Who wouldn't want to go?

I've posted a little bit about TED in the past but this year I took my dream of going a step further - I actually applied. If you aren't familiar, applying to TED is no small feat. The mere idea of applying to go to a conference is just the first clue that something is different - and this is a very different sort of event. I'm lucky enough to be surrounded by some of the smartest people on the planet each and every day. The work that we do is truly marvelous, groundbreaking, and of such importance that I can't imagine working anywhere else. The only problem is - as an organization we live inside a very well defined box. There is a certain way of doing everything, very conservative but with good reason. Change isn't always positive right? I'm absolutely loving my professional life but I can't help but feel like inspiration is something that we should always be on the lookout for.

Having the opportunity to attend TED would be a truly amazing experience. To immerse myself in that sea of intellect, to hear the stories of innovators and leaders, to be inspired by imaginations that I could only dream about... I eagerly await the response to my application. With all my fingers crossed. But in the meantime, I must be appeased by the thousands (?) of inspiring talks they've made available online and watch their trailer once in a while. Again, who wouldn't want to go?

Proud

Earlier tonight was just awesome. My big guy, who we spend wayyyy too much time trying to keep on the straight and narrow, absolutely wowed us twice in one night. First, the spelling bee.

JAM brought home this monster spelling list that was something of a culminating list for 1st and 2nd quarters. 150ish words were on this thing. Some of them I don't think I'd be able to spell without writing them down (I am a man who LOVES SPELL CHECK!!!) It was a daunting list to say the least, especially for a kid who has to work as hard as he does to sit and concentrate on anything not Lego or Star Wars. But he and Wifey studied. And practiced. Hard. For many days. Practiced until words like thoroughbred and ninety nine and handkerchief came out flawlessly without fail.

Then, today was the big day. Actually, it was supposed to be yesterday but they got a one day reprieve from their teacher. For most kids I think that would be a blessing but for our little man it was just another day for the anxiety to build up. He admitted to feeling "real nervous" this morning as he thought about the upcoming event. Did he back down though? Nope. He threw his hat into that purely optional ring (yeah, he could have sat it out if he had wanted, like about half the class decided to do) and he aced that sucka. You heard me - he's one of three finalists from his class now. Got all 13 words he was asked correct. Didn't even pass on a single word. And I'm bragging. And I'm happy to do it.

The finals are tomorrow. The 3 finalists from each 4th grade class. As he said - "8 losers, 1 winner. I better be one of the winners." I didn't say he was the sharpest knife in the drawer, he just spells reel gud. Just like his old man.

So as I sat here tonight watching him absolutely engrossed in his book (with toes on both feet tapping and his left hand playing with his lips, nose, and cheeks - always moving) I was just in awe of this amazing kid. He shows his beautiful head on occasion, like when Wifey posted on FB about yesterday morning when this neverseenbefore kid got up early, all on his own with no grumbling or arguing (a small miracle unto itself), made his bed, came downstairs and made his own lunch.

Then, tonight, was proud moment of the day #2. We all loaded into the van to go see the big science fair backboard viewing thing at his school. They line up all the backboards and present the awards in the gym. It isn't anything formal, just a few hours when parents can walk through and check out all the different projects. In the middle of all the projects on rusting pennies and soda explosions and melting ice there was JAM's, sitting proud with his award taped on, and the smile on his face was priceless. He gave a little fist pump and I gave him a high five and that was it. No running around, no jumping up and down, no hysterics. Another piece of evidence that he's growing more mature every day. Of course I didn't think of taking a picture though. *smacking head* I take pictures of EVERYTHING and I miss that? I'll take one when it comes home for sure but in the moment would have been so much better.

Yup, tonight was a proud night.

JAM + Piano = this guy

Have you ever heard of TED? No, TED isn't a guy, it a conference where very smart people get together and talk about changing the world and spend time inspiring one another. It's uber expensive, ultra exclusive (you need to write essays on your application - they want a cross section of people, not all monochromatic like usual conferences) and brings together a truly amazing cast of speakers to stimulate your senses. I can't help but think that this type of environment might kick me in the right direction - get me interested in taking a leap of faith and get me to follow through on one of my brilliant ideas that I'm always too chicken to do anything with because of a whole host of factors - money, insurance, mortgage payments, you know, the little stuff...

