Things are Heating Up for the Summer

I recently added a "Scott Merrick in Second Life" blog, just what I need, another blog to keep up with. But I feel it's important to parse off my interest in what's going on in Second Life from what's going on "irl" (in real life). Seriously, I think I need to find some new organizational software/program to help me prioritize everything I'm interested in--family, both my paying jobs, learning about teaching, teaching about learning, teaching, my NECC podcasting presentation, the new Computer Sciences department that is forming at my school, interactive videoconferencing, my summer workshop design and implementation (more on that later), distance learning, listening to music, playing music, reading, writing, and more: and that's just in my first life!

So visit the SL blog for what's going on there--there's a lot happening at NECC2007 in both first life and second. I'll keep track of each at its appropriate blog. Sheesh!

Impeach Cheney

Get this Action Button

Okay, that's enough. Impeaching our megalomaniacal president without first impeaching Dick Cheney would be foolhardy. I've added a button on the bottom sidebar to let you vote yes or no on the issue yourself. Please do so, whatever you believe. It can't hurt. It might help.

Listening to Al Gore's no-holds-barred The Assault on Reason (from audible.com) has convinced me to get up off my virtual backside and take this small action. My blog will not become a political one, but I can no longer just do nothing. I firmly believe that 19 more months of our being "led" by a president about whom history will indubitably describe as having done more damage to our country than any of our enemies combined--well, that's unacceptable.

From Assault: "The damage to be undone is vast, but the cost of continuing to perpetuate that damage is, literally, incalculable."

Button's at the bottom of the right hand sidebar or just click here.

Tennessee Distance Learning Association Redo Redeaux

Had a fascinating meeting with some wonderful folks working to get the TNDLA up and running. This is something we reeeeeeeally need in Tennessee, and something a small cadre of dedicated ppl have been working for on and off for five years or so. See the wiki at http://tndla.wikispaces.com and join up!

Mark Arildsen Takes 3rd Place in National Geographic Bee!

Just had to share: USN 7th grader Mark Arildsen Takes 3rd Place in National Geographic Bee! You can view video from the May 23 event, including the final tie-breaking round that brought Mark his final placement, including a $10,000 check for his college savings, here. Congratulations to Mark and his parents, as well as to all the teachers who have helped him learn enough to achieve this high honor (and, most of all, who have helped him to love learning).

Second Life NECC Birds of a Feather Session!

It's official, in addition to presenting a workshop session on podcasting with Windows tools, I'll be moderating a "Birds of a Feather" session called "Virtual Worlds and Second Life" at the National Educational Computing Conference, NECC, held annually by the International Society for Technology in Education, ISTE--this year June 24-27 in Atlanta, Georgia.

"Birds" sessions are not workshops, and they're not presentations. They are a forum for individuals of like interests to gather and meet, and they can be very valuable for personal and professional networking.

Here's the text of the session descripion from the official ISTE wiki:

Virtual Worlds & Second Life
Date: Monday, June 25, 2007
Time: 4:45–6:15 pm
Room: TBD
Moderators: Scott Merrick, Jeremy Koester (Virtually)

This session will gather together educators and technologists at NECC who are interested in exploring the potential of virtual worlds to enhance and enrich the learning experience for our students and our teachers. The focus is on learning. The guiding question may be "is Second Life a 'game' or is it something more?" See how the online group "GaLiSL," Gaming and Learning in Secondlife, is working to promote these kinds of futuristic atmospheres that are engaging, immersive, properly designed and have sound curriculum. GaLiSL will be represented by co-moderator Jeremy Koester, present "inworld" but geographically located in the "real world" in San Antonio, Texas.

Pop into a Second Life sim (to be determined) or into the (also TBD) room in Atlanta to take part in a discussion about how 3D Virtual Worlds can be used to merge the "global" and the "local." By actually utilizing Second Life during the Birds-of-a-feather session we'll be able to bring in anyone from around the world who can contribute to or learn from the conversation.

Can't walk another step? Download Second Life from **http://secondlife.com** and create your free avatar, then search ISTE from within Second Life and join us from your hotel room or your First Life :) home anywhere in the world! Hint: A little exploration before the session would help you maximize your experience! See you (or your avatar!) there. Look for "Scottmerrick Oh" and "Jeremy Braver" inworld to learn more!

And here's a list of all the Birds of a Feather sessions!
Administrators
Change Process
Creating Global Projects
Data Driven Decision Making
Digital Portfolios for K-12
E-Learning
Games and Simulations
Interactive Whiteboards
Moodle
Open Source
Open Source, Free or Low-cost Software & Web 2.0
Podcasting
Professional Development
Project-Based Learning
School News Shows
Scientifically-Based Research Certification
Tablet PCs
Technology Integration
Virtual Worlds & Second Life
WebQuests

Tennessee Women's All-State Honor Choir

Hey, my lovely daughter Miranda was selected to work with and perform with this year's TN All-State Honor Choir and we went down to the fabulous Schermerhorn Symphony Center yesterday morning to hear those amazing talents perform. The songs they learned in two days of hard work and then performed incredibly solidly can be found here. I've got a little 2-something minute snippet of sound here for you to get a notion of how stellar that performance was (just a sample from my camera--don't want to get in trouble with the copyright police!), and you can order the CD and/or DVD recordings of the event if you'd like one--it was as professional a performance as I've ever seen, and all from high school students...

All in the public service of course. No bragging intended :).

Prom Pic :)

Eidam's Spring Fling 2007

A lovely day out at the Blue Moon Farm B&B, at the invitation of its owners and proprieters, the Eidams, for their annual get-together of their three children's classmates. The party was perhaps bigger than in previous years, and the weather was perfect. I couldn't help but take some texture pics--maybe they'll make nice desktop wallpapers. Such a beautiful place; such a wonderful day.

