The Exit Experience - a Non Sartrean Sigh of Relief

Barbara, or as I like to call her - Babs, was wonderfully engaging at our exit interview. She put us at ease from the start. Her insightful comments about our readings helped to facilitate the discussion - so much so, that at one point, while we were discussing the readings, I wished we had more time to talk. This was a big change from my thinking the day before the interview. Her content knowledge of the ITS program was astounding. Without ITSapedia, I don't think I could have talked as intelligently as I did (or at least I think I did).

Bill was right, we all have much to say. Now ITS up to us to shout out loud. First, Hooray (sp?) for our accomplishments. Then, "Thank You!" to Bill and Cheryl for the learning experience.

This program has changed me. I wonder where the change will lead?

Best of luck to all of you, and thanks for affording me the opportunity to learn, laugh with you.


Cheers!

A New York State of Mind

In my finely appointed room at The Muse, I imagined that I was a pod, and that I was cast into a school system located in Spotsylvania, VA. If you subscribe to the "butterfly theory," my thinking about being a pod, and the actions I took based on those thoughts, had indeterminable effects on society. Regrettably, I missed the last two classes, and I was unable to see the effects on our cohort members. I did manage to compose a letter to administrative officials regarding our advocacy topic, and I read a bit more about heros and how they can act as role models for us as technology leaders.

I had been getting my news via RSS Feeds (subscribed), and vicariously until I spent a few days in NYC. Reading The New York Times reminded me why I don't like The Washington Post, and why I miss the feel of newspaper between my fingers as I sip on a half-caffeine/half-decaf, black coffee. Oh well.

Then I thought. What is the purpose of education, and why am I on this planet? I came to the realization that I am in the "quest through chaos" phase in a new job, and my sense of the purpose of education is to prepare people to manage change, to identify people or groups who can give guidance, to teach us to be at ease with ourselves through trials and tribulations, and to examine our life critically so that we can gain insight into our purpose.

Golly, gee, wouldn't it be nice if we could all agree upon this?

Memory - Not the Song from CATS - the oft-unsung hero of computers!

Digital video and complementary computer programs which allow non-linear editing sure are nifty tools and devices. They afford users endless possibilities to express ideas. We've been using the media to construct a public service announcement on bullying. We happened upon a wonderful poem which was a perfect fit for our project. We experienced technical difficulties with the MovieMaker software package. It appears that without sufficient computer memory, creative projects come to a screeching halt or crash. I may be overstepping my bounds by qualifying our project as creative. We did, however, create it.

You would think that school systems would be endeared to memory. As technologists, we need to rise up and demand more memory in school computers. Adding computer memory is one of the least expensive ways to boost a computer's performance.

Regarding the process, I think that this has been one of the most difficult assignments we have had. Hopefully our PSA will be nominated for a PSA Award. We would be happy with any one:

• Poultry Science Association Award


• Poetry Society of America Award


• Political Studies Association Award

The Last of the Wine

Mary Renault is an author I admire. I was reminded of one of her works, The Last of the Wine, today when my dear friend indicated that an aspect of our study ritual would have to end. It is a matter of focus, I'm told. How does this relate to our ITS cohort, you ask...?

Our cohort is similar in many respects to a symposium. The etymology of "symposium" is from the Greek verb "sympotein," which translates to "to drink together."

Notum sit quod mihi est... if you drink with me, you will learn something.

Now I'm in an awkward position of having to relate this in some fashion to XML and the benefits derived from sharing data across different information systems/platforms. A picture is always nice, I say. So what can we say about the graphic herein contained? What elements of design are exemplified? What meaning does this have for you?

A posted response will complete this passage. So, kind madam and sir, let us hear your remarks. Tell us what you think of "The Last of the Wine." Should we take a page from the Greeks, or should we continue to subscribe to the Wired notion of being connected?

Anytime, Anywhere...the Web 2.0 Way!

My eyes were playing tricks on me in class on Wednesday, so I didn't quite get the URL of the most recent cool toy. I've been using the ones that we have learned, so much so, that I have neglected The Leadership Academy.

The Diigo toolbar is very useful, particularly the Sticky Note feature. I am embarrassed to say that I taught my IT Fundamentals students to keep an Excel spreadsheet with their favorite links, so that they could have access to it from any computer in our school. The Excel spreadsheet is a useful tool especially since the school division blocks so many sites. But we shouldn't be teaching our kids this when there are gadgets with enhanced features and functionality.

A new toy that I have found is Google Desktop. Way cool. It is a search engine for your desktop. You can check it out for yourself at: http://desktop.google.com/features.html#overview

Steve Hall commented on his blog that "the firewalls will be tumbling down," or needs to be dismantled, and that teachers and administrators need to get on board with the tools of the future (e.g., blogs, wikis, podcasts, sticky notes, etc...). He is absolutely right. We can learn from the kids, because they understand this stuff much better than we do.