Someday I hope to go but in the meantime I'm pacified in that many of their talks are available online - here's the 2009 conference website. It seems that most of the vids they put out are posted through their blog.

In looking at the site today I came across this performance. If you've got a few minutes, and want to see something that I think is pretty unique -



Yeah, this is definitely what JAM would do if we ever got him 20 years of piano lessons.

Another round of thanks

Having "enjoyed" a weekend of playtime with my Dad and JAM, I need to share my thanks. And I'll explain the quotes in a moment. This past weekend was the second annual (here for the first) boy's trip up to Williamsport, PA for the opening weekend of the Little League World Series. I feel like I said it all last year, except for another huge round of thank-you's to my Dad for joining us and especially for picking up the hotel tab. Wouldn't have been able to do the trip without that help so aside from being able to spend real quality time with him and JAM, he was really responsible for the whole thing and it was much appreciated.

But, I need to explain the quotes from above. "Enjoy" is about how I'm feeling about the whole trip and it is almost exclusively my fault. Much like every parent I'm sure, I have certain mental images running around in my noggin about how things are going to play out in all sorts of situations. I have visions for high school graduations, first weddings, second weddings (joking!), grandkids, very lucrative employment so these dang kids can take care of us when we're old and poor, etc., etc. This weekend was on a slightly smaller scale but not really any different. I had a vision, especially after last year and all of our (JAM and me) talks about what to expect this year, of being able to sit and actually watch some baseball with my Dad and my son. You know, we'd talk about what was going on down on the field, I'd explain some of the finer points of the game to my baseball-playing/loving son. We talked before hand about our (read - "MY") plan. Hill sliding would be fine, yes we'd get some treats along the way, yes we'd visit the fun-zone and throw balls and act silly at the games, but we-were-going-for-the-purpose-of-watching-baseball. (!!!)

Yeah, didn't so much work out that way. We brought our lawn chairs (which was a good idea because those hard metal bleachers are not so kind on the 'ol posterior) but that also meant we had to set up on the upper flat area in the outfield. And that meant sitting behind other people (locals) who know more about this setup than we do and they get there early and take up huge portions of the flat space so no matter what you have to sit behind someone. Wow, that was a long sentence and I'm sure not at all grammatically correct. So here we were, sitting behind mostly empty folding chairs but that meant JAM couldn't really see. And when you can't see something all that well you tend to get kinda bored with it. Can't blame him one bit. But, once you get bored you quickly find other things to do, including sliding and wanting treats and all the other crap we'd talked about.

To make an already long story shorter - JAM did very little baseball watching. Which meant that we got to do not as much baseball watching as we would have liked. For my Dad and I, we could sit in the outfield all dang day and watch wild pitch after passed ball (seriously, someone teach these kids how to catch already!!!) nice and serenely. JAM's got to move - no surprise there. And, for the most part, I let him go off on his own. For long periods of time too. We brought his (my old) pay-per-use phone so he had a way to get in touch with me if he had to but for the most part he just went off and played the games and went sliding and whatever the heck else he did. He showed up when some kid laughed at him on the hill (seriously, he needs to learn to laugh at himself a little bit so not everything is quite the end of the world drama he thinks it is), or when he was hungry (again) for some Italian Ice or another hot dog but mostly he was on his own. We had been letting him go on his own more and more this summer - here - so with the security being tighter there than at the airport I felt absolutely safe in letting him spread his wings a bit.

The end result? I was sad that my vision didn't play out. I wanted to have a bunch of time sitting there talking baseball with my kid, but it didn't work like that. I knew in my brain that it wasn't going to, but I set myself up for it anyway. We did get some time but between the poor views and the ridiculously long delays in the game so ESPN could get in their commercials it was hard for JAM to live up to my unrealistic expectations. My fault entirely, but it still doesn't take away from that little bit of the parent that mourns when the vision doesn't take shape quite like it was imagined.

Here's to good times, and realizing that I need to take what I get and be thankful for it.

Online Learning Gets a Boost

Interesting article today on the New York Times' BITS Blog. According to a recent study done for the US Department of Education, learning done at least partially online results in a significant improvement in learning based on quantitative comparisons. (here - http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/study-finds-that-online-education-beats-the-classroom/)

This is extremely interesting to me because I've been trying to make inroads along these lines at work. Having research to fall back on will help to bolster my argument that we've become stagnant in our approach and especially as our workforce becomes increasingly infiltrated by the Millennials we'll have to keep up with their expectations for learning.

