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Tootsie Pops & Toilet Paper, Vampires & Zombies

+Reimagining Research through the Engaging and Creative Processes, Projects, and Products of The Collectory

A presentation from Dr. Z’s House of Fun

Wilkins-O’Riley Zinn

Professor and Faculty Director of Teaching and Learning

Southern Oregon University

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When is learning fun (engaging and interesting) for you?

“Dolphins are my life right now! This project is the most fun I ever had!!”• Sixth grader, 2004

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Zombie Haiku (Ryan Mecum, 2008)They surround the carand all are moaning something.Is that the word “trains??! (p. 17)

+ Research is formalized curiosity.It is poking and prying with a

purpose. • Zora Neale Hurston

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My name is only an anagram of toilets.• T.S. Eliot

The ability to relate and to connect, sometimes in odd and yet striking fashion, lies at the very heart of any creative use of the mind, no matter in what field or discipline. • George J. Seidel

+Themes of Fun in Learning(Zinn 2004, 2008):

Choice

Relevance

Engagement

Active Learning

Teacher Attitude

Eiredaramac (Camaraderie)

+The Collectory is about teaching the skills of interest essential to making lifelong learning a reality and an ongoing delight.

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Some Key Elements of Collectory Research

• I-Search research (Macrorie, 1988)

• Collage/montage representation

• Multigenre writing (Romano, 2000)

• Scholarly personal narrative (Nash, 2004)

• Autoethnography (Ellis & Bochner, 2000)

• Autobibliography (Zinn, 2004)

• Self-actualizing creativity (Maslow, 1959)

• Pentangulation (Zinn, 2004)

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Autoethnography is the exploration of one’s own culture situated within other cultures, and leads to critical self-understanding through reflection and experimentation.

A primary difference between autoethnography and autobiography is the creation of theory from emergent knowledge, making it particularly useful within the context of research projects.

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Enjoyment is not a goal, it is a feeling the accompanies important ongoing activity.• Paul Goodman

Ongoing reflection and self-evaluation are crucial elements of The Collectory processes.

+Pentangulation

• Self as source of knowledge, experiences, reflection, metacognition

• Observation, formal and informal

• Talking with others

• Formal research, scholarly literature, historical context

ª Informal research, popular culture, multiple media, historical context

You don’t understand anything until you learn it more than one way. • Marvin Minsky

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Ethics Quiz

I have used Spark Notes, Cliff Notes, or other reading aids and pretended the ideas were my own.

I have pretended to read an article, text, or other assigned materials.

I have appropriated material from the internet and passed it off as my own work.

I have cheated on a test.

I have copied someone else’s homework or other assigned work.

I have done an assignment that was due at the start of class while I was in class instead of completing it out of class as assigned.

I have worked on other things during class, including but not limited to other coursework, surfing the net, texting, etc.

It’s hard to do your best at something you don’t really want to do. Why should I go research information on something I don’t care about?

• Comments from a pair of cheaters on ABC’s 20/20, November 19, 2004

+Discovery Skills of Innovation• Dyer & Gregerson, 2010

• Associating: making connections among the seemingly unrelated.

• Questioning: asking “what if?” and “why not?” Challenging the status quo.

• Observation: closely observing details, including people’s behavior.

• Experimentation: trying new experiences; exploring new worlds.

• Networking: including with people with whom you may have nothing in common, but from who you can learn.

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There is a formula for drudgery (Ruediger, 1932), and many students have learned how to be actively disengaged in school.

Skills of Interest

+ChoiceI know how I learn and I understand that this may not be the same in every context. I actively seek opportunities to maximize my learning by integrating my interests and passions into my coursework.

Students choose Collectory topics, methods of pursuit and sources, manner of presentation.

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Nifty Fifty Challenge

An anonymous donor will give you $50,000 to research anything you want, but you have to make your choice in fifty seconds. It must be something you are personally passionate about, and you must immediately provide a rationale for your choice in fifty words or less, taking no more than four minutes and ten seconds (5x50 seconds) to do so.

