Did you know ... there were four actors to play "The Joker". With all the hype last year with heath Ledger kicking butt in "The Dark Knight" and my recent watching of both "Dark Knight" movies back to back, it got me thinking.
About the Joker, not the Dark Knight. The four men were Mark Hamill, Jack Nicholson (in a really bad version with Keaton as the Batty One) and Caesar Romeo. Of all of them, Mark Hamill has never really gotten the chance to explore the truly evil side of the character as his show is a kids show. Can't have something truly evil in front of kiddies. Still I love his version of the laugh. But that brings up something from the online Culminating Activity in my class.
Interestingly, some of my students, who should be working on their online projects while in a computer lab, are reading about topics that are semi-related to what they should be doing. For example, one student was disgusted that Auschwitz even existed. And that it wasn't even in Germany. That there were more than just Jewish people killed by the Nazis. That Dr Mengele did some truly horrific experiments. That people were murdered all over the place. (These are some of the random outbursts that came from her during class time.)
Who's going to stop her from reading/researching that? Why stop her? Why stop that level of anger at something she is just learning for the first time? Why get in her way, pushing her back onto the "true topic" of her project? Why not let her "delve" into this topic and let her make the connections between the Nazis and the people in the novel 1984?
Why not push instead of pull?
Is she learning? Yes, I would think that everyone would agree she is learning. Is what she is learning accurate? (Well, it is Wikipedia, so that is a good question) Is what she is learning "demonstrable" in some way shape and form... yes, I think it is, if she focuses and gets the posts completed as they should be done.
We'll let you know how it goes.
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