‘HARD TO BECOME WHO YOU ARE’

Drs. Wim Kratsborn

After working 44 years with students and teachers in higher education in Europe and the Arab world, I’m happy to share my film ‘HARD TOBECOME WHO YOU ARE’. It’s part of a transmediallearning landscape, consisting of a film for identification, a book for information, music for inspiration and a website with a learning route and ‘breaking news’.

What?

These are seven entry points.

1. It’s not a film but an innovative and passion driven learning journey through thepast, the present and the future. The passengers in time are 9 young people from Europe and the Arab world. Passion and emotion were used by the writers, the creators and the actors and hopefully also by the spectators, readers, listeners and learners.

‘We feel and therefore we learn’ (Mary Helen Immordino)

2. It’s a historical timeline from WWI, WWII, The Cold War, the Crisis to the

future. I was a bit worried that the Cold War was frozen history and not interesting for young people. So I phoned Putin and asked him to do something about it! He exaggerated a bit.

‘The timeline’ ( Wim Kratsborn 2009)

3. It’s a hectic roller coaster between good and evil as well as a role-play between a young hedonist, teacher, protestor, jihadist, avatar, muslima, neo-nazi, alternative and aesthetical woman. They are ghost-writers in the book, the

actors in the film, the inspiration in the music and the guides in the learning route.

4. It’s ‘translearning’ by mixing the blended (digital and analogue), the lifelong learning (sustainable), informal (real life learning), spiritual (religious)and passion driven (creative) learning style.

5. It’s a multi-disciplinary approach including disciplines as philosophy, history, economy, psychology, it, sociology and art (music). It may be used in different disciplines or in a project about democracy, terrorism or the crisis.

6. It’s about five dynamic turning points that are always present. It was a shock, finding out that the turning points during WWI are still up to date.

‘Every day is like a hundred years’ (Passengers in Time).

The turning points are

-New Economy as the transition from the Second to the Third Industrial Revolution

-New Technology including tanks, planes, machine guns, cars and poisoned gas and nowadays robots, drones, bio-technology andsocial media.

‘David as an avatar’ (Still from the film ‘Hard to become who you are’

-Isms like nationalism, Islamism, imperialism, corruptism, militarism, fundamentalism, terrorism and capitalism.

-Past that’s no history with wars, nations and empires, imperialism, religious

conflicts, the caliphate, the Silk Road andcrusades as remnants from histtory.

-Human rights. Education is a human right to create the ‘Empathic Civilisation’ (Jeremy Rifkin) and to control ‘evil in each human heart’ (John Gray). Is the roadto democracy manmade or created by ‘the invisible hand’ or God?

‘God is not dead, he’s just working on a less ambitious project’.

7. It’s about the five minds for the future (Howard Gardner) as capabilities or skills for the future,

-the disciplined mind about gathering good and sufficient

knowledge

-the synthesizing mind about making links

-the creative mind about searching for the unknown

-the respectful mind about respecting the other

-the ethical minds about values

So for example the learner gathers knowledge about the technological revolution, tries to put it in a context and to solve problems related to the positive aspects as more productivity and less costs contrary to the negative aspect as more unemployment. What’s the link between technology and respect? What’s influence of technology on good and evil?

‘Why have we forgotten what’s important in life?’ (Rob Riemen)

Who?

It’s a wake-up call as well as a brainwash for young people between 15 and 30 years, but also for their teachers and other interested people.

Why?

Young people are growing up in a complex, turbulent and risky world. They need a ‘multiple choice identity’ to make the right choices at the right time and place. The aim isto become who they are.

‘A new generation to be the writers and actors in their own script.’ (Jeremy Rifkin)

They need to be balanced, empathic and active global citizens on the road to democracy. They need to survive in a future that’s not like it was before by opening their senses, gathering knowledge, solving problems, creating and sharing the result and doing it. That’s why they have to develop a ‘multiple choice identity’.

In developing this learning arrangement we werestanding on the shoulders of giants: Howard Gardner (5 minds for the future), Mary Helen Immordino (brain-based education), Raul Hilberg(role-continuum), Peter Sloterdijk (bubbles andspheres), Norman Davies (history of Europe), Jeremy Rifkin ('The Empathic Civilization'), John Gray (evil) and musicians like Pink Floyd,The Beatles, Sigur Ros, The Gathering, The War on Drugs, The Cure, Arvo Pärt, Audiofeel and Vanderlinde.

Where?

The learning landscape may be in school, outside school or in virtual reality.

How?

There are different roads that lead to democracy.

It may be realized by a ‘Global Tweet Revolution’ in order to create ‘To-Gatherland’ as an empathic civilization. ‘Me-Time’ will be transferred into ‘We-Time’.

‘It’s not on the map but the destination of all.’

‘THE BUTTERFLY TOUCH’ (Design Christine Kraus, 2013)

Education is the best way to change the world. It should be innovative, using new technology

in an innovative, passion driven, mobile and blended way.

