I am sitting in the Indianapolis Airport. I am on my way to the Philippines for the first time. Tried to get here a couple hours early to catch an earlier flight to Atlanta but they cannot change my flight. Ug. Got economy comfort for most of the floght except from Altanta or Narita, Japan. That will be a long haul cramped up like a sardine.
As per usual on such flights, I will have the fun and lovely experience of grading papers from my R546 class on instructional strategies. This is a Saturday class from 8 am to 1 pm that I teach each spring for 8 weeks. Yesterday, we met twice in order for me to go. Super ug! But we made it through. I had the Indiana Teacher of the Year, Stacy McCormack, present during the 2nd session, She is a real dynamo. And she is a role model for my students as she illustrates how creativity + hard work can land you a trip to the White House and a photo-op with President Obama. Stacy teaches chemistry and physics, both of which are critical areas targeted by the federal governnment. No textbooks or boring lectures for Stacy. Nope, she believes in highly active and interactive lab experiences.
Anyway, as I said, I am heading to a conference in the Philippines. You can always get my current (and previous news and travels off my homepage. I will give a plenary talk on Thursday at 1st International Conference on Open and Distance Learning. The theme is creating spaces and opportunities. They expect about 300 people. Color PDFs of my talks (including a 3-part masterclass on Wednesday) as well as my plenary session are posted to my archived talks in TrainingShare.com. You will also find my new paper on Extreme Learning there. I wrote this in a day...think it came out ok (stole much from a recent NSF grant proposal; actually from sections that we had to delete due to page length limitations). Extreme Learning is my new research focus (see team and mission and such).
Please send me a note if you will be in Manila for the conference this week Wednesday to Friday. It shoud be great.
I will also do talks at 2 universities south of Manila (Feb 21 and Feb 28). I'll be back on the 29th. Color PDFs of my 8 talks can be found at my archived talks in TrainingShare.com as well. I will speak at the University of Batangas . After it, I will get a couple of days at Boracay Beach. Boracay beach is ranked top 10 in the world). My speaking will end at the University of the Philippines Open University on Tuesday February 28th. And then I fly back on the 29th.
My friend Dr. Melinda (Mel) Bandalaria from the UPOU is arranging it all. Sweet. She is so great. Back in 2008, she was among a group of about a dozen people who helped me run a symposium on e-learning in Asia at the E-Learn conference. Those presentations later became articles in a special issue of the International Journal of E-Learning and then a print-on-demand book with AACE. It will be fanstic to catch up with Mel and meet many new friends in the Philippines. I know my friend Dr. Kumiko Aoki from the Open U of Japan will be there as I just got an email from her.
I will update this blog from the Philippines. When I return, I will attend the annual IST conference in my department at IU March 2nd and then the SITE conference in Austin, Texas March 6-8th (see our special back-to-back symposium in Austin on emerging learning technologies that Mimi Lee from the U of Houston and I are arranging there). Finally, I will keynote a conference for Indiana Wesleyan on March 9-10 in Indianapolis. Wow.
Time to board for Atlanta.
Sunday, 19 February 2012
Monday, 6 February 2012
Cracking the Whip: FEDx Videos from the NSF Cyberlearning Research Summit at National Geographic in DC
So, is NSF cracking the whip to better understand how to impact learning with technology? I think so...well, actually, what I detail below was a quite friendly, informative, and engaging event. Much life. Much energy. Much passion. And dozens of exciting visions of the future of learning.
What am I talking about? A couple of weeks ago (January 18, 2012), I had the extreme pleasure to present in the Grosvenor Auditorium at National Geographic during the Cyberlearning Research Summit for the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Washington, DC. This event, which was organized by people from Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and Lawrence Hall of Science along with NSF, was one of the most unique and engaging events of my life. In additon to NSF, organizations like the Gates Foundation were among the sponsors. Not surprisingly, the audience was packed with interesting people to meet.
People flew, drove, walked, ran, taxied, bused, and subway rode into the event. As a result, I got to see many friends at the event, including Tom Reeves from the University of Georgia, Roy Pea from Stanford, Sarah Haavind from Leslie University, YaTing Teng from Adobe, Michael Wenger formerly of Sun Microsystems, and I finally got to physically meet with Christine Greenhow who is now at Michigan State University (we have met in the cyberworld of conference event planning a couple of years back). Both Tom Reeves and Mike Wenger have chapters in my 2006 Handbook of Blended Learning, so it was great to introduce them to each other. In addition to the folks mentioned above, my fantastic friend, Dr. Sherry Hsi from Lawrence Hall of Science was among the main organizers. Here is a list of the organizers.
Organizers
Summit Chairs
Jeremy Roschelle, SRI International, Menlo Park
Sherry Hsi, Lawrence Hall of Science, UC Berkeley
Advisory Committee, Reviewers, & Editors
Chad Dorsey, Concord Consortium
Daniel Edelson, National Geographic Society/National Geographic Education Foundation
Judi Fusco, SRI International
Chad Lane, University of Southern California
Linda Polin, Pepperdine University
Mimi Recker, Utah State University
Patricia Schank, SRI International
As a TED-like event, we each got a short amount of time to make our points. It was NOT TED, however. Given it was for the federal government, I wanted to call these FED talks. Someone else said that they were TED-ED talks. I countered that is was like one of those special TEDx talks, so about FedEx. Ya, like FEDx, the delivery was very fast with mostly on time deliveries. And no one messed up. In the practice session the day before, there were various technology issues and hang-ups. But these were ALL taken care of (Sherry Hsi made sure of that...she cracked the whip...smile Sherry...just kidding my friend. Sherry was awesome in getting us prepared). Thanks to that practice, only one person had a video that would not play and he had a back-up plan so all was well.
There were around 24 speakers that day who each got about 10 minutes to discuss their research and vision of the future for learning with technology. There were also opening Welcoming Remarks from Danny Edelson from the National Geographic Society Janet Kolodner from the National Science Foundation, and Jeremy Roschelle from SRI International. After that, to "Set the Stage," we heard from my friend, Constance Steinkueler Squire from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (who was interviewed and quoted in the USA Today last week in an article on the benefits of video games and what the White House is currently doing in this area to promote gaming). The day ended with a closing reflection from Karen Cator from the US Department of Education. I enjoyed her quick comments and insights. I should also point out that Jeremy Rochelle acted as the host for the day and introduced each sections of talks. He too did a marvelous job.
The Cyberlearning Summit speakers were all nominated and then they had to put in a proposal. Only a few were selected (I was most lucky). Do check out the amazing speakers and their bios, the program, location, the topics, the graphics and videos of the talks, and more information exists in the About section. The also had a scrolling list of quotes from many researchers, scholars, and educators that played throughout the day.
For those like me who have a preference for visual representations of ideas, they hired a graphic facilitator to draw out our talks (here is a sample...a visual was drawm for each set of 4-5 speakers; mine is not yet posted). How cool is that! I has only happened to me once before (back in February 2011 in Saudi Arabia). The artist was Jim Nuttle. I highly recommend him.
Here is part of the description in the Cyberlearning Summit wiki:
"The Cyberlearning Research Summit was a high-profile gathering in Washington DC, featuring top quality research-based speakers who shared visions for the future of learning with emerging technologies. In the style of the TED conferences, speakers aimed to:
Discuss big ideas on at the intersection of emerging technology and research on learning;
Articulate the “transformative potential” of a direction or approach;
Communicate a sense of the broad research on this topic;
Engage, inspire, and stimulate thinking in this new program area.
Building on those visions, participants gathered as birds-of-a-feather to crystallize a sense of the unique opportunities that should be the focus of the research community now. We seek a community sense of how to couple the learning sciences with related fields of innovation to leverage new technology affordances for the deepest learning outcomes. Through the contributions of diverse participants, the summit sought to exemplify the “transformative potential” of cutting edge research and development to dramatically advance learning – and is expected to be influential in identifying promising directions for advanced R&D efforts."
There is now a YouTube Channel with these talks. My talk, "Stretching the Edges of Technology-Enhanced Teaching: From Tinkering to Tottering to Totally Extreme Learning" was just posted. This talk summarized explained the casual informal learning settings brought about by technologies such as Wikipedia as well as those deemed more extreme. See the new Extreme Learning website that my team is in the midst of designing.