As a student of both traditional (of course) and online instruction, then as an instructor in both arenas, I recognize the challenges faces by new online learners. There is definitely a learning curve involved, and all new online learners should be prepared for a new way of doing things. But, it is my stance that the "I just learn better in a classroom" excuse is not valid. It is definitely different, and it will take some work and time to get used to, but the evidence suggesting increased value in online learning gets stronger every day. As in everything else we do as professionals, if your (learning) skillset does not evolve then you run the risk of becoming extinct.

Sometimes you've just got to ignore yourself

I've got an inherent distrust of events and people when they don't fit my expectations. I used to be very trusting - to a fault. But, I've mentioned that previously. But now? I guess it's just a part of growing older. You learn that not everyone should be trusted, that some people might try to take advantage or misrepresent themselves to your detriment. Now, if someone tries to tell me something that seems just a little too good to be true, I take it as being too good to be true.

Tonight, I told myself to shut up.

As I mentioned in my last post, JAM's 9th b-day was last week. Wifey's (and mine) good friend L gave JAM two tickets to two different Orioles games as a present. I know - how cool was that? Tonight was the first game, and JAM and I took off for the game this evening to a very harangued looking Wifey and two screaming young ones standing in the doorway with their faces pressed up against the glass. I felt like a tool for leaving - but JAM deserved to go and use his tickets so off we went. Our seats? I'll let the pics speak for themselves....

Yup, that's us up in the last row of the upper deck. Our seats weren't really all the way up there but almost. When we took a walk all the way up, and noticed how much nicer it was up there in the breeze so we decided to stay. It was a good thing we did.

In the 5th inning or so, as we were sitting up there minding our own business, this kids comes all the way up the stairs, walks over to us and says - "How'd you like to upgrade your seats? For free!"

My B.S. meter went through the roof - kind of like when another 21-year-old-looking guy came up to us a little while earlier and asked for a dollar saying he just realized he didn't have enough cash to pay for the parking garage. I'm glad I just laughed at him because a little while later I saw him and his friends with a newly purchased bottle of Sprite taking swigs alternatively between the Sprite and another bottle of suspiciously clear looking liquid and mixing them in their mouths. hmmmm.... Disgusting for sure, and sure as hell glad I didn't waste any money on them.

But I digress. So when this second kid (16 or so by the looks of him) comes up with this too-good-to-be-true offer I asked him what was the catch. I thought he was going to try to sell me magazine subscriptions or something because in his other hand he had two or three manila folders. But, he told me there wasn't any catch, he was just leaving and had really good seats and wanted to bring them up top and give them to someone who could use them. I'm not a total ass, so I said sure, and thanked him, then looked at the tickets. JACKPOT!!!! Let's just let the pic speak for itself once again...

Yessir, there we are about 15 rows behind home plate. Even more funny?

That's the pic looking up to where we were from where we ended up. I learned an important lesson tonight that I'm sure Wifey could have told you many years ago...

Sometimes you've just got to ignore me. :)

I'm glad I did.

Because cheating is good?

Well, no. Cheating isn't actually good. We all know that. But even when I was a teaching I knew that it was silly to ask kids to memorize things that could easily be looked up. The focus should be on making connections, thinking, learning to learn, and learning how to research and locate the material you need for the moment or the project. Memorization is something that should be left to the mentats. Oh common! You don't know what a mentat is? Seriously, you should read a book.

Today I ran into one of those situations where I didn't have a clue how to figure something out. And for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to do something that I'm sure my 7th grade math teacher would kick me for. Good thing I can't remember who that person was huh? The problem at hand was trying to figure out how to turn a value I had for a duration in seconds into a duration in hours. Yup, I had to figure out how to turn something like 1.5 million seconds into hours. Do you remember how to do that? Anyone?

*chirp*


*chirp*


Yeah, I didn't either. So, I called my local math geek, my good friend D. I knew he'd know. And he did. Can't for the life of me remember how he got there, but it had something to do with dividing by 3600 for some reason. It's good having smart friends. :)

But then I had a thought. There's a web site for everything right? There had to be a site that did this kind of thing. Guess what? There is! Is it technically cheating?
How cool is this --> http://www.calculateme.com/index.htm?

