Reflections on What Could Be Isolation, But Isn't

I'm experiencing an ongoing therapeutic program designed to promote resilience in this time of societal retreat. Thankfully, my school district is footing the bill, and I admire that in an employer. Thank you Metro Nashville Public Schools.

The online platform is called Tiatros. I haven't done my research to understand the etymology of that word, but I should. Heck, let me pop out right now...

Hmmm. Makes sense. You can read the founder's story of the digital startup for yourself. But here's a  definition, thank you Google, from Wiktionary:

Etymology

From English theatre, French théâtre, German Theater, Italian, and Spanish teatro, Russian теа́тр (teátr), from Latin theātrum, from Ancient Greek θέατρον (théatron, “a place for viewing”).
Noun
teatro (accusative singular teatron, plural teatroj, accusative plural teatrojn)

1. a building where theatrical productions are performed, theater (theatre) (building)

1. everyone related to such a building, collectively (its actors, set designers, administrators, etc.)

1. the art of theater

Derived terms

• pupteatro (“puppet show”)

• somerteatro (“an outdoor theater”)

• teatra (“theatrical”)

• teatraĵo (“a theatrical production”)

• teatrejo (“theater, playhouse”)

• teatrotajloro (“costume designer”)

See also

• kinejo (“movie theater”)

Like I say, it makes sense: Essentially, the core concept of the therapy, which includes some lecture video, some meditative audio, and some reflection in answer to questions about one's life, is that telling and sharing one's story is a healing process. I tend to agree. Anyway, I want to share one part of my story that I shared in answer to a question about a difficult effort in my life, one that has not yet been fully realized and may never be. Here it is, copied and pasted from my online response:

 I have been advocating for being "together at a distance" through virtual worlds for nearly all of the twenty-five years I have been a teaching. I had elementary school students in a space called Quest Atlantis twenty years ago, and I recognized the value of immersive synchronous learning environments so strongly that I founded ISTE's Virtual Environments Network with at its core a network of educators primarily meeting in Second Life, a massive online avatar community where I have met many thought leaders who have become cherished colleagues and friends. That work still goes on, as the PLN's mission has expanded to all digital realities. I lead a daily get-together in a range of virtual spaces as we speak, today in Engage, which offers a platform on computer but primarily on 3D goggle devices, to watch educational TEDTalks and discuss them. A handful of educators from all over the world have spent two weeks in Second Life, then two in VirBELA, then these two in Engage, experiencing being together at a distance in different ways. We'll be in AltspaceVR the next two weeks then lord knows where after that. There are over 70 virtual synchronous worlds at latest count. Maybe we'll see them all. Getting the Education mainstream to pay attention has been a challenge but  I'm still plugging away, with a little help from my friends. Yes, it's been difficult and confusing, until it's not. Google all that. It's a thing, and in this time when we should be exploring and considering new alternatives for learning, it's a powerful thing.

There. I got that off my chest. Now I'm sharing it with you, emphasis added in post-production. I just laughed a little. Stay well and safe.

EDU TEDTalk a Day!

Happy Friday, everyone, or as we now call it, "Day." In the past we might have given everyone we came upon at work that greeting, but things, as we now say, have changed. So, well, Happy Day.

For those who may be experience some disequilibrium over how to spend time during the hours previously labeled "the work day," I would like to offer a modest contribution: Every day, at the same time of the day, let's go online into a virtual space where we can be "together at a distance" and view, together, a randomly selected TEDTalk about what teaching and learning has looked like in the past, looks like now and how it might look in the future. We will start, the first week, in Second Life.

I woke up Monday, the first day of Tennessee's Safer at Home order from our state government, and what should have been the first day back to school from Spring Break, with the idea. I've been working on it ever since.

