crucifixions and beheadings) as well as its repeated threats to invade America and "raise [the] black flag over [the] White House."

Having examined the uproar concerning drones, Tim believes that Americans need to turn their attention away from these devices.  They need to cease diverting their attention and focus it, as he believes, upon the true threat:  ISIS.  He asks:  "Who are you scared of? The terrorist organization that crucifies, tortures and decapitates people? Or the drones that protect them from you?"

What do you think? Post a response in the comments section below.

For more information on ISIS, please consult this article from CNN, this article from Fox News (@FoxNews), any variety of articles from Al Jazeera (@AJEnglish), various resources provided by the BBC (@BBCWorld), other resources not mentioned here, or the following video interview provided by VICE News (@vicenews):

Sir Ken Robinson: "Bring on the learning revolution!" @ TED2010

Four or five years ago, English author, speaker and international advisor on education Sir Ken Robinson (@SirKenRobinson) delivered a TED Talk in which he criticized the linear, factory model of education.  In such a system, Robinson explained, educators/​schools employ static curricula to lead students to a pre-determined "output" or skills base.  He went onto to assert that the world needs a supportive, agricultural framework of education that supports children as they organically formulate answers to their own questions using a personalized curriculum.

We have moved closer to Robinson's conception over the past five years.  BUT...have we enacted the revolution that he demands?

But, you see, there are things we're enthralled to in education. Let me give you a couple of examples. One of them is the idea of linearity: that it starts here and you go through a track and if you do everything right, you will end up set for the rest of your life. Everybody who's spoken at TED has told us implicitly, or sometimes explicitly, a different story: that life is not linear; it's organic. We create our lives symbiotically as we explore our talents in relation to the circumstances they help to create for us. But, you know, we have become obsessed with this linear narrative. And probably the pinnacle for education is getting you to college. I think we are obsessed with getting people to college. Certain sorts of college. I don't mean you shouldn't go to college, but not everybody needs to go and not everybody needs to go now. Maybe they go later, not right away.

...

There's been a lot of talk about dreams over the course of this few days. And I wanted to just very quickly ... I was very struck by Natalie Merchant's songs last night, recovering old poems. I wanted to read you a quick, very short poem from W. B. Yeats, who some of you may know. He wrote this to his love, Maud Gonne, and he was bewailing the fact that he couldn't really give her what he thought she wanted from him. And he says, 'I've got something else, but it may not be for you.' He says this: 'Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths, Enwrought with gold and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.' And every day, everywhere, our children spread their dreams beneath our feet. And we should tread softly.

For a post discussing Robinson's "RSA Animate:  Changing Education Paradigms," please click here.

For a post discussing Robinson's "How schools kill creativity," please click here. 

For a post discussing Robinson's "How to escape education's death valley," please click here.

Peter Gray: "The decline of play" at TEDxNavesink

In following TEDx Talk, author, American psychologist, and research professor of psychology at Boston College (@BostonCollege) Dr. Peter Gray discusses play as well as our children's and students' access to it.  He suggests that, since the 1950s, there has been "a dramatic decline in children's freedom to play with other children" without the presence of adult supervision (passages taken from the YouTube (@YouTube) description offered by TEDx Talks).  He also notes a "dramatic increase in anxiety, depression, feelings of helplessness, suicide, and narcissism in children and adolescents" and hypothesizes that this trend is directly influenced by the decline of play.  Ultimately, he argues that "free play is essential for children's healthy social and emotional development."

The particularly chilling aspect of this talk is that Dr. Gray's message was delivered only six months ago.  Occasionally we are able to construct for ourselves a kind of barrier in which we are able to rationalize danger simply by measuring the passage of time.  For example, a person might be able to defuse the call-to-arms offered by a video concerned with antibiotic resistant strains of diseases merely because the video was released several years earlier.  Even if no measurable and substantial progress has been made, time in itself gives the viewer the illusion that things have improved.  But this video, so pivotal to the emotional states of our children and students as they learn in school right now, allows us no such buffer.  The question remains, then:  what can we do to change this? What plans can we immediately initiate to alleviate this problem and bring more unstructured free time back into the lives of young people?

