Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen

This week I have found that there is a genuine motivation for everyone in my family to want to participate in the cooking process. The problem is that I only have a certain number of steps that can be easily divided into smaller tasks. Eventually there is only one bowl that a limited number of bodies can clump over. Of course, the best part for some is the lick of frosting at the end.

Again I begin to compare this participatory process with technology. With cost efficient tools and the ease of distributing materials, technology users have become producers instead of passive consumers. There is a comfort with lots of cooks’ freely designing, editing, and publishing lots of media. An example of this is the convenience of the free software tool, BubblePLY at: http://www.bubbleply.com/Default.aspx that I discovered this week. This software easily allows users to add bubble text to their videos and send them off to various contacts. I am impressed with this site’s videos that represent adventurous risk-taking creativity. The ingenuity humors me also.

What is the positive aspect about a kitchen full of cooks who all want to produce and to create a masterpiece? I think it is found it the connections of savoring bites, moments, and ideas. Contribution often fosters connection. The appeal for many is by active engaging in technology’s tools; people have the power to learn from numerous approaches. For teachers, this often means relinquishing some control and being open-minded to the possibilities of allowing their class to become content producers. For instance, students can create maps and video of the series of events in World War II. Through these opportunities, I think authentic learners appreciate all the cooks interacting and enjoying the results of the final production. With technology, perhaps there is no such thing as “too many cooks in the kitchen!”