Comments

1. I've had writing students do an exercise like your Utopian School.

   One group called it Paradise Experimental High School. They worked as individuals and a group to come up with ideas for the kind of school they'd like to study at. This is very significant in the context of Taiwanese education, which involves uniforms, long hours, enforced club activity, supplemental schools and a great deal of pressure to get high grades.

   Once they'd  characterized their school (hotel, convenience store, no uniforms, powerful student board and all), they began writing stories around it. One young man was a talented cartoonist, so he developed a comic strip. We even took on roles (principal, teacher, parent, student, reporter) and interviewed each other for articles about the school. It was a lot of fun and, as you say of your webcast, engaging.

   The activity was so engaging that, a year or more later, and several months after the class ended, the cartoonist came back for an  hour-long one-on-one to show me his latest work on the project.

   I oughta do more stuff like that. 

   Mark Penny on Monday, 6 November 2006, 00:23 UTC #

2. That is great Mark. I like the project idea. I will write up a similar assignment for my students. I like the theme. It encourages students to envision new ideas for not only life architecture but also encourages them to contemplate new interfaces .... perhaps one of them will invent the next way to communicate via technology. 

   Lee Baber on Thursday, 9 November 2006, 00:14 UTC #