Some backstory:

Back in the first decade of the 2000s, I was teaching in the Lower School (elementary) computer lab at University School of Nashville. I also worked on Mondays at the Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach, though at first that group was called the Vanderbilt Office of Science Outreach. It was the brainchild of the brilliant Dr. Virginia Shepherd and USN was kind enough to release me from my teaching schedule each Monday to work with the CSO in the role of Teacher-in-Residence.

I was meeting my new colleagues at Vanderbilt, my first day of work in that new job, when one of us got a call that America had been attacked on 9/11. During the 8 years I worked in that role at Vanderbilt, I focused on helping schools utilize the thirty or so videoconferencing codecs we had already placed in public schools, working closely with Vanderbilt Virtual School's Jan Zanetis. This was before the days of desktop videoconferencing and that help was needed. During the course of time I created a podcast that brought interviews with working scientists, computer tips, and independent music to the world--early "edutainment"-- which I called "Snacks For the Brain!" Its 84 episodes are archived at the Vanderbilt library's online repository. Have a listen to one produced near the end of those, featuring Dr. William Schafner with some timely info on viruses:

Those were some times.

Another project toward the end of those days was one I called "CSO TalkTalks." I set up a CSO space in 2nd Life and used my Second Life blog "Oh, Virtual Learning," to promote and set up each ~monthly event to vote on one of four proposed TEDTalks then watch it in that space together. It proved to be very fun and a way educator/learners could spend some quality time discussing the talks' content in text chat while the videos were going on. It had a kind of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" vibe because "talking" during the video was highly encouraged--in fact, it was key to the experience.

from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_Science_Theater_3000

Note: it's actually Saturday, though I've been writing this early morning and the fact that I started doing so simply underscores the depth of my own schedule disequilibrium, hahahaha.

But I digress, LOL. Beginning next week, on Monday, March 31, at 10am US Central Daylight Savings Time, we will begin ISTE Virtual Environment Networks "Mystery Education Theater." We will do so daily, Monday through Friday. All the info is here. It will go a bit like the venerable CSO TalkTalks with some variations, but in addition to getting all of us together in a virtual platform (a different one every week until we run out of them and cycle back through), it will help us focus, daily, on how prominent minds have mused upon the broad topic of Education and what we think about what they have shared.

In the planning for this free Professional Development, we at ISTE VEN have developed a randomizing tool I often use in the classroom. One of the fabulous free-to-teachers online tools available at classtools.net, you can find it for your own use, should you be unable to join us at the daily appointed time, to pick your own video(s) to watch at a time that you schedule daily to do so. There. That's my free offering to you for your daily schedule.

Pick a different TEDTalk about Education every day!

You're welcome. Join us if you can.

ISTE 2017--1

Typed in the wee hours of Sunday night, June 26th:
A great start to ISTE 2017.  Andy and I hit the road early after a very good hotel breakfast, he off to TeachMeet, an unconference-like all-morning and most-afternoon event which he raved about, and I plopped myself into a comfy chair in the PLN lounge after checking out our presentation spaces, which include Playground C in the Park View Lobby and room 301A nearby. The former will host the Virtual Environments and Games & Simulations Networks' amazing 2017 Playground and the latter is the location of Tuesday night's Edumachinema Festival. I zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Okay. I just wanted to share my z story. After Sunday, when we carried off a really excellent meet and greet at the ISTE PLN Networking Fair then caught a fantastic keynote by NPR's "Radiolab" series host Jad Abumrad, we hiked down to San Antonio's Yard House Yard Housefor dinner with Barbara, David, and Mary. Then after dinner I headed back to the hotel, and Andy walked to Pat O'Brian's to meet some of his NY friends and colleagues.

I was bushed so I sat up in the bed with my laptop in my lap to start this blog post. Andy got back into the room and quickly hit the sack in the next bed. After typing the "I" up above, I must have konked out. Andy said he awoke in the middle of the night and thought I was still awake, with my hand on the keyboard and the tv still on.