I hate watching myself speak and, so, I have only watched a few seconds of my talk, but others say they like it. You can find it here. As you will see, I eventually found my way into my Indiana Jones (i.e., Indiana Curt) outfit, but did not feel comfortable enough to crack the whip during the 10 minutes (where were my friends, Aaron Doering and Charlie Miller from the University of Minnesota, when I needed them?). I did, however, get the audience to shout "WE-ALL-LEARN" a couple of times (based on my World is Open book) and jump up and down. You will have to watch to see I guess. I cannot watch it.
There are many brilliant talks from that day on mobile learning, robotics, virtual humans, cyber-civics, big data visualization, and complexity models of different kinds. One of my favorites was William (Bill) Swartout's talk, Virtual Humans for Learning. It is a definite must see! See also my old friends Elliot Soloway and Cathie Norris discuss mobile, "Yes We Can-Now: All K-12 Teachers Enacting Learn-by-Doing."
How might you use? Here are 10 quick ideas off the top of my head.
1. Create a complete course around these videos on emerging technology for learning. As part of this, you might interview 1-2 of the presenters each week.
2. You might crack the whip and assign your students to watch ALL of the videos for one week of a semester.
3. Require students to read the research of particular presenters and then watch their video or vice versa.
4. Assign your students watch each of the 5 Talk Sets for themes.
5. Have your students select their favorite presenter and write to him or her.
6. Have your students engage in a role play related to different presenters, perhaps in a class symposium session (this is what I like to do).
7. Have your students create a wiki glossary of the key points of each presenter.
8. Organize virtual discussions of 1 or more the various presentations and ask the presenter to come in and lend feedback on the points made.
9. Assign different students to blog on each session.
10. Have students reorganize the session presentations for the day in a way that makes most sense to them.
There is much you might find useful from that day.
What a totally cool day! They need to do this again. Perhaps an annual event.
Of course, when we were done, there was a free reception (and drinks) in a wonderful open rooom at National Geographic. Oh my, what a day. We got on the bus at 7:15 am and got back at 10 pm or so. When I got to my hotel, my dear friend Paul Kim from Stanford University and Seeds for Empowerment arrived for a chat. He just happened to be in town for a meeting intended to change the world (I thought I had just attended one such event but Paul's was equally world changing). As an aside, Paul and my son Alex Bonk (Jabonk Productions) go to Tanzania this week to work with teachers and students there using mobile devices. Alex will do some facilitation of the training but is mainly there for his photography and filming skills. I think if NSF does another one of these events that Paul Kim should be first on their list to present. That guy is phenomenal.
I took 4 or so pages of notes from the NSF Cyberlearning Summit. Perhaps I will blog post all of that. Is anyone interested in reading?
In the meantime, watch some of the videos from January 18th. Or do I have to crack the whip?
What am I talking about? A couple of weeks ago (January 18, 2012), I had the extreme pleasure to present in the Grosvenor Auditorium at National Geographic during the Cyberlearning Research Summit for the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Washington, DC. This event, which was organized by people from Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and Lawrence Hall of Science along with NSF, was one of the most unique and engaging events of my life. In additon to NSF, organizations like the Gates Foundation were among the sponsors. Not surprisingly, the audience was packed with interesting people to meet.
People flew, drove, walked, ran, taxied, bused, and subway rode into the event. As a result, I got to see many friends at the event, including Tom Reeves from the University of Georgia, Roy Pea from Stanford, Sarah Haavind from Leslie University, YaTing Teng from Adobe, Michael Wenger formerly of Sun Microsystems, and I finally got to physically meet with Christine Greenhow who is now at Michigan State University (we have met in the cyberworld of conference event planning a couple of years back). Both Tom Reeves and Mike Wenger have chapters in my 2006 Handbook of Blended Learning, so it was great to introduce them to each other. In addition to the folks mentioned above, my fantastic friend, Dr. Sherry Hsi from Lawrence Hall of Science was among the main organizers. Here is a list of the organizers.
Organizers
Summit Chairs
Jeremy Roschelle, SRI International, Menlo Park
Sherry Hsi, Lawrence Hall of Science, UC Berkeley
Advisory Committee, Reviewers, & Editors
Chad Dorsey, Concord Consortium
Daniel Edelson, National Geographic Society/National Geographic Education Foundation
Judi Fusco, SRI International
Chad Lane, University of Southern California
Linda Polin, Pepperdine University
Mimi Recker, Utah State University
Patricia Schank, SRI International
As a TED-like event, we each got a short amount of time to make our points. It was NOT TED, however. Given it was for the federal government, I wanted to call these FED talks. Someone else said that they were TED-ED talks. I countered that is was like one of those special TEDx talks, so about FedEx. Ya, like FEDx, the delivery was very fast with mostly on time deliveries. And no one messed up. In the practice session the day before, there were various technology issues and hang-ups. But these were ALL taken care of (Sherry Hsi made sure of that...she cracked the whip...smile Sherry...just kidding my friend. Sherry was awesome in getting us prepared). Thanks to that practice, only one person had a video that would not play and he had a back-up plan so all was well.
There were around 24 speakers that day who each got about 10 minutes to discuss their research and vision of the future for learning with technology. There were also opening Welcoming Remarks from Danny Edelson from the National Geographic Society Janet Kolodner from the National Science Foundation, and Jeremy Roschelle from SRI International. After that, to "Set the Stage," we heard from my friend, Constance Steinkueler Squire from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (who was interviewed and quoted in the USA Today last week in an article on the benefits of video games and what the White House is currently doing in this area to promote gaming). The day ended with a closing reflection from Karen Cator from the US Department of Education. I enjoyed her quick comments and insights. I should also point out that Jeremy Rochelle acted as the host for the day and introduced each sections of talks. He too did a marvelous job.
The Cyberlearning Summit speakers were all nominated and then they had to put in a proposal. Only a few were selected (I was most lucky). Do check out the amazing speakers and their bios, the program, location, the topics, the graphics and videos of the talks, and more information exists in the About section. The also had a scrolling list of quotes from many researchers, scholars, and educators that played throughout the day.
For those like me who have a preference for visual representations of ideas, they hired a graphic facilitator to draw out our talks (here is a sample...a visual was drawm for each set of 4-5 speakers; mine is not yet posted). How cool is that! I has only happened to me once before (back in February 2011 in Saudi Arabia). The artist was Jim Nuttle. I highly recommend him.
Here is part of the description in the Cyberlearning Summit wiki:
"The Cyberlearning Research Summit was a high-profile gathering in Washington DC, featuring top quality research-based speakers who shared visions for the future of learning with emerging technologies. In the style of the TED conferences, speakers aimed to:
Discuss big ideas on at the intersection of emerging technology and research on learning;
Articulate the “transformative potential” of a direction or approach;
Communicate a sense of the broad research on this topic;
Engage, inspire, and stimulate thinking in this new program area.
Building on those visions, participants gathered as birds-of-a-feather to crystallize a sense of the unique opportunities that should be the focus of the research community now. We seek a community sense of how to couple the learning sciences with related fields of innovation to leverage new technology affordances for the deepest learning outcomes. Through the contributions of diverse participants, the summit sought to exemplify the “transformative potential” of cutting edge research and development to dramatically advance learning – and is expected to be influential in identifying promising directions for advanced R&D efforts."
There is now a YouTube Channel with these talks. My talk, "Stretching the Edges of Technology-Enhanced Teaching: From Tinkering to Tottering to Totally Extreme Learning" was just posted. This talk summarized explained the casual informal learning settings brought about by technologies such as Wikipedia as well as those deemed more extreme. See the new Extreme Learning website that my team is in the midst of designing.
I hate watching myself speak and, so, I have only watched a few seconds of my talk, but others say they like it. You can find it here. As you will see, I eventually found my way into my Indiana Jones (i.e., Indiana Curt) outfit, but did not feel comfortable enough to crack the whip during the 10 minutes (where were my friends, Aaron Doering and Charlie Miller from the University of Minnesota, when I needed them?). I did, however, get the audience to shout "WE-ALL-LEARN" a couple of times (based on my World is Open book) and jump up and down. You will have to watch to see I guess. I cannot watch it.
