Framing

If you're like me, the first time you ever heard the word "framing" you immediately thought of picture frames--and in a sense, you wouldn't be totally wrong.

Framing is simply taking content and definitions that already exist and re-working them to fit in a different context. Which works pretty much the same way as framing pictures: taking a piece of existing content (the picture) and putting an edge around it. We're simply taking the content and putting an edge around it, so that it fits neatly into the definition we have in mind.

From the materials I've looked at since the beginning of class, I can say that I definitely like the idea of framing content--even if I may not be the best at it. I think it's absolutely astounding what scientists can do with a simple concept.

For example, what Sugata Mitra did when he re-framed education was amazing. He managed to set up computers and classes where Indian children essentially taught themselves (in English!) extremely difficult concepts for their age. What Sugata managed to do by re-framing education should be done across the world, and hopefully it will--as scientists continue to re-frame common concepts and popular ideas, their experiments and data will eventually catch up and be brought into mass reality.

Over the few hours I've spent on and off writing this entry, I've been trying to think of my own example of framing something...and I've got to admit, it's really hard.

I'll take a shot at re-framing a term that I'm pretty familiar with: film. So, here it goes:

Cultures connecting over common story elements shown through a moving visual medium.

How's that? I'm pretty impressed with myself (especially if this is actually a correct example of re-framing).

It's easy to see how framing is important to the real world and the way we think about certain subjects--it can even change your entire perception of a given subject.