Here's the thing. When the alarm went off at 5:30 for us to get ambulatory and go down to work out in the hotel fitness room, I discovered my blog post and it was FILLED with z's. I kid you not, the tab bar on the side of the edit post was a tiny sliver. I had been typing z's all frickin' night long! I wonder how many I typed before blogger simply said "enough" and locked up the browser. It was an appropriate letter, though, don'tcha think?

I'm preparing to do some more reflection on ISTE17 soon, but I wanted to get this down! If you want a taste of the conference, check out the hour + Periscope of our Network's Playground on Tuesday.

For me, I'm fishing at my brother's lakehouse in Montgomery, Texas for a few days before heading back home. I was up this morning and out on his boat dock and I've already clocked 4 catfish, one big enough to put on a stringer to be joined by his pals later in the day and filleted and fried later in the week.

I'll be doing my post-ISTE17 reflections here during the stiflingly hot hours of the mid-days coming up. For now...

Exhibit 1, the first fish this mornin':

And the early morning pano:

Wainhouse Research Virtual EDU Summit: Innovations & Interactivity in the Collaborative Classroom

Hello? Do you have your online calendar handy? Quick! Add a notation to attend this free online Professional Development opportunity November 12!

Modified from http://engage.vevent.com/index.jsp?eid=1996&seid=459&language-code=en&country-code=US&page=10000&no-login=false&clearSession=true

From the organizers:
  
The Wainhouse Research Virtual EDU Summit will be an engaging online event for educators, trainers and technologists who seek to implement collaborative tools and interactive services to enhance education environments. Our goal with the Virtual EDU Summit is to foster greater understanding of the technologies and solutions that are transforming today’s classroom and help educators and students to work, team, meet and learn in real-time, on demand, and over distance.

Make plans to attend the Virtual EDU Summit, where we will focus on the rapidly evolving set of technologies – from Learning Management Systems and web collaboration to video conferencing and lecture capture – and how the implementation of these capabilities can enhance the learning experience. From flipped classrooms to Massive Open Online Courses, from user-generated content to personal learning networks, we’ll hear from a variety of experts familiar with the revolution in education and training.

Join us for presentations featuring Wainhouse Research, WCET, GCI SchoolAccess, the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration, and others in an online venue designed to foster live interactions and Q&A opportunities.

Review the agenda to identify key presentations made available on the day of this virtual event and prepare to explore the virtual hall to engage with other show attendees and to learn about innovative technologies from leading vendors.

Virtual Event Details:

Media Partner: AV Technology Magazine; EDUwire

Admission to Attend: Free

Sponsorship Fee: $1,500

Sponsorship Benefits: Virtual Booth Presence, Access to Attendee Registrations Generated by Wainhouse Research and summit media partners

Expected Registration: 300-400

Sponsors: InterCall, PGi, BlueJeans Network, Kontiki, Wainhouse Research, AVTech Magazine

Registration Page: http://engage.vevent.com/rt/uccsummit~edu

Live event date: November 12, 2013 1-5 EST

ITEC in October Looks Promising

Here's something to blog about--old friend Leigh Zeitz emailed me the other day and invited me to share in a remote session at the Iowa Technology & Education Conference in October. I'll do so.

This "flipped" conference is built upon educational videos which are watched onsite and then augmented by a Skype or other technology-supported videoconferencing platform visit by the video's creator. For my session they selected my K12 Online Conference piece from last November. This prompted me to go back and revisit it and, what do you know, it's pretty interesting.

I've been pretty much removed from 3-D synchronous learning environments for the past year or more as my "real-life" work has captured my passion and focus, such as it is (that's a little joke for those who know me and my sometimes scattered attention span). I've been too busy with that to even propose a topic for this year's K12 Online Conference, which I see will be Keynoted by one of my very favorite Professional Learning Networkers, Shannon Miller. Sheesh, another online event for my calendar, albeit a distinctly necessary one.