‘We should learn how learners are learning to learn’ (Wim Veen)

Through ‘The Butterfly Touch’ the learner linksthe turning points and his five minds for the future, while using transmedia. The learners internalizes the knowledge, insight and attitude about to the turning points. Than the wings of the butterfly are closed because the self and reality are one. The French philosopher wrote that music energizes something that’s deep inside ourselves. The same thing happens with history by family history, genetic memory, empathy and a past that’s no history. Many people ask: ‘How can this learning arrangement be used in practice?’ The answer isin the learning web with World War One as a case study. The learning web consists of seven learning steps. In each step a choice is made

between transmedia and learning styles.

‘The Learning Web’

‘Each learner has the right to have an own learning style’ (Mary Helen Immordino)

The transmedia are the film, the book, games ormusic and the learning style is a blended, passion driven, informal, spiritual or lifelongway of learning or a mixture? After each step the learner reflects on his learning style(s) and maybe he wants to make a change in the nextstep(s). Let’s take the seven steps.

Step 1 is the sense opener.

So fasten your seat belt and experience the intro and the scene ‘World War One’ and fill

out the organizer ‘Headlines’. ‘What do you feel?’ or ‘What’s in your mind?’

‘Headlines’ (Noël Hariri, 2014)

An option is to listen to authentic and modern songs about WWI. Examples are ‘Keep the home fires burning’, ’Willie McBride, ‘Der treue Huzar’, ‘One’ (Metallica), ‘Passchendale (Iron Maiden). ’Let England Shake’ (P.J. Harvey) and ‘Lament’ (Einstürzende Neubauten). Music makes sense, because in each step it’s a way to open the senses, to know, to solve problems, to communicate, to create, to share and do it! Music paves the road to democracy.

‘Irina as a nurse’ (Still from the film ‘Hard to become who you are’)

Afterwards a circle talk may be done about the different roles of the actors. What would you have done? With whom can you identify yourself the most? What’s the impact of WWI on the present and on yourself?

In Step 2 the learners gather knowledge by reading the chapter ‘World War One’. It’s good to listen to music about WWI, during the reading.

Activities may be:

-Make a timeline of WWI.

-What are the turning points that caused WWI?

-What paintings and music did predict the war and how?

-Why is WWI called ‘The Music War’?

-What country was to blame?

-When and why did you feel empathy?

-Which of the ghost writers is close to you?

-Compare the conflicts in WWI with the conflicts in the Arab world. What are the similarities and differences?

Afterwards there’s a Q&A with the teacher. How can the content of the film and the book be integrated in the own history method. What are important competences and content for the test?

In step 3 they have to solve problems related to WWI. According to Raul Hilberg people play different roles during a war or a conflict. That’s called ‘the role-continuum’. The actors in the film, the co-writers in the book are also playing different roles. Play a game aboutWWI. What role(s) do you play? (It’s a dream to expand the learning route by also making a special game about the film to play the different roles)

The roles:

1. Perpetrator

2. Collaborator

3. By-stander

4. Protestor

5. Victim

These are some problems that need to be solved:

-Why did the soldiers go to the battlefield?

-What should be in a soldier's survival package?

- What object would you choose to survive and why?

Telegraph Can of meat

A uniform Clothes for a nurse A map of Passchendale

-What role would you have played in the trench?

-What role do you play in relation to the conflicts in the Arab world, jihadism and terrorism?

‘The Butterfly Touch’ (design Christine Kraus, 2013)

-Reflect on step 1, 2 and 3 by linking the fiveminds with the turning points in WWI. Experience the ‘Butterfly Touch’.

-What learning style(s) do you want to use?

-How can you link one mind to one turning point? Use a screenshot from the film and a fragment of the book.

-Link the five minds to one turning point

-Balance the five minds related to all turning points

In step 4 let's use social media to talk with other students about:

-WWI as a human and global disaster.

-memories of WWI

-the impact of WWI on your own country and family

-similarities and differences between WWI and conflicts in the Arab

world.

-your own role(s) related to terrorism and jihadism.

-Why did soldiers go to the battlefield in WWI and why are young

people going to Syria or Iraq, fighting for ISIS.

In step 5 more knowledge may be gathered from the film, the book, music, the website and the internet.

‘Kristin is searching for the unknown’ (Still from thefilm )

Design a clip (4 minutes) about the present conflicts in the Arab world reflected by WWI.

Option 1: Use music and images from the film scene of WWI or from the internet and use subtitles.

Option 2: Make a role-play about the conflicts in the Arab world, terrorism and WWI.

Share the clip or the role-play with others in step 6 and place it on the website www.to-gather.org. Add breaking news and ask others todo the same. Communicate with others about the clips on the website and fill out the Venn-diagram together. What are the lessons from

World War One for the future in To-Gatherland and what does it mean for the youth of today?

Step 7 is about your personal reflection on theprevious 6 steps.

‘Europe’ (Still from the film ‘Hard tobecome who you are’)

-What did you learn as a ‘Multiple Choice Identity’?

-Did you make progress to become than you are?

-What will you do?

Write your reflection on ‘sticky notes’ and putthese on the poster of the ‘Butterfly Touch’. Another option is to paste it digitally.

Try to see it my wayOnly time will tell if I am right or I am wrongWhile you see it your wayThere's a chance that we may fall apart before too longWe can work it outWe can work it out’(‘We can work it out’, The Beatles)

‘The Butterfly Touch’ (design Christine Kraus, 2013)