"Innovator" Reflections Part 3

So, okay, I'm going out of order. Sort of. But one of my most exciting and magical innovations was devising and implementing SLedupotential at NECC 2008. That, of course, was back when ISTE called it's conferences the "National Educational Computing Conference."

All right, I'm lying again. I'll be a good boy and save SLedupotential for another post in this series.

Did I mention Snacks4theBrain? Yes I did, last post. Working one day a week for the Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach, I produced and published 84 (or maybe more) podcasts, each of which you can still access at iTunes, and I've spent a little time looking for references to it. Here's one in an article at the Vanderbilt Register from 2006: http://news.vanderbilt.edu/archived-news/register/articles/index-id=28948.html.

How did I even get into this? Well, as I recall, I had been listening to podcasts from the early days, from the irreverent "Soccergirl" to Richard Vobes' "The Vobes Show," a daily online offering from a glorious madman in England. I also subscribed to Adam Curry's podcast, where the early MTV vjay held forth from his Netherlands expatriat residence, earning him the moniker "the podfather," because he claims to have invented the genre. Podcasts, of course, are online resident audio files, and after some time listening to my favorites I thought, well, how about one dedicated to emerging science? And let's make it entertaining. And let's add some music. I used

One of my favorite podcasts, The Goodbeershow, featured folks sitting around a table at a watering hole in Muncy, Indiana talking with Jeffrey T. Meyers about the beer(s) they were sampling that night, and he featured live or recorded music along with the ribald discussion. As it turned out, I was able to sit in and contribute to two shows in Muncy and to host one at Yazoo Brew here in Nashville when Jeffrey was passing through town. What fun all that was.

I proceeded to establish a format. I would open with a standard recorded intro, describe what was to come, play some independent (read: "free") music, interview a working scientist about her or his work, play some more independent music, and mess around a bunch. I would plug the Center for Science Outreach and their good work, reference the website, and play around with sound effects like a crazy person. I worked first in CoolEdit Pro, then Adobe bought that software and I moved to Adobe Audition. Eventually I was working with the freeware Audacity. And eventually, after all that work, I called it quits when I left the CSO (described in the last post).

I was "in the Cat Bird Seat," as my father-in-law would say. I'd invented something, was able to produce it mostly at home every Monday whilst working for the CSO, run in for meetings when necessary, and everyone was happy. Best of all, I interviewed a bunch of brilliant people, pretending that I knew what I was doing and, almost unimaginably, getting away with it.

You know that Vanderbilt scientist the national news always breaks out when there's any kind of viral outbreak? Dr. William Shaffner? I interviewed him about the Swine flu. Check. You know David Warlick, brilliant front vanguard for change in education? I interviewed him and we became friends. Peggy Sheehy? Of Second Life Teen Grid reknown? Check, and dear friend. Steve Spangler, the modern-day Mr. Wizard? Check. It's all there at Snacks4theBrain. Still and always. They are archived in the Vanderbilt University Discovery Archive. Go listen to one and help keep the series alive. I'd appreciate it. Hint: The best way to do this is to "Save File" and listen locally. You may need to rename it, taking out some weird characters, before it works. Looks like they need to do some maintenance on their 2008 archives. Ha. The direct link in http://discoverarchive.vanderbilt.edu/handle/1803/3186 but I've already renamed it and made it available for you at the following:

Here's a link to one episode, my replay of an earlier Dr. William Shaffner interview, so if you have 30 minutes for some weirdness and fun, go for it. 

http://abcnews.go.com/meta/search/imageDetail?format=plain&source=http://abcnews.go.com/images/Health/FLU_Snapshot_William_Schaffner 

So yeah, that's something I'm proud of. Something else I made up. More "innovation," though I was just making things up. It's what I do.

So SLedupotential next post? Maybe. Maybe not...

Stay tooned.

"Innovator" Reflections Part 2

Even though I didn't label the last post "'Innovator Reflections' Pt. 1," I'm going with it henceforth . Yesterday, in connection with the upcoming release of my selection as "Innovator of the Month" of June 2014 with THE Journal, I said I'd post daily until I ran out, or at least until Thursday of next week, when my webinar entitled "Starting and Maintaining a Virtual School" will hit the 'netz live and then be archived. I have been reflecting on the innovations I'm most proud of and I'm going to lump two into this post at the risk of running out soon.

