Category: Uncategorized

Most people who read this blog know that I bicycle for exercise and relaxation regularly (and by regularly, I mean compulsively). When I started this current stretch of riding about 5 years ago, I sealed my new resolution by purchasing a new seat for my bike and an odometer. I had never used one before (the odometer, not the seat), but I thought it would be helpful to chart my weekly progress and work towards yearly goals. Little did I know that when I brought home this $25 device, I was unknowingly enslaving myself.

On a practical level, the odometer is great. The first thing you discover, is that your biking routes are not as long as you thought they were. “Certainly, I rode 20 miles,” turns out to be more like 15…or 10. The odometer also reminds you if you start lagging off on speed. However, over time you can get a real sense of accomplishment as you watch your weekly totals and average speed rise.

Yesterday, though, I was thinking during my ride that I spend as much time looking at the odometer as I do looking around me. The accomplishments of the early phases of riding have become responsibilities, and a week's rides are successful based on whether I hit (or better, exceeded) my miles total. Worse than this, on Sunday each week when I reset, I have a momentary sense of accomplishment followed by the Sisyphean despair that I have to start all over on Monday. The rock never gets to the top of the hill.

During my depressing musings, I thought that a lot of these factors can also be seen in our approach to educational technology. We are driven by plans and timelines, and I don't know how much we ever get to enjoy things. Projector in, great, now we need a cart for several rooms, now one per room, now a wireless network, now a 1:1 program, now online courses…and on, and on, and on.

OK, don't get me wrong, we need plans, and we need to keep moving, but we also need to create some space in the middle of the freight train for experience, reflection and growth. To quote a popular philosopher of the 70's, we have to “be here now.”

So beginning this week, I'm going to cover my odometer during the ride. I know this will drive me crazy for a while but I want to see if I enjoy the rides more. I am going to keep it on, because I do need goals and measurements, but maybe I don't need to think about them so much that I miss the view.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Image Credit: : 'shakedown ride'

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10687935@N04/3958895653

“What a waste of time!”

I’ve never found a good way to answer this one, and I hear it regularly. People criticize using social media tools like blogs, Facebook, and Twitter (particularly merciless on Twitter) and state with a degree of assumed superiority, “I don’t have time for that…stuff.”

On a practical level I can appreciate this comment. I am well aware of the time that is needed, and the time that can be lost in communicating online. In my list of problems with social media, I’ve always put lost time as a greater danger than privacy concerns or inappropriate contact. It is easy to become engrossed in Twitter or Facebook (I don’t particularly have to fight to keep from working at my blog…which is apparent in the number of entries). I also agree that there is a lot of trivial junk on social media sites. I am less aware of this, because I follow interesting people who usually have something to say, but I concede that out there are thousands of ham sandwich eaters reporting in.

What does bug me about this type of comment is twofold. First there is an assumption in it that nothing of value can be done in this medium. I know this factually to be untrue, because I have learned from things I have read on Twitter (often much more than from other places). I have keep in touch and deepened friendships through these sites. Sometimes something has just made me laugh…which to my mind is one of the the greatest values in life. I wonder what deep important and desperately meaningful thing these critics are doing with their time. Not to be too nasty, but someone is watching Survivor.

The other irritation is the recognition of this as a pose that can be and is used against any enthusiasm. It is the ultimate condescension, “I know you like this, but I’m too good to be bothered.” I see this in all areas, including technorati who are equally dismissive of the ones who don’t participate. It can’t be a simple difference in interest, rather it has to be painted in terms of wrong or right, better or worse.

Recently I was listening to a couple of people playing out this conflict. On one side I felt the contempt of the social “mediarights” toward the unplugged, and on the other the disdain and fear of the time wasting narcissists by the properly focused technophobes. I practically broke into singing “The Farmers and the Ranchers Can Be Friends.”

Let’s not let social media be one more polarizing force in our social fabric

As always, I welcome your comments.

Photo Credit: ‘E’ guerra!!!!!!!!!!-Ovvero la vendetta di Geo-Cat attack’ http://www.flickr.com/photos/80417459@N00/2175836512

 

Last night I received an email at about 8:00. While I won’t go into the contents, I was really disturbed. This started a flurry of emails back and forth which I was still writing at midnight.  After finishing the last email I lay steaming in bed for a couple of hours, unable to let go of the subject and composing more emails in my mind.

