“You’re facing ten years in prison and $200,000 in fines.”

I never imagined that I’d hear those words, let alone from an immigration official.  I was born and raised in Wisconsin, a U.S. citizen by birth.  My crime?  I married an Australian.

To the immigration official, my related crimes included not adding my new husband to my house deed or bank accounts, having a pre-nup, and not taking his last name.  (In an effort to keep Michael in the States and out of jail, I went to court to legally add Curwood to my name a year after we got married).

Taken together, the immigration official thought that we had a sham marriage, so he separated us, threatened us with prison and fines, and individually administered the immigration fraud interview.  You’ll be happy to know that I remembered how we met (in Sydney), what Michael had for dinner the night before (fish) and what side of the bed he sleeps on (right).

Luckily, we made it through the immigration process and my husband now holds a U.S. Permanent Resident card in addition to his Australia and New Zealand citizenship and right of abode in the United Kingdom.  (For more details on our experience, here is an 2006 editorial that appeared in my hometown newspaper, the Janesville Gazette).

I can say that this experience has given me much more insight into the immigration process and empathy for those who attempt to immigrate to a new country, whether legally or illegally, voluntarily or seeking asylum.  When I teach classes on young adult literature, I make sure to address these issues.  Here are three fabulous books that I’ve used recently in undergraduate and graduate classes at the University of Wisconsin – Madison on the topic of immigration: La Línea, Red Glass, and Home of the Brave.

Here, I’ll focus on La Línea and immigration from Mexico.  But definitely check out the other two books, too.  Laura Resau’s Red Glass is a wonderful story, narrated by an American teenager, about the immigration experiences of her friends and family from Central America and Eastern Europe.  And K.A. Applegate’s Home of the Brave, written in free verse, is the story of Kek, a refugee from Sudan who arrives in Minnesota.  Not only must Kek adapt to a new country, language, and culture, he must deal with the past (and the memories) that are rooted in war-torn Sudan.

La Línea, by Ann Jaramillo, focuses on the story of Miguel.  Six years, eleven months, and twelve days ago, his parents left him and his younger sister Elena behind in Mexico in order to seek work in California.  On the day of his fifteenth birthday, Miguel’s father sends for him.  Immediately, Miguel thinks, “I’d been waiting for this moment ever since I was eight.  Could it be true this time, finally?  For once, I didn’t care about a birthday present.  If Papá’s note was true, my real life was finally beginning.  This was day number one.”

At his father’s direction, Miguel enlists the help of a local man, Don Clemente, who arranges for a coyote to take him across the border.  But Elena doesn’t want to be left behind on their abuelita’s rancho, and she follows Miguel on his journey, derailing his plans to cross the border with a coyote.  Soon, they find themselves being questioned and detailed by Mexican immigration officials – and then running for their lives across the desert.  They don’t know who they can trust or what will happen to them.  All they know is that they need to get across la línea at any cost.

Jaramillo, a first-time author, is an English as a Second Language teacher in a middle school in Salinas, California. She says, “More than 95 percent of my students are Mexican in origin.  Their parents work in the fields or packing sheds of the Salinas Valley.  Some of my students were born in the United States; other immigrated in elementary or middle school.”  By drawing from her own experiences and that of her students – and by integrating Spanish words and phrases throughout the book – Jaramillo reinforces the cultural authenticity of La Línea .  The School Library Journal recommends this book for grades five and up, and I can see this book easily used in a middle school or freshman classroom.

In the news recently, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer asserted that most illegal immigrants entering her state are being used to transport drugs across the border.  Following on the heels of Arizona Senate Bill 1070, her remarks were quickly denounced by experts as incorrect and downright racist.  In an Associated Press article published on MSNBC, Sen. Jesus Ramon Valdes, a member of the Mexican Senate’s northern border affairs commission, countered that, “Traditionally, migrants have always been needy, humble people who in good faith go looking for a way to better the lives of their families.”  While politicians may try to depict all Mexican immigrants as drug mules and criminals, La Línea offers readers a more realistic and nuanced perspective on the immigrant experience.

Image Credit: Square Fish Books, cover of La Línea.

I’m really happy to share the latest news about the second annual Games+Learning+Society Educator Symposium, which will be held on Saturday, June 12th.  Not only does this day-long event only cost $10, but we’re also offering one University of Wisconsin – Madison graduate credit for an additional $100.

The GLS Educator Symposium features panel presentations and roundtables from noted scholars in videogames and digital media as well as hands-on workshops in game design, mobile media learning, digital storytelling, and educational videogames. It follows the fabulous Games+Learning+Society conference, which you should definitely check out!

The Symposium runs from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Memorial Union in Madison, Wisconsin.   All participants must register online by May 30th. If you’re interested in the graduate credit, please see the course registration form and the syllabus. Space is limited, so register early.

In the meantime, you’re also welcome to join us on the GLS Educators Network. Questions? Get in touch with me.  See you in June!

Photo Credit: Matt Gaydos from the GLS Photostream.  This was taken during last year’s rapid game prototyping workshop at the GLS Educator Symposium.

