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My house celebrates two seasons right now. Outside the lights celebrate the Christmas season. Inside the tablecloths and wreaths still say Thanksgiving. Outside one needs sunglasses passing by. Inside the quiet, mellow autumnal colors still cover the walls. Christmas always comes from the outside in.

People who walk or drive by often stop to enjoy the lights. While I wouldn't call our display excessive (I supposed excessive is in the eye of the beholder), we always have the most lights on the street. I love the lights; they help to keep away the darkness of the shortening days. I always feel that Christmas lights are a gift that you give your neighbors and a gift you give yourself. I'm sure that people stopping by assume an equally ornate interior, but it's not. Christmas comes from the outside in.

Next weekend a few things will show up inside, a garland, a figurine, cookies, but not everything. Christmas decorations grow as the days pass. The lights glow brighter, the beloved heirlooms, each with its own story, the nutcrackers, the Santas, the Nativities. Each day celebrates a new revelation or a familiar friend. Christmas comes from the outside in.

Finally, and with only days to go, the tree rises as the culmination of the month of decoration. The house glows and glitters as much as the yard.

Christmas comes from the outside in.

 

One of the silly qualifications I have put on this writing journey is that I not think about the topic for the day until the day itself. Luckily, this morning I was given a gift.

This morning I read about an iOS app called Days of Life. The 99¢ app asks your age, gender, and country and then predicts your likely age of death, illustrating this with the number of days you have left in large numerals and a pie chart indicating the number of days you have lived relative to the number of days you have left. Of course I downloaded this immediately, answered the questions, and discovered that I have 7777 days left.

I was surprised by two things. First, by the neatness of four 7s, what are the odds that I would ask of this particular day? The second was that the number was less than 10,000. If you asked me prior to today, I probably would have estimated having about that, so in a moment I lost 8 years. Of course I looked up when this would be and I discovered that I will die on my birthday, March 21, 2035. It will be a Wednesday. The app also allows me to set monthly, weekly, or daily update notifications…in case I forget.

Wait a second, I thought, there are too many factors for this to be accurate. I've never smoked, I exercise, I don't have any pre-existing conditions. If this is the actuarial data for all males of my age group who live in the US, then there must be a number who would have significantly shorter lives, so that would push my number up. Then I realized that I was arguing with a 99¢ app.

My reaction to this number in many ways paralleled stages of grieving. I was shocked, denying and bargaining (I realize these aren't the actual stages, but you get the point). Despite my intellectual knowledge of the clear untrustworthiness of…let me say it again, a 99¢ app…it felt a little like being told I have less than 22 years to live. I'm terminal.

As I thought about what all this meant I considered and discarded a number of morals. I certainly am not aiming for a hipster YOLO message. I don't want (or think it's necessary) to remind everyone of our mortality during these dying days of the year. I am also virtually certain that I won't die on March 21, 2035 (and the idea of dying on a Wednesday!), but I don't want to dwell on “you know not the day nor the hour.” So I think I'll leave the experience as it is and let you draw from it what you will.

By the time I finish these 24 days I'll have 7757 days…

As always, I welcome your comments.

Image: Tick Tick. Don't use this one…use your own!

 

I started to write today about how everyone has mismatched candles in their advent wreaths, but a seasonal observation kept morphing into treacly metaphors and morals, so enough said on that.

It is amazingly wonderful to me when an idea I've heard or kicked around or even talked about suddenly is in front of me as a reality. A month ago I was visiting one of the schools in my diocese, and during my visit I sat for a few minutes in each of the classrooms. In one of the rooms, I noticed an iPad leaned against a central desk. When I asked about this, the teacher replied, “Oh, that's Theresa.” Theresa (not her real name) was a child out on long term illness; however, rather than leave her behind or send cold, isolating assignments home, this teacher, school, and parent chose to harness the powers of digital tools to break this barrier. Now, every day that she is able, Theresa joins her class, listens, participates, and stays connected. Her presence is so real that the iPad is not an iPad alone, but the symbolic reality of Theresa, to teacher and students even when she isn't on the screen.