Trey: Covering David Bowie's "Changes"

Enthralled by music, Trey is continuing his previous explorations into sound.  He aspires to enroll in a sound production program and experience the music industry first-hand, and he has begun this year by facilitating such work with Kildonan's own Michael Klvana (a keyboard tuner, keyboard tech, sound engineer, and programmer with decades of experience in the music industry).  The two are regularly working together to produce a "cover" (an altered form of a song that is often modernized and translated into another music genre) of David Bowie (@DavidBowieReal)'s 1971 hit, "Changes."  Trey is responsible for studying the song, of course, but he is also tasked with locating musicians on-campus and recording them in the studio.

As he conducts this work, Trey is developing innovative scheduling skills, an understanding of music theory, and proficient knowledge of ProTools (@AvidProTools).  This program, says Klvana, is basically "a recording studio in a computer."  According to avid.com, ProTools is the "most powerful digital audio workstation .... From all-new audio and video engines and turbocharged '64-bit' performance, to expanded metering and new HD video workflows, [it] enables you to take on the most demanding sessions and maximize your creativity—without holding anything back."

How will Trey alter Bowie's song? The IP faculty watches excitedly as this passionate musician works on..

For more information on ProTools and its parent company, Avid, please click on the following link:  http:/​/​www.avid.com/​US/​products/​pro-tools-software.  For more information on David Bowie, follow this next URL:  http://www.davidbowie.com/bio.  Finally, to listen to Bowie's original, please consult the video below:

(Says Klvana, "We use an interface to plug in our microphones and musical instruments.  Here's [above is] a photo of one of the bass guitars that we use.")

Piterson: Wooden Sculptures and Andres San Millan

Athletic and fit, Piterson is studying personal training.  He aspires to enroll in a college with such a program and to earn his certification at the end of this school year.  He has wisely commenced this process by examining the skeletal make-up of the leg.  From here, he plans to "flesh it out," or to understand its layers of muscle and tissue, before branching out to other body parts.  He retains information, in part, by using three-dimensional and manipulative representations of ideas,  so might there be a way for him to concretize his ongoing explorations?

The answer, of course, is yes.  Piterson has begun to collect sticks in the hopes of constructing a wooden sculpture of the human body.  As he commences this work, he is examining the pieces created by Andres San Millan.  A resident and artist of Rhinebeck, NY, San Millan is perhaps best known for his work with Cocoon Theatre - a youth theater organization based out of Rhinebeck until only this past fall - and for his provocative MAN sculpture (formerly installed at Taste Budds in Red Hook, NY).

Lynn Woods of the Hudson Valley Almanac Weekly interviewed San Millan in January, 2013 and had this to say of MAN:

Based loosely on a small clay sculpture, MAN reflects San Millan’s classical training with the figure as much as his feeling for nature. Unlike most colossi, which tend to be monumental, MAN is sprightly, inherently active. Knit out of driftwood sticks that resemble lines, loose strokes that describe forceful movements through space, he is energy anthropomorphized. The body is carefully articulated, the tension of the muscles palpable. Balanced on the toes of his flexed right foot and his left forefinger, he seems to spring from the earth, even as his left foot is planted firmly on the ground. The left arm thrusts downward, muscles tensed and the hand spread, with forceful, pointing fingers, expressive as a Broadway dancer’s. The aquiline nose and full lips, formed from carved pieces of driftwood, resemble the features of an ancient Greek warrior, jutting from an armature of sticks that suggests an Attic helmet.

From seemingly mundane objects "springs" life.  What will Piterson create with his own sticks? How will he choose to render the human body?