From any value to any value, this site rocks. Pretty lame attempt at advertising for car insurance, but I'll overlook that for getting me the info I need.

So who needs to be smart? Just need to know where to look it up. Sorry D, you've been replaced. :)

My (not so) little boy

Two things on my mind tonight, both having to do with my big guy, who is just getting bigger and bigger. As a result, the topics we're dealing with are also getting bigger and bigger. First, the bad news... just because I want to get it out of the way. My poor skinny little eight-year-old got punched for the first time today. We don't have the whole story yet, just the JAM version (which we learned very quickly to not use as the definitive truth - he's as bad a story teller as his poor 'ol Dad), so we're waiting to hear back from his school tomorrow. The new Vice Principal is on the case, and she is just the best thing ever, so I know we'll get the whole story from her.

But, from what we can gather from JAM, it was a pretty out of the blue thing. The bus pulled up to JAM's stop and he stood up and tried to get out of the seat. He was sitting against the window in a seat with two other kids as his bus is always packed to the gills and they sit three to a seat. When he got up to try to leave the kid next to him turned around and nailed him in the right cheek. That's the story we got. No premeditation, no pushing or shoving, no nasty words, just a shot straight to the face. I'm sure you can see why I'm waiting to hear if there is more to the story. Who knows, it may just have been a really bad day for this sixth grader (yes, a sixth grader punched my third grader in the face!!!!), they might have had words getting on the bus, JAM might have shoved him accidentally while trying to grab his backpack, but there is no call for something like that. It took some calm breathing on my part when I got the call from Wifey while I was still at work. Father's first reaction is to protect you know?

I'll update tomorrow hopefully. I just wish other parents were spending as much time trying to raise good kids as we are. And no, I don't feel bad about saying that at all, I live in this community, I see the garbage around me every day. We try to help JAM understand what it means to make good choices every single moment of the day, even when adults aren't around. I want to raise my kid to be a good person. Trying to do that in an area surrounded by questionable family values is just so tough.

Now, on to the good stuff (but unfortunately, even the good stuff comes with a lot of hurt for Mom and Dad).

We got a very interesting piece of mail the other day. It seems JAM's teacher, who until this point has not given us any indication that she cares at all for our child, nominated him to attend something called the National Young Scholars Program. I'm still trying to find out what this thing is (first reaction was thinking this was something like those Who's Who deals where anyone can send in $25 to get their name in a book), but from what I've read of the materials they sent to us I'm impressed. The program is a week-long academic camp focusing on leadership with the student choosing from one of three other "Discovery Strands." There are three locations to choose from, none of them easily gotten to for us - northern VA, Chevy Chase and Towson with the Chevy Chase camp being a residential camp. It sounds just amazing with so much opportunity and potential for growth. JAM needs to be constantly challenged or I fear he'll end up like me... bored with school, and in looking for something to do, he'll end up constantly getting in trouble.

The upside has been established right? It sounds great, the extended summer learning opportunity, the time away from home surrounded by really bright kids, the fact that he'll know he was nominated by a teacher who hasn't, until now, shown any interest or acknowledgement of his abilities...

The downside?

$1,990 for the six-day program.

There is no way we could pay a third of that. I don't know what else to say except it really sucks to not be able to provide everything your family needs. I'm so proud of JAM and at the same time it really, really hurts.

Remember when they told you to...

...not trust everything you read? Well, here's reason #312 to listen to that advice.

(Don't worry, the irony of me writing down the words telling you not to trust everything you read is not lost on me.)

I had the pleasure of being in the audience for a keynote address by David Pogue at the ASTD conference I went to about two weeks ago. David is a dynamic speaker and I'd recommend taking some time to hear him if you ever get the chance. This is one session you don't want to skip in favor of the buffet line. (Don't worry, we all know that we all do it.) After the conference I made it a point to add David's blog to my reader. I'm glad I did. One of the things he brought up in his keynote was the double edged sword that Web 2.0 can be. Although we all love the fact that any of us can become creators of web content now (um, I am writing on my blog at the moment aren't I?) we should all become far more cognizant of the same fact - ANYONE can create web content!!!!