From 1999 to the middle of 2010, my main work took place in the computer lab at University School of Nashville, after having taught 3rd grade for 3 years there. In 2001, I was asked by Vanderbilt University to leave USN to work full-time as "Teacher in Residence" for the Vanderbilt University Office of Science Outreach. I had been recruited by Dr. Susan Kuner, with whom I had done some work in the then very infant stages of videoconferencing at Vanderbilt Virtual School (not really a virtual school, but rather its own videoconferencing outreach, a very early iteration from which I learned bushels).

I loved my job at USN and my beautiful daughter Miranda was attending school there, and with my amazing son Colin just starting there as well I didn't want to leave my kids, or my students, all ~360 of them, whom I saw each week in the lab. We worked out a deal--I would work Mondays at the OSO, and my classes at USN would be compressed into the remaining four weekdays. It was doable, and we done it. This went on through 2008-2009, when the grant funding supporting the position ran out and I was let go, gently and with genuine compassion, by the Director of the by then Center for Science Outreach, Dr. Virginia Shepherd. Ginny explained that with the newly minted School for Science and Math taking off so solidly, priorities had changed, and I silently added in my mind that they had discovered that they needed the funding they had been allocating to supporting a rogue, independent, innovator for their new project and more classroom teachers for this amazingly innovative project. Learn more about it at theschool.vanderbilt.edu.

All this to say that I had a blast working with the CSO, all the way from its foundations as the OSO. That's where I first met and worked with dear friends Dr. Kecia Ray, now President of the  International Society for Technology in Education, and Jan Zanetis, now CEO of the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration). Ginny Shepherd more or less let me make up things, and the two best things I made up were the "VIA Dyer" Interactive Videoconferencing series and "Snacks4theBrain," an 84 episode podcast from the Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach. Let's briefly detail these.

VIA is an acronym I used to describe "Videoconference Interactions with Astronomers and the "Dyer" is simply Dyer Observatory at the top of a hill just outside of Brentwood, Tennessee. The double entendre, in that the interactions came "via," or "by way of" Dyer Observatory, was indeed intended. I do not recall how I first got hooked into Dyer, but I believe it was that the OSO had placed one of a couple dozen grant-purchased high-end videoconferencing codecs (hardware) in school around the MNPS school district and also one up at Dyer, and I first went up there to help them get it set up. There I met with a man who has become one of my closest friends, Rocky Alvey. He's a story unto himself, then Superintendent and now Director of the Observatory and truly a Renaissance Man.

Long story short, over the course of a couple of years I helped design the website for the Observatory, upon which they have built nicely, and we served up a couple dozen weekly and then bi-weekly interactions with students around the country. A classroom would sit together in front of their own codec, wherever they were, and I would set up the videoconferencing camera on an expert in the field of astronomy, and they would do a little presentation, often a PowerPoint that I would operate as the "next slide" guy, then answer questions from the remotely located peanut gallery. Here's a snapshot from the Internet Wayback Machine (a great resource) from 2004 and here's a pic of one of these interactions featuring former astronaut and then-Director of Dyer, Dr. Rick Chappel:

Producing VIA Dyer was as much a learning experience for me as for the students. That's why I did it, really, trying as I have since I became an educator to push the technology into the service of learning and teaching. Building that program, then reluctantly letting it go (though Rocky has not--see a 2013 videoconference video from Dyer!), was a learning experience for me that prepared me for what I'm doing now. I am thankful to Dr. Ginny Shepherd for believing in me enough to let me innovate, and for Rocky Alvey for being open enough, and innovative enough himself, to support and help develop VIA Dyer. Maybe THE Journal needs to hit up my man Rocky!

Okay, that's enough for this morning: I lied. I'll share "Snacks4the Brain!" tomorrow. It's a doozy of a story that requires more description than I have time for this morning. Got to shower and get in to today's work at MNPS Virtual School, where "We Never Close."

