Grades and...

Okay. I'm a parent who has two high school graduated children. One is a college graduate and who knows if the younger will ever get to that thang.

With both of these kids, we have been unconventional parents, or at least so I think.We encouraged them to pursue their passions, to explore the arts, and we did not ride them or micromanage their grades or their academic performance. My dear wife and I are not academic people; or rather, a part of me is but it's not a major part.

We set them free in many ways. They might argue that, but when our daughter went to college she was the one in charge. She figured out her path, made decisions about changing it, and did so with our support and blessing.

When our son entered his Freshman year at a Nashville arts school, we backed off and worked to let him manage his high school work. Until Fall semester of his Junior year all went well. He failed four of his classes that semester. He had never failed any class, ever, in the history of his schooling. We all went into triage mode. This past December, my dear son graduated early from an alternative school here in Nashville, where he found teachers who cared about him and also who held high expectations for his work.

Heavy sigh. So. Looking back I hear my brother's sing-songy voice "Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda Shoulda, Woulda." I somewhat resentfully sort of wish that I had bought in more to the academic thing.

Why?

Well, take a look a last week's release of a Pew Foundation study that compared incomes of high school graduates with those of college graduates. It's profiled in Feb. 11th's "Is college worth it? New PEW study says yes" and I heard it discussed several times on NPR this week, with the repeated tagline "The only thing more expensive than going to college these days is not going to college." According to that article, there has never been more of an income gap between college graduates and millennials with a high school degree or less. Get it from the horse's mouth at https://selectra.co.uk/sites/selectra.co.uk/files/pdf/SDT-higher-ed-FINAL-02-11-2014.pdf if you're the sort of bloke who needs to bypass the synopsis.

After looking at all of this, my rational mind wants to keep on developing this train of thought. What if I had been more positive with my children about the benefits of high grades? What if I had more encouraged academic learning and performance? But I have a confession to make. My heart wants to go "yay." Both of our young adults are going to figure it out so that their lives work best for them. I believe that their experiences in the performing arts and their love of artistic expression (and more importantly and more subtly, the understandings they gained pursuing those paths) will serve them far better than any externally applied assessment or any paycheck. They will struggle and they will figure it out: Heck, so did their mom and I. The big difference, I have to admit, is that it's a much more dangerous world that it was when we were figuring it out.

They are golden, and if we've given them anything, it's love and support, and a healthy skepticism about how things are said to work in the world. Screw PEW. And screw the worship of the dollar. Life is about more than that. Listen to this live recording of a song I wrote on this topic -- God I do love Dana's harmonies.

What a Week--No ISTE Board Run

There is a lot happening. So much, as a matter of this post, that I have reluctantly decided to abandon my plans to run for the ISTE Board this year. I am pulled 9 ways to Sunday in my sort of made-up role at an 80,000+ student Public School system. I'm a Lead Teacher, responsible for supporting and monitoring the work of half of our 25 adjunct teachers and supporting their students and parents; I am a Support Specialist, the "house geek" for my school and its community; I am the only part-time Academies Coach in the system, imagining and building the first "Virtual Academy" in the world after-work-hours; and now I am the "All Star Teacher Trainer" (I prefer "Lead Learner" and I intend to use that) for my school and two others: My district is rolling out a model of Professional Development on February 28 that will become just that for the nation. I can't imagine that serving as a Board member for ISTE, no matter how much I would like to do that, would add any effectiveness to my work. Maybe when I retire ("as if") I can work on serving in that capacity. Meanwhile, anyone reading this, if as dedicated to ISTE and its mission as I am, should consider doing so. The deadline is February 7, 5PM EST.

I am so very proud of my School and its District administrative support for this new initiative. When it works, not "if it works," we'll have paved the way for other districts and we will have done so much good that we could walk away from it all, though we, thankfully, will not.

Last week, the President of the United States visited our district to speak at one of our schools, and he focused his remarks on many of the things in which I am involved. Watch this:

If the embed doesn't work for you, click here.