Love it.  CoolFlick, that is.  It combines the search power of Flickr with the stunning 3D experience of Cooliris.  To experience Cooliris yourself, I would recommend checking out the Wall Street Journal’s 2008 Year in Pictures.  Now imagine that, linked to the millions of photos uploaded from around the world onto Flickr.

It’s fascinating how social media is facilitating the exchange of visual images… I can’t help but wonder if users are prompted to engage in perspective taking and critical thinking as they share images with an audience (known and unknown, local and distal).

But back to CoolFlick.  One of the drawbacks, as ReadWriteWeb points out, there’s no advanced search – and thus, no way to discern if photos are licensed under Creative Commons.  Ever conscious of copyright issues, I typically find photos for my blog or PowerPoints at stock.xchng or use my own photography.

The photo used in this post, for instance, was taken in Oaxaca, Mexico, last June.  My son Cole and I spent two weeks there at a wonderful language school… and we were inadvertently there on the two year anniversary of protests that turned violent.  I tried to see it through his 8 year old eyes: striking teachers camped for weeks in the Zocalo, banners with the images of Lenin and Marx, and ever-present graffiti.  The images may only stay up for a day or two, before fresh white paint covered them up.

In Oaxaca, the graffiti provided a way for me to (try to) explain complex issues to my son.  Banksy-style images functioned as political expression and public art.  Is it any wonder that in times of political upheaval (even now, here in the States, with our new president) people turn to visual means to express themselves?  Tools like CoolFlick are a way to share their work – and to reach across time, space, and difference.

Games+Learning+Society 5.0: Learning Through Interaction
June 10-12, 2009 Madison, WI

CALL FOR PAPERS

Back by demand and now expanded to accommodate last year’s waiting list, the GLS conference this year will feature substantive discussion and collaboration among academics, designers, and educators interested in how videogames –- commercial games and otherwise -– can enhance learning, culture, and education. This year’s theme of “Learning through Interaction” highlights the expansive nature of our definition of games and game culture to include research and design in areas including popular culture and fandom, interactive design more generally, and digital/visual cultures. This three-day conference will be held at the UW’s historic Memorial Union, overlooking downtown Madison’s beautiful Lake Mendota.

Conference highlights also include keynotes by leaders in both academics and industry, interactive workshops on game design and games research, both individual and symposia presentation sessions, “chat n’ frags” in the arcade for hands-on gameplay, an evening poster session over cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, an evening machinima festival in the playhouse theatre, and fireside chats that enable thorough, cozy conversations among speakers and attendees. We encourage the submission of traditional paper sessions as well as innovative talk formats which focus on game design, game culture, and games’ potential for learning and society more broadly.

Confirmed Speakers include: James Paul Gee, Idit Caperton, Alex Chisholm, Doug Church, Mia Consalvo, Elonka Dunin, Drew Davidson, Lisa Nakamura, Bonnie Nardi, Kurt Squire, Constance Steinkuehler, Steve Thorne, Eric Zimmerman.

Submissions are due online by February 16, 2009. Complete submission guidelines can be found on the submissions site at glsconference.org.

The Games+Learning+Society (GLS) is sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Academic ADL Co-Lab. For information on how to sponsor this event, contact the conference coordinator at gls(at)seanmichaeldargan(dot)com.

This semester, I’m teaching a graduate class called Literacy and Language Development.  Most of my students are elementary teachers, with a few graduate students thrown into the mix.  Today, we spent the class exploring new literacies.  For the first part of class, we went into the computer lab and just took some time to search through what’s out there, from fan fiction and blogs, videogames to machinima, Twitter to Flickr, vi.sualize.us to del.icio.us, nings to wikis. (And while this has some broken links, it lists many Web 2.0 technologies).

Next, we returned to our classroom and spent some time talking about these.  For many of us in academia, Web 2.0 technologies are our world – we tweet, we blog, we link, and this is how we live.  I remember at this year’s Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English conference, William Kist from Kent State gave a keynote on new literacies.  But afterward, many questions from teachers persisted: “But what are new literacies?  If I don’t know how to use these technologies, how can I ever teach them?  And what will happen to print literacy – will that be lost?”

Even though many of my students were unfamiliar with these new technologies and new literacy practices, we were able to talk about the “new ethos” (Lankshear and Knobel) that accompanies them.  We looked critically at their elementary school’s technology practices.  In one school, teachers weren’t required to use the computer lab at all – and if they did, there were completely on their own.  In many other schools, students visited the computer lab once or twice a week and primarily used KidPix.  (My own fourth grade son is learning about online databases and Boolean logic at his school, much to my delight).

Much of the time, we position new literacies as being marked by teacher resistance or antiquated models of schooling – but maybe we need to focus on issues of access and advocacy instead.  At the Games+Learning+Society Conference, we’ll once again offer scholarships for PK-16 teachers to attend.  In talking with some other members of the program committee, I suggested that perhaps we need to include a session on advocacy.  After all, what better time to talk about it than when you have teachers, researchers, and industry experts in the same place?