See ya (that will mean more when you hear some S4theB!: heck, if you're an auditory learner and want a preview, head on over to iTunes and grab some Snacks before checking in here tomorrow. It's a body of work, don'tcha know.

Wednesday Evening Epiphany

I don't know how I've gotten so scattered lately, but my wife has more than once looked at me and said, "You're multi-tasking too hard, you: You're going to make a big mistake soon."

She may be right. The whole thing is a train rattling down a steep mountainside toward...what?

The place where it encounters a steep upturn, a clean end to the track, and the vehicle takes wing and soars adroitly, elegantly, gracefully into the flattering ether?

Some long, level, languishing, loverly lane where the train (remember, that's the metaphor) lolls along indefinitely, its laughing engineer sipping a tasty adult beverage and learning lots of things?

The wall?

Heck, I don't know.

Anyway, I'll continue to update you as I can. This very day, by the way, I spent a nice hour in the midst of wonderful folks, the sophomore class at the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt. These are my peeps, ya'll, 25 kids I filmed, recorded, and witnessed as they grew in their freshman year last year. I haven't spent any time at all with them this year, involved as I've been with podcasts and with trying to etch out a Second Life presence for the School's hosting organization, the Vanderbilt Center for Science and Math.

What I saw today indicates the program works--it is possible for kids to be yanked out of their public school routines one day a week for intense, hands-on, research based science learning, and for them to grow in self-confidence and knowledge in incredibly impressive ways. I'll be working next Monday (in my own bizarre one day a week work model for Vanderbilt) to concoct a Snacks4theBrain! podcast to celebrate all that. But here's the question for now:

Everyone's looking for a way to make education work. Is this model something that could be extended to other disciplines? Could we have a "School for Creative Writing at Vanderbilt"? Could dedicated Engineers create and facilitate a "School for Architectural Innovation at Vanderbilt"? What about a "School for Environmental Sociology at [plug in your own university]" or a "School for Health and Wellness Education" at [plug in your own university]"?

Is there truly a role for higher education communities to reach out to our struggling public school systems to offer innovative solutions for the terrible fix our national fascination with "accountability" has gotten us into, Ollie? My favorite quote here is, "You don't fatten the pig by weighing it."

Look no farther than the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt. Really. Now you come up with a way to extend that incredibly effective model into your own discipline.

Talk at ya soon.

Vanderbilt Web Jam!

I had the pleasure of joining several dozen other invited guests on Thursday afternoon at the Vanderbilt Center for Better Health, for episode number two in what the VU Medical Center "Web Council" is calling its "Web Jam." The CBH specializes in holding dynamic brainstorming sessions not only for Vanderbilt University groups and organizations but also for large corporations and institutions. 

The Jam was most interesting, taking place over an hour and a half of dry-erase board scrawling, face to face chats (I met a number of folks I'd only emailed in the past), and group presentation and dialog. The time went by both fast-paced and leisurely. At the end, the consensus seemed to be that there needs to be a concerted effort to standardize not only Web presence content but policies. Perhaps Thursday's meet-up will be a step in that direction!

Thanks to Melanie Moran, Vanderbilt University News Service Associate Director, and Vanderbilt Web Spiders for the invite!

Here's a couple snapshots of some of the collective brain-dump to give you an example of the yield (note the sad and lonely single notation of Second Life--wonder who put that one up?:):

Major Accounting Firm Donates Half-Million to NC State University's Second Life Efforts--Call for Suggestions!

As reported on the Carolina Newswire yesterday, "The Ernst & Young Foundation recently awarded $400,000 to the NC State College of Management to support development of a Second Life presence for the college’s Department of Accounting." An additional $100,000 was added to the grant to bring it to a cool half-million. Further, according to the article, the "combined gift of $500,000 represents the largest single gift to date to the accounting department at NC State University."

Now, this is news! I'm not alone! Others see the potential!