For Andres San Millan's figureartscape, please click on the following link:  http://www.figureartscape.com.  For Lynn Wood's article concerning MAN, please follow this next URL:  http:/​/​www.hudsonvalleyalmanacweekly.com/​2013/​01/​04/​andressan-millans-man-on-the-move/​.

(MAN, pictured above, with San Millan leading the procession at bottom right.  This photo was located at San Millan's figureartscape.  Kildonan and its IP program claim no ownership over the above image.)

Sir Ken Robinson: "How schools kill creativity" at TED 2006

Eight or nine years ago, English author, speaker and international advisor on education Sir Ken Robinson (@SirKenRobinson) delivered a #TED talk in which he called upon schools - especially U.S. institutions - to begin to divest themselves of those practices that limit creativity.  Instead, he urged, schools must begin to deliberately nurture the development of students' imaginative capacity.

What follows is a blurb from Robinson's talk as well as a link to the full speech.  Thank you, Trey, for locating this video and bringing it to the attention of the IP faculty:

Now our education system is predicated on the idea of academic ability. And there's a reason. The whole system was invented -- around the world, there were no public systems of education, really, before the 19th century. They all came into being to meet the needs of industrialism. So the hierarchy is rooted on two ideas. Number one, that the most useful subjects for work are at the top. So you were probably steered benignly away from things at school when you were a kid, things you liked, on the grounds that you would never get a job doing that. Is that right? Don't do music, you're not going to be a musician; don't do art, you won't be an artist. Benign advice -- now, profoundly mistaken. The whole world is engulfed in a revolution. And the second is academic ability, which has really come to dominate our view of intelligence, because the universities designed the system in their image. If you think of it, the whole system of public education around the world is a protracted process of university entrance. And the consequence is that many highly talented, brilliant, creative people think they're not, because the thing they were good at at school wasn't valued, or was actually stigmatized. And I think we can't afford to go on that way.

In the next 30 years, according to UNESCO, more people worldwide will be graduating through education than since the beginning of history. More people, and it's the combination of all the things we've talked about -- technology and its transformation effect on work, and demography and the huge explosion in population. Suddenly, degrees aren't worth anything. Isn't that true? When I was a student, if you had a degree, you had a job. If you didn't have a job it's because you didn't want one. And I didn't want one, frankly. (Laughter) But now kids with degrees are often heading home to carry on playing video games, because you need an MA where the previous job required a BA, and now you need a PhD for the other. It's a process of academic inflation. And it indicates the whole structure of education is shifting beneath our feet. We need to radically rethink our view of intelligence.

For a post discussing Robinson's "RSA Animate:  Changing Education Paradigms," please click here.

For a post discussing Robinson's "Bring on the learning revolution!," please click here. 

For a post discussing Robinson's "How to escape education's death valley," please click here.

Paige: Wilson Reading

Ever organized and methodical, Paige is conducting a multi-faceted study into dyslexia.  In addition to researching diagnosis and treatment, she is critically examining Orton-Gillingham instruction and the alternate methods of language instruction available to dyslexics.

One of these other options is Wilson Reading, an approach that particularly fascinates Paige after receiving it first-hand.  This program, as explained on the Wilson Language Training website, is a "highly-structured remedial program that directly teaches the structure of language to students and adults who have been unable to learn with other teaching strategies, or who may require multi-sensory language instruction."  It is implemented in many public schools throughout the nation.

Is there a connection between the Orton-Gillingham approach and Wilson Reading? That, of course, is for Paige to find out.

For the Wilson Language Training website, please click on the following link:  http://www.wilsonlanguage.com/FS_PROGRAM_WRS.htm.

(Manipulatives used in early child elementary classrooms tied to SUNY Cortland, pictured above.  This photo was located at studentweb.cortland.edu.  Kildonan and its IP program claim no ownership over the above image.) 