Great Award Up for Grabs for Online Educators Making a Difference!

Friend, colleague, and President of the ISTE Special Interest Group for Online Learning, Michael Gormans, today posted a wonderfully descriptive account of a free webinar coming up in just a few hours. Please join us at the link below to learn how you might be the recipient of this prestigious annual award. I highly encourage you to read Mike's blog post in its entirety and I hope to see you online. Here's the brief skimmy:

There will be a special free webinar on Thursday, January 9, 2014 at 4 PM to highlight the competition. It will also include a special guest appearance from last year’s winners. Learn about their project and get some great tips involving online collaboration for your students. This webinar will also be archived and available on the ISTE SIGOL Site. Consider attending and learning how you can be part of a great program and also be a part of SIGOL at ISTE! You can also learn more about how to enter the competition for the award at SIGOL Online Learning Award.  You will find Webinar registration information below. Please send this post on to others who might be interested, and give a retweet!
ISTE SIGOL Online Award Webinar

• Thursday, January 9, 2014
• 4:00 PM EST
• Link: http://iste.adobeconnect.com/sigol2014/

 Learn more about the fine work SIGOL does at our wiki.

And also check out ISTE Connects info on SIGOL!

Some Family Ties

From Merrick Villa in Nashville, Tennessee on this third day of January, 2014 I send greetings, a promise to post at least once a week this year, and some family links.

First of all, in honor of Colin's birthday, number 18, a link to the work he's doing with songwriting, production, and performance. These are demos mostly created by him at his MacBook Pro and all written and performed by him, every voice, every harmony, all of it. Click to visit and LIKE his new Facebook brand for all his music, then visit the Dazeless SoundCloud:

Miranda is working at Brilliant Sky Books and Toys over in Green Hills and coordinating their online branding efforts (it's a VERY cool store) and burning up Instagram and Twitter. It's been a while since she blogged but her observations are consistently insightful and thoughtful at "Words for Faith." Check out her Pinterest site, "Truth & Wisdom," and her erstwhile boyfriend Tim Buell is out on the road with his band, Remedy Drive, who garnered a Dove Award nomination this year.

Lee Ann, love of my heart, is burning up the epicurean domain with TinWings, her artful, ambitious, and joyful venture with her partner Ursula Norris. Visit (and LIKE) their amazingly successful startup at their TinWings Facebook page.

Finally, the best kept educational secret of Nashville Public Schools is about to be let out of the bag. See why at the "About" page at MNPS Virtual School.

I rest my cases.

Wait, I guess given the title here I should share an old poem, still one of my favorites:

Family Ties

Most of my ties are dead man's ties.

Real doozies, all, hanging in my hall

closet, inherited sans will, from my father

and the father of my wife, given new life

by my own need, or by my need to own.

Did I need to rescue clichéd neckwear?

Or did I need instead a piece of cloth

to perform a job my memory ought?

Some come from vintage clothing stores:

Skinny, woven thinly, these create within

me something of a false nostalgia,

a longing for a time I never knew.

If I were you I'd be wondering now

what is his point? Does he intend to

share some kind of insight here? Is it fair

to assume that ties to the past indeed survive?

Of course knot, you say.

But maybe sew, says

I. Some say each time an entity, alive,

recalls the aspect of one dead, the dead one lives.

Spirit, called, responds in kind: a re-animation born of mind.

When I touch a tie it cries out to me,

and its former owner stirs, is realized.

If in that lifelessness re-creation be, then pardon me:

I only mean to tastefully accessorize.

It's quiet at the blog. Too quiet.

Up early on an icy winter Sunday morning I realize I've neglected my blogging, perhaps unforgivably. While blogging may now be considered passé by some these days I do still believe in it.

This belief may not be apparent for anyone who took note of the closure of the Bloggers Hut at ISTE SIGVE in Second Life this past July, after five years of monthly updates at Oh!VirtualLearning! and inside the little hobo shack that had been its home since moving to ISTE SIGVE from ISTE Island after its own demise. As explained at the blog post just noted, I am just so busy these days with my virtual school, an online public school in the creation of which I'm so immensely proud to have had a part, that I've yielded much of my advocacy for virtual worlds to other more capable hands.