The extent of this presence was driven home to me further a few weeks later when I attended a Veterans' Day program at the same school. I noticed a teacher holding up an iPad, and I asked if they were videoing the event for distribution. “No, that's Theresa,” I was informed and was nearly brought to tears. This virtual attendance was a wonderful yoking of the best of technology and the best of humanity.

Later I heard the story of another Catholic school that has a student on virtual attendance. The classroom iPad in this case is attached to a doll which is called the student's avatar. I'm certain that this is going on in many more places than any of us know.

One of beauties of this service is that it isn't a huge project; virtually any two devices, can create this link. The only leap is not one of technology, but one of imagination and courage. There are glitches, and the child can't hear and see everything that would be seen by one physically sitting in the room. Is this the same as physical attendance? no, but it is far, far superior to what we have been doing. Could this be abused? perhaps. I feel differently about the child with illness than I do about the child whose parent took him or her out for an extended vacation. But maybe that's my lack of imagination. I don't want a teacher to turn around and see thirty desks with faces on iPads staring back, but I don't want children at home isolated, lonely, and missing the joy of community learning.

This will not be a panacea. We will need to assess how much students learn in this structure. Likewise, we need to discover how accountable students can be for their “classroom” time. I'm certain some students will adapt to this better than others, and certainly the limitations of an illness will dictate how this can be done. However, given the ease of delivery, I don't see any clear disadvantages to trying.

Let's do more of this.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Image: 'Chairs'

http://www.flickr.com/photos/89898604@N00/6550520 Found on flickrcc.net

 

I was listening this morning to experts on a technology podcast discussing the current valuation and future of Bitcoin. This online currency, which operates separate from any country or bank, made the news this week when the announced valuation of a single Bitcoin surpassed the $1000 mark. The trading of Bitcoin, which takes place completely on the Internet, has heated to a fever pitch, and the analysts speculated that this could be only the beginning.

I am interested in Bitcoin (though I don’t possess any). I see it as a manifestation of the movement away from paper or even plastic currency that I experience whenever I pay for my coffee at Starbucks with my phone. Clearly I am not alone here, as demand for this limited and precious electronic commodity continues to drive up the prices. This is all despite the fact that to date virtually no retailers accept Bitcoin as legal tender, and the US Governement will not accept it for payment of taxes. Currently Bitcoin is mainly used for limited online purchases, certain hipster retail outlets, and (allegedly) for online drug deals.

What is impossible to assess right now is whether this is the beginning of a significant new international economy or the feeding frenzy of crowds. One does not have to think long back to remember the Beanie Baby craze of the mid 90s when otherwise level-headed people sunk their investment dollars into tiny stuffed animal toys. People were certain that the limited editions (particularly those that went out of production) were as good as gold, and that the trading fairs would go on forever. The loveable nesteggs skyrocketed in price until overnight their value plummeted to literally fluff.

Such bubbles can be traced well before the invention of synthetic sock puppets. In the early 1600s the population of Holland went crazy for tulip bulbs. Perceived scarcity and an overheated market brought the price of a single tulip bulb to well over the yearly income of an average citizen. Like with Beanie Babies, there was a tangible object acquired, but the object only maintained its value as long as the majority believed in the value. As the bubble burst, Dutch traders were left with piles of bulbs which they could not sell, eat, or use to ward off creditors.

On the other hand, intrisically useless things that prove useful to a group can maintain confidence indefinitely. The essence of any system of currency is the agreed trade of useless objects to represent real concepts. My dollar bill is not worth anything. I can’t collect a dollar of gold or make the paper into anything valuable. Dollars are valuable only because we all agree to the illusion (in one of Kurt Vonnegut’s final novels Galapagos, humankind is brought to apocalyptic disaster when as a group they suddenly realized they’d were trading useless paper). Of course a dollar has the “full faith and credit” of the United States, but if individuals started to turn them down, it would not be long before the value tulipped out. If people find value in trading Bitcoin, and if it eases transactions across continents and cultures, there may be a future in a non-existent currency.

