ABSTRACT
In this chapter, a graduate student researcher candidly dissects what went awry in an ambitious and engaging rock opera project that foundered, and the school principal describes the valuable learning gleaned through the process of creating and recreating a parent-education website that ran into perpetual problems. Public schooling is rooted in 19th century practices set in motion by the Industrial Revolution, which created the factory conditions for mass literacy and mass education. The Talk Time project emphasized the importance of families as teachers, letting families know that their involvement in their children's education, as shaped by the teachers, was valued and welcomed. The expansive multilingual modelling in a programmed digital game forms accessible to parents in the community that was the aim of Talk Time similarly asked for more than the collective expertise, time and efforts of the learning community could humanly accomplish.