I do continue to support their efforts when I can, by attending inworld events like the Virtual Education Round Table, by microblogging via Twitter and Facebook, and by attending weekly SIGVE Office Hours and events when I can. But it's a measure of my distance that I completely missed this weekend's Minecraft and More Unsymposium online all day yesterday and the day before. I hope to catch up on its archived glory this week, and I'm thankful for all who did participate, as we seem to see more and more activity in virtual worlds with the advent of Minecraft and the continuing success of the World of Warcraft teacher community. Still, it seems we continue to stand at the upward curve of the adoption cycle eternally looking up at the spike to the apex which we've been predicting for so many years.

I'm just rambling here, but I hope to keep this blog alive and sometimes rambling is just all there is in this complicated world. Why keep it alive? There is so much to celebrate, and as my dear sister-in-law Amy once commented, "Your blog is your masterpiece, your book."

I'm hearing Dylan in the background.

Coming up soon: Wainhouse Research Virtual Summit

I'll be coming in for Q and A toward the end of the presentation of a recorded discussion between me and friends Jan Zanetis and Lance Ford, hosted by Wainhouse Research's Alan Greenberg. We had a lively chat about disruptive technologies in education and I hope the attendees enjoy it!

Join in as you can, from 1-5pm today!

Join us online for the next Wainhouse Research Virtual Summit focusing on the education market and how colleges, K-12 institutions and corporate trainers are changing the face of instruction through the implementation of new technologies. To be held 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. ET on November 12, the Wainhouse Research EDU Virtual Summit offers users the chance to watch informational webcasts and collaborate with others seeking to broaden their understanding of technology’s evolving role in education.

To learn more about the event and to register for free to attend, click here:

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

 

The Perfect Media Trifecta for Spring Registration

Metro Schools touts success, flexibility of virtual school ran live on Channel 4 News last week and is available to watch online now. We are so proud of our MNPS Virtual School students at Nashville School of the Arts, who are profiled in the piece; and that pride extends to all of the over 350 students taking a class or classes with us while enrolled in their MNPS school of choice or zone.

We're also very proud of our nearly 100 full-time students, and you can hear more on that right here, on Nicole Cowan's wonderful Nashville by Nicole show at Lightning100 Radio.

These two share-outs come at a great time for us. We opened the enrollment request window just this week, for Spring 2014, and it will remain open through December 6. Read about that at the third share, MNPS ChildrenFirst blog's announcement of the sign-up process!

Thanks to WSMV Channel 4, Lighting100, and ChildrenFirst for noticing, caring, and sharing!

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

Two Wonderful Professional Development Opportunities!

When it rains it pours. In a good way this time.

I'll be sharing about virtual worlds next Monday morning at a uniquely blended online and in-person conference in Iowa, all from the convenience of my garage home office. I did so last Saturday as well, and the forum platform was the same, Google Hangouts. Last Saturday's one hour session was a panel on the impact of technology on learning and teaching, organized and moderated by dear friend Jane Wilde at Marlboro College in Vermont; and it was thoroughly enjoyable, archived at YouTube (a feature of Hangouts). You can watch the session right here if you wish, or watch part of it and come back later to finish. It's digital, y'all.

Scroll on down to see the schedule for the Iowa conference, which is designed in such a way that I don't really have to present at all, just attend, share the viewing of a K12OnlineConference video presentation I created last year, and then be present via hangouts for q and a. I do plan to desktop share my current build for MNPS Virtual School in Kitely, though, so if you want to watch via the live YouTube Stream have at it! Here's the "Connected Learning Hangout":





And here's Leigh Zeitz's online poster for the ITEC:

Learn from Leaders in

Our Online PD Community

These leaders in the field will video conference into our sessions. We will watch their videos on their topic and discuss ideas afterwards. Experience this innovative model for professional development.