In preparation for this session I plan to do some update research, so do stay tuned for that. Meanwhile, if you missed it, you can take that 20 minutes and catch the original here:



I for one am looking forward to ITEC, and to catching as much of the conference as possible, with luminaries and PLN colleagues Jeff Utecht and Kathy Schrock amongst the speakers. I'd actually love to get up to Iowa, but I can't see pulling away from the important work I'm doing at MNPS Virtual School to do so.

Thanks, Leigh and ITEC, for the invite, and I'll be there virtually and promptly!

Reposting Again, Another Opportunity to Share

I consider David Warlick a friend. Back in 2007 I was teaching a week of Web 2.0 exploration to a group of teachers and David spent an hour of his time chatting with us, an hour borne of our acquaintance through ISTE and subsequent conversations about education. A resulting artifact was podcast number 59 of my "Snacks4theBrain!" series, an interview, music show I produced back then for the Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach. You can read (and listen) all about that at the Snacks4theBrain! podcast website. 

Zoom to present day, where you are encouraged to add to your calendar David's live share, detailed below, this Wednesday night via the K12 Online Conference. I regret to admit that I haven't participated at all in this annual event, but only because my personal and professional life has been so busy. Perhaps I'll see you in one or another event this week, or perhaps I'll see you at David's live post-conference keynote. I hope so.

Via email this morning:

Subject: Post-Conference Keynote Presenter Live 

Fireside Chat with David Warlick

A message to all members of K12 Online Conference

Hello everyone! I wanted to invite you to continue to view the 2010 K12 Online Conference presentations including the post conference keynote presentation by David Warlick - 'A Gardener's Approach to Learning'. The culminating live event of the K12 Online Conference will this Wednesday, November 10th at 7pmEST/11pm GMT.The session will be in Elluminate and accessible via either of the following links: Date: November 10, 2010 Time: 7pm EST/12am (next day) GMT Short URL: http://moourl.com/k12online10__ Full link:  https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2008350&password=M.BCB4DFE87DA4243B4040ACD3044AF9__ Mark your calendars with this event and stay tuned for more details with invitations to participate in the live Echo sessions held at EdTechTalk throughout the remainder of 2010 and 2011. The Live Events committee will continue to share details and additional live events after the 2010 conference and before the 2011 conference. The 2010 K12 Online Conference has been a fantastic two weeks with amazing videos from presenters around the world. The Live Events Committee hosted several events throughout the conference and will continue into the new year. We hope to cross paths at the Global Education Conference hosted by Steve Hargadon and Lucy Gray. Many of the current and past K12 Online Conference presenters will again share the wealth of their knowledge throughout the five days the Global Education Conference will be held. Be sure to check the schedule and support conference presenters by attending, engaging or volunteering to assist with conference sessions at the #globaledcon10 website. Have a great week, Kim Caise K12 Online Organizer Team

Visit K12 Online Conference at: http://k12online.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

USN Summer Camp Offering for Educators!

My school, University School of Nashville, offers a number of summer opportunities each year. The building some weeks seems even busier than it is in the school year. This coming summer, I'll be offering a week-long, half-day experience for teachers to give them the opportunity to explore social media and Web 2.0 tools under the guidance of moi and in the company of like-minded pioneers. You can find the description here and register for the workshop at the USN Summer Camps website, and you can investigate a bit more about the content matter at my "Web2.0forUS!" wiki. The week is limited to 16 attendees, and we expect seats to go quickly, so register soon!

The path to register is a bit long and circuitous, set up as it is mostly for children's summer camp opportunities, but I hope the following directions will help:

1. Visit the Summer Camps website
2. Click on Register Now
3. Select Adult from the pull-down menu
4. Scroll down and check the box for Social Media and Web2.0 for Educators!
5. Create an account as a Non-USN StudentFollow the prompts to select payment options and register!
6. If all this is too daunting, email me at smerrick@email.usn.org with the subject header, "I want to learn Web2.0 this summer!"
   