Why write about this here? Besides the fact that I find this utterly fascinating (and besides the fact that I will need to write about everything to fill 24 days), I think there are lessons for all of us in tech. Obviously there is much speculative madness in new technology for education and elsewhere as companies rise and fall based on confidence as much as intrinsic value. The iPad is the best because everyone believes it is the best, and that will change not as much from the introduction of a superior device as from a mass decision that something else is better. In the end, we are all tulips in the wind.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Image: ‘Green Sally Up’ http://www.flickr.com/photos/51035555243@N01/11708787 Found on flickrcc.net

 

Note: My wife has told me that I completely misunderstood what was happening in this opening anecdote. She may be right, but the story is better when I tell it my way.

At mass this morning we celebrated the First Sunday of Advent. In our church there is a large Advent wreath suspended from a cable that is lowered before mass and then raised after the candle is lit. The incongruous electric sound of the motor immediately after we participate in the ancient rite of evergreen, candle, and flame always brings a bit of a chuckle, but unless it is raised, the wreath would be in the direct path of the ministers and others.

This morning, however, it appears that something went wrong. After a few feet, the motor jerked, and the wreath was left lower than usual. It was not completely in the way, but low enough that one could bump into it if not paying attention.

As I sighed at another failure of technology, it occurred to me that this conspicuous wreath was actually the best symbol of the season, and a good explanation of what I am trying to do with my blog this month.

Advent is a season of focused expectations. As the Church celebrates the waiting for the birth of the Christchild, it calls on us to explicitly celebrate that it isn't Christmas yet. Today is today, not tomorrow, and though I may long for tomorrow, I need to focus on this day that I have been given. Much of our lives (or at least my life) is spent pushing into the next thing, not focusing on the current things. I start the week looking forward to the next weekend, the school year looking forward to summer, December 1 looking forward to Christmas. Advent tries to get in the way of this living for tomorrow, if we let ourselves bump into it on the way to Christmas, we receive a gift of four weeks (well three and a half this year) that we too readily wish away.

This effort to pull oneself out of the race of time to focus on the now transcends Advent, and has relevance to those who don't celebrate. In a way it reminds me of Thoreau's explanation of the Walden experiment:

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

I think this is what I'm trying to do here. This is not a Christmas blog (despite the title), rather it is a recording of days that are not Christmas, noticing the too often ignored, and trying to live in this non-existent time. Will I talk about Christmas? yes, I am not an Advent absolutist. However, each day I will try to focus on something of that day as a living document that I lived these days, and didn't yadda-yadda my way to Christmas.

The best analogy, which I used before when I did this, is that of the Advent Calendar. Each door opens with its own gift, and that's all one gets today. I look forward to bumping into Advent for the next 24 days. I hope I'll bump into you too.

As always, I welcome your comments, and suggestions for topics

Image: Advent Wreath in St Norbert's . Use with citation.

 

Yes, yes, yes, I've been quite scarce in the blogosphere recently. If it were not for my general record of sporadic performance, I know that many would have given up. However, this break has been caused by more that the usual busyness and sloth. I've been gearing up for something.

Yes, folks, beginning December 1, I will once again attempt the 24 Days of Blogposts. I first tried this blogging Advent calendar two years ago, and though successful in entries, I was so dried out at the end that I swore never again. However, like childbirth, eventually as the pain dulls, amnesia sets in, and off we go again.

As with any decision in life, I think there are many reasons of varying virtue. Of the ones I'm aware, here are a few:

1. Nothing focuses me on a subject like writing about it.
2. Writing daily practices skills of style and awareness
3. The best place to write a quick blogpost is Starbucks, and I love to go to Starbucks (in one right now).
4. The seasons of Advent and Christmas are times of intense (many would say maudlin) feelings for me, and this helps to process them a bit.
5. This is a way to shamelessly pad my yearly total of blogposts, giving me the appearance of a regular writer.
6. I don't have any travel or workshops in December, and I can't stand not having needless additional pressure.
7. I can't stand not writing!!

