Gearing up for artclectic 2009!

I should mention that I’m knee-deep in artclectic work as the season barrels down upon us ineluctably. From helping to maintain the artclectic website to working on emma.com mailings to snapping pictures and working the twitter and facebook feeds I’m there, sports fans.

If you’re in Nashville, or anywhere within driving distance, or anywhere within flying distance, I’m tellin’ ya, get here for the show. The USN Sperling Gymnasium becomes something in no way resembling a school gym, there are family events running virtually the entire time, and the art this year promises to be more varied and more exciting than ever before in the 13 years this unique event has taken place.

Last night, my son Colin and his friend and classmate Hope joined USN drum teacher extraordinaire Ed Haggard at Whole Foods in Green Hills to provide fun (and skilled) percussion to underscore the first public sneak peek at a few of the pieces that will be available for viewing and/or purchase from October 22-25. The show opens to the public on the 23rd after a private Patrons Party the evening of the 22nd and runs all weekend long. I’ll leave you with a link to the website where the schedule of events can be found, along with much more information, and with a little video from last night. Please check out the large comprehensive video on the website homepage as well, just put up by our media helper, Courtney Drake. It contains music by the USN HS Jazz band!

I also want to put in a word of praise for my lovely and talented wife, Lee Ann, Arts Coordinator at USN. Throughout the event and the days leading up to it, there are repeated times for all the volunteers who support the event to get praise and credit. Because she is so selfless and so proud of her people, Lee Ann rarely gets any of it, though one might easlily argue that she deserves it all. Don't think that this event would ever have grown into the one Nashville Parent Magazine calls "The Art Event of the Year" without Lee Ann Merrick's professional and careful nurturing and, most importantly, her wizardly people skills. Don't think it for a minute.

Here's the video!

NOT a Second Life!

Cross-posted from Oh!VirtualLearning!:

Facebook post yesterday morning:

Scott Merrick Still reeling from the experience of being on a virtual talk show last night. It'll be up online in a week or so at the show's site. My family watched via the stream URL at the family computer while I stumbled through what I had to say, and the Q and A at the end was the best part, IMHO. Heavy sigh! Thx to everyone who made this happen!

Heavy sigh indeed! It was fun! Most of all, it was fun being up in front of a very nice-sized audience onstage with four other dedicated educators, three of whom I already count among my real-life friends and the forth of whom I'm sure will join those ranks in a couple of weeks, as technology educators and administrators gather in Washington, D.C. for intense networking based on a shared interest in technology for education. NECC, of course, is the National Educational Computing Conference.

You can read the pre-show details now at the ISTE Eduverse Talks site, and that's precisely where the spiffed up [nods to Andrew] show will be up for viewing in about a week. I highly recommend you view it when it's there: This was a great experience, and from the comments from the audience after the cameras were shut down, it was a jewel amongst the growing library of Eduverse Talks.

One comment I made toward the very end bears repeating in print, or at least I think it does.

To paraphrase (you'll have to view the show to hear the original): "If I hear a teacher say 'I don't have time for my first life--why should I go get a Second Life?' one more time I'm going to SCREAM! It's NOT a 'second life,' ya'll, its a rich, rewarding, entertaining, fun, and professionally valid extension of my life, the only life I have, into a creative, challenging, and all-those-other-adjectives new realm." Okay, I embellished a bit, but that's the beauty of afterthought.

Spiff/Andrew also said something that sticks with me. It may be that my reaction to his comment issues from a (unintentional, I am sure) hurtful comment a colleague made a couple weeks at the Vanderbilt School for Science and Math, when I was recording material for my CSO podcast, Snacks4theBrain!. He smiled, looked away from me, and said, "I hear you have three wives in Second Life."

Well, I don't (as I replied, stifling the urge to respond more assertively). And I won't, even though, as Andrew referenced the Bible near the end of our show, "Seek and ye shall find." If you go looking for bad stuff in Second Life, it's there, though as we speak Linden Lab is making serious and controversial efforts to isolate the so-called "bad stuff." But if you gear your time and efforts to seeking creative, innovative colleagues and fun, interesting educational content, it's there, too--and in spades, as I hope this blog has been reporting since May, 2007. Isn't it exactly the same "in real life?"

So the problem, it seems, is in Linden Lab's choice for a name for their metaverse. This is no new idea. I submit, though, that the scoffers and otheres who are letting this intense and important phenomenon pass them by while they choose to spend their media time watching CSI (who did a weird and possibly off-putting episode involving Second Life) should get off their "real" backsides, turn off their TVs [hears John Prine], should simply "Get a Second Life." Remember, it's NOT a second life!

There's a link in the sidebar. Go. Look me up when you've done your assignment. I'll give you a hug. If you're already in, and you're going to NECC09, come see me in the Second Life Playground. I'll give you a hug there. I'm a big fan of hugs.

HealthCamp Nashville #hcn09

This will e ongoing all day today. Check back in for more as I view events and present a little SL thingie at 2:00 pm CDT.

Attending keynote for HealthCamp Nashville with Paul Meyer, Chariman of Voxiva, "THE POWER OF THE INTERNET, THE REACH OF THE PHONE"--got in a bit late but it's an interesting talk. His company works with with Mexico, Rwanda, Peru, and obviously quite a few oter places.

vid@net is an interactive support system for HIV/AIDS and their families

text4baby will be rolled out soon, hoping it's "the American Idol of health services." (Text BABY to 311411)

paual@voxiva.com

The US is behind in mobile health because it's the only country in the world where you actually pay to receive text messages

Telecompanies have moved toward a "toll-free" model for providers who want to provide texting to their clients/subscribers

Cites the Pew Internet and American Life Project Survey, Dec. 2007

"For minority populations the cell phone _is_ their internet.