   

07/19/2010 - 07/23/2010$225

Adults 18 and up

Social Media and Web2.0 for Educators!

1. Instructor: Scott Merrick
   8:30 - 12:00
   
   Come spend a week of half-days with Scott Merrick, University School of Nashville's Lower School Technology Coordinator for 11 years and ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Core Volunteer Leader. We'll get hands-on experience with social media of all kinds every day and explore the life-long learning potentials that these offer the tech-savvy educator. Scott will guide you through the intricacies of social bookmarking, media sharing, blogging, and podcasting. You will leave the workshop with your very own Professional Learning Network jump-started and energized for the future, wondering why you didn't get started with it sooner but glad that it's underway.
   
   See you in the summer!

Advance Announcement: Social Media and Web2.0 for Educators!

This will go out officially around Jan. 1, but I wanted to make the announcement here immediately, especially since it has a cap of 16 on the signup!

My school, University School of Nashville, offers summer camps and workshops for both students and adults all summer long under the auspices of a robust program under the direction of the capable Mr. John Kleiner. Just this morning I received copy to proof for the summer brochure, and I want to share it with you. More information about application process will be available soon. Meanwhile, if you want to go on a wait list for first shot at application, feel free to email me at smerrick@email.usn.org with your contact information (include Summer Social Media and Web2.0 for Educators! in your subject header) and I'll see that that happens. It may be the cheapest (and most fun) date of your summer!

Social Media and Web2.0 for Educators!

• Instructor: Scott Merrick
• Week - July 19 - 23, 2010
• 8:30 - 12
• Adults 18 and up
• Come spend a week of half-days with Scott Merrick, University School of Nashville's Lower School Technology Coordinator for 11 years and ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Core Volunteer Leader. Sessions will run 8:30 to 12, M-F and will take place in the Lower School computer lab. We'll get hands-on experience with social media of all kinds every day and explore the life-long learning potentials that these offer the tech-savvy educator. Scott has years of experience with social media and virtual environments and has led workshops for ISTE (see http://iste.org), for the Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach, and for USN over the past decade--most notably his "Web 2.0 for US" series (see http://scottweb20.wikispaces.com) and the Second Life Playground at NECC2009 in Washington, D.C. His professional portfolio is online at http://www.interfolio.com/portfolio/scottmerrick/. Scott will bring his extensive learning network into the workshop, including Classroom2.0, Twitter, Facebook, and ISTE's SIGVirtual Environments. He'll guide you through the intricacies of social bookmarking, media sharing, blogging and podcasting. You will leave the workshop with your very own Professional Learning Network jump-started and energized for the future, wondering why you didn't get started with it sooner, but glad that it's underway!
• Requirements: An inquisitive spirit, an open mind, and a sharing disposition.
• Cost: $225.00
• Limit: 16
  
  

Right-Brain Ahoy

Last night, thanks to my lovely wife Lee Ann's mindful oversight of the arts programs at my school, with an eye toward faculty professional development and our school's commitment to balance in life, I participated in "Painting Made Easy," a two hour one-off workshop led by Whitney Ferre'. Whitney is the founder of Nashville's Creative Fitness Center and co-owner of Rumours Wine Bar. Thanks again to Lee Ann (the brains and powerhouse behind my school's annual art show, artclectic), I joined another faculty colleague, kindergarten teacher Jason Hooper, in the learning experience. It was fascinating, enjoyable, and most of all, relaxing.

I walked from the workshop with a 12x14 canvas, its thickly applied acrylic paint still drying (especially on the trees, perhaps a bit overworked but finally completed to my moderate satisfaction). Here's a photo of my masterpiece:

Whitney's philosophy of creativity and its role in the balance of life is expressed, quite eloquently, in her new book, The Artist Within: A Guide to Becoming Creatively Fit.

