I keep hearing that Pace Picante Sauce commercial, “New York City?” Yup, we’ve just spent the last 5 days here. Our hotel is near Battery Park and so we ventured out to the Hudson River on the 4th to watch the Macy’s fireworks. Before Macy’s started we watched the Jersey City fireworks which when on for 40 minutes. I probably took 300 pictures of fireworks, the harbor, the lights and the people. It was a beautiful night and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting many NY natives.
We’ve sojourned through the subways system … even riding under the East River to Brooklyn. Yes, it’s true, we walked the Brooklyn Bridge. The 1.2 miles was filled with walkers, cyclists, joggers, baby strollers, and lots of beautiful sites.
Yesterday we spent several hours at the Guggenheim Museum working our way down from the top through all the exhibits of Frank Lloyd Wright. He was an amazing architectural artist. It was amazing to hear him talk about designing something besides the box. I will be using some of his interviews in my Emerging Educational Technologies course in the fall.
The best surprise was the friendliness of the New Yorkers – they were awesome – helping us figure out the subways, finding bus stops for us, and even good places to eat.
Now we’re off to Boston. It’s been a great trip so far – an excellent addition to my time at NECC in Washington, DC. Go to the link and see the variety of presentations that are accessible.
Now that’s engagement … one of the many reasons to make sure our students have opportunities to express themselves … and … opportunities for creativity.
Have I told you recently how amazed I am with what we can do with our participatory technologies? Well, I’m still in awe and want to share a short story.
Yesterday I was sitting in a group, waiting for a meeting to start, when one of my colleagues started talking about her upcoming trip to India … actually it was the next day! I asked if she was ready and she said, “Somewhat, but I haven’t even started packing. I’m not really sure what to take.” Well, as always, I had my laptop with me so I checked to see who was on Skype. Lo and behold, there’s Julie Lyndsay, of Flat Classroom fame, world traveler, currently living in Qatar. I Skyped Julie and asked her advice. She suggested buying clothes at the shops near the hotel and try to fit in with how the locals dressed.
I am a seasoned traveler … having traveled extensively throughout Asia (China, Japan, Korea, and the Phillippines) and Great Britain … and even the old USA … BUT … I am still tickled how easy the technologies make connecting with someone 1/2 way around the world. I don’t want to ever take for granted all we have at our fingertips.
I’m in the midst of listening to a Panel Podcast from the 2008 Women Who Tech Telesummit. Registration is open for the 2nd Annual Telesummit which takes place May 12. While it is essentially aimed at women in the business world, there is much that can be applied to those of us in education.
The podcast I’m listening to is Tooting Your Own Horn. Interesting that I ran across this after an engaging conversation on Friday with Meg Ormiston and Lucy Gray on the same topic. Many of us gathered after the Midwest Tech Forum in Schaumburg, IL to celebrate Jennifer Wagner’s birthday. Tech Forum was an exceptional opportunity to meet with others in my network and experience the support of other like-minded change agents. Many have poo-pooed the idea of keeping ourselves tuned only to those who agree with us, but there is a need to be re-energized sometimes by others who are thinking along the same lines and going through similar experiences of leading systemic change.
Anyway … back to the podcast. As Lucy, Meg, and I discussed, it’s difficult for many women to toot their own horn – present party included. It seems that we don’t like the idea of being ego driven … although we are … in ways that are paralleled with non-feminine behaviors.
The panelists provide some excellent ideas for branding, including the Online ID Calculator. Once you figure out your online identity strength you can make some changes in order to build your brand. It’s ok to make a name for yourself in the sense that you become known for your expertise and your willingness to help others by giving back.
I’ve embedded the widget showing my results from the Online ID Calculator – it helps to have a very unique name. What is your Online ID strength?
Ever wonder what your learning preferences are? Most educators are fairly familiar with Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence theory as it’s been around since the early 1980’s. In many of my courses students complete a personal inventory of both their teaching and learning styles – then they compare the results and reflect on the impact their preferences will have on their students.
I just ran across this short quiz that provides an excellent report. First click on this link: Birmingham Grid For Learning. You’ll see this page:
Next you’ll see this page:
Choose the descriptor that best fits you. When you’ve completed the quiz you’ll get a results page that you can print out. Here’s mine:
You can see by my results, the reason I use Jing all the time is that visual/spacial is my highest.
Like any self-report survey, you’ll need to take it with a grain of salt. You can easily change the results by answering questions in relationship to your differing roles. When I think in terms of my teaching roles my answers will trend one way; it I answer while thinking of myself on vacation they might trend another; and if I think of myself in a student role they could trend another way. So if you decide to take the quiz, work at situating yourself in the same role throughout … it will give you a more accurate picture of your styles in those situations.
Yesterday I was Google Chatting with Vicki Davis. Vicki was in North Carolina at the NCTIES conference and I am here in Normal – another one of those PLN phenomenas … we are not limited by space or time. It’s so great.
