Curtain Up/Curtain Down

The following quoted post is from an author who's name I don't remember. She (I remember her gender) had an event at the Parthenon in Nashville. It was called Curtain Up Curtain Down. Imagine a large plastic shower curtain with old photos, newspaper clippings, a collage of words and images about the modern world that we live in. Now that you've imagined that, read the quote below and see if it rings true for you:

"Curtain Up. We are players on a global stage, capable of action, empowered by brave new tools of information and connection. I can instantly and easily access the sweep of history or learn the names of mollusks or send pictures to my mother or contact my senator or donate to a worthy cause or build community with neighbors everywhere.

Curtain Down. Information overwhelms me--I am drowning in paper and email and voicemail. I am seduced, paralyzed, obsessed by the web. I follow endless link trails into nowhere. I am entangled in connections, and burdened with my past. I am aware of more injustice and destruction and corruption and violence and horror than I can comprehend. My head spins. And though I am enraged and called to action by a thougsand awful things, I do not act. It's curtains, I fear, for all of us.

Curtain is a borrowed, found recycled, made-up fragment of a story. This is a fearful, playful, hopeful, shared attempt at reclamation. An invitation."

Curtain Up.

about being educated

Being a long-time technology educator myself (14 years in the public school system of Tucson, Arizona) I have come to learn of some wonderful technology futurists. People who speak out about the future directions that education are a valuable commodity in my mind. Pulic school education is very rooted in traditions of the past and it takes long periods of time for change to work its way through. Fortunately, technology is starting to make inroads into education and I think it's a very positive thing. More on that thought another time. So enjoy the quotes below from futurist David Warlick. And check out some of his blogs here: http://technorati.com/people/technorati/DavidWarlick

"Being educated before abundant and ubiquitous information flected to what you knew--what you could remember. Being educated in a world of networked, digital information is characterized by what you can teach yourself." David Warlick, Educational Futurist

"This will require classrooms where students invent answers and construct their own knowledge within learning experiences that are crafted by creative teachers who do far less lecturing and far more facilitating and consulting." David Warlck