Musings on Lessig, the CDT, and an Ape

I was catching up from missing class on Wednesday and just finished watching the Larry Lessig clip. The video reminded me of why it is that I so appreciate the Internet and the new media technologies that have sprung up around it. I struggle, as I have said before, with some of the “social networking” aspects, but the incredible potential there is for intellectual freedom and free expression is a force that I fully support. Lessig’s argument for a “RW” society and the opportunity that the Internet allows for participation, was brilliant.

On a side note: I know that Lessig, said that he found that trying to work with government and change policy was too slow. Last semester however, I learned about the Center for Democracy in Technology, a non-profit public interest group involved in Internet policy that “works to promote democratic values and constitutional liberties in the digital age.” Their motto is: ”keeping the internet open, innovative and free.” They are an organization worth knowing about if you follow the legal events that affect the Internet, its content and access.

The part of Lessig’s speech that was most compelling for me was how he talked about our kids; how they interpret and interact with their world can be so different than our own interpretations and interactions. I would like to illustrate this point with a personal experience. The experience has to do with an ape…

In the school district where I work, the latest curriculum philosophy that is being followed is that presented by Dr. Willard Daggett and the International Center for Leadership in Education . Dr. Daggett came and presented at a conference in our district in fall 2006. His argument for a change in educational practices was very similar to Daniel Pink’s argument for A Whole New Mind. Daggett used abundance, automation and Asia to advocate for educational change. Daggett’s philosophy then takes a turn towards embracing technologies versus the MFA/Emotional Intelligence approach that Pink discusses.

Daggett spoke about how kids’ minds work differently; they are able to toggle more quickly between several tasks, for example. He asked us to participate in an activity. He showed us a video clip about 45 seconds long. In the clip there were two teams of three people each; one team dressed all in black, the other all in white. The six people stood in a circle, alternating black, white, and they tossed a basketball among each team. Our task was to count the number of passes that were completed. They were moving quickly with all sorts of fancy tosses. At the end, Daggett asked us to raise our hands according to how many passes we counted. After we came to a majority consensus, he asked, “And who saw the ape run through the middle of the circle?” Most people in the room, including me, looked a little confused by this question. About 17 people out of approximately 350 saw the ape that Daggett was talking about. When he showed the video again, sure enough a person in an ape costume ran into the circle and beat his chest and ran out. It was so hard to believe that I hadn’t noticed it before. Daggett pointed out that had we been our students, most likely a high majority of us would have seen the ape.

I told this experience to some of my classmates when we had lunch together at the on-campus day. (I wish I had the video to show you, but I couldn’t find it anywhere own line.) Amy had also seen the video and said that she learned that most people who noticed the ape were under 30. (Pipe up and let me know if that is accurate, Amy!)

The ability to survey new atmospheres and take in details, is not new, as Pink pointed out, hunters have used such skills for many thousands of years. Young people (and some not so young) appear to be taking these skills to a higher level. It will be interesting to watch and see what brain research shows about exposure to technology and the brain structure. The language we are exposed to in development affects how the brain is structured, it would seem that what technology we are exposed to would also influence the brain connections and structure. As Lessig points out, these children, our kids, are creators of culture on a gran scale, where we were consumers of culture. These digital natives are challenging many conventions, the audience-performer relationship, the issues of copyright, etc. They are moving so quickly that they are changing the way their brains process. And me and my generation - we can't even see the darn ape!