This morning I came into work (oh, by the way, both yesterday and today were vacation days), and as I sat down I realized that nothing I did last night had any affect.  Things still are as they are, and I’ll deal with them, but I lost a lot of sleep for really no reason.

This leads to my other chief gripe with email, its ability to own us every minute of the day.  With the growth of smart phones, a larger percentage of the population carries their email box with them everywhere, I know I do, and we function with that knowledge.  I send emails all the time expecting a quick answer, even from people away from work, and I get irritated if I don’t hear back in a few minutes.  I send emails at times I would never call a person, yet I expect essentially the same connection.  I have had vacation days in Hawaii ruined by an incoming message which I could do nothing about.  With all the great things we have gained through email and messaging, we have lost an essential right…the right to be left alone.

Email efficiency experts like Merlin Mann suggest that is is best not to check email often, rather to set aside two or three times in a day and process all the email received.  I have even presented this strategy in talks that I have given, but in explaining it I am a fraud, for I don’t follow it in the least (at least I have the decency to tell people this when I present).  However, expectations do not match this plan, because many people (probably most people) in the workplace see email as an instant messaging system…and an instant answer is required.  When I go away I sometimes post the out of office message, but often I receive emails that start “I know you’re out of the office, but I know you check your mail.”

Email, and trying to tame it,  is going to be one of my major themes of the coming year.  We need to hold a worldwide conference of email to redefine the boundaries and rules (after we pass the email amnesty day).  We need to be able to say, not only am I not going to do anything about that tonight, I’m not going to think about it either.

Not a very happy Christmas Eve Eve post, but I’ll finish on a happier note tomorrow…unless I receive a disturbing email.

As always, I welcome your comments.

I don’t have a significant topic today, and I don’t have a lot of time to write this morning, but as I opened the dashboard for the blog this morning I had a passing thought, and I thought I’d elaborate.  This is a little tip for anyone who runs a blog or who is thinking about starting one.

I have been running blogs for about three years now.  I own three different domains, each of which has had its purpose over time.  Two of these blogs are not active right now, but I keep them up because I may want the domain again and there is some hard work there including videos of workshops and my year of podcasting.

Besides the never-satisfied appetite for new material that nags at me every time I think about it (Little Blog of Horrors), there are other maintenance tasks involved in the care and feeding of a blog.  One that always bugged me was sorting through the comments.  I always set up a blog with comment approval, a person would be crazy not to, so I have to sort through all comments to make sure that they are appropriate and from people who are acting responsibly.  There is a tremendous amount of spam that circulates as comments on blogs.  These are not generated by people, but by automated bots.

Sometimes these are funny.  They are usually designed to sound like they have read your blog, “I have been so impressed by the things that you say and I want to know more.” (at one point I thought about letting these through and basking in praise).  However, they always have a link that would draw a reader to an advertising or even dangerous site, and unless the owner sorts through these daily, they amass in the hundreds.  Since I don’t get many legitimate comments on this blog (pity party) I don’t want to miss any of them, and it’s a pain to sift the wheat from the chaff.

I knew the answer for this, but it took me forever to implement it.  Two weeks ago I added a requirement for identification of responders and completion of a captcha (in this case a simple math problem).  Wordpress had this as a simple plugin, and I’m certain most blogging platform does the same.  Though I know putting in this information might be a little annoying for readers, since I have implemented this step I have had only one non-legitimate comment get through.

So this is a brief explanation of why I’ve added these steps.  I hope the math problems don’t dissuade you because as always, I invite your comments.

“This is a school? I thought it was a museum.”

— South Philadelphia senior Terence Lewis visiting a suburban school (via Mike Klonsky)

Thanks to Mia Chambers of Acumen Works;for sharing this site with me.

 

Here’s an example of how a blogpost can turn out very different from what was originally intended.  When I saw that quote this morning, I thought it was a great launching point for a screed about dead learning in schools.  Though I know this young person was commenting on how nice the school was in comparison to his own, I planned to turn these words to a general commentary on teaching what we were taught without thought to whether these skills are necessary any more.  I expected to use the word dinosaurs in a biting and satirical way, and I’m certain that many things would have been referred to as dusty. 

Then I took a deep breath, and thought a bit further.

For the reality of modern museums isn’t just a closet of stuff.  In fact, museums can teach us something about the job of teacher today.