There are many brilliant talks from that day on mobile learning, robotics, virtual humans, cyber-civics, big data visualization, and complexity models of different kinds. One of my favorites was William (Bill) Swartout's talk, Virtual Humans for Learning. It is a definite must see! See also my old friends Elliot Soloway and Cathie Norris discuss mobile, "Yes We Can-Now: All K-12 Teachers Enacting Learn-by-Doing."
How might you use? Here are 10 quick ideas off the top of my head.
1. Create a complete course around these videos on emerging technology for learning. As part of this, you might interview 1-2 of the presenters each week.
2. You might crack the whip and assign your students to watch ALL of the videos for one week of a semester.
3. Require students to read the research of particular presenters and then watch their video or vice versa.
4. Assign your students watch each of the 5 Talk Sets for themes.
5. Have your students select their favorite presenter and write to him or her.
6. Have your students engage in a role play related to different presenters, perhaps in a class symposium session (this is what I like to do).
7. Have your students create a wiki glossary of the key points of each presenter.
8. Organize virtual discussions of 1 or more the various presentations and ask the presenter to come in and lend feedback on the points made.
9. Assign different students to blog on each session.
10. Have students reorganize the session presentations for the day in a way that makes most sense to them.
There is much you might find useful from that day.
What a totally cool day! They need to do this again. Perhaps an annual event.
Of course, when we were done, there was a free reception (and drinks) in a wonderful open rooom at National Geographic. Oh my, what a day. We got on the bus at 7:15 am and got back at 10 pm or so. When I got to my hotel, my dear friend Paul Kim from Stanford University and Seeds for Empowerment arrived for a chat. He just happened to be in town for a meeting intended to change the world (I thought I had just attended one such event but Paul's was equally world changing). As an aside, Paul and my son Alex Bonk (Jabonk Productions) go to Tanzania this week to work with teachers and students there using mobile devices. Alex will do some facilitation of the training but is mainly there for his photography and filming skills. I think if NSF does another one of these events that Paul Kim should be first on their list to present. That guy is phenomenal.
I took 4 or so pages of notes from the NSF Cyberlearning Summit. Perhaps I will blog post all of that. Is anyone interested in reading?
In the meantime, watch some of the videos from January 18th. Or do I have to crack the whip?
Friday, 2 December 2011
CQR Pro or Con?: Should schools use as much digital technology as they can afford?
Sorry no blog postings for a while. Been a rough semester, first of travel, and now of trying to complete an NSF grant.
One shiny moment occurred today. A special issue of the Congressional Record Quarterly (CRQ) came out today (Note: You may need a subscription to view it...sorry about that). The issue is devoted to technology in the K-12 schools and higher education. It is titled "Digital Education." The issue looks great; in fact, many people and projects from the "Extreme Learning" arena that I am researching are mentioned in it. For example, Aaron Doering from the University of Minnesota who has helped found Earthducation and Polar Husky. There is Paul Kim from Stanford who founded Seeds for Empowerment (he is quoted on page 1008). My son, Alex Bonk, is currently working with Paul on his Seeds for Empowerment project.
Congressional Quarterly Researcher (CQR) homepage; Entire issue: CRQ,
Digital Education (Note: It will be listed at the homepage only until the night of December 8, 2011), December 2, 2011 • Volume 21, Issue 42, Can technology replace classroom teachers?, By Marcia Clemmitt
There are many other superstars in this issue. James Gee from Arizona State University of Arizona is asked about the skills learned from game-based learning on pages 1004 and 1005. Paul Resta from UT Austin is also interviewed on page 1005. He mentions the inadequate teacher training that often surrounds technology purchases in schools. Gee, Resta, Kim, Doering. Wow.
But wait, there is more! After Paul Kim (p. 1008) mentions how live teachers might support student technology needs when and where needed online, Chris Dede from Harvard is asked about the benefits of interactive games like "River City" which he helped develop. After that, my friend Barry Fishman from the U of Michigan comments on his goals in studying the motivational principles of games. A few pages later (p. 1014), Fishman is back to discuss the educational benefits of mobile apps. The following paragraph signals the return of Aaron Doering and his ideas about adventure learning and student-generated knowledge from these adventures. Also on page 1014, my friend Christine Greenhow from the University of Maryland discusses the benefits of social networking. And there are many more learning technology experts quoted in this issue.
It is great to see so many of my friends and colleagues whom I highly respect quoted in this issue. Their work is an inspiration to me. Therefore, it was an honor to be asked to author the Pro side of the op ed piece that CRQ people gave me on the technology spending debate in schools. The exact debate is: "Should schools incorporate as much digital technology as they can afford." My response and the entire issue is freely available for a week or until the night of December 8th, 2011.
= = = = = = = =
Pro and Con. Note: I wrote 538 words. My article, however, had to be reduced to 400 words. My original longer version is below. See what you think.
Congressional Quarterly Researcher (CQ) Researcher, op-ed on Computers in K-12 education.
Position of Advocate: Should schools incorporate as much digital technology as finances allow?, p. 1117
Curt Bonk, Indiana University (2011, December 2, p. 1017). Op Ed (Pro side--expanded version--a shorter 400 word version appeared in CQR) (Note: Paul Thomas from Furman University has the con side.)
We have entered a unique moment in history. Learning technologies have far outstripped learning theory. There is a ceaseless churning out of digital technologies for schools and teachers to consider. At the same time, budgets are being slashed. What to do? This is no time to ban, control, restrict, limit, or passively ignore possible uses of technology in teaching and learning. Instead, it should be an age filled with heavy doses of learning technology experimentation and creative initiatives.
School administrators, educational experts, teachers, and other stakeholders should map out reasonable scenarios on technology use and learning outcomes. With proper planning, foresight, discussion, and evaluation, there is much that technology dollars can afford, even for the smallest or most impoverished school or district.
A couple of years ago, I authored the book, “The World Is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education.” In it, I detailed many free and openly available resources for learning. With careful planning of one’s technology dollar, technologies such as laptops, tablet computers such as the iPad, or other hardware can be acquired with a wide range of free tools and applications for learning basic mathematics, spelling, grammar, or scientific concepts. Not content? Why, then, perhaps you might have students explore learning portals containing the great works of Shakespeare, Darwin, Einstein, Jane Austin, Jane Goodall, the Dalai Lama, and most major historical figures and leaders one can name from the past few millennia. And such contents are often created by NASA, the U.S. Federal Government, the Smithsonian, National Geographic, the United Nations, MIT, Berkeley, the British Library, UNESCO, and many other reputable and expert-reviewed sources.
Learners can collect data with online survey tools, manipulate and analyze it with spreadsheet and statistical applications, and report it with various presentation and communication tools. Critical thinking, problem solving, and synthesis are all skills that can be enhanced using digital technologies. Why not extend your budgets toward such ends? Thoughtful integration of technology necessitates that we push to the edges of all perceived limitations; this includes pedagogical limitations, access limitations, time limitations, complexity limitations, and cost limitations. Learners today can spend their entire middle and high school years learning with free resources. Now top it off with hardware, software, and administrative costs that situate students in authentic contexts analyzing real world data and interacting with their global peers about the results of their investigations. If this requires a cheap $20 membership in some service that fosters such expert advice or interaction, that is $20 well spent.
Digital technologies offer so much hope today. Students can be inspired by mentors and role models from all corners of the Earth. Feedback on one’s ideas can be received in the early morning hours or late at night. E-books can be loaded into mobile devices that can represent events through simulations, animations, videos, and hyperlinked text.
Effective learning requires an environment be designed for multiple paths to success. In the twenty-first century digital technologies—social networking, e-books, shared online video, mobile applications, virtual worlds, collaborative tools, etc.—enhance the learning opportunities for untold millions of learners. The maximization of technologies in the learning space, in effect, provides a distinct advantage for learning. Now is the time to move ahead, not retrench or retrace.
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Hope you enjoyed it. What is you opinion? Should schools use as much digital technology as they can afford? I think the operational word here is "use" not "afford." But that would need to be a longer argument.