So expect the launch in five days. I hope that some of you will enjoy this.

I invite your comments, or even more helpful suggestions for topics!

Image: 'anthony & the johnsons:knockin' on heaven's door' http://www.flickr.com/photos/41754875@N00/3153346586 Found on flickrcc.net

 

Continuing my week of thanks…

I have always been amazed by the generosity of people whom I have never met beyond the electronic ties of social media. For all of its reputation for negativity and hostility, social media has always been a place where I have found people who go out of the way to help me. Three quick examples:

When I was first starting my blog, I had difficulty posting pictures (as you can see, I've gotten past that). I expressed frustration on Twitter and asked for help. Within minutes, a person I knew only from brief twitter exchanges sent me a direct message asking for details of the problem. I told her what I could, and then she asked me for my user name and password so she could look directly at the settings. Now, I was cautious, but I changed my password, and sent it to her. I didn't hear anything for some time, but later that evening I received a message telling me to check the site. She had changed the settings to allow me to post pictures and cleaned up a few other things along the way. Again, safety conscious, I recharged my password, but my blogging skills were improved that day by a person I had never met.

Last week I was preparing to go on a trip for a presentation. I had intended to use Prezi via the iPad Prezi viewer. On the night before I left, I tried to open the presentation so it would be on my iPad even if there was no wifi available (it turns out that there wasn't, so this was a good idea). However, as I tried over and over again, the app kept crashing on me. I started to panic, thinking that I was going to have to lug a laptop on a multi-destination trip. Once again I went to Twitter and cried for help (honestly I don't spend all my time on Twitter complaining). In a few minutes I received a message from an engineer from Prezi. He was monitoring Tweets of people using the term Prezi. He made a few suggestions, none of which worked, but then he asked for my user name. Going in to my account, he made some changes and fixed the problem. The Good Samaritan saved me hours of frustration and probable failure.

This morning, following the anxiety that I talked about in the last post, I started to think about what I would use for my next presentation. Thinking aloud, I posted the question on Twitter. Not five minutes later I received a reply from a gentleman with whom I had talked quite a bit. He mad a suggestion that absolutely hit the mark, we even back and forthed a few possible titles. Thanks to a Twitter friend, I have a great new direction for my work.

None of these three blessed souls gained anything through their good deeds, but my life and my work were improved by all three.

How about you? Do you have any stories of social media “good deeds in a naughty world”?

As always, I invite your comments.

Image Credit: 'Be kind, for everyone you meet is+fighting+a+harder+battle.+~Plato' http://www.flickr.com/photos/8489692@N03/4914478820 Found on flickrcc.net

 

First of all, sorry that I’ve been remiss in writing for the past few weeks. I’ve been doing a little traveling and the intentions to sit in my hotel room and write at the end of the day always sound better than they are. What follows are a few shorter posts to prime the engine again.

Last week Microsoft released Windows 8, the next major operating system for desktops, laptops, and tablets. As with any industry release there was celebration and analysis. My understanding is that the new OS is pretty good, and that the Surface Tablet has some real potential (based on the commercial, it certainly has a future as prop for dance numbers). I say “my understanding” because I haven’t really read anything about this product. I haven’t installed it on my desktop, and I don’t intend to.

This observation has (of course) led to self-analysis and questioning. How have I come from the time when I installed Windows 7 on the first day it was available for preview to this point of complete apathy? Thinking it through, I’ve come up with 3 theories, each of which says something about me and something about the industry.

• When I do use a desktop at work or (very occasionally) at home, I’m completely happy with Windows 7. From the start I have liked almost everything about the OS. It kept the parts of earlier systems that worked and were comfortable, and cleaned up the mess that was Windows Vista. Among the features I’ve seen for Windows 8, there is nothing that I have ever felt I needed. Now I know in the nature of the business that at some point I’ll have to learn a new OS, but I’m seeing this now as a necessary evil, to be put off as long as possible.
• Much of the effort in creating the new OS has gone into making a seamless experience from desktop to tablet to phone. Therefore the metaphors of the OS are much more closely related to the tablet than to previous desktop operating systems. This is a good point, but given my iPad/iPhone universe, I don’t want to run a desktop like a tablet to coordinate with a different set of devices.
• I’m bored with the “me too-ism” of this move. Like the Zune was to the iPod, the surface product is just another tablet. I don’t know why I would move off the iPad for my principal mobile device unless a competitor was 100% better (and 50% cheaper).