While that last set of comments is perhaps a bit over the top, considering the robust global community of educators in Second Life, it can feel pretty lonely for an educator who believes. Those of you who know that loneliness (weep with me here!) may also be heartened by the recent announcement of my own one hour presentation on February 20 to the faculty and staff of the Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach and the Vanderbilt School for Science and Math on the topic, "Second Life."

That's pretty open, for a topic, isn't it?

I have some pretty good notions about how I will use the hour, but I'm wondering if anyone else has had the experience of standing in front of intelligent colleagues to share the potentials of virtual environments for teaching and learning. If so, how'd it go? What do you wish you shared that you didn't? What did you share that you wish you had not? What brief engaging illustrations did you offer? How can I knock this outta the ballpark? If it were you, how would you proceed?

Please comment here or visit the presentation's wiki to provide your input! Thanks!!!

NECC2009, Here We Come!

I'll be heading to Washington DC the last week in June of next year to do some challenging work!

I received emails from the NECC2009 programs committee yesterday announcing that two of my proposals have been accepted, both for 3 hour hands-on workshops relating to Second Life. Presentation proposers--Don't panic if you haven't heard about your own proposals yet: These came early since they required a change in venue from PC to Mac labs due to NECC logistics.

Here are the titles and session descriptions:

	Introduction to Education in Second Life: n00bs UNITE!
		Session Description	Highly experienced ISTE Second Lifers will help interested but "skills-challenged" educators explore this rich virtual platform for its value in teaching and learning.

and

	Educators' Toolbox and Skill Set: Instruction and Presentation in Second Life
		Session Description	Become a skillful user of the most exciting immersive environment available. Acquire skills and tools that will serve you well in any education setting.

I'm very excited! Especially since, following the implementation design that served us so well last year at NECC2008 in San Antonio, I have enlisted seven co-presenters for the beginners' session and three for the advanced one. There's likely to be some jostling around between now and the end of June 2009, as travel plans and funding and such come into play, but between the two sessions there is an impressive group of presentation talent lined up. Of course my MUVErs partners, John Miller and Cathy Walker, will help with both. I'll announce the others just as soon as I get clear throw-in from all of them (don't want to announce prematurely).

Yippeeee! And thanks to my directors at both University School of Nashville and the Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach for ongoing support as I reach out to other educators through conference presentations and collaboration!!!

Vanderbilt Web Spiders Presentation

This morning I shared Second Life with a group of folks at Vanderbilt University called the "Web Spiders." They're interested in Web development. I got a warm reception for my contribution to their knowledge base and even received applause for my little machinima about the CSO's entry into the 3Dinternet, our new presence on Lighthouse Learning Island.

I'm adding a couple URLs that came up in discussion, ones that are not in the presentation files below:

Congressional Hearing on Virtual Worlds

A great graphic representation of commercial presences in SL (a year and a half-old, btw)

MUVErs LLC

Here's an interesting side-by-side shareout from Google Documents,



then Slideshare:

Virtual Environments for Education--Second Life

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: vanderbilt scottmerrick)

Speaking to a group of students at Peabody College Grad School--Web 2.0 for Us

Just to chronicle a diversion in my normal path in working with teachers, upon the invitation of a colleague at my school (the wonderful Genie Tanner), I stepped into "higherhigher" education Friday early evening. More or less successfully tailoring my Web 2.0 for Us evangelic message to the assembled group of 15 or so graduate students in the College of Human Development, in a class entitled "Advanced Information Systems," I struck out across the street armed with a wiki page I'd slapped together in the morning as a fulcrum. The tools I share are so dynamic and immediate in nature, somehow locking down a talk about them into a framework of sequential bullet points seems counterproductive.

I explained early on to the mostly business-centered students that I was trying to wean myself from PowerPoints. I predict that I will return to presentation software someday, but I'm not going to use it at all for a while.

See below for the simple wiki notes page I made, and the one Genie put up on their own wiki during my interaction with the students . Both of us were 'sperimenting :). Here's the interesting thing, at least to me: Compare the two and you'll see how my non-linear approach enabled me to play off questions and ad hoc insights to share more than I may have shared with a traditional PowerPointy presentation. If you are in the presentation "game," how do you pull it off? Are you grounded in PowerPoint? What else works well!?