Vicki shared the Suffern Middle School video, No Future Left Behind. Take a look:
We have a very full schedule in tonight’s class, but I’m going to show this to my doc students. What these middle schoolers have to say is so powerful that I am also going to share it with my colleagues in the College of Education.
These NetGen students are challenging educators to make shifts in their teaching paradigms. They have a lot to teach us and we need to give them opportunities to do just that.
I just got back from the ICE conference in St. Charles, IL. What a great time – many excellent conversations. That’s where it’s at for me these days. I can get all the information and instruction I need through my PLN – Twitter, Blogs, and Podcasts – so conferences have become all about the interactions. It’s so fun to walk up to someone – or have someone walk up to me – and say, “Hi, I’m so-and-so, it’s so good to meet you F2F.”
One of the issues that arose was the ever-present idea that technology use is viewed by teachers as just one more thing they have to add to their long list of teaching duties. My response is, let’s do things differently.
When I listen to teachers talk, I hear their frustration with all the add-ons. My approach is that technology is not an add-on … in many instances it is the best way to achieve our desired outcomes. So what can we do differently?
First, we need to educate everyone in the educational community: teachers, adminsitrators, parents, students, support staff, board members. All of these stakeholders need to understand the benefits of emerging ourselves in the most appropriate and effective technologies.
Next, we need to help classroom teachers pick and choose those projects, lessons, and tasks which will benefit most when infused with technology.
Example: Digital stories
Give students a microphone and let them talk about what they have researched and discovered. Give them access to pictures and let them choose the pictures that represent their audio. Present it to the members of the educational community and you have a rich experience for everyone.
There are many more examples – the only thing holding us back is our “add-on” attitude. Let’s help our teachers (and pre-service teachers) become so comfortable with the variety of available technologies that the natural outcome is its seamless use.
Where will you start? Where will you help other teachers start? Where will you help other educational stakeholders start?
One of my Twitter friends shared this Wall Street Journal article about the predictions of a Russian academic Igor Panarin. This Russian-U.S. relations expert believes that sometime next year there will be such dissension in our country that it will disintegrate.The article stated,
Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces — with Alaska reverting to Russian control.
Panarin provides a map of his concept of the future:
Panarin's Prediction
My questions and thoughts … now remember, I’m not a historian or political scientist … I’m a pragmatist with moderate views.
Is there enough dissension in the U.S. to warrant such a disintegration of our country? I know that Northern California has been talking for years about becoming it’s own state. I also know that Texas seems to think of itself as it’s own country. BUT this is a small minority – we are tightly bonded as Americans in this country … even with the influx of immigrants that is a pervasive attitude … why does Panarin think they come to this country?
Would those in ‘power’ ever allow this to happen? How would this type of change serve current money-makers? I think Panarin underestimates this culture – even the economic issues of the past few months have not swayed the rich in this country from their belief in the power of capitalism.
How many wars would it take to fulfill Panarin’s shifts? I think back to SNL’s Sarah Palin comments about shooing Russians out of Alaska … Wouldn’t Alaskans fight to remain in the U.S.? How about the west coast? I can’t imagine them rolling over to become part of communist China. How would those of us in the North-Central make the adjustment to the Canadian system of government – in many ways, that might be the easiest transition. Texas has already fought Mexico for their independence, there is no way they are going to return to that government control. Last, can you imagine the Old South sitting by and allowing Panarin’s division?
I can go on and on …
The bottom line for me is that Panarin’s ideas are grounded in his world-view. Although he is a reputed expert in Russian-U.S. relations, he has little understanding of the pride of U.S. citizens and the dedication to the American way of life … even with all its warts, I don’t want to live in any other country!
What this article demands of us is critical thinking. So what are your thoughts?
I’ve been tagged by Sharon Peters to add to the network’s meme. It’s always fun to try to think back on things that aren’t too embarrassing. Here goes:
In high school is was a Girl Scout – a member of the Mariner Scout Ship (MSS) Morning Star. All year long we would raise money and then in June we would use it for cruise. 20-25 of us, with 15-20 guitars would rent a 65′ yawl (the Desireé) and sail around Catalina and the Channel Islands in Southern California for 5 days. My guitar playing and song leading days also included a summer as a camp counselor at the White’s Landing Girl Scout camp and over 5 years in the same role for Athletes-in-Action, FCA and Young Life.
In 9th grade I was voted as “Most Witty”.
One summer I worked in the Market House on Main Street at Disneyland – Did you know that the gold on the merry-go-round horses is real? And that they have fans in the candy store walls that push the smell of the cooking candy out onto Main Street?
Every summer as a kid I visited family in Pacific Grove, CA. My cousin John and I talked the owner of the glass bottom boats into letting us work for rides on those boats.
I absolutely love cookies … I could eat them every day … all day – of course I’d have to work out even more than I already do if I ate as many as I wanted.
I never knew I was claustrophobic until they started sliding me into an MRI tube … “Get me out … get me out!” The “open” MRI isn’t much better … being put out is best.
After many, many years of driving on Southern California freeways and having numerous near-misses, I am a strong believer in angels – it really is a Wonderful Life.