+RelevanceI find purpose and connections among things I’m studying. I connect personal resonance and pragmatic reality. I know who I am and what interests me.

I choose a Collectory topic thoughtfully, engaging in metacognitive activities that help me understand my interests and my preferred ways of making meaning.

+EngagementI attend class and deliberately find ways to be actively interested. I care about my learning and am truly present through thoughtful interaction in and out of class. I apply course content to my life and to other courses.

I engage in ongoing disciplined and informal Collectory-related reflection, collection, and connection and am alert for interconnections.

+WHAT IS QUALITY WORK?

WHAT SHOULD A GRADE OF A REPRESENT?

Quality is not an act, it is a habit. •Aristotle

+Project Guarantee I guarantee that this work is my own and that it is ready

to grade. I understand that it may be returned to me without assessment if it is incomplete, sloppy, appears to represent inadequate effort on my part, or is not my own work. I further guarantee that I have proofread it carefully, that all sources consulted and cited are properly credited, and that it meets any additional specific requirements for the course for which I am submitting it. I also understand that if this work is not my own, there will be serious consequences that may include loss of credit for the course.

Based on my effort and on the quality of my final product, if I were assigning my work a grade, I believe that it should earn a/n ________.

+Active Learning

I don’t just attend class; I am an integral part of making the class interesting because I am interested. I seek out additional information related to what I am learning.

I use all facets of my life as sources of information. I understand that learning doesn’t just happen in school and I actively seek additional learning-from-life opportunities.

+Teacher Attitude

What makes teaching fun? I put myself in the place of the teacher and make my interest apparent. I go beyond requirements and produce quality work.

Collectory teachers are open to possibility, trust learners, emphasize the journey, involve learners in evaluation, expect quality. They model lifelong learning through their own research Collectorys.

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BREAST WISHES!I have a collection of more than 7,000 quotations about breasts that have become part of an art exhibit: Breast Wishes: Uncovering an American Obsession. It’s led to anonymous gifts like this.

What did the ghost

say to the bee?

Boo, Bee!!

• Dogfight (1991)

+Things I Didn’t Buy For My Son

A Consumerist Collectory

+CamaraderieI talk with others in and out of class—instructors and classmates. I get involved in clubs, study groups, sports, student government, and/or other activities. I am interested in learning about other people and their cultures and I know how to listen and be a friend.

I actively seek other perspectives related to my Collectory topic and I share my work regularly, helping others with theirs as well. I am part of an intellectual community.

+How to insure your Collectory doesn’t suck!

Some advice from the Vampire Team:

• Pick a topic and begin your research right away.

• Tell other people what you’re exploring and ask them to watch for related information.

• Record what you’re doing, the sources you find, and your thoughts and reflections REGULARLY. You will not remember!

• Keep careful track of your sources. Get all the biblio information as soon as you look at something.

• Be open—keep your topic at the front of your mind and you’ll be surprised how much you start to see.

Winter 2011

+How about you?With The Collectory, the end is just the beginning. . .

How could you use Collectory processes with your students?

+El Dia deLos Muertos

mIIm

aII

Zinnpix are fromOlvera Street, Los Angeles,and Dr. Z’sHouse of Stuff

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In FinitoTo find a form that

accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist

now.

• Samuel Beckett

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Vampire Haiku Ryan Mecum (2009)

As I’m writing this,

my syllable-counting hand

is starting to smoke (p. 133).

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How can students learn essential research attitudes, skills, and knowledge in a personally-engaging way?

AND how is highly individualized work evaluated?

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Activate the skills of interest, innovation, and lifelong learning through personally resonant Collectory research

You can teach students a lesson

for a day, but if you can teach them to learn by creating curiosity, they will

continue the learning process as long as they live.

• Clay P. Bedford

+Where do ideas come from?

I am often asked, “Where do you get your ideas?” The short answer is everywhere. It’s like asking, “Where do you find air to breathe?” Ideas are all around you. • Twyla Tharp

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A student once called me the “Ex-Lax of writing teachers.” Collectory processes can really help get the

writing going!