Of course, I wish I had the space to write twice as much. With that, I could have embedded a few more specific examples. Reminder: the entire CQR special issue will only be listed on the homepage until December 8th, 2011 and may require a subscription by your university or organization to be able to view it. The Pro-Con debate I was in may end up available later on as there is a portal to all previous Pro-Con debates in CQR.
Enjoy the weekend and the football games; especially my alma mater Wisconsin Badgers vs. Mich State.
One shiny moment occurred today. A special issue of the Congressional Record Quarterly (CRQ) came out today (Note: You may need a subscription to view it...sorry about that). The issue is devoted to technology in the K-12 schools and higher education. It is titled "Digital Education." The issue looks great; in fact, many people and projects from the "Extreme Learning" arena that I am researching are mentioned in it. For example, Aaron Doering from the University of Minnesota who has helped found Earthducation and Polar Husky. There is Paul Kim from Stanford who founded Seeds for Empowerment (he is quoted on page 1008). My son, Alex Bonk, is currently working with Paul on his Seeds for Empowerment project.
Congressional Quarterly Researcher (CQR) homepage; Entire issue: CRQ,
Digital Education (Note: It will be listed at the homepage only until the night of December 8, 2011), December 2, 2011 • Volume 21, Issue 42, Can technology replace classroom teachers?, By Marcia Clemmitt
There are many other superstars in this issue. James Gee from Arizona State University of Arizona is asked about the skills learned from game-based learning on pages 1004 and 1005. Paul Resta from UT Austin is also interviewed on page 1005. He mentions the inadequate teacher training that often surrounds technology purchases in schools. Gee, Resta, Kim, Doering. Wow.
But wait, there is more! After Paul Kim (p. 1008) mentions how live teachers might support student technology needs when and where needed online, Chris Dede from Harvard is asked about the benefits of interactive games like "River City" which he helped develop. After that, my friend Barry Fishman from the U of Michigan comments on his goals in studying the motivational principles of games. A few pages later (p. 1014), Fishman is back to discuss the educational benefits of mobile apps. The following paragraph signals the return of Aaron Doering and his ideas about adventure learning and student-generated knowledge from these adventures. Also on page 1014, my friend Christine Greenhow from the University of Maryland discusses the benefits of social networking. And there are many more learning technology experts quoted in this issue.
It is great to see so many of my friends and colleagues whom I highly respect quoted in this issue. Their work is an inspiration to me. Therefore, it was an honor to be asked to author the Pro side of the op ed piece that CRQ people gave me on the technology spending debate in schools. The exact debate is: "Should schools incorporate as much digital technology as they can afford." My response and the entire issue is freely available for a week or until the night of December 8th, 2011.
= = = = = = = =
Pro and Con. Note: I wrote 538 words. My article, however, had to be reduced to 400 words. My original longer version is below. See what you think.
Congressional Quarterly Researcher (CQ) Researcher, op-ed on Computers in K-12 education.
Position of Advocate: Should schools incorporate as much digital technology as finances allow?, p. 1117
Curt Bonk, Indiana University (2011, December 2, p. 1017). Op Ed (Pro side--expanded version--a shorter 400 word version appeared in CQR) (Note: Paul Thomas from Furman University has the con side.)
We have entered a unique moment in history. Learning technologies have far outstripped learning theory. There is a ceaseless churning out of digital technologies for schools and teachers to consider. At the same time, budgets are being slashed. What to do? This is no time to ban, control, restrict, limit, or passively ignore possible uses of technology in teaching and learning. Instead, it should be an age filled with heavy doses of learning technology experimentation and creative initiatives.
School administrators, educational experts, teachers, and other stakeholders should map out reasonable scenarios on technology use and learning outcomes. With proper planning, foresight, discussion, and evaluation, there is much that technology dollars can afford, even for the smallest or most impoverished school or district.
A couple of years ago, I authored the book, “The World Is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education.” In it, I detailed many free and openly available resources for learning. With careful planning of one’s technology dollar, technologies such as laptops, tablet computers such as the iPad, or other hardware can be acquired with a wide range of free tools and applications for learning basic mathematics, spelling, grammar, or scientific concepts. Not content? Why, then, perhaps you might have students explore learning portals containing the great works of Shakespeare, Darwin, Einstein, Jane Austin, Jane Goodall, the Dalai Lama, and most major historical figures and leaders one can name from the past few millennia. And such contents are often created by NASA, the U.S. Federal Government, the Smithsonian, National Geographic, the United Nations, MIT, Berkeley, the British Library, UNESCO, and many other reputable and expert-reviewed sources.
Learners can collect data with online survey tools, manipulate and analyze it with spreadsheet and statistical applications, and report it with various presentation and communication tools. Critical thinking, problem solving, and synthesis are all skills that can be enhanced using digital technologies. Why not extend your budgets toward such ends? Thoughtful integration of technology necessitates that we push to the edges of all perceived limitations; this includes pedagogical limitations, access limitations, time limitations, complexity limitations, and cost limitations. Learners today can spend their entire middle and high school years learning with free resources. Now top it off with hardware, software, and administrative costs that situate students in authentic contexts analyzing real world data and interacting with their global peers about the results of their investigations. If this requires a cheap $20 membership in some service that fosters such expert advice or interaction, that is $20 well spent.
Digital technologies offer so much hope today. Students can be inspired by mentors and role models from all corners of the Earth. Feedback on one’s ideas can be received in the early morning hours or late at night. E-books can be loaded into mobile devices that can represent events through simulations, animations, videos, and hyperlinked text.
Effective learning requires an environment be designed for multiple paths to success. In the twenty-first century digital technologies—social networking, e-books, shared online video, mobile applications, virtual worlds, collaborative tools, etc.—enhance the learning opportunities for untold millions of learners. The maximization of technologies in the learning space, in effect, provides a distinct advantage for learning. Now is the time to move ahead, not retrench or retrace.
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
Hope you enjoyed it. What is you opinion? Should schools use as much digital technology as they can afford? I think the operational word here is "use" not "afford." But that would need to be a longer argument.
Of course, I wish I had the space to write twice as much. With that, I could have embedded a few more specific examples. Reminder: the entire CQR special issue will only be listed on the homepage until December 8th, 2011 and may require a subscription by your university or organization to be able to view it. The Pro-Con debate I was in may end up available later on as there is a portal to all previous Pro-Con debates in CQR.
Enjoy the weekend and the football games; especially my alma mater Wisconsin Badgers vs. Mich State.
Saturday, 15 October 2011
The “Explainer” Explains His Creative Process: A Close-Up Discussion with Michael Wesch
Visit to Kansas State and Interview of Michael Wesch:
I wrote about Michael Wesch from Kansas State University in my World is Open book. He became known for several YouTube videos on the digital generation that went viral during the past few years. And that has brought a ton of attention to the anthropology program at Kansas State as well as to Michael who is now an associate professor of Cultural Anthropology. Michael’s Digital Enthography blog is also high read and referenced and his channel in YouTube is watched by millions.
Several of his more popular videos are listed below.
1. Web 2.0…The Machine is Us/ing Us; 11,477,707 views, posted January 31, 2007.
2. A Vision of Students Today, 4,424,863 views, posted October 12, 2007.
3. The Visions of Students Today 2011 Remix One (Trailer), 19,713 views, posted January 26, 2011.
4. An anthropological introduction to YouTube, 1,715,085 views, posted July 26, 2008, the Library of Congress, recorded June 23rd, 2008.
5. Rethinking Education, 33,145 views, posted January 24, 2011 (Note: this is the one I perhaps like the most since there are many Web 2.0 stars in this one. Watch it and see who you recognize.).
Now Back to My Story...
Michael and I had a chance to sit down and reflect when I was at K-State back on October 4th to 6th. I was in town to keynote the 6th annual Axio Learning Community Conference at the K-State University Alumni Center. It was a lovely place in which to present. I had a great time at the conference as well as dinner afterward with David Young (my host) and several others.
As you can see from the pics below, K-State is a lovely place.
I was honored to have Michael Wesch attend my talks; especially since he is on sabbatical this year. Michael is a fantastic person. As a result, seems everyone in Manhattan knows him, from 4 year old kids we walk by on the streets to emeritous faculty members on campus.