Misha: "Mending Wall," by Robert Frost

A dedicated and mature young man, Misha is pursuing an interview with an expert in the real estate industry.  In the meantime, he is not only reading a valuable how-to manual designed for novice agents but also has begun to explore Robert Frost's more poetic, philosophical perspective on land development.

(Robert Frost, pictured above.  This photo was located at biography.com.  Kildonan and its IP program claim no ownership over the above image.)

An American poet often exploring realism in rural settings, Frost offers a unique view of property in his poem "Mending Wall."

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, 'Good fences make good neighbors.'

Tell us what you think of the poem (and Tom O'Bedlam's reading) in the comments below.

Ned: Gasoline Combustion

Balancing a interview-based documentary of fervent car owners, truck repair, and repurposing a car into a launching pad for drones, Ned is one busy student! He is continuing to negotiate this work, in part, by conducting research into automotive topics such as gasoline combustion.  Combustion, simply put, is the process of burning.  During combustion, a hydrocarbon (or a molecule containing carbon and hydrogen) and oxygen gas combine in a chemical reaction to produce carbon dioxide and water.

Ned recently co-facilitated a miniature combustion in an experiment designed by Matthew Philipose, and now he will pursue the more theoretical side of this process by consulting the video below:

"Ozymandias," by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Bull's passage reminds me of a piece that Matthew Philipose introduced in the beginning of the year:  "Ozymandias," by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

I met a traveller from an antique land, 

Who said—'Two vast and trunkless legs of stone 

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, 

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, 

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, 

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read 

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, 

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; 

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! 

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay 

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare 

The lone and level sands stretch far away.'

Go, IPians.  Go.  Continue to strive as scholars and - in the process - surpass revered authorities and incarnations of Ozymandias.

For Shelley's poem, please follow the next link:  http:/​/​www.poetryfoundation.org/​learning/​poem/​175903.  Or, to hear Tom O'Bedlam's reading of the poem, please consult the video below:

(An illustration of Ozymandias.  Picture located at "Invisible Children" blogspot.  Kildonan and its IP program claim no ownership over the above image.)

Bull: The Difference Between Scholars and Bookworms

Continuing his dive into the ever-yawning "abyss of knowledge," Bull S. is currently exploring the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882).  American essayist, lecturer, and poet, Emerson led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century and - true to the form of IP - advocated for individualism not only as an educational approach but also as an existential philosophy.

Emerson continues to be studied in high school and college due, in part, to his piece "The American Scholar."  Delivered on August 31, 1847 to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge, Massachusetts, this speech saw him advocate for an observably independent American cultural identity.

One passage in particular stands out to Bull:

"'Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst.' 

'Yet hence arises a grave mischief. The sacredness which attaches to the act of creation, — the act of thought, — is transferred to the record. The poet chanting, was felt to be a divine man: henceforth the chant is divine also. The writer was a just and wise spirit: henceforward it is settled, the book is perfect; as love of the hero corrupts into worship of his statue. Instantly, the book becomes noxious: the guide is a tyrant. The sluggish and perverted mind of the multitude, slow to open to the incursions of Reason, having once so opened, having once received this book, stands upon it, and makes an outcry, if it is disparaged. Colleges are built on it. Books are written on it by thinkers, not by Man Thinking; by men of talent, that is, who start wrong, who set out from accepted dogmas, not from their own sight of principles. Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views, which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries, when they wrote these books.

'Hence, instead of Man Thinking, we have the bookworm. Hence, the book-learned class, who value books, as such; not as related to nature and the human constitution, but as making a sort of Third Estate with the world and the soul. Hence, the restorers of readings, the emendators, the bibliomaniacs of all degrees.'"

For Emerson's full speech, please click on the following link:  http:/​/​www.emersoncentral.com/​amscholar.htm.

(A portrait of Emerson.  Picture located at en.wikipedia.org.  Kildonan and its IP program claim no ownership over the above image.)

Jonathan: Shooting Robert King (2012)

In Jonathan's exploration into how photography affects people, Robert King (@Thefotoking), his work, and the documentary Shooting Robert King (2012) play no small role.

