Teaching Cultural Competency to Digital Immigrants
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 05/11/2015 - 17:42Working in health care, I often come across the phrase, Cultural Competency the idea of providers delivering services that are respectful of the diverse cultural needs of the clients. Often, the cultures considered are ethnic or based on country of origin. However, there is an important culture that doesn’t get considered, digital culture.
In2001, Marc Prensky mapped out the digital culture divide in his seminal work, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. He focuses more on educational methodology and content, but it is interesting to think of this in terms of cultural competency.
When I was young, the telephone hung on a wall in the kitchen. If the phone rang, you answered it. It was rude not to answer the phone. Then came answering machines and caller id and it became culturally acceptable to screen calls.
Now, I hear digital natives telling their parents it is rude not to respond immediately to a friend’s text message. The cultural shifts continue. To use the phrase from Linda Stone, today’s digital natives are expected to pay Continuous Partial Attention to their digital peers. Asking them to do otherwise is to ask them to violate the rules of their culture.
There are times when we have to choose which culture’s rules we are going to follow, but we have to remember if we are providing services to members of a certain culture to seek follow the rules of the culture we are serving. If you can’t, you need to at least be aware of how you are violating the rules and seek ways to mitigate this. Whatever the situation, it is important to stop and consider to what extent we find a behavior objectionable because of the social context we grew up in and how others might find our behaviors objectionable.
Other Objects
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 05/10/2015 - 20:46I continue to be in a state of overload. It is a condition I often find myself in, and with the Rhizomatic Learning xMOOC going on, I find this to be even more of the case. There are things I want to read, things I wrote to write, too much commotion around the house and too little time to write.
One idea that I’m thinking of exploring is contemplation in the twenty first century. What is the relationship of praying without ceasing, being in the world, but not of the world with Continuous Partial Attention?
I’m taking time off of work this week to attend “Love bade me welcome” - Bringing Poetry into the Life of Your Church.
The conference description starts:
Designed especially for church leaders, this two-day conference will feature inspiration and practical guidance in the many uses of poetry for worship, liturgy, meditation, and education.
The signup sheet lists different roles in the church, Clergy, Worship Leader, etc., and ends with ‘Other’. I selected Other, overloaded with meaning from Hegel, Sartre, Lacan, Derrida, and Levinas. With other, I conflate, object, the lost object, the partial object, the transitional object, l’objet petit a
At this point in my writing, I wander through links about concepts like ‘other’ and ‘object’. I look at the biographies and writing of some of the speakers. I wander off briefly into Greek mythology.
But now, sleep beckons.
Everett’s New Lungs
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 05/09/2015 - 21:27This morning, I woke up to a Facebook post, “Everett has new lungs and they are working!!”
The phrase that comes to mind is “Everett’s New Lungs”, like it could be a children’s book.
It was around eight years ago that I met Everett and his family. His sister had written a blog post criticizing the administration of the school she attended and was facing retribution. I wrote about it, attended trials and parties and got to know the family.
Since then, I’ve followed the efforts to get new lungs for Everett.
It is hard to find words to describe my reaction to this news. Joy and amazement seem like words that are too weak.
The post came nestled amongst other posts of friends who have been fighting cancer and have celebrated hearing that they were now in “full remission”.
It seems like I’ve been stumbling across so much negative news online these days, it is great to hear good news, examples of advances in science and in health care working.
You Have the #Rhizo15
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 05/08/2015 - 21:50“Are you a leader? Are you a follower? Are those the only two options?” That old quote has come to mind a bit recently.
In the Rhizomatic discussion, we are currently talking about “what is the role of the facilitator/teacher/professor where we are using learning subjectives”. Are you a teacher? Are you a student? Are those the only two options? My initial approach was to talk about the importance of someone creating a structure, a safe place to learn.
Another context is a cartoon I shared on Facebook. A speaker addresses a crowd of people asking “Who wants change?” and everyone raises their hands. The same speaker addresses the same crowd asking, “Who wants to change?” and no one raises their hands. It seems like we see this all the time of Facebook. People trying to change everyone else’s opinions, but not being willing to change their own opinions.
Perhaps we see this best in current online political discourse. It is also showing up in the political process. Who are you supporting for President (for my U.S. friends)? Is this a person that represents your views, who you think will be most effective in getting polices that arein line with your views, elected? Can we get a transformational politician that will say something like,
The biggest lie people like me tell people like you at election time is, if you vote for me, I’ll solve all your problems. The truth is, the power to change this country is in your hands, not mine.
As much as I like this idea and the politician I’m quoting, it makes me think of the scene in Life of Brian where Brian tells the crowds, “You are all individuals, and they change back in near perfect unison, ‘We are all individuals’.
The power to change this country doesn’t come from voting for the candidate that promises change. It doesn’t come from voting for the candidate that tells us we have the power to bring about change. No, the real power of change comes from being the change we want to see in the world.
So, are you a leader? A follower? A teacher? A student? Do you have power, if so, what is it?
#NationalDayofPrayer Reflections
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 05/07/2015 - 22:02Today was #NationalDayofPrayer. The idea kind of makes me bristle. The verse from Matthew 6 comes to mind:
When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. "But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
It seems like the synagogues and street corners have been replaced by hashtags, and that many of the people participating in the National Day of Prayer seem to worship the country, the Republican Party, fetuses, flags and eagles more than they worship God, and if you don’t mention Jesus in your prayer, it just doesn’t count.
This is met by cynical militant atheists with a #NationalDayofReason which seems to worship rationality and hostility at the expense of anything beautiful. I’m surprised I haven’t seen Hume’s quote, “Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames” Those who studied empiricism have already committed that quote to the flames.
In contrast to all of this, I have friends who are very devote who post about their prayers online. These are the people that pray for peace, justice, healing and reconciliation. They provide an important contrast to those who pray or reason in hashtags.
So, my first tweet for #NationalDayofPrayer was
This #NationalDayofPrayer I'm praying that we protect creation, love all people, and help the less fortunate.
I followed this by a tweet noting that “#NationalDayofPrayer is also National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day” and a link to a video about the beauty if the Muslim call to prayer.