After my talks were over on the 5th, Michael and I walked to the house he just purchased and is in the process of remodeling as well as building bike trails in the back. It certainly is a lovely place to live...both his house and Manhattan. Michael has some wonderful plans for that house and yard.
Shortly after I got back from Kansas, questions starting pouring into my head that I wanted to ask Michael. It was impossible to get back on a plane and pop over to Manhattan and ask him, so I sent him a few questions about living in Manhattan, Kansas State, but more importantly, I wanted to know about his creative process. Amazingly, Michael found a few spare moments of time as he was headed out the door for perhaps his top invited talk ever, the Future of State Universities Conference in Dallas. Other speakers included Tony Blair, Clayton Christenson, John Howard (the former prime minister of Australia), Salman Khan, Arne Duncan, Martha Kanter, etc., and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was a moderator. Wow.
Nevertheless, he found some time. Thanks Michael! You are one excellent human being. As you will see, Michael Wesch's answers to my six interview questions provide a fascinating glimpse into the creative process of a perpetually innovative scholar and highly engaging and thoughtful individual. Read on.
The “Explainer” Explains His Creative Process: A Close-Up Discussion with Michael Wesch
Curt Question #1. Hey Mike. You are known for your unique videos that explain new media in education and how education might better address the youth culture. Seems every time I turn around you are producing something fascinating for me to watch, read, or listen to. Can you describe your creative process? What might be some takeaway principles, environmental conditions, or environment components of becoming such a highly creative person?
Michael responds: My creative process begins by trying to quiet all the "should" voices rattling through my head. We all have people (and perhaps more importantly, large and menacing social, bureaucratic, and economic structures) telling us that we Should do this or that, that this is the way things Should be done, that real professors Should do X, Y, and Z, etc. It is an ongoing battle to silence those Shoulds. The Shoulds hold most of the keys to traditional tenure & promotion. They put food on the table. And they have ways to make us feel good when we do as we Should.
But in an environment of constant change, the Shoulds are almost always wrong. This is where you might expect me to rehash that old cliche that we have to silence the Shoulds, listen to our own hearts, get in touch with our core and lead from within - but that's not how I work. I do almost completely the opposite. The only voice that is more distracting than the Shoulds is my Self - so it has to be silenced too. And so I'm left just trying to listen to the world as it is, and listen for what it needs. This is a long process that is really more like a life practice. I just spend hour after hour gathering information, thinking about it, processing it, thinking about it again, questioning my earlier ideas, looking for my taken-for-granted assumptions and trying to challenge those, and on and on for years until there is a breakthrough moment.
People often ask me how long it took me to create “The Machine is Us/ing Us,” which is probably my best-known work. It's hard to answer that question. The actual labor of putting the video together took about 3 days and no more than15 hours of actual work time, but the idea itself came to me even faster - in an immeasurable micro-second.
The entire vision was just there for me one morning and I immediately set out to turn that vision into a reality. But another way of answering that is to say it took over one year (actually, close to 2 years), because that's how long I had been thinking about (and desperately struggling to write about) the core ideas that are expressed in that video. My mom overheard me answering this question to somebody once and she interrupted saying, "Mike, you were working on that your whole life" - which is really more true than any answer I ever had. It is the culmination of decades of work. Things I was doing over 20 years ago when I was 12 are directly relevant to the work.
We're all that way, and that's the real beauty of the creative process. Whatever you create, will in some way, be the culmination of a lifetime of creativity and exploration, and therefore unique and something only you could say in the way in which you have said it.
Curt Question #2. How do you know when an idea might work or when one of your video ideas might go viral? Are there any key steps or aspects to a project that others can learn from?
Michael responds: A great academic video starts with a keen observation. From there it is a matter of relaying that observation by using a pacing that underlines the central emotion and feel you are trying to create, moving the story along with "economy," which is to say you must never tell too much or too little to tell the story. You have to master the subtle art of rhythm, in which every clip and transition matches the emotional & musical rhythm of the piece. The pacing and rhythm help to create a rich texture, and all of this must resonate with profound authenticity - as something more real than real because it reconnects us with the real that we are constantly letting slip right past us in our everyday lives. In this way, video does not really have to make a logical "point" in the manner of an academic paper. Instead it allows us to show the world to others in a new way. My most successful works go on to be used by others to make very different, often contradictory points, which is fine with me. My purpose is to create an artifact that focuses or refocuses important conversations.
Curt Question #3. Perhaps there is a link between exercise and creativity. Apparently, you love riding your bike. Do you jump on a bike to purposely reflect on a new idea or is it your chance to get away and veg out? Have any of your video ideas been designed in your head while riding your bike? By the way, how many bikes do you have? How long are your routes?
Michael responds: I love biking, but it is really just a small part of my larger interest in livable, engaged, participatory communities. The energy I apply in my classrooms trying to create inspiring authentic connections I carry over into my everyday life, and part of that is using a bike to get around town. The beauty of biking is not just that you get exercise, it is that you feel more connected to the world and people around you. You are not encapsulated in your car, so you save and say "hi" to people around you. You stop for more conversations. Ride your bike enough and you no longer just feel more connected, you *are* more connected. I live more-or-less car-free in my day-to-day life. I have a wide range of bikes to help me achieve this, including a snow bike, a basic commuter, and my favorite - a Dutch "long john" cargo bike. The cargo bike is a true car-replacement, with tons of storage space to carry 2 kids, groceries, and more. Our town is no more than 5 miles across at its widest point, and most destinations are within 2 miles, so there is really no reason to drive a car under most circumstances.
Curt Question #4. Your Library of Congress talk is a must see for those interested in new media and the potential impact of shared online video and other participatory learning technologies in higher education and other educational sectors. I find the data in it phenomenal and your presentation style highly engaging. How long did it take you to create that talk? Do such talks evolve or fade away after so much time?
Michael responds: There is about 2 years of research behind that talk, most of which took place in an upper-level Digital Ethnography class at K-State. We worked closely together as a class, and in the end each of the fifteen students submitted a 5 minute clip summarizing their piece of the overall research. I then took those 15 clips and edited them into the videos you see during that talk. Some of it is my own original material, and some of it is taken directly from student projects.
That process took me about 6 weeks to complete. I have been asked to give that same talk a few times since then, so I have kept it updated with new materials and a few new insights.
Curt Question #5. You mentioned to me earlier this week that you have always found computer programming interesting and fairly easy for you. When did you first begin to dabble with computers? How has this evolved?
Michael responds: My first computer was a Tandy PC-8 that I received for Christmas when I was 11 years old. It was really just a fancy calculator, but it understood BASIC. I started hacking away immediately. Like any programmer will tell you, there is a magical moment when you setup a list of commands for a machine and it miraculously performs those commands for you. I was hooked, but I was pretty limited by the little16 digit display. I eventually managed to create a little pixilated superman character that could fly across the screen and crash into a wall on the other side. That was enough to inspire my parents to buy me a much larger Tandy with a keyboard and 4-color screen the next year, and I was off and running. In graduate school I started playing around with HTML, JavaScript, and other web-authoring languages, always looking for new ways that we could present and share our ideas.
When I started the work and research on The Machine is Us/ing Us, I had in mind a simple paper explaining to other scholars why Web 2.0 matters. Writing about Web 2.0 was frustrating though. I knew I would have to *show* them, and the idea for that video was born.
Curt Question #6. In what ways does Kansas State support someone like you (i.e., an associate professor of cultural anthropology and digital ethnography) to get to this national stage related to teaching and learning with technology and the creation of active learning environments or "anti-teaching" as you call it?
Michael responds: While Kansas State has provided plenty of support for my work, I think it is more important to note what they have *not done,* which is get in the way. Nobody has ever said "you can't do that" to me, which has really surprised me considering some of the things I have done. For example, when I published "A Vision of Students Today," which shows some of the worst of K-State (large out-of-date classrooms and disengaged students trudging through an Intro class), I expected some reprimanding. But even after the Chronicle of Higher Education ran it with the headline, "K-State Students report reading less than half of what they are assigned," I still received nothing but praise and encouragement. I imagine some schools would have asked me to pull it off YouTube after that, but it stayed, and went viral. The video garnered over 4 million views, was featured on ABCnews.com, and we became the center of a national debate on college education. We benefited greatly throughout all of this, and have been able to generate some exciting positive momentum towards reforms that are already in place just a few years later.