Have you ever gone shopping online and found that new gadget you thought was cool but wanted to see what other folks thought about it first? You inevitably scroll down the page and begin to read the customer reviews that most shopping sites have now but some sites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble have had for a long time. Have you ever wondered how there might be such divergent views on the same product? Some guy from Sheboygan claims the gadget is the best thing since bread (forget about the sliced part) but some soccer mom in Cleveland wrote about the thing blowing up in her kitchen. Then, there are the comments that sound too much like an advertisement of some kind. Have you ever seen those? I wish I had time or a production staff to go find some examples, but I'm lazy and tired. Sorry.

Best I could come up with is this one. Is it real? How can we tell?

I wanted to point to two recent posts by Mr. Pogue that deal with this issue - the same one he brought up in his address. It is very vindicating that I haven't been going crazy these last few years as I've been reading those comments with a healthy dose of suspicion .

• Belkin Employee Paid Users for Good Reviews - January 19, 2009
• Carbonite Stacks the Deck on Amazon - January 27, 2009,

The moral of the story is - beware what you read. Just 'cause it's printed don't mean it's worthy of your trust.

This is what it is all about

Nothing mind-blowing here, this is just a post so I can remember it in years to come. I'm sitting on my couch, 8:40pm on election Tuesday, next to Wifey and JAM, Wifey's hetero-life-partner L is here with us too, watching the election coverage. I love the fact that we can share this monumental event with JAM, telling him what's going on, explaining the Electoral College (well shoot, I'm trying to explain it to Wifey too ;) ), really showing him how this whole thing works.

He won't be able to stay up for even more than the <1% in-type projections but at this point Obama is up 100+ to 30-something. That would make me have nice dreams. He did get to vote with Wifey this morning (after getting up at 6:30 and standing on line for more than 2 1/2 hours!!!! unmedicated!!!!! I would rather get intimate with a very sharp stick) so he was even able to participate in his own way. Apparently he and Wifey were having a conversation debating whether he would remember any of this in 20 years. Hopefully, if blogger doesn't go out of business or anything, this might serve as a nice reminder.

GO OBAMA!!!!!!!

Real learning

JAM is one smart kid. I'm not one of those nutter fathers who was convinced his kid was bound for Yale while he was still in the womb. I have no pretentious notion that he will be the next Gates or Obama (hehehe). But, even though his school is trying to drill it out of him he still does love learning and I love that. Everyone who knows him knows he is a reading maniac. He went through the new Tiki Barber book in a day. I think he read it again the next day. You should have seen our friend Bin's face when she heard that. :) It was priceless.

So, why the blatant outpouring of pride? First, as I mentioned, the school system is trying their hardest to kill his love of learning with hours and hours of drill and kill. Gotta pass that test. HE'S IN 3RD GRADE FORCHRISTSAKE!!!! Let them enjoy learning for a little while longer! [Does anyone know of a school for kids who aren't in danger of failing and can read on or above grade level and even love math who don't need to be drilled into the ground to ensure they pass the damn test?] Even through all this my kid still loves to learn. If something is new, and exciting, but still learning, he'll eat it up. God I love that.

Second, my kid not only loves learning but he loves doing it with him mom and I. He will go anywhere, watch anything, read anything, with this bright light in his eyes. We've been to the zoo, the butterfly garden, the Smithsonian, the National Book Festival, real life practical learning opportunities. He loved them all. Today I found an article on the TechLearning site telling us about this cool add-on to Google Earth that shows over 12,000 objects that are orbiting Earth. You've got to check this out - it was very cool once JAM's wanna-be-geek dad figured out how to use it. :) So, here we were, it was 8pm on a school night, and we were spending our "special time" learning all about orbit, satellites, trajectory, USSTRATCOM, software like Google Earth.... I'm not sure if I made this obvious enough..... HE WAS LEARNING WHILE HAVING A GREAT TIME DOING IT!!! I really wish his school would learn how to do that. Having him sit next to me with an amazing smile on his face as we turned on and off individual orbital trajectories and set the Earth spinning. It was beautiful. He was beautiful.