Comedy Central's Daily Show Reveales Truth

Jon Stewart interviewed Al Gore (the inventor of the Internet) about Gore's new Book, Assult on Reason

Aside from the TV show, House, I must say that I am not a big TV fan. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart might change that. Thanks Dr. Warrick for tuning me in to this show.

Here is a key segment of the interview. I apologize in advance if the audio is off, I'm still learning how to pair video and audio....


.... well, I tried to upload my video clip and put the embeded code in, but.... So, here is a link to the site which contains the clips:

http://lincmad.blogspot.com/2007/05/al-gore-on-daily-show.html

The relevance of this stems from the digital conversation which takes place. Our "hope for the future."

iGoogle, Other Gadgets, and Thoughts

A famous parable suggests that it is appropriate to save the best for last. In my opinion, this was a wise decision, as now the foundations for deigning opportunities to learn with technology have been laid. Now we are being treated to a plethora of technological innovations which have the power to transend communication. We see in Web 2.0 the ability to mediate the sort of communications which are present outside of the digital rehlm. Spicifically, blogs, social bookmarks, and wikis.

iGoogle is a nifty gadget. I was able to customomize a home page, which has the look and feel of the Mac desktop with gadgets visible. My home page is populated with "Art of the Day," a "Calendar," "Date & Time," "Weather," and "News Headlines." A second tab on my iGoogle site is my Google Reader.

Words crafted into thoughts/ideas can be searched by web crawlers, spiders, and human created indexes, and the compilations of these thoughts can be served up to your computer in a variety of means. We needn't be bombarded with sexy graphics luring us to the content (although this might come along with the content) so that we will click on it, it simply comes to us. In terms of efficiency, this seems to me to be an extremely efficient paradigm. Some of us might be ill-equipped to avail ourselves of this efficiency.

In a previous course, a group of colleagues and I looked at the "digital divide" from a number of perspectives. As we explore Web 2.0, my thinking is shifting to a new definition of the "digital divide," as one in which some individuals will adapt to comprehending reality in a virtual space and time brought about by technological advancements, and others will not.

A doctoral student in our cohort expressed in her blog a concern for the needs of special education students. Her concern rings true in this new "time-space" continuum, particularly with students with spatial disabilities. (This might be an interesting topic for a dissertation??).

Weekend Reflection

Despite war, starvation, and general ill feelings that are spread about around the world, there is an innate urge in us to share and to communicate. Perhaps align one's thinking with another person's thinking - a reality check of sorts.

As I surveyed several news organizations over the weekend, and all of them had links to podcasts, and blogs. Reading some of the comments posted by bloggers made me think that one should be required to obtain a license to blog - as if there isn't enough crap on the "wire." My thinking went through a metamorphosis, and I felt comfortable that people could "have their say." At the end of the day, it was annoying to sift through so much hyperbole to get to some point - even if it was not a perspective I shared. A light went off in my head - or maybe it was a car, rapidly approaching with its headlights focused on me. The idea of a "no nonsense filter" came into my head.

We can block sites which contain profanity, pornography, etc..., so, why shouldn't we be able to block nonsensical commentary on the Internet and on blogs? Aggregate this, I say!

The clock struck 9PM, and I revisited some of the sites from an earlier Internet excursion (thanks to bookmarks). Time changed, but the threads of conversations seemed to remain the same. It might be that there are "universal truths." By bloggy, I think I'll find them.

Wikibilities

Wikies, bickies, and blogs.... Oh, My!

The comments that some of the cohort members made about their blogging experience were interesting to me. Some loved it, and felt like the medium acted as a catalyst to unleash the creative writer in all of us. Conversely, some did not want to share their thoughts with an audience. The interesting part comes into to play because wikis have applications that both types of computer users can use. One user can publish and edit, and the other user can utilize the wiki as a portal for information. In each case, users interface with technology, collaborate, and connect to the greater world wide web.

Cool Tools for Teachers

Class today was way cool. We learned the following tools:

• RSS – subscribing to feeds from other peoples websites, blogs, etc
• Google Reader - an aggregator
• netvibes.com - http://netvibes.com
• edublogs.org - www.edublogs.org
• gaggle.net - reading blog posts to students with reading disabilities

We looked at a number of blogs and how they could be used from an educational perspective. Here are some of the uses we explored:

• collaborative project
• school website
• teacher's classroom portal
• medium for instutional knowledge (similar to an Intranet)

We also started our Advocacy Wiki - http://pbwiki.com

Web 2.0

This graphic is the best depiction of what is Web 2.0. Like the short film out of University of Arkansas, it prefectly represents the notion that form is sepreate from content. Our thinking will be transformed from the grammatical/Syntax of spoken and written language.

The graphic is an adaptation of the huge bubble map created by Markus Angermeier. Click here to see the original.

Emerging Technology Face 2 Face

As we near the end of the Integrating Technology in Schools Masters Cohort, this course will help us focus on all that we have learned in the program. The fun part will be doing this whilst using emerging technology.

The purpose of this blog is reflective in nature, but I expect that it might take on new directions.

Please feel free to leave your thoughts.