[Note: here are some pics I took 2 weeks ago when visiting K-State and the classroom Michael taught in and used for his video]
[Note also that there are also new classroom spaces being built at K-State like this one.]
Michael Continues...Kansas State has a long record of big successes, with more national Professor of the Year award winners than any other research university in the US, and our students have received more of the big-name scholarships in the past 25 years (Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, etc.) than any other state university. Overall, we rank 6th, amidst the Ivy League schools. It is a remarkable accomplishment for an "out of the way" place like this, but I think it may be precisely because we are out of the way, we stay out of each others' way, and yet also provide a sense of community where people feel inspired to find their way.
Curt Question #7. (Note: All creative people need nurturance and support for their ideas. Having just visited Michael at Kansas State, I could see that K-State is a highly supportive environment and one that would be easy to settle into and work. KSU and Manhattan are a lot like IU and Bloomington here in Indiana. I heard Manhattan is expecting huge growth during the coming decade. I wanted to know what it was like to work there.)
So I asked him, “You have become an international celebrity in what previously might have been considered a remote part of the world. Why might someone getting their Ph.D. today place the Manhattan's and Bloomington's of the world high on their list instead of San Francisco and Boston?”
Michael responds: I like living in a smallish town because it gives me a constant sense of connection and significance. By "significance" I don't mean that I feel like "a big fish in a little pond." Rather, I feel like everybody's a big fish here. We all matter. I think of Manhattan, Kansas as a "heads up" town, a town where you walk with your head up and greet everybody you meet. You do this because there is a good chance you know the people you see, and if you don't, there's a good chance somebody you know knows them, and that you will meet them later. In contrast, there is that other Manhattan in New York, which tends to be a "head down" town - a place where people tend to keep their head down and dart off to their next appointment. I have some good friends in that other Manhattan, like Daniel Latorre, that are trying to change this through better public spaces, but there is nothing like the feel of a town like Manhattan, Kansas, where everybody matters.
Being a little bit off the map is also liberating. I feel a bit more free to do my own thing and explore the world in my own way.
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
I hope you enjoyed the interview with Michael Wesch. During my brief stay in Manhattan, I saw many of the things Michael mentioned. I visited the classroom “A Vision of Students Today.” I also saw everyone in town greet Michael as a personal friend. He is fun, creative, unique, and inspiring. Now perhaps we know a bit more about the Explainer!
I hope to see some of you at E-Learn in Hawaii during the coming week.
I wrote about Michael Wesch from Kansas State University in my World is Open book. He became known for several YouTube videos on the digital generation that went viral during the past few years. And that has brought a ton of attention to the anthropology program at Kansas State as well as to Michael who is now an associate professor of Cultural Anthropology. Michael’s Digital Enthography blog is also high read and referenced and his channel in YouTube is watched by millions.
Several of his more popular videos are listed below.
1. Web 2.0…The Machine is Us/ing Us; 11,477,707 views, posted January 31, 2007.
2. A Vision of Students Today, 4,424,863 views, posted October 12, 2007.
3. The Visions of Students Today 2011 Remix One (Trailer), 19,713 views, posted January 26, 2011.
4. An anthropological introduction to YouTube, 1,715,085 views, posted July 26, 2008, the Library of Congress, recorded June 23rd, 2008.
5. Rethinking Education, 33,145 views, posted January 24, 2011 (Note: this is the one I perhaps like the most since there are many Web 2.0 stars in this one. Watch it and see who you recognize.).
Now Back to My Story...
Michael and I had a chance to sit down and reflect when I was at K-State back on October 4th to 6th. I was in town to keynote the 6th annual Axio Learning Community Conference at the K-State University Alumni Center. It was a lovely place in which to present. I had a great time at the conference as well as dinner afterward with David Young (my host) and several others.
As you can see from the pics below, K-State is a lovely place.
I was honored to have Michael Wesch attend my talks; especially since he is on sabbatical this year. Michael is a fantastic person. As a result, seems everyone in Manhattan knows him, from 4 year old kids we walk by on the streets to emeritous faculty members on campus.
After my talks were over on the 5th, Michael and I walked to the house he just purchased and is in the process of remodeling as well as building bike trails in the back. It certainly is a lovely place to live...both his house and Manhattan. Michael has some wonderful plans for that house and yard.
Shortly after I got back from Kansas, questions starting pouring into my head that I wanted to ask Michael. It was impossible to get back on a plane and pop over to Manhattan and ask him, so I sent him a few questions about living in Manhattan, Kansas State, but more importantly, I wanted to know about his creative process. Amazingly, Michael found a few spare moments of time as he was headed out the door for perhaps his top invited talk ever, the Future of State Universities Conference in Dallas. Other speakers included Tony Blair, Clayton Christenson, John Howard (the former prime minister of Australia), Salman Khan, Arne Duncan, Martha Kanter, etc., and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush was a moderator. Wow.
Nevertheless, he found some time. Thanks Michael! You are one excellent human being. As you will see, Michael Wesch's answers to my six interview questions provide a fascinating glimpse into the creative process of a perpetually innovative scholar and highly engaging and thoughtful individual. Read on.
The “Explainer” Explains His Creative Process: A Close-Up Discussion with Michael Wesch
Curt Question #1. Hey Mike. You are known for your unique videos that explain new media in education and how education might better address the youth culture. Seems every time I turn around you are producing something fascinating for me to watch, read, or listen to. Can you describe your creative process? What might be some takeaway principles, environmental conditions, or environment components of becoming such a highly creative person?
Michael responds: My creative process begins by trying to quiet all the "should" voices rattling through my head. We all have people (and perhaps more importantly, large and menacing social, bureaucratic, and economic structures) telling us that we Should do this or that, that this is the way things Should be done, that real professors Should do X, Y, and Z, etc. It is an ongoing battle to silence those Shoulds. The Shoulds hold most of the keys to traditional tenure & promotion. They put food on the table. And they have ways to make us feel good when we do as we Should.
But in an environment of constant change, the Shoulds are almost always wrong. This is where you might expect me to rehash that old cliche that we have to silence the Shoulds, listen to our own hearts, get in touch with our core and lead from within - but that's not how I work. I do almost completely the opposite. The only voice that is more distracting than the Shoulds is my Self - so it has to be silenced too. And so I'm left just trying to listen to the world as it is, and listen for what it needs. This is a long process that is really more like a life practice. I just spend hour after hour gathering information, thinking about it, processing it, thinking about it again, questioning my earlier ideas, looking for my taken-for-granted assumptions and trying to challenge those, and on and on for years until there is a breakthrough moment.
People often ask me how long it took me to create “The Machine is Us/ing Us,” which is probably my best-known work. It's hard to answer that question. The actual labor of putting the video together took about 3 days and no more than15 hours of actual work time, but the idea itself came to me even faster - in an immeasurable micro-second.
The entire vision was just there for me one morning and I immediately set out to turn that vision into a reality. But another way of answering that is to say it took over one year (actually, close to 2 years), because that's how long I had been thinking about (and desperately struggling to write about) the core ideas that are expressed in that video. My mom overheard me answering this question to somebody once and she interrupted saying, "Mike, you were working on that your whole life" - which is really more true than any answer I ever had. It is the culmination of decades of work. Things I was doing over 20 years ago when I was 12 are directly relevant to the work.
We're all that way, and that's the real beauty of the creative process. Whatever you create, will in some way, be the culmination of a lifetime of creativity and exploration, and therefore unique and something only you could say in the way in which you have said it.
Curt Question #2. How do you know when an idea might work or when one of your video ideas might go viral? Are there any key steps or aspects to a project that others can learn from?