This Stuff Ain't Easy

I always knew being the father I wanted to be was going to be pretty hard to do. Not going too much into where I came from (not in this post anyway) I didn't exactly have the greatest of models. So now that it's my turn to be the Dad it just amazes me when I look into the mirror and realize that Yeah buddy, it's up to you. So, when I run into articles or stories that make sense, or that provide a good dose of "DUH" I like to reflect on them and share them when possible. Two such pieces are now sitting in front of me, both coming from Parents Magazine. While magazines of this type are typically geared toward the fairer sex (Wifey and I have had plenty of conversations about that - she holds that it is the women who take the time to be the readers and caregivers, I say it is a piece of a larger societal problem where fathers aren't expected to invest themselves in the thought process of parenting - thank God Obama called fathers out in his acceptance speech last night!!!) I still tend to find at least one thing in each issue that I can relate to.

So, from this month's issue...

"Memo to Mommy" - see what I mean? Why not "Memo to Parents?" Sexist?

Anyway, this article provides 10 good little "quotes" that every adult should keep in mind when raising little ones...

1. Stop freaking out about the mess! There's always time to clean - but how often do we get to make mud pies?
2. Love me, even when I'm naughty. I'll only be this age once.
3. Be patient. I do everything for a reason, but I don't know enough words yet to give you an explanation.
4. Let me do it. I know you can do it faster and better, but sometimes experience is the best teacher.
5. Don't expect too much of me. I want to do what you ask and make you happy, but I'm still little.
6. Don't try to reason with me when I'm having a tantrum. Trust me - I can't hear you over my own screaming.
7. Keep your promises. It's all about trust. When I'm a teenager, you'll understand why it's so important.
8. Don't keep asking me if I've been good. I'm not even sure what that means, but if I was bad I'd never admit it!
9. Don't let me think that you're perfect. I feel a lot better knowing I'm not the only one who makes mistakes sometimes.
10. Set limits. I can't actually eat a whole box of cookies - I just want to see if I'd get away with it.

So, there is the first. Great advice to read each and every day. In fact, Wifey even posted it up on our bathroom mirror. Not sure what she is saying about me/her/us but I'll take the help any way I can get it.

The second article is bigger, with far too many words for me to retype the whole thing so I'll just give their main points. It is titled "Teaching Old-Fashioned Values in a Modern World."

1. Don't interrupt adults in the middle of a conversation.
   
   Wifey and I have worked on this since JAM was tiny and we are now getting into it with Red. It is actually pretty funny when we tell her to not interrupt and she yells out "I don't wanna wait!!!!" Well, it's funny right now, but not so much when it actually happens.
   
   
2. Say "Thank You" without being prodded.
   
   JAM is so amazing at this - with everyone else but us. lol We expect them to say please and thank you each and every time. I've even gotten so far into the habit of prompting that I'll hand a glass of milk or something to a friend's kid and say "What do you say?" only to feel like a doofus for overstepping. Good thing we have such good friends.
   
   
3. Greet adults with "Hello" and a proper name.
   
   This is something that we honestly haven't worked on much at all. We are very informal people, so we expect kids of friends to call us by our first names and we have always let our kids call other adults by their first names. This is really strange because some of our friend's kids do this by matter of course, but others, who had been students in Wifey's classes way back when, still call us Mr. and Mrs. even though we've tried to get them to stop. This is where having different sets of norms (does this qualify as a value?) is so interesting. I don't want to step on their rules or expectations but I also feel strange when my kids call their parents by their first names and they're calling us by our formal names. I'll have to ask more about that this weekend when we see them for Labor Day.
   
   
4. Hold the door.
   
   DUH!!!!! Why wouldn't you teach you kids to help, treat others with respect, etc.? Honestly, I think the thing I like most about myself is that I'll go out of my way to help others and holding the door is such a simple way to do this. So when JAM sees me doing this, and now Red sees it too, I'm happy to be a positive role model for this. I'm also so pleased that the magazine chose this one thing as something to focus on. Too many people, especially college kids at UMD where I went to school and still visit and interact with quite frequently and high school-aged kids in my neighborhood, don't think about anyone else around them. I know, it is developmentally appropriate for this up to a certain age, but there is no point in not showing them the right way to act right? I especially love it when I hold the door for another guy. Some guys just don't know what to do with that. Good manners is good manners though right?
   
   
5. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.
   