In the course of my little reaquaintance with how much fun it can be to push and pull paint around the surface of a stretched canvas, I learned that Whitney is a blogger. Her website at creativelyfit.com features blogposts from January of this year (welcome aboard, fellow blogger!), and they are looooong and innnnnnteresting! Anyone interested in balance in life should take a visit to her collection of insights and news centered around the "art" of art. As for me, I plan to read them while on my step-machine surfing on wireless-connected laptop, and I also plan to pick up some small canvases and to continue to take little relaxation vacations on a more regular basis! Thanks, Whitney!

Summercore for a Summer Learning Experience!

I'm copying here an email announcement from old friend Steve Bergen, Chief Information Officer at the Harlem Storefront School in New York. From experience, both my Tech Director Wiz (Kathy Weiczerza) and I can testify, from direct experience, that this four day multi-band educational technology experience (now offered in the Northeast and in Florida!) will leave you with great ideas and powerful learning experiences that will make your teaching easier, more fun, and immeasurably more effective. Steve Bergen is a pioneer still pioneering! Need a ProfDev experience this summer? Just DO IT!

Scott

http://scottmerrick.net
----- Original Message -----
*** do NOT reply to this email ***
*** instead use sb@cstorefront.org ***
good morning everyone
1) we are returning to Horace Mann School for the 3rd consecutive
year July 13-17, 2009 for a Summercore open to everyone
2) we are returning to Shorecrest Preparatory School in Florida for the
8th consecutive year July 27-31, 2009 for a Summercore open to everyone
3) please spread the word to other teachers and administrators at your school; registration info posted on http://www.summercore.com thanks so much ... I hope each of you is doing well and look forward to hearing from you if you have time to write ...
Steve
p.s. at my school -- The Children's Storefront -- in Harlem, we have started a "penny drive" with the goal of collecting 1 million and then 1 billion pennies in case you might want to support us or partner with us ... pictures and "penny problems for kids" are posted at http://www.cstorefront.org/pennies ... we were featured on New York
channel NY1 the other day and you can see the videos of me on that web page ... CBS World News is coming out TOMORROW to film us ... we think we might be on television on Sunday 3/15 right before 60 minutes (not really sure) ... Lynne made me buy a new sweater for the occasion ;-)
***
do NOT reply to this email ***
*** instead use sb@cstorefront.org
***
Steve Bergen ... primary e-mail is now sb@cstorefront.org
CIO and Computer Teacher, The Children's Storefront
70 East 129th Street, New York, NY 10035
An Independent School in Harlem
Web site:
http://www.thechildrensstorefront.org
Tech Saturday Info is posted at http://www.techsaturdays.org
Penny info is posted at http://www.cstorefront.org/pennies
also co-director, The "Summercore" Teaching Company
until the Pats go 19-0 ...
http://www.summercore.com

Summercore 2009 includes:

• June 15-19 at Castilleja
• June 21-26 at New Canaan Country School
• July 6-10 at Berkeley Carroll
• July 13-17 at Horace Mann, NY as well as
• July 27-31 at Shorecrest in St. Petersburg, FL (open to public)

We're Scheduled for NECC 2009!!!

Just checked my presenter's login page and our two workshops at NECC2009 are now scheduled!

These are both fee-required 3 hour workshops, one for "n00bs" and one for "experienced users only" and they're limited to 30 participants each, so hurry on out there and get registered for the conference then get your housing (filling up fast!) and sometime in mid-February, when the workshop program is announced, go back online and get registered for the workshop that fits your needs! I'll remind you here once the schedule is public!

Here's the skimmy:

TA405 Introduction to Education in Second Life: n00bs UNITE! [Workshop : Hands-on] (43604107) Scheduled: Tuesday, 6/30/2009, 8:30am–11:30am
Co-presenters Cathy Walker, John Miller, Lisa Linn, Peggy (Norton) Sheehy, Jane Wilde, and Jeff Agamenoni

and

WA507 Educators' Toolbox and Skill Set: Instruction and Presentation in Second Life [Workshop : Hands-on] (43605147) Scheduled: Wednesday, 7/1/2009, 8:30am–11:30am
Co-presenters Cathy Walker, John Miller, and Marianne Malmstrom

Yay!!!