Michael responds: A great academic video starts with a keen observation. From there it is a matter of relaying that observation by using a pacing that underlines the central emotion and feel you are trying to create, moving the story along with "economy," which is to say you must never tell too much or too little to tell the story. You have to master the subtle art of rhythm, in which every clip and transition matches the emotional & musical rhythm of the piece. The pacing and rhythm help to create a rich texture, and all of this must resonate with profound authenticity - as something more real than real because it reconnects us with the real that we are constantly letting slip right past us in our everyday lives. In this way, video does not really have to make a logical "point" in the manner of an academic paper. Instead it allows us to show the world to others in a new way. My most successful works go on to be used by others to make very different, often contradictory points, which is fine with me. My purpose is to create an artifact that focuses or refocuses important conversations.
Curt Question #3. Perhaps there is a link between exercise and creativity. Apparently, you love riding your bike. Do you jump on a bike to purposely reflect on a new idea or is it your chance to get away and veg out? Have any of your video ideas been designed in your head while riding your bike? By the way, how many bikes do you have? How long are your routes?
Michael responds: I love biking, but it is really just a small part of my larger interest in livable, engaged, participatory communities. The energy I apply in my classrooms trying to create inspiring authentic connections I carry over into my everyday life, and part of that is using a bike to get around town. The beauty of biking is not just that you get exercise, it is that you feel more connected to the world and people around you. You are not encapsulated in your car, so you save and say "hi" to people around you. You stop for more conversations. Ride your bike enough and you no longer just feel more connected, you *are* more connected. I live more-or-less car-free in my day-to-day life. I have a wide range of bikes to help me achieve this, including a snow bike, a basic commuter, and my favorite - a Dutch "long john" cargo bike. The cargo bike is a true car-replacement, with tons of storage space to carry 2 kids, groceries, and more. Our town is no more than 5 miles across at its widest point, and most destinations are within 2 miles, so there is really no reason to drive a car under most circumstances.
Curt Question #4. Your Library of Congress talk is a must see for those interested in new media and the potential impact of shared online video and other participatory learning technologies in higher education and other educational sectors. I find the data in it phenomenal and your presentation style highly engaging. How long did it take you to create that talk? Do such talks evolve or fade away after so much time?
Michael responds: There is about 2 years of research behind that talk, most of which took place in an upper-level Digital Ethnography class at K-State. We worked closely together as a class, and in the end each of the fifteen students submitted a 5 minute clip summarizing their piece of the overall research. I then took those 15 clips and edited them into the videos you see during that talk. Some of it is my own original material, and some of it is taken directly from student projects.
That process took me about 6 weeks to complete. I have been asked to give that same talk a few times since then, so I have kept it updated with new materials and a few new insights.
Curt Question #5. You mentioned to me earlier this week that you have always found computer programming interesting and fairly easy for you. When did you first begin to dabble with computers? How has this evolved?
Michael responds: My first computer was a Tandy PC-8 that I received for Christmas when I was 11 years old. It was really just a fancy calculator, but it understood BASIC. I started hacking away immediately. Like any programmer will tell you, there is a magical moment when you setup a list of commands for a machine and it miraculously performs those commands for you. I was hooked, but I was pretty limited by the little16 digit display. I eventually managed to create a little pixilated superman character that could fly across the screen and crash into a wall on the other side. That was enough to inspire my parents to buy me a much larger Tandy with a keyboard and 4-color screen the next year, and I was off and running. In graduate school I started playing around with HTML, JavaScript, and other web-authoring languages, always looking for new ways that we could present and share our ideas.
When I started the work and research on The Machine is Us/ing Us, I had in mind a simple paper explaining to other scholars why Web 2.0 matters. Writing about Web 2.0 was frustrating though. I knew I would have to *show* them, and the idea for that video was born.
Curt Question #6. In what ways does Kansas State support someone like you (i.e., an associate professor of cultural anthropology and digital ethnography) to get to this national stage related to teaching and learning with technology and the creation of active learning environments or "anti-teaching" as you call it?
Michael responds: While Kansas State has provided plenty of support for my work, I think it is more important to note what they have *not done,* which is get in the way. Nobody has ever said "you can't do that" to me, which has really surprised me considering some of the things I have done. For example, when I published "A Vision of Students Today," which shows some of the worst of K-State (large out-of-date classrooms and disengaged students trudging through an Intro class), I expected some reprimanding. But even after the Chronicle of Higher Education ran it with the headline, "K-State Students report reading less than half of what they are assigned," I still received nothing but praise and encouragement. I imagine some schools would have asked me to pull it off YouTube after that, but it stayed, and went viral. The video garnered over 4 million views, was featured on ABCnews.com, and we became the center of a national debate on college education. We benefited greatly throughout all of this, and have been able to generate some exciting positive momentum towards reforms that are already in place just a few years later.
[Note: here are some pics I took 2 weeks ago when visiting K-State and the classroom Michael taught in and used for his video]
[Note also that there are also new classroom spaces being built at K-State like this one.]
Michael Continues...Kansas State has a long record of big successes, with more national Professor of the Year award winners than any other research university in the US, and our students have received more of the big-name scholarships in the past 25 years (Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, etc.) than any other state university. Overall, we rank 6th, amidst the Ivy League schools. It is a remarkable accomplishment for an "out of the way" place like this, but I think it may be precisely because we are out of the way, we stay out of each others' way, and yet also provide a sense of community where people feel inspired to find their way.
Curt Question #7. (Note: All creative people need nurturance and support for their ideas. Having just visited Michael at Kansas State, I could see that K-State is a highly supportive environment and one that would be easy to settle into and work. KSU and Manhattan are a lot like IU and Bloomington here in Indiana. I heard Manhattan is expecting huge growth during the coming decade. I wanted to know what it was like to work there.)
So I asked him, “You have become an international celebrity in what previously might have been considered a remote part of the world. Why might someone getting their Ph.D. today place the Manhattan's and Bloomington's of the world high on their list instead of San Francisco and Boston?”
Michael responds: I like living in a smallish town because it gives me a constant sense of connection and significance. By "significance" I don't mean that I feel like "a big fish in a little pond." Rather, I feel like everybody's a big fish here. We all matter. I think of Manhattan, Kansas as a "heads up" town, a town where you walk with your head up and greet everybody you meet. You do this because there is a good chance you know the people you see, and if you don't, there's a good chance somebody you know knows them, and that you will meet them later. In contrast, there is that other Manhattan in New York, which tends to be a "head down" town - a place where people tend to keep their head down and dart off to their next appointment. I have some good friends in that other Manhattan, like Daniel Latorre, that are trying to change this through better public spaces, but there is nothing like the feel of a town like Manhattan, Kansas, where everybody matters.
Being a little bit off the map is also liberating. I feel a bit more free to do my own thing and explore the world in my own way.
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
I hope you enjoyed the interview with Michael Wesch. During my brief stay in Manhattan, I saw many of the things Michael mentioned. I visited the classroom “A Vision of Students Today.” I also saw everyone in town greet Michael as a personal friend. He is fun, creative, unique, and inspiring. Now perhaps we know a bit more about the Explainer!
I hope to see some of you at E-Learn in Hawaii during the coming week.
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Interview with Amy Burvall and Herb Mahelona: A bit of history of "History for Music Lovers"
An Interview with Amy Burvall and Herb Mahelona (History for Music Lovers):
Last month, Amy Burvall and Herb Mahelona were announced as invited speakers at the E-Learn 2011 conference in Hawaii next week. I was excited since I had read about them in the Washington Post and many other places. Yesterday I got even more excited when they agreed to keynote the conference next Wednesday morning (as a late replacement for someone else).
Who are Amy Burvall and Herb Mahelona you ask? They are some of the most innovative people I have ever encountered. And I will get to meet them in 6 days. Among his many skills, Herb is choir director choir at the Kamehameha Schools Hawaii Campus. Amy is known as a leader in educational technology professional development programs at both St. Andrew's Priory (where she taught for 8 years) and Le Jardin Academy International Baccalaureate School. Amy also teachers Theory of Knowledge and World History at Le Jardin Academy. There conference talk is titled "TechnoTroubadours and Teacherpreneurs" (see their bios). Their talk is very impressive as I got a glimpse and so can you. See their prezi presentation with embedded videos. It will be great to have K-12 teachers keynote E-Learn 2011. Fortunately, they are located in Hawaii, though Herb must fly in from the big island.