   Oh! Thank you for saying this! I had a funny sign on my wall when I taught that had some goofy sayings on it. One of them was "Never miss a perfect opportunity to shut up." A bit ruder than maybe called for but my teen-aged audience got it.
   
   
6. Give up your seat.
   
   Did you read that everyone? I can't tell you how many times Wifey has come home from riding the bus somewhere and told me that someone didn't get up for her. Oh, did I mention that this was usually when she was visibly preggers? And if you know her, she doesn't do 'just a little pregnant.' When my beautiful wife gets knocked up she goes all out so it is very obvious that she is "in that way." So when I heard about college kids knocking over each other, and her, to get on the shuttle buses when she was trying to get on, sometimes with another kid in tow, I wanted to go stand out there with her and b*$%-slap anyone I saw cutting her off or not getting up for her. On second thought, maybe it is a good thing I wasn't there with her. But, I digress as usual. I try to model this one too, on the Metro when we use it, is usually the only place where this might come into play but it all comes down to manners and class. By God my kids will know how to act civilly in their community.

All right, that's it for now. Can't say enough about this topic though, especially when we are surrounded by the area where we live and its lack of basic civility and common courtesy. It's hard to raise your kids "right" when they are constantly being inundated with "wrong" but I'll be dammed if I am going to give up.

MICCA #2 - Will Richardson (again) on "Podcast, Vodcast, Screencast Nation"

I'm sitting in on another session with Will Richardson. This session should give us plenty of information about creating and using podcasts, vcasts and the like. I am looking forward to it.

Will is once again streaming his session using the ustream service that I am extremely intreigued with. His channel on ustream is www.ustream.tv/channel/weblogg-ed-tv

Lots of interest with ustream so he spent the first few minutes, unplanned, talking about this service. I love presenters who go with their participant's interests rather than sticking to some contrived script.

Ustreamtv - live streaming of presentations, recordable for achival
Will used camtwist for Macs - nice tools for video production - use with Windows?
Search YouTube for ustreamtv for instructional videos
You can password protect streams and send links out to certain people - great for use with schools.
Embedding possibilities - post into a teacher blog post rather than use the commercial ustream site

creativecommons.com - for teachers to use to create copyright
flickr.com - creativecommons section - 50 million photos to use as long as you cite the source

_podcasting_
3 steps-Capture, produce, distribute
captureing - 3 choices - ipods w/italk connection, iriver, built-in mic
recording software - audacity, export as an mp3 - need lame plugin
upload to a server, send out a link
gcast - use phone to record, get a url to share
podomatic or odio - record right to their server,

_video_
capture - dv camera (look for a camera w/an external mic port and a firewire cable but usb2 is faster than firewire) or a flipvideo camera
produce w/ imovie or moviemaker
(see links on his wiki)

_digital storytelling_
combination of media
Alan Levine - cogdog - used 50 tools to create storytelling projects- http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools

Will Richardson @ MICCA - read/write web

I'm at the MICCA conference today and I had the lucky pleasure to sit in on Will Richardson's Read/Write Web presentation. I saw his presentiaotn last year on RSS feeds and it literally changed the way I look at information and the possibilities for education.

His site for this presentation: http://willrichardson.wikispaces.com/

I took notes during the presentation, my comments are interwoven with quotes and ideas of Wills....

discussed limitations of physical space and how the web is erasing those problems through social networking

surfthechannel.com - service collecting links to pirated shows and movies - not advocating its use *wink*

children going from a filtered environment at school to an unfiltered env. @ home and not knowing what to do, how to act

lack of creativity in pulic schools, prescribed curriculum

showed his cluster map from his blog - I thought of Warlick's cluster
he mentioned that every visitor to his blog was potentially his teacher and how you can't do that in physical space

fanfiction.com - social site relating to literature, mentioned that these tools are not being used in schools. how could they be used when you can't control the content? teaching smart security is one thing but you can't control the content. you can tell them to look away but the first glance will still happen. parents will not accept that.

using phone as a text finder - "all" students have these devices, why not teach them how to use them as an educational tool? have to start in early grades, can't expect students who've used them inappropriately for 6 or 7 years to all of a sudden use them in an educationally appropriate way.