Social Networking and Education--and book review

I just posted a long book review I think belongs only at my Second Life blog but thought some might want to see it there.

And Andy Carvin just tweeted a new blog post, this one an embedded slideshow from his Social networking and Education talk at the University of Maryland/Baltimore's School of Networking. Hey, why doesn't Vanderbilt have a "School of Networking!?" One critical element of his show is a slide called "Overcoming Fear," which references the Byron Review, a good resource to know about.

Here's the slideshow:

| View | Upload your own

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!?

Snacks4theBrain! is up!

Wow, I spent much of the last two days, when not relaxing with my family, painting doors for our house, or watching DVDs with my wife, putting together Snacks4theBrain! episode number 69, a nifty little number with music from friend Ross Falzone and Rocky Alvey and a very fascinating interview with the Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach's Dr. Jennifer Ufnar. Go listen.

NCLB Rant!

No, it's not me: it's our boy Wes Fryer launching off on a grade-A-number-1 rant after the State of the Union address. Wes, an educational advocate I admire and follow, wonders how many of our elected politicians actually send their children to the public schools they've subjected to NCLB...:

"Would those parents and grandparents (our elected officials) want to send their own offspring to schools where recess has been cancelled after second grade, because there is no time for recess amidst the constant environment of test preparation? Do our elected representatives send their own precious children and grandchildren into classrooms where students have been normatively valued predominantly by the test scores which they can or cannot produce for the school’s aggregate statistical rating, rather than for the ideas and unique contributions which they can and want to make to their communities? We are living in an increasingly immoral educational and political culture, and the assumptions which are presented as "facts" by our political leaders regarding a "quality education" should both offend and enrage our population."

(Fanning myself.) That's only part of what Wesley Fryer has to say. Is it that those of us in the discussion fall out into either the affective or the effective camps? The effective being those who seek to quantify what is essentially qualitative? Sheesh, it's all too much for me, but go read Wes's thoughts, and weigh in, at the Moving at the Speed of Creativity blog.

It's Not Too Early to Think About Summer!

Cold and damp as it is in Nashville this mornin', I'm hoping that some portion of my 5 readers (just kidding--see the Clustrmap in the sidebar!) may be thinking about summer :)

I am offering four one-week workshops this summer, all of which are detailed in the "Web 2.0 for Us" wiki and three of which are still available for booking at your school. At the wiki, I describe the workshops pretty completely, so I won't repeat myself here. Isn't that refreshing?

Cheers!

Scott

Online Photo Sharing in Plain English

This is no scoop--it's been blogged about several times already since its release yesterday, but I want to include it here partly as a reference for myself and partly as a reminder to add it to my reservoir of resources for a summer teacher workshop I'm offering for the upcoming summer. More about that later, but if you want to see where my mind (and my summer) is headed, visit the Scottweb2.0 wiki at http://scottweb20.wikispaces.com.

The folks at Commoncraft, already to be thanked for video releases on topics like social networking, wikis, blogs, and rss feeds, have done it again; they've made a tidy little animated video about a Web 2.0 tool and released it several places so that it can provide learning in a very viral way. I'm about to infect you :) From TeacherTube:

The "Big Conversation"

I thunk anyone interested in what I thunk might be interested in this, the first draft for an Enrichment Team newsletter I drafted tonight. I rewrote it for submission (interesting term) to my administration, then more or less completely rewrote it before I sent it off. But this forum is larger and I have faith it can absorb the first draft. Interestingly enough, or not, the print newsletter-posted article may lead people here. Ah what a tangled internet we weave! Here goes...


The "Big Discussion"
by Scott Merrick, Lower School Technology Coordinator

Those parents who may not be aware of the USN Lower School Technology for Learning webpage might add this resource to your set of tools to keep in touch with what’s going on with your child’s education: http://usnlstech.blogspot.com/. I have a serious interest in keeping up with the "Big Conversation" about what is needed to prepare our children for the world they will inherit from us. My developing knowledge about this conversation informs what is brought to the curriculum in our computer lab. It’s kind of a loop, actually, assuming one can stand back and look at it that way. Much of the larger conversation I keep track of and participate in through my main personal/professional blog at http://scottmerrick.net/. Here’s a picture of the "Clustrmap" that notes the global locations of people who have read that blog since just since April 2007:



In an era when lots of energy in the public schools seems to be going into, as Jeff Uctech notes, preparing our children to be experts in filling in circles with number two pencils, I believe we teachers need to be skating on the outskirts of perception and collaboration. Uchtech elaborates, "Standardized tests don’t allow a teacher to walk on the side of chaos in fear that what they might teach, what may be a different way of learning, will not be acceptable when filling in circles." http://www.thethinkingstick.com/?p=500

Our children’s lives when they are adults will be far different from ours, of that there is no doubt. Assuming that we are, as we like to think we are doing, educating the future leaders of our society, the future architects of our culture, I believe we owe it to them (and to those they will lead and for whom they will design) to expose them to the amazing colaborative tools that are being developed at such a rapid pace that no one can really keep up with all of them. They really need to "learn how to learn," because we do not know the facts they’ll need. We can’t.

That’s why what Chris Dede (along with others) calls "distributed knowledge" may be the key concept our students will need to grasp and embrace if they are to lead in a future we cannot even imagine. Long ago, to paraphrase David Warlick, our great-grandparents needed to memorize everything in order to access it, or to have it on the shelf in their library. If it was not in a book they had read and had purchased, information really wasn’t of much use. An expert on any topic might be three days’ communication time away from them. Today, because of email and Web 2.0 (anyone else using twitter.com?) an expert’s response may be only seconds away. You no longer need to "know" all the facts: You do need to know how to 1) find the facts, 2) discriminate between valuable, authoritative, and valid facts and those that are insubstantial or unreliable, and 3) be able to assimilate valid information into a useful format for whatever task you need it for.

Seems simple. It’s not. Many educators are just starting to sort it out. In the course of that, many of us are teaching on a day-to-day basis and trying to make sure that we’re doing the best we can. Be patient with us. Support us. And trust that we care and that we will proceed with both caution and informed instincts.

Google Apps for Your Domain

My son, a 6th grade student at a progressive independent school at which I happen to teach, cratered tonight about the fact that he hasn't been allowed access (by his team members) to what should be a group-collaborated Powerpoint for a Social Studies project, and he's worried about his grade for participation--the assignment is due Friday. Early on, I suggested the three 11 year-olds use Google Presentation for the task, but the teacher said no.

There are so many things wrong with the above sentence, I won't even begin to rant: I've already ranted once today. But consider this, Google Apps for Your Domain in Education, capably and appropriately blogged by good ol' Chris at the infinitethinkingmachine. I want to say, "WTF," but the "W" is not "What" but, more to the point, "Why?"

This post is also a bit of an experiment. Check my Clustrmap in the right-hand column. There seems to be a lot of verified interest in this blog. Are my colleagues reading it? If you're a colleague of mine, please comment here. Hmmmmmm... If you're a teacher who cares about the future of our children and whether or not they'll be ready for it, please comment here. If you're a parent who is wondering about my sanity, please comment here.

I'll take a "Yo." More, if you have the time...

NYSACTE Video from Brian C. Smith

Here's a video from Darren Draper, a colleague of Brian C. Smith, who posted it at the NYSACTE ning.com site. The piece compiles a whole lot of current thought about education into an enjoyable, thought provoking set of comments and questions. It's resident on Brian's NYSACTE (New York State Association for Computers and Technologies in Education) conference ning. See what I mean: