RE: [Spam:***** ] Re: [xmca] Call for Proposals and Reviewers

Thanks. This is very exciting. I am looking forward to meeting with you. We
see the same thing in North America with the Reggio influence: the aesthetic
and superficial aspects are the ones that are transmitted, but the social
mediation is often misunderstood. I think it is because of traditional
teacher training programs, schools and congruent implicit teacher behaviors.
Anyway, I am excited to discuss further.

-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
Behalf Of Monica E. Nilsson
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2008 2:28 AM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: Re: [Spam:***** ] Re: [xmca] Call for Proposals and Reviewers

It sounds very interesting - I would be interested in your
understanding and interpretations of the process and the material.
Let's get together at ISCAR and chat. Yes, I am familiar with Reggio.
It used to be very influential in Swedish preschools when I worked as
a preschool teacher in the 70s and 80s. Unfortunately some of the
instantiations in Sweden, as often happens, are not permeated by the
ideas/ideology of Malaguzzi and instead they became lousy copies
missing the soul or spirit. They do the aesthetic activities (visual
art predominately) in a isolated manner -- they don't create a "play
world". The Swedish scholar Gunilla Lindqvist who developed the idea
of "play world" and "pedagogy of creative play" has an interesting
relationship to the Reggio-pedagogy that would be interesting to
discuss. I visited Reggio Emilia 2 years ago. It was very
interesting, among other things, to see the famous town square. They
also have a very nice activity center. I have not read it but there
is a book written by researchers from Harvard about Reggio: (http://
www.pz.harvard.edu/ebookstore/detail.cfm?pub_id=133)

Monica

19 jul 2008 kl. 20.04 skrev Monica Hansen:

> Monica:
>
> I had to respond back to this because there are many parallels:
> 1) My name is Monica, so it caught my eye.
> 2) I just worked with a group of teachers at a Reggio inspired
> preschool to
> create an exhibit of digital photography created and selected by the
> students. All the photographs are accompanied by the teacher's
> documentation, or "learning stories", that includes observations of
> the
> process, transcripts, meaningful exchanges and interpretations,
> etc. The
> public exhibition "Image of the Child" was shown at various places
> in the
> local community and is going on the road soon. I am still working on
> collaborating with the teachers in analyzing the generated
> materials. Have
> you heard of the schools in Reggio Emilia (Italy), Malaguzzi,
> Gandini which
> are Vygotsky and Bruner, among others, influenced and emphasize the
> multiple
> symbolic languages/literacies of young children and infants/toddlers?
> Because of this approach, and the children's interest and response
> to music,
> I was inspired to do some experiments with music and imaginative
> play in my
> classroom of toddlers in a similar way to deepen my understanding
> of this
> connection between the imaginative and the cognitive. I am
> interested in the
> creative process and multimodal tools for both students and
> teachers working
> together.
>
> I am new to all of this research, just having started grad school
> (I am
> Emily Duvall's grad assistant at the University of Idaho), and
> still trying
> to find connections and familiarize myself with the topography of the
> phenomenon and the way different theories conceptualize it. I am
> really
> looking forward to seeing your work at ISCAR. I am presenting a
> poster about
> my work with preschool teachers and using Vygotsky to disperse
> conceptions
> of teacher's roles in literacy development in the classroom.
>
> Monica R. Hansen
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-
> bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On
> Behalf Of Monica E. Nilsson
> Sent: Friday, July 18, 2008 1:29 PM
> To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Subject: Re: [Spam:***** ] Re: [xmca] Call for Proposals and Reviewers
>
> Thanks -- yes it is very exiting particularly as I can see how the
> use of multimodal tools make a difference for people. I will be
> presenting a paper at ISCAR (in Ana's symposium) which (today ;-) is
> titled "Development of Voice Through Creative Process and Multimodal
> Tools in Digital Storytelling Activity." It is a case study (digital
> stories by a 9 year old boy and a narrative by his teacher about him
> and his production process) where I hope to show how, particularly,
> image and music mediate the boy's creative activity and how he
> develops "voice" not "heard" in the classroom before. I consider, in
> this case, image and music simultaneously as aesthetic/artistic and
> semiotic means and because of this dual nature it facilitates both
> creativity (and thus learning) and communication. I find it very
> exiting to put multimodality and Vygotsky's theory of imagination and
> creativity into a dialogue. I also lean on Bruner's work on narrative
> (storytelling in digital storytelling).
>
> I am currently working with teachers in a project turning a, what is
> called, Equality plan into digital stories. In Sweden every school
> has to make a plan for how to work against abuse, sexual harassment,
> bullying, etc. The plan, which is a written text, is composed by
> teachers and regulated by national requirements. The students are
> supposed to read it and embrace the message. However, the document is
> often considered a “dead text”, that is, it contains words, carrying
> little meaning to the students. In this project the Equality plan
> will be transformed into digital stories within a framework of a
> collective production process. I ask for example:
>
> # What do the children tell in their digital stories and how is their
> understanding of what is said in the Equality Plan represented?
> # How do the children use different kinds of representation and
> aesthetical forms of expression, among them, image and narration?
> # How, verbally, is the interplay between imagination and reality
> expressed in the creation of their digital stories?
> # How do the students reflect on the activity involving the Equality
> Plan and the creation of their digital stories?
> # Based on the work of transforming the Equality Plan to digital
> stories, what can be said, about the possibilities for meaning
> making, communication, and learning – focusing on creativity and
> imagination – that digital storytelling offers?
>
> In my work I have also started to think about Vygotsky's
> classification of creativity at different ages. He claims (as I read
> it) that literary or verbal creativity characterizes the school
> child’s activity. The literary activity follows stages where play and
> drawing has dominated but comes before stages where theater and
> dramatic creation is central.
> But is this categorization valid today when we live in an era
> characterized by a range of different forms of representations and
> aesthetical forms of expressions and where the possibility of
> integrating different kinds of representations due to information
> technology is obvious? Digital storytelling constitutes one example
> since literary forms of expression, in terms of narration, is
> combined with visual, oral, musical, etc forms of expression. From
> this perspective I perceive an exiting challenge in Vygotsky’s
> discussion about different kinds of creative expressions at different
> developmental stages. What is the implication in terms of creative
> activity when a variety of tools with differing qualities are
> available, which also can be combined?
>
> If combining a socio cultural/activity theory approach and
> multimodality can be considered a multidisciplinary project this is a
> multidisciplinary project I hope to tell about at AERA..
>
> Thanks for being interested,
>
> Monica
>
>
> 18 jul 2008 kl. 02.38 skrev Cathrene Connery:
>
>>> Hello from Colorado,
>> Sounds like a wonderful project! Monica, I really like your
>> description
>> of multimodality. Given the fact that we humans mediate in multiple
>> means, it only seems correct to collect and analyze data from a
>> multiplicity of sources in our quest to understand the mind.
>> Best wishes,
>> Cathrene
>>
>> I am presently doing research on Digital Storytelling applying Kress
>>> (Literacy in the new media age, 2003) and Kress & van Leeuwen
>>> (multimodal discource, 2001) in combination with Vygotsky's
>>> "Imagination & Creativity". Thinking of presenting a paper at
>>> AERA...
>>>
>>> Multimodality is about making meaning with a diversity of
>>> communicative modes: language, image, music, sound, texture and
>>> gesture -- how they differ and how they can be combined. Kress says:
>>> "the world told is a different world than the world shown"...
>>>
>>> MOnica
>>>
>>> 16 jul 2008 kl. 01.41 skrev judithg@id.iit.edu:
>>>
>>>> In addition to whatever Michael will send, I attended a quite
>>>> wonderful conference on MultiModality and Learning in June,
>>>> sponsored by the Institute of Education, University of London.
>>>>
>>>> See http://ioewebserver.ioe.ac.uk/ioe/cms/get.asp?cid=16841
>>>>
>>>> Best,
>>>> Judith
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Quoting Martin Packer <packer@duq.edu
>>>>> Michael,
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm always interested in qualitative research, and I'm a
>>>>> developmental
>>>>> psychologist. Does 'multi-modal' in this context mean mixed
>>>>> methods? Is
>>>>> there a more specific form emerging for this second topic?
>>>>>
>>>>> best
>>>>>
>>>>> Martin
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> __
>>>>> Martin Packer, Ph.D.
>>>>> Associate Professor
>>>>> Psychology Department
>>>>> Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA 15282
>>>>> (412) 396-4852
>>>>>
>>>>> www.mathcs.duq.edu/~packer/
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 7/15/08 4:29 PM, "Michael A. Evans" <mae@vt.edu> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Dear All,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Wanted to submit one more inquiry regarding interest in the
>>>>>> following two
>>>>>> themes for possible AERA symposia:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Second life, WoW, and Other Virtual Environments for education
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The role(s) of qualitative (multi-modal) research in the
>>>>>>> conduct of research
>>>>>> on learning and development
>>>>>>
>>>>>> There¹s room for 1-2 more abstracts on either topic if you¹re
>>>>>> interested in
>>>>>> joining otherwise, I¹ll close this call and get working with
>>>>>> those who¹ve
>>>>>> already expressed an interest...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>>> Michael~
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> xmca mailing list
>>>>> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
>>>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Judith Gregory, Ph.D.
>>>> Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology
>>>> 350 North LaSalle Street
>>>> Chicago, IL 60610 USA
>>>> tel: +1 312 315 3371 (cell/sms)
>>>> fax: +1 312 595 4901
>>>> email: judithg@id.iit.edu
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> xmca mailing list
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>>>> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
>>
>>
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Received on Tue Jul 22 08:19 PDT 2008