This is a story of conjunction, not causation. David Hume would nod approvingly.
First, I saw Sarah’s Tweet.
@ds106dc #tdc3348 #ds106 Knightswood: Birds chirp in the trees above; a dog barks; ducks quack on the pond next door; traffic rumbles vaguely; a car races far too fast up the road at the front; a cat’s bell brings me back into my seat in the back garden.
— Sarah Honeychurch (@NomadWarMachine) March 13, 2021
I thought to myself, that is the perfect tweet for turning my AI tool, Lumen5, loose. It is simply observation from one place and time. Here is the digital artifact my AI created with no help from me, just from Sarah’s text:
Next, I considered a different perspective. Instead of starting with the text, I chose from my pix and vids from which I created text. I chose the music, too. As far as I could tell there was no AI involved at all.
Then I remembered the tweet I sent out this morning which my friend, Kevin Hodgson, responded to:
Instead of asking what my students want to do,I ask,“What do want to be remembered for in terms of what you gave to society? How do you want to contribute or give to our society?”This shifts the focus from capabilities (not yet fully developed, some not even in existence yet) to values. pic.twitter.com/VW6YkueKZX
— Terry Elliott (@telliowkuwp) March 13, 2021
Great shift in approach and thinking, Terry. Love that.
— KevinHodgson (@dogtrax) March 13, 2021
A shift. Now I see that my morning’s work online is a consideration of perspective, stance, approach. And the conjunction (happenstance, if you will) is with another resource I bumped into serendipitously–Tom Barrett’s , The Dialogic Learning Weekly. In two recent newsletters (#206 and #207), Barrett writes about shifting perspective–how to do it and why it is valuable to know how to do it. Barrett offers up ten different ways to shift perspective. These mental models or schema are part of what I think we call more broadly “empathy”. Empathy is a powerful value that is also a capability. Critiques of my teaching as “soft” or as “un-rigorous” are often rooted in a failure to understand this as my core value, my first perspective. I think most leaders in name only have neither the capability to feel empathy nor do they value it in others. I am sorry to say that makes them sociopaths.
And I don’t want anyone thinking that this is just another damned virtue signalling bonfire saying, “Look at me. Look at me. I good. I good.” Systems, higher ed as well as K-12, corrupt all of us and work towards bleaching out empathy in every corner. Grading, tenure, academic hierarchy– these and every other aspect of university life can be judged by how well or ill it amplifies empathy. I have come to the personal conclusion that on balance the university diminishes the pool of common empathy we all draw from. It is the only way I can explain how my colleagues are so quick to condemn our current students of the plague, how they rarely if ever stand in solidarity with non-tenured faculty and staff, how folks who are trying to share tools and skills and abilities are not valued.
This is why, as I trundle toward my own retirement to my own “north forty”, I am looking for places to work that systemically amplify empathy as a capability and a value. Sometimes you have to create your own oasis. That is what I will be doing as I work my way through these ten ways to shift perspective. Maybe April will be, “Shift Your Perspective toward Empathy” Month.
Here’s a Karl Popper quote to get us all started on shifting our perspective:
Or maybe shift perspective historically?