Monday – October 14    (Room 309)
*	Scott Merrick - Tennessee Virtual Worlds for Learning and Teaching: Power Examples to Get You Thinking Scott Merrick has been exploring 3D online environments and their potential for extending learning and teaching onto the global stage. This session uses a live exploration of a custom-built Wallwisher.com webpage with voice narration created in Audacity. Learn a little bit about several more or less randomly selected (from hundreds existing) examples of the power of virtual environments to help establish “sense of place at a distance.” 10:45 – 11:35
*	Naomi Harm - Minnesota Creating Seven Habits of Highly Effective Professional Development Learning Experiences Naomi Harm explains how technology can radically change instructional strategies to bring about socially meaningful learning. Learn how an organization can move to deeper and more creative staff development practices. Seven online highly collaborative tools will be explored and demonstrated. She will discuss how to provide support for an online community-based reflection portal for educators. 12:40 – 1:30
*	Leigh Zeitz - Iowa Making 21st Century Learning Come To Life in Your Classroom Dr. Leigh Zeitz will explore 21st Century Learning from the practical side. What is a 21st learning environment? What is the difference between 20th and 21st Century learning? Dr. Z will share ways to integrate new paradigms into your classroom and tools/applications that can address today’s students’ learning needs. 1:45 – 2:35
Tuesday – October 16   (Room 309)
*	Shelly Sanchez Terrell - Texas The Magic of Mobile Learning Shelly Sanchez Terrell advocates transforming learning through mobile technology. Features and apps allow learners to move around the classroom sparking creativity and imagination. In this session, we explore activities that get learners analyzing, and engaging with the concepts they are learning. These activities with mobile devices include recording videos, taking photos, and recording audio. We will also explore fun apps that allow students to be imaginative and creative. 8:00 – 8:50
*	Bud Hunt – Colorado Make/Hack/Play – Lenses for Learning Bud The Teacher shares the journey they have taken to conceptualize and develop their Discovery Center for Make/Hack/Play in his Colorado school district.  This session will be valuable to Iowa educators because he identifies the many ideas/problems/issues that they encountered as they entered the Make Movement and how they addressed them. 11:00 – 11:50
*	Tricia Fuglestad - Illinois Teaching Art in a Technology Rich and Connected Classroom Tricia Fuglestad, PBS Teachers Innovation Award winner, explores Integrating technology, web 2.0, and interactive tools in her art room. These activities give students the opportunity to enhance their 21st-century learning skills, practice creative problem-solving, and develop higher-level thinking as they create art. Tricia will share stories and examples from her technology-rich elementary art room and how their online connections have enthralled, enriched and engaged her students. 1:00 – 1:50

Look out: He's back in Kitely fooling around!

Hey, all,

I am happy to announce that I have a teacher interested in exploring the use of Kitely for synchronous sessions with her online students, so I've been noodling around in there over the past few days updating spaces.

I've ditched the wooden-looking circular floors underneath the "unclassrooms" and textured their floors as translucent blue-sky clouds. I'm working on arranging all the sets of four long 4 student tables in each wall-less, ceiling-less, roof-less "room" to face one another with a teacher stool in one corner. I still have the display objects, a link to the LMS and four teleporters to four different distant discussion islands for breakout sessions.

But the main building has morphed into a blue and orange wonder, no longer the metallic structure obtained from Open University sim. I changed out all the logos to our new banner and added an office for Sherry, newly re-assigned and promoted to v-Enrollment Support Specialist, and put Sarah out front to welcome visitors, as she so capably is placed in our real-world School.

Visit http://www.kitely.com and search "Education." Find MNPS Virtual School II and visit at will. It's the public mirror of what will soon be the crankin'est virtual world school in the metaverse.

Here are some pics:

Unclassroom for Intro to Social Media

Landing zone

unclassrooms

Media at landing zone: Flickr, website, image slideshow, and Prezi

Mike's office

My office, down to the feeding birds on the fire escape

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!