dalerrogers.com

I was tortured today.

I sat through an entire presentation that was so boring, I wasn’t sure if I could make it through the whole thing without getting up and walking out. I sat through it – like a prisoner doing time, mentally marking off the minutes until I would be set free.

I teach Visual Communications. I am used to stopping students when I see that they are making a blunder. I can halt a painful process and show them the forces involved in what they are doing and bring their attention to the process. I can take an otherwise diasterous moment and flip it around into a learning situation. Here, in this presentation, given to a group of professionals, by a professional, I was trapped.

You will find in my resources page a new link. It is to the website and blog, presentation zen. In this blog, author Garr Reynolds discusses the forces that go into creating effective presentations. I felt it was important to tell you (dear reader) – just in case you need to hear it from me and not your audience slipping out the back of the room. You know who you are.

As a self professed citizen journalist, my ear is always open for news that happens around me during the course of every day life. Isn’t that what citizen journalism is all about? It’s not necessary about hunting down a story. It’s about paying attention and letting my fellow citizens know something that I discovered during the course of my day. Every day life frequently presents  opportunities to report from a unique point of view; i.e. from an ordinary citizen. Here is a small little story that this ordinary citizen can share.

My wife and I had an appointment with our AAA travel agent today to work out the details of a cruise we want to take this summer. The conversation shifted to the economy (which inevitably leads to politics).

Our travel agent told the story of her father-in-law who works for a bus line in Nashville, TN where we live. The charter bus was the one used for the Obama campaign. Her father-in-law had the pleasure of being assigned as the bus driver for Obama’s bus. He had the opportunity to talk with Mr. Obama on multiple occasions.

We were not surprised to hear that her father-in-law spoke of President Elect Obama as being  exactly as the media portrays him; as thoughtful, intelligent, and having a profound love for his family and our country. Her father-in-law said, “He (Obama) is a GOOD man.”

My wife and I campaigned for Obama in our own little way and while we did not have the pleasure of meeting him, we were delighted that such a personal unsolicited endorsement  confirmed what we believed all along. We made a good choice for our candidate.

OKay… fine.  I admit it. When a dear friend sent me a copy of the videos of the cell phones cooking the popcorn, the first thought I had was,,,wow!! I want to do that. My second thought was… whoa… what is that doing to my brain? My third thought was… maybe I should investigate this. Is this true? A few minutes of searching resulted in the following video

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2008/07/09/carroll.cellphone.popcorn.cnn

So to recap. Thought sequence..

1. Wow! I want to do that!
2. Whoa! What is that doing to my brain?
3. Hmmm, is this true?

Allow me to draw your attention to my third thought, i.e. is this true? Do I need to act on my first impulse to buy some headset so I don’t fry my brain? If I do, what do headsets do to my brain? Do you see a pattern here? Run away panic? Unnecessary worry?

While these questions are important, a more important question that might shave off some time off my personal drama-fest is to determine if the videos that I’m basing my opinions on are true. Are my assumptions correct? One of the first steps in thinking critically is determining if the “facts” you think you have are indeed facts. If they are not, don’t waste your time.

In this instance, they were not. The videos were a hoax, a marketing stunt. It took about 10 minutes to determine that with a little help from Google and CNN. Thanks folks.

My invitation to you, my dear reader, and myself (note to self) is to think before jumping to conclusions. As an educator, I know there is a push for bringing more critical thinking into the classroom. The assessment device used at our institution is the California Critical Thinking Test. It has its uses and place in the process. However, I propose that critical thinking is a skill that has more practical applications – like not running out to buy the latest gizmo. This benefit, my friends, goes far beyond the score on a California Critical Thinking Test.

Do you agree? Tell me.

I am a data point. What do I mean by that? I am one point of view in a democracy; one voice. I am a citizen. As one point, of a million points, it may not seem like that gives me much power. Quite the contrary. My solitary effort combined with the efforts of my fellow citizens (other data points)  produce some amazing results.

Tonight, I watched the first African-American (my candidate) be elected to the office of President of the United States. As the video above illustrates, my part in this process was  humble. A few phone calls, some discussions, early voting, lots of thinking motivated by unrest, and civic participation in community action like Video the Vote. It’s pretty amazing what a data point can do.

During my work with Video the vote, http://www.videothevote.org, I was introduced to the Citizen Media Law Project. As the Program Coordinator for the Multimedia Design Concentration at Nashville State Community College, I believe that new media literacy will be a cornerstone in our active citizenship. The Citizen Media Law Project is a valuable resource as we begin documenting our lives and experiences. It is important to know what you can, and can’t legally capture with our video devices.