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DisneyWorld SpringBreak!

The BubbleShare slideshow at the foot of this posting will grow :). After two days driving the 12 hours to get here, we muscled our stuff into our lovely All Star Resorts domicile for the week and pushed on out into the Disney MGM Studios park to take on the infamous Tower of Terror. Colin: "That was totally awesome but I NEVER want to do it again!"

Heheheheee.

We had a lovely meal at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theatre and made it back "home" to the hotel via a wild bus ride with an insane driver who led out-of-key singalongs of Disney songs. Just how many keys can "It's a Small World" bear all at once!?

Day 2, Monday, Colin and I took off for Epcot and enjoyed Mission Space together, wandered around Epcot in the Innoventions center, then decided that Test Trak looked a bit too much for our courage level, jumping on a bus over to Animal Kingdom where we ate lunch at the Restaurantosaurus (a glorified and very bizzy McDonalds, albeit with better burgers) and Miranda joined us to do Everest, the insane mountaintop rollercoaster. After we survived that we hopped on over to Magic Kingdom where we did Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Thunder Mountain Railroad. We wandered around in the course of those and caught the parade and the spectacular fireworks, then headed home for a late dinner (11:00!) and bed.

Day 3 we got up and grabbed MickyWaffles to go and drove the 35 miles up to visit my mom in Lake Mary Nursing Home. It was a great, relaxed visit, and we took her the DisneyWorld throw we had bought for her. It'll keep her warm out on the patio on these cool mornings. We trucked out at lunchtime to pick up a Krystal burger for her and surprised her with a Starbucks Double Chocolate Chip frappacino. Drove home in the rain, took a break with Colin in the arcade and Miranda and I hanging out in the room vegging on tv (the rain was good to us, made us relax--I actually love rain, especially in the middle of a busy day!), changed clothes, then headed off to MGM where Colin and I did Star Tours while Miranda shopped, then we took in Drew Carey's funny radio show "Sounds Dangerous" and did an extended bus hop to Disney Downtown for dinner. All the restaurants were on 1 hour waits (at 9:00 pm!) so we, ravished, took in a really great light dinner at Earl of Sandwich, then Colin had to spend some time at the Lego Store (see pics) before we headed home, again late, for bed.
Day 4 we were off to Magic Kingdom after sleeping late. This is the first day we used FastPasses and, wow, the FastPass is da bomb! We nabbed one for the 3:40 Space Mountain then grabbed another at 2 for the 2:40 Spash Mountain. We ate nearby, killed a little time with Miranda shopping (great blue sundress!) while Colin and I took in Pirates of the Caribbean. Fantastic pic in the slideshow of C-man with Cap'n Jack Sparrow. The kids played checkers at a sidewalk pickle barrel then we walked up the FastPass lane to Spash Mountain, which was a blast, then made our way to Space Mountain. With the FastPasses our wait time was 9 minutes (as opposed to the curren 50 for walk-ons-see the two line pics for a notion of the incredibly long line for that wait, winding around a good acre of property in snakey switchbacks) and 4 minutes (as opposed to what had to be over an hour for the poor masses). Well, to be truthful, we waited that way for 50 minutes our first time at Space Mountain, but I have to say the short wait on our Day 4 was glorious. Again, we screamed like little girls!!!

Day 5 We got up early for another visit with Granny and then came back down for a wild aternoon at Animal Kingdom. Last night we vegged out with tv and planned to retire early after order-in pizza (really goooood pizza, really!) and wings. The kids did some non-stop Disney Channel during dinner, then early to bed. Our visit with Granny was great and she loved hearing the CD of Miranda's singing that I made for her to play on her new CD player. She tried to make me take the player home but I told her that I wanted to be able to send her new recordings. The 4 lovely ladies in the courtyard sitting area applauded after every song. Colin's going to be doing some recording, I'm working on some instrumental stuff with mandolin and guitar, and Miranda will be recorded every chance I can get. Now we can send her music as we make it.

Once back at the hotel, we set off for Animal Kingdom where we discovered the park was closing in two hours this night. We marched straight to Kali River Rapids and did it once, getting soaked. Since we were soaked we did it again. And again. Off to Everest where the wait was short too so up (and dooooooown) we went. Colin was laughing so hard at the end of it we had to turn around and do that again, too! Finally, we trekked off to Dinosaur, the indoor scariness of scarinesses. I lovvved that one! The pic they took at the crucial moment the giant TRex appeared to eat us showed 1) Miranda ducking down so you could only see the top of her head, 2) Colin nowhere to be seen, he was ducking down so far, and 3) me, eyes and mouth wide open staring at the sucker. We didn't buy it, but I will remember it!

Back to the hotel to eat in-room salads and sandwiches, then back out to Magic Kingdom again for a last assault on the park.

Later, and finally:

Well that's it. The last pic in the slideshow says it all. After 3 Kali River Rapids, 2 Everests, 3 Spash Mountains, 1 Dinosaur, 1 Primeval Somethingorother, and 1 Thunder River Railroad, we're outta here. On the way in for all that we stopped and had our breath taken away by the spectacular fireworks from the top of Main Street. I got video. Here it is!

Think good thoughts for us as we pack up our pit of a room into our van and make our way back north to our much-loved home and our much-loved Lee Ann.

Cheerio!

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Panel Discussion Monday, March 5

The USN Lower School Technology blog has complete information on a class I'm helping facilitate this coming Monday. If you're in the Nashville area you're more than welcome to come participate in this panel discussion about our children and the Internet. See that post for the skimmy.

Cheers,
Scott

Furniture for Sale -- Nashville, TN

Hey, all,

Needed a place to post a little .wmv movie of items for sale at our new home. Here it is.