At 24-years-old, King finds himself in Sarajevo in 1993.  As the website for Shooting Robert King explains, he is:

... a graduate [aiming] to be the youngest ever Pulitzer Prize winner. He’s got 800 bucks in his pocket, has never been to a war and his ambition is proving tough. He gets shot at on the front line, fired by his agent and sets light to his apartment – all within his first month. Despite everything he is funny, charming, engaging and continues to be optimistic about his life’s possibilities.  

Since King sees two other wars over the course of fifteen years, however, is he able to retain this sense of charm? Or does he devolve into despair and madness?

Shooting Robert King, the website goes on, 

... explores the complex web of motivations that drive someone to extremes: the insecurities and aspirations, the striving for excellence and acknowledgement and the seemingly conflicting need to be at peace and yet near danger.... This film addresses the two questions that are always asked of those who report wars: Why do you do it? How does it affect you?

Some follow-up questions by the IP faculty:  how will this film and King's vision of photography inform Jonathan's work and his own interpretation of the art?

For the website for Shooting Robert King, please click on the following link:  http://us.shootingrobertking.com/#2.  Please consult the video below for a brief trailer of the documentary.

(Robert King, pictured above.  This photo belongs to memphisflyer.com.  Kildonan and the IP program claim no ownership of the above image).

Max D.: The Magic of Doug Henning

A passionate illusionist with memberships in multiple performing arts camps and magic clubs, Max D. is currently honing his routine. He has been considering not only individual tricks but also his "performance persona":  the performer personality that he adopts when he walks onstage.  Max recently became inspired by Canadian magician, illusionist, escape artist, politician Doug Henning.


He appreciates Henning's ability to reach out to the audience, but - quite astutely - he remains firm that he will only adopt some of Henning's social practices.  The IP faculty gets the impression that Max will be able to offer quite a unique show, one of which Henning himself would be proud.

For a biography of Doug Henning, please click on the following link:  http:/​/​www.biography.com/​people/​doug-henning-9542367.  For a demonstration of Henning's stage presence, please see the video below.

(Doug Henning, pictured right.  This photo was located at en.wikipedia.org.  Kildonan and its IP program claim no ownership of the image above.)

Khaled: "The Observer Effect" and "The Double-Slit Experiment"

 

Khaled (a.k.a. "K.") is currently characterizing his graphic novel's protagonist according to "the observer effect."

Many scientists and laypersons know this theory through the double-slit experiment, an investigation in which electrons are fired at a wall through a plate containing two slits.  In the following educational video, physicist Fred Alan Wolf (a.k.a. Dr. Quantum) (@Doctor_Quantum) gives a user-friendly overview of the experiment and its implications.

As one faculty member of the Department of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign says, "The act of making a measurement of the electrons path [involved in the experiment] fundamentally changes the outcome of the experiment."  The IP faculty remains excited to see how K. will integrate this idea into his project.

Marcus: Computer Programming with Khan Academy

After recently switching his topic from the 1960s, Marcus is currently teaching himself computer programming via "Intro to J.S.:  Drawing &​ Animation" on Khan Academy (@khanacademy).  A "not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education for anyone anywhere," Khan Academy was created in 2006 by educator Salman Khan.  The online learning portal literally contains thousands of educational resources, including a personalized learning dashboard, over 100,000 practice problems, and over 6,000 micro lectures.

What deliciously innovative programs might Marcus create and explore over the next year...?

For Khan Academy's website, please click on the following link:  http://www.khanacademy.org.  For the "Intro to J.S.:  Drawing &​ Animation," please follow the next link:  https:/​/​www.khanacademy.org/​computing/​computer-programming/​programming.

(Pictured above is the Khan Academy logo.  This photo was located on instructionalteachtalk.com.  Kildonan and the IP program claim no ownership of the above image.).  

Micki: Neil Harbisson's "I Listen to Color" (2012)

Undoubtedly, inspired by her tutoring work and by her explorations into color phenomena during last year's installment of IP, Micki is currently considering a sort of technological synesthesia via the TED Talk below.  Perhaps a "colorful" poetry reading or song is forthcoming...?

"Artist Neil Harbisson (@NeilHarbisson) was born completely color blind, but these days a device attached to his head turns color into audible frequencies. Instead of seeing a world in grayscale, Harbisson can hear a symphony of color — and yes, even listen to faces and paintings."

Reuben Paul: The Promise of Motivation

David Bisson (@DMBisson) of TripWire writes in his article, "8-Year-Old CEO Reuben Paul Proves that Kids are the Future of Cybersecurity":

There is a lot of buzz going around about Reuben Paul, an 8-year-old who at such a young age is already very knowledgeable about information security.

Last month, Reuben delivered a talk at DerbyCon on what kids can teach adults about infosec. He has since given the opening keynote speech at this year’s (ISC)2 Security Congress and the closing keynote address at the 2014 Houston Security Conference.

If that weren’t enough, KEYE CBS News in Austin produced a cover story featuring Reuben and Prudent Games, a company that designs and develops educational apps and games to teach math, science and cybersecurity, for which Reuben serves as CEO.

For more information on this motivated and self-directed young man, please click on the following link:  http:/ ​/​www.tripwire.com/​state-of-security/​security-data-protection/​ cyber-security/​ 8-year-old-ceo-reuben-paul-proves-that-kids-are-the-future-of-cybersecurity/ 

(Pictured is Reuben Paul.  This photo belongs to CBS 6 and wtvr.com.  Kildonan and its IP program claim no ownership over this image.).

Bill Evans: Conceptualizing Learning

Though he writes solely on his experience learning jazz, pianist and composer Bill Evans certainly has a message to impart to IPians with his words below: (The man pictured is Bill Evans.  This image was located on tumblr.com.  Kildonan and its IP program do not claim any ownership to this photo.):

The whole process of learning the facility of being able to play jazz is to take these problems from the outer level in, one by one, and to stay with it at a very intense, conscious-concentration level until that process becomes secondary and subconscious. Now, when that becomes subconscious, then you can begin concentrating on that next problem, which will allow you to do a little bit more.

I don’t consider myself as talented as many people but in some ways that was an advantage because I didn’t have a great facility immediately so I had to be more analytical and in a way — that forced me to build something.

Most people just don’t realize the immensity of the problem and, either because they can’t conquer it immediately, think that they haven’t got the ability, or they’re so impatient to conquer it that they never do see it through. If you do understand the problem then you can enjoy your whole trip through.

People tend to approximate the product rather than attacking it in a realistic, true way at any elementary level — regardless of how elementary — but it must be entirely true and entirely real and entirely accurate. They would rather approximate the entire problem than to take a small part of it and be real and true about it. To approximate the whole thing in a vague way gives you a feeling that you’ve more or less touched the thing, but in this way you just lead yourself toward confusion and ultimately you’re going to get so confused that you’ll never find your way out.

It is true of any subject that the person that succeeds in anything has the realistic viewpoint at the beginning and [knows] that the problem is large and that he has to take it a step at a time and that he has to enjoy the step-by-step learning procedure. They’re trying to do a thing in a way that is so general [that] they can’t possibly build on that. If they build on that, they’re building on top of confusion and vagueness and they can’t possibly progress. If you try to approximate something that is very advanced and don’t know what you’re doing, you can’t advance.

Taken from Maria Popova's "Jazz Legend Bill Evans on the Creative Process, Self-Teaching, and Balancing Clarity with Spontaneity in Problem-Solving."  http:/​/​www.brainpickings.org/​2014/​10/​30/​the-universal-mind-of-bill-evans/​

For the full documentary, Universal Mind of Bill Evans, please watch below: