IdeaFestival

Pretend Play and Metaphor

The importance of pretend play has long been noted as an important milestone in children's development.  Pretend Play allows children to experiment with social situations, strengthen vocabulary and build critical thinking skills. A child who engages in pretend play is also beginning the process of metaphorical thinking. 

One cannot think without metaphors. Metaphors are our way of making connections with the rest of the world; it is our way of understanding new ideas and learning. George Lakoff, another of my favorite linguists, explains the concept of metaphor and its relationship to our thinking. But what he doesn't do is talk about the process of becoming metaphorical.

That's where pretend play comes in.

What are the digital literacies?

Initial results from one of the largest ethnographic studies of kids in their native, digital environment are now available. Could the cheap availability of media be creating a new generation of creatives?

Sure, kids have long been attracted to extracurricular activities like dance or sports. But researchers say digital media is bringing up a new generation who are creators of media rather than just passive consumers of it. Within these digital environments among peers, kids who create and evaluate media are deriving a sense of competence, autonomy, self-determination and connectedness, researchers say.

The case studies discussed last Wednesday are part of a $50 million long-range MacArthur Foundation initiative, the digital media and learning project, to study whether - and how - digital media might be changing kids. Full results will be available later in the year.

More on the results of this study can be found on C|NET.

Wayne

Shakespeare, Hollywood Style

If you've never watched Kenneth Branaghs version of Much Ado About Nothing, you simply must. Catch a short piece of it here. Besides the fact that he looks a lot like my husband (:) and I think he is absolutely yummy, his is, honestly, one of the best Shakespearean actors out there. 

One really must see a Shakespearean play. Although we study the bard's language in class and watch some movies and try, oh try to help 14 year-olds understand the passion of Romeo and Juliet, it really doesn't do the plays justice unless someone with a particular talent at understanding those lines delivers them in an appropriate fashion. 

Actually, anything Branagh does is splendid but if you are sitting home one night thinking, "I really need to watch a Shakespearean play to hone my Elizabethan language skills", this movie is the one to see.  Of course if you'd rather see a tragedy and ponder the meaning of "to be or not to be", his version of Hamlet is fabulous as well. 

Tina

"The Last Lecture"

It's a smash on YouTube. The New York Times, the USA Today and others have run articles on the book. And last Thursday while sitting in a local the coffee shop I overheard three women talking about it. So perhaps you too have heard about the "last lecture."

What would you say if you knew you were dying?

Wayne

 

IF Conversations - Ruby Lerner

President of the Creative Capital Foundation, Ruby Lerner describes how the IdeaFestival helps her business. Creative Capital is an arts foundation modeled on venture capital concepts.

The IdeaFestival Conversations series, featuring such people as Michio Kaku and Nicholas Kristof speaking on issues of interest to them, may also be found at IFTV.

Wayne

Dith Pran

Dith Pran the Cambodian-born journalist whose life under the Khmer Rouge-led Cambodian revolution in the 1970's became the subject of the award-winning film "The Killing Fields," has died in New Jersey.

I had the honor to meet and talk with Dith when he was a presenter at the 2004 IdeaFestival. He was an amazing individual. His inspiring story of survival and courage was clearly one of the most moving and meaningful talks in the history of the Festival. His relentless search for the truth under the most horrendous circumstances was - and I don't use this word often anymore - heroic. My life is richer for having briefly known him.

Kris

IF Conversations - Mindy Faber

Here, the founder of Open Youth Networks and Peabody Award winner, Mindy Faber, briefly comments on "Creativity, Democracy and the Media."

The entire series of "IF Conversations," which has included individuals like Nicholas Kristof and Michio Kaku talking about their favorite topics, may be found here as well as on YouTube.

Wayne

American Jeremiah

Is Cormac McCarthy a prophet? The Independent roams the theo-philosophical landscape of the novelist, author of the book-cum-Oscar-winning film, No Country for Old Men. The selected McCarthy prose at the end of the piece reminds me of the apocalyptic vision of Chris Adrian, who likewise explores spiritual terrain in his novel, Children's Hospital, to great effect.

As for the suggestion that McCarthy is America's Jeremiah, decide for yourself.

Wayne

"Fastest global diffusion of technology in history"

What does it mean when there is one cell phone for every two people on the planet? The Washington Post reports. Hat tip: Putting People First.

Wayne

"Tipping Point" toppled?

Malcom Gladwell's idea that certain influential people can be trend makers has come under fire from Duncan Watts, a network theorist, in a recent issue of Fast Company.

In the past few years, Watts--a network-theory scientist who recently took a sabbatical from Columbia University and is now working for Yahoo--has performed a series of controversial, barn-burning experiments challenging the whole Influentials thesis. He has analyzed email patterns and found that highly connected people are not, in fact, crucial social hubs. He has written computer models of rumor spreading and found that your average slob is just as likely as a well-connected person to start a huge new trend. And last year, Watts demonstrated that even the breakout success of a hot new pop band might be nearly random.  Any attempt to engineer success through Influentials, he argues, is almost certainly doomed to failure....

Actually, if you believe Watts, the world isn't just complex--it's practically anarchic.

Influential people can, of course, help a trend along. Watt's point is that they cannot by themselves will a trend into existence.

Part of the reason is that we live together in an increasingly interconnected world. Reading the article, I realized that Watts was the author of a New York Times article that I blogged about last spring. It described a music download experiment that demonstrated that given our preferences and the knowledge of the preferences of others, predicting what music would become the most popular was a practical impossibility. Given constant feedback, huge variability takes hold in such systems.

While Gladwell also points out that the social environment must be ready to accept certain trends for them to "tip," the idea that certain tastemakers can cause that to occur is taken to task by Watts.

Watts is the author of the book, Six Degrees.

Wayne

Wikipedia: Cybernetics, Complex adaptive systems