Now this may just be me. There may be millions of excited consumers who want to stand in line for these products. I also may be making the same mistake I made when pooh-poohing the iPad in not seeing a major transformative development. Maybe in three months I’ll be singing another toon (“a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds” Emerson). But on the surface, I just can’t see it.

As always, I invite your comments.

Image Credit: Microsoft Surface publicity image. Used without permission (but I’m sure they won’t mind)

I was sitting in a meeting of pre-school teachers and directors this morning. The presenter introduced the topic of new realities for children in a digital world.  She asked the group discuss this and then report.  I grew gradually more depressed as I heard speaker after speaker say how interaction with digital resources was (for want of a better word) making children not as good as they used to be.  Though none of the comments surprised me: no attention span, unable to interact with each other, needing constant stimulation, I was distressed as it was clear that no one who spoke saw any positive effects of changes to our world.  Shifting to a discussion of teaching digital citizenship, the speaker once again asked for thoughts.  Time and again I heard variations of, “the digital world is destroying all decency, the best we can do is try to get them to retain some of our social skills.”

These responses were not new to me, nor were they indicative of a pre-school teaching mentality, for I have heard this from people in all parts of education and all walks of life.

Maybe the questions need to be framed differently.  Instead of asking, “How are children different from what they were 10-20 years ago?” perhaps a more helpful question would be, “How are kids better today than they were 10-20 years ago?”  I’m not certain that they are qualitatively better, but asking the question in the neutral way certainly seems to elicit nothing but how they are worse.  I’m certain that the table discussions would have been very different.  Frankly, I wonder if it also might make us look at children in a different way, how are they better?

As a followup to this in the area of digital citizenship, maybe the question shouldn’t be, “How are we going to teach them citizenship skills in the digital world?” a question that implies that the digital world is a lawless wasteland from which children need to be saved.  What if we set our sites higher and asked, “How are we going to help students to become better, more human people through the use of digital tools?” or even, “How can we help students use digital tools to become even better citizens that we are?”  I fear at times that we pay lip service to our aspirations for the children we teach.  We should not aspire to merely protect them and make them as good as possible, as in any other type of education, our highest aspiration should be for them to surpass us.

Too often we ask questions that seem neutral but that have defeat written within.  By asking questions in a different way, we might look for something that we haven’t before.

As always, I welcome your comments

Image: ‘Better Unanswered?‘ http://www.flickr.com/photos/15923063@N00/3378422490 Found on flickrcc.net

 

This  is a special version of the blog, and something I haven’t done before.  I’m speaking today to a future audience.

In October I will be travelling to Wisconsin to speak to the educators of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.  It is the second time I’ve attended this conference, and this time I have the privilege of speaking to the entire group.  It is a wonderful conference and a great demonstration of the Archdiocesan dedication to Catholic schools and Catholic school teachers.

The talk is (surprisingly) about technology in education, but I want to specifically address how this fits into the life of the Catholic educator and how it serves our greater mission of evangelization.  I’ve put together several ideas for thought, a few laughs, and (I hope) a few practical takeaways, but I want to do more.

So I am reaching out to you, the Catholic educators of Milwaukee; what would you like me to say in the short time we will spend together?  As we travel together in this brave new world of technology, what are your concerns, your hopes, your frustrations?

I’m going to send the link to this post for distribution through the Archdiocese.  I’d appreciate it if you would take a moment to share your thoughts in the comment section below.  With this information I can tailor a talk that will be as close as possible to what you really want and need (or I will be even more pointedly aware of how much I’ve failed).

Let’s work together to build something really great.