The value of a museum is judged partially on its collection, but more importantly on it curation.  A good museum takes the articles of the collection and organizes and presents them in such a way as to engage the visitor, to provide connections to his or her life, and to show how this knowledge has value in the current world.  A museum curator must constantly ask about every exhibit, “Why is this important?” and “What does this mean today?”. Knowing about the material and loving the subject is not enough, a curator must create an emotional or learning experience using all the tools available. 

In the same way, a good teacher must constantly question the value of the collection presented, and “I liked this when I was in school,” is not sufficient justification alone.  It is said that most teachers teach to their younger selves, but a good teacher must teach to the next generation.  Using all the tools available, The teacher creates an emotional and learning experience that students can take forward into their lives.

So a museum isn’t such a bad thing for a school to emulate, not as a dusty attic, but as a launching place for learning.

As always, I welcome your comment. 

This morning I reviewed my new year’s resolutions for 2011. To be honest, I’ve done pretty well on most of them, but then, near the bottom of the list I read:
“Post articles in blog at least 2x a month.”
To quote Rick Perry, “Oops”
Between not having time to write and not having ideas when I did have time, I have done a very poor job with this blog this year, and time is running out.”
So here’s what I decided to do, beginning December 1, I will be posting a daily article for 24 straight days. That’s right, a digital Advent calendar of thoughts on technology, education, and both. There may even be a virtual chocolate as you open the door for Christmas day!
So for those of you (are there any of you?) who check this space, get ready for a gusher!
Also, if you have any ideas for articles or posts, I’d be much obliged…it might avoid the “I love Ariel font” post on December 22. So as always, I welcome your comments.

Day 2 of using my iPad as primary device:

I could have run my Prezi to run on the iPad, but I ran it on the netbook because I wanted to use the clicker. I suspect that something like this will be available in the future. I did think that it would be nice to have my notes on the iPad screen, so I’ll try that for my next talk.

Though I like the keyboard, I find navigating within the document a bit cumbersome. It’s hard to get the insertion point in the middle of the word, particularly when working with small text. I wish there were keyboard shortcuts to move around the page.

I used the machine very intensely all day yesterday and I still had a 28% charge, so it seems that a daily charge will work fine for classroom use.

It is much more comfortable to carry around the iPad in its case than to carry a netbook or laptop. I think I said this yesterday, but I specifically thought this several times today.

Much to my surprise, yesterday I received an iPad. While grateful for the gift (and frankly excited about the new gadget), my initial reaction was

“Great, now I can’t criticize it blindly anymore!”

Yes, there’s nothing that feeds a polemic like the lack of firsthand experience.

I contemplated returning it (for a fraction of a second), and then I decided that the best thing would be to use it and report on what I find (as well as getting to play with the new toy).

If the iPad is going to be a student and teacher machine, then it needs to do roughly all of the tasks that are completed on an office computer. So I have decided to use my new iPad as my primary computer for the next week. I will only turn to my desktop or net book when I can’t do something with the iPad.

This way I can best report on my impressions of the device and its ability to function as a stand alone machine.

INITIAL REACTIONS (in no particular order)
There are no bullets or numbering for these because I can’t make them with the iPad on this site

The screen is, of course, spectacular. It looks even bigger and brighter than I expected.

Typing with the on screen keyboard is easier than I thought it would be, though the landscape keyboard takes up too much screen real estate that things get cut off a bit. I keep hitting the n instead of the space…I expect I’ll get better at this.

I appreciate having the autocorrect (frankly, I’ve started to get really annoyed when I type a contraction and the computer doesn’t add the apostrophe). HOWEVER, I really hate the fact that “its” is always corrected to “it’s.” I’m afraid that I will miss one and a reader will smugly think that I don’t know the difference.

Doesn’t take long for the screen to be filled with fingerprints. I hate to think what the screen of a 14 year old boy will look like (to be fair, I’m only seeing what was always on the keyboard, but ignorance is bliss).

It certainly is much easier to carry than the net book. I like the case a lot.

Finally for this entry, I like reading with the Nook app, but the iPad is much heavier than it appears to be, and my arm gets tired holding it at reading length.

So, overall I am enjoying the experience, but there are clearly some challenges that I will need to solve, work around, or live with!

More to follow.

If you are sometimes discouraged about the future of Catholic education, you need to read Archbishop Timothy Dolan’s article “The Catholic Schools We Need” in the September 13 issue of America.

http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=12448&o=37344

Bravo!