May 29, 2007

Walt's World

It's odd for me to be writing reflectively about a class that I have yet to attend. I've spent this week on vacation with my kids at Disney and have kept up with the class information at night. Unfortunately, that means that I can't react to class discussion. Instead, I'm going to write about how the teacher in me has reacted to the changinge face of Disney, and then later, react to what I think you discussed!

On Monday of this week, I walked with my husband and kids into EPCOT at Disney World. We had spent the day before perusing the Magic Kingdom, deluged with a combination of Disney marketing and fantasy worlds to which our younger child didn't relate at all. As we walked into EPCOT, I asked my husband if he remembered what EPCOT stood for. Neither of us could remember, so I asked the helpful, smiling man wearing mouse ears. "Every Person Comes Out Tired," he chirped. My teenage daughter looked at him and said, "No. Really?" He just smiled. EPCOT, as it turns out, stands for Experimental Prototypical Community of Tomorrow. EPCOT was Walt's technology brainchild, geared to lend his fantasy-laden brain to the potentialities of science.

As we continued through the gates, a market researcher spotted our ideal little family -- 2 adults, 1 teenager, and 1 pre-schooler -- what more could he hope for? "Could I ask you a few questions?" he asked. Of course. "Why did you choose to visit us at EPCOT today?" The available choices included a) to visit specific attractions; b) to visit specific restaurants; c) to see a specific show. None of his choices offered our response: to visit a themepark that combined education and entertainment. Apparently, the art of "edutaining" has not lasted in Walt's world.

Instead, we found a newly renovated "Nemo" version of the Living Seas that told us very little about ocean life. We found that the Journey into the Body ride has been shut down. Now, there are still some wonderful "edutaining" experiences to be had at the Living Seas, after finding Nemo. But I was incredibly saddened to find that instead of learning about the sea, we would instead journey with Marlin to find Nemo. No educational value provided at all.

So what does this mean? Well, what it says to me is that the great entertainers of children (Disney) have given up on the notion that children can be entertained by knowledge. They have succumbed to the notion (the lazy notion) that celebrity is of more value than knowledge. I understand that Disney exists to make money. I believe, however, that we, as teachers, are called to impart knowledge. I am still more than a little saddened by the fact that yet another icon has given up on helping us. Then what can we as teachers do? I teach English. Clearly, it is within the perview of my subject field to incorporate entertainment into the learning process, and technology is critical for that to work. I love teaching The Odyssey and then showing O Brother Where Art Thou? Students do wonderful work looking for the similarities and engaging in a scavenger hunt with a list of monsters and events that take slightly different forms in the movie. I've had great success introducing Daphne du Maurier's story "The Birds" and following up with Hitchcock's Americanized film version. I get great papers detailing the differences in the two. But, those are videos. Videos are somewhat tired. I insist on only showing educational videos in my classes, on showing few of them, and on showing movies that my students would not likely watch on their own.

But that's it. That's the extent of technology in my classroom. I use a projector... I create tests on my computer... But that's it. Walt would say there's more for me to learn...