MIT Open Courseware - sharing knowledge, content is everywhere. teach students how to find it, vet it (this site happens to be worthy content but not all sites share that distinction), find others who are also passionate about it, and they can build their own learning using new tools.

wikipedia - "collaborative construction of truth"
Colbert's "truthiness" - truth is what we feel is true, not what is actually true
kids are going to be creating content but without us teaching them to check their facts, ideas, find and use worthy sources

google docs running with skype at the same time, just like sittign next to another person who shares their interests

teach them to find up to date info rather than memorize info - example of memorizing # of planets.

errors in text books - problem is not that there are errors, it is that we or they can't fix it. so why still have text books????

getting outside the classroom - thinwalled classrooms. skype to bring outside resources in.
scratch from MIT?
having a network of anyone, kid 13 y.o. from perth teaching will's kids using skype !!!!! anyone can be a teacher.

"if you have a computer in the room you are no longer the smartest person in the room."

physical space is not where the best learning takes place. don't get rid of teachers, physical space is still important, but we need to tap into outside resources to access the best learning.

the "friday folder" - all the paper in the world coming home but kids will never look at them again -->
willowdale elementary - willowweb - podcasting - authentic assessments and activities

spoke about the people who don't get the need to change or are unable to affect the change. so, think about it differently. connect with other people, get more dots on your map. presentation was running on weblogged-tv - proved that people are getting together to discuss interests that are common to the group.

*applause*

Which network is right for me? diigo vs. del.icio.us

I am confronting a conundrum. I recently started using, I mean really using, del.icio.us. I started a while ago but only recently did I realize its potential. Too many times I had to try and remember a site that I saw ... on or an article that I read. Too often I couldn't come up with the answer and it was affecting my work. Not in a huge way, but I certainly would have been more efficient had I started really using this a while back. Live and learn. del.icio.us seemed easy enough to learn and use. I really enjoyed Lee Lefever's video that explained social bookmarking and focused on del.icio.us. It was a new tool that I didn't really understand at first and it was simple and intuitive enough to let me get it.

Now, a colleague of mine has started talking to me about diigo. It seemed overwhelming to me. The video they have on their site gives a good description of its capabilities but I am wondering if it is too much. Do I need to do more than bookmark sites? The diigo people I think have sensed this conundrum and created a page that highlights the differences between their service and del.icio.us and regular 'ol computer based bookmarking. Here >>http://www.diigo.com/help/why_diigo.

Diigo seems to do some cool things that might take my bookmarking to a new level, allowing me to remember or find those small tidbits of info you think of days or weeks later. Not only can I save the URL but I can highlight parts of the page to draw my attention to specific things later. Sounds good, but I have a feeling that I am like some other users and this tool seems a little overwhelming to me right now. I also have a feeling that I will be fine once I jump in (I'm a total chicken when it comes to jumping in the cold pool at first too :-D).

More later I guess....

Field Trips

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to accompany JAM and his class to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. It had been so long since I had been on a field trip, and although wifey and I both had the distinct feeling that I was given a particularly challenging group of students to chaperone, I had a really great time. My background being in education afforded me a great opportunity to spend time with these four second graders and work with them to understand what they were seeing. I take what I know for granted far too often, not realizing how many learning opportunities there are when spending time with JAM. We spoke about why certain fish were doing that, or why certain sharks could or couldn't be kept at the aquarium. The dolphin show was wonderful as we learned about training and care of dolphins and how people and our affect on the environment affects all other animals.

It truely was a fantastic day but I can say one thing for sure... I am just not used to so many little voices. My head was ringing and I was exhausted after that day. God bless teachers of anyone under 14. I know I couldn’t do it.

Social Bookmarking

David Warlick's post (http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2008/02/04/tinker-toy-networks/) finally convinced me. Not that I needed a lot of pushing, I was waiting for a good reason to try out social bookmarking anyway and I am finally signed up with a del.icio.us account. In my never ending quest to create compensation techniques for myself I think this will be a very helpful tool. It will allow me to lable and bookmark sites I find for future access. I can then share my bookmarks with anyone I wish to create a huge network of reviewed and useful sites.

Web2.0 at its greatest.

In Plain English

Finally, a site for me! A colleague of mine told me about this site today as we were discussing social bookmarking. The guy who makes these videos is great at making things really simple in an entertaining way. Learning while being entertained. Imagine that?

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=leelefever