Amy and Herb are known from their musical creativity with their History for Music Lovers channel in YouTube. Superfantastic stuff. I am amazed by their historical song parodies. I really like their version of Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" as a way to remember the Trojan War. Another one I sing along with at least once a week is Mansa Musa (i.e., "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" by Culture Club). When you land on the History for Music Lovers homepage, you see highly creative song about the history of India, "The Mahabharata" (i.e., "Abracadabra" by the Steve Miller Band). Nearly 600,000 people have seen Amy sing about The French Revolution to "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga. I find it hard not to cry when listening to some of their oldie songs such as the Battle of Agincourt ("As Tears Go By" by Marianne Faithful).
Check their channel out; there are dozens of songs to listen to and learn world history. If someone ever asks you were e-learning can make an impact, well, this is a prime example--mashing up history and music and making it open source for kids all over the planet to listen to and learn from. How cool is that? Very cool! If only my high school such teachers. Perhaps we soon will be turning kids on to not only history but geography, biology, etc., with music.
The lyrics are highly inventive and catchy. I read somewhere that Amy has songs pop into her head when driving home from school and just has to write them down. I understand that since I sometimes experience that when on a plane or a train. Unfortunately, I cannot play music like they can. If Amy and Herb ever go on tour, I think I could listen to them all afternoon and evening at a summerfest stage in Milwaukee. They are highly talented and fun. I think we are going to get spoiled next week and want them at every e-learning conference.
Ok, I need to introduce them next week at the conference so I decided to interview them via email. With permission, below are their responses to this interview. I list Amy first since she was the one I corresponded with.
Curt Question #1. Do you see yourself in the e-learning field when you create a video?
Amy (and Herb): I think at first, not particularly. But certainly after we started posting to You-Tube and responding to fans (mostly teachers, students, and history buffs) and doing various interviews in the field, we did. There is definitely more pressure now as we work on new projects, but we still try to keep it fun and light-hearted, drawing from our own passions instead of catering to others. We’ve certainly learned a LOT about e-learning on our journey!
Curt Question #2. Did you expect to be celebrities in the e-learning space? What is this like?
Amy (and Herb): Haha no way! It’s surreal. I heard from a friend, for example, who was in a coffee shop in Oregon and heard some college kids singing our “Renaissance Man” song [i.e., "Blister in the Sun" by the Violent Femmes]. One fan wrote he was in a museum in Washington and they were playing some of our tunes in the gift shop! And when my students travel they always tell me they meet other kids who know about us. So bizarre. But what is most boggling is that it’s very rare that someone lets you know when they’ve written a blog post or article about you. We sort of have to google ourselves sometimes. And even more crazy was when I discovered one of our lyrics (fleas on rats) was an actual Twitter hashtag!
Curt Question #3. Which 2 music history videos that you created are your favorites and why?
Amy (and Herb): I really love the look and sound of “Elizabeth I”, to the Zombies’ “She’s not There”. And musically, my favorite is “Canterbury Tales”- plus nothing beats that Middle English rap segment. The way I envision “Guernica”, which is in production, might turn out to be my ultimate favorite. For Herb, I know he is most proud of “Joan of Arc”, because we also tried to parody the original White Stripes video…it took quite a lot of time and effort on his part to edit. As far as lyrics go, I think Herb’s lyrics were genius in “Chinese Dynasties” [i.e., "Mambo #5" by Lou Bega] and “Viva Roma #5” [i.e., "Vogue" by Madonna]…I prefer sticking to really specific topics, but he has a gift for synthesizing the broad topics.
Curt Question #4. What is the process like in creating a new video? Any interesting technology challenge that comes to mind?
Amy (and Herb): The biggest challenge for us is time…and now, geography, since we live on different islands. When either of us is inspired to pen lyrics, we do so, because that surge of creativity doesn’t happen all the time. I can go for months without writing a single line and then spew out 6 songs in weekend. Herb then creates the music, and we schedule a time to record. To me, recording is the most fun, and it really doesn’t take that long (maybe a half an hour for 1 song). He mixes/produces the tracks when he gets the time and then we brainstorm what the video should look like. I can never praise storyboarding enough! When we are ready to film I gather all the costume and make-up pieces and props and we head for a green screen. Herb uses a high def. camera and Adobe Premiere and After FX software. When my students make videos, they use Garageband and iMovie. The editing is the most time-consuming, but the more Herb uses the programs the better he gets. I always want to do crazy things that we probably need a Hollywood studio for, but Herb seems to make them happen. He is also a master at Flash animation, an some of our favorites (Henry VIII, Crete, Renaissance Man) are done completely in Flash.
Curt Question #5. What are your hobbies and interests?
Amy (and Herb): Herb is a classical musician at heart and plays for the Kamuela Philharmonic Orchestra, the University of Hawaii symphony, and the Kona Music Society. He teaches cello and piano privately, and is an experienced arranger and composer, who has even written 3 operas performed by the Hawaii Youth Opera Chorus. He enjoys hiking and has been involved in Boy Scout leadership.
Amy is obsessed with anything relating to design – graphic design, interior design, fashion design, etc. – and typically is involved in some related project. Her creative outlets are singing, writing, and photography, but more recently her attention has been on the use and implications of online curation, personal branding, and social media in education. She is often called to train peers in tech integration, and enjoys presenting on the topic. More recently, her interests have drawn her to the “Gutenberg Parenthesis” theory and the work of media philosophers Marshall McLuhan, Thomas Pettitt, and Alejandro Piscitelli, as well as the “EduPunk” movement.
= = = = = = = = = = =
Hope you enjoyed the interview. I also hope to see many of you at the conference next week. If you see me, tap me on the shoulder and say hi. See also the blog post below for the E-learn Preconference Summit at the University of Hawaii next Monday afternoon. The program was just announced and it will be worth it.
Last month, Amy Burvall and Herb Mahelona were announced as invited speakers at the E-Learn 2011 conference in Hawaii next week. I was excited since I had read about them in the Washington Post and many other places. Yesterday I got even more excited when they agreed to keynote the conference next Wednesday morning (as a late replacement for someone else).
Who are Amy Burvall and Herb Mahelona you ask? They are some of the most innovative people I have ever encountered. And I will get to meet them in 6 days. Among his many skills, Herb is choir director choir at the Kamehameha Schools Hawaii Campus. Amy is known as a leader in educational technology professional development programs at both St. Andrew's Priory (where she taught for 8 years) and Le Jardin Academy International Baccalaureate School. Amy also teachers Theory of Knowledge and World History at Le Jardin Academy. There conference talk is titled "TechnoTroubadours and Teacherpreneurs" (see their bios). Their talk is very impressive as I got a glimpse and so can you. See their prezi presentation with embedded videos. It will be great to have K-12 teachers keynote E-Learn 2011. Fortunately, they are located in Hawaii, though Herb must fly in from the big island.
Amy and Herb are known from their musical creativity with their History for Music Lovers channel in YouTube. Superfantastic stuff. I am amazed by their historical song parodies. I really like their version of Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" as a way to remember the Trojan War. Another one I sing along with at least once a week is Mansa Musa (i.e., "I'll Tumble 4 Ya" by Culture Club). When you land on the History for Music Lovers homepage, you see highly creative song about the history of India, "The Mahabharata" (i.e., "Abracadabra" by the Steve Miller Band). Nearly 600,000 people have seen Amy sing about The French Revolution to "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga. I find it hard not to cry when listening to some of their oldie songs such as the Battle of Agincourt ("As Tears Go By" by Marianne Faithful).
Check their channel out; there are dozens of songs to listen to and learn world history. If someone ever asks you were e-learning can make an impact, well, this is a prime example--mashing up history and music and making it open source for kids all over the planet to listen to and learn from. How cool is that? Very cool! If only my high school such teachers. Perhaps we soon will be turning kids on to not only history but geography, biology, etc., with music.
The lyrics are highly inventive and catchy. I read somewhere that Amy has songs pop into her head when driving home from school and just has to write them down. I understand that since I sometimes experience that when on a plane or a train. Unfortunately, I cannot play music like they can. If Amy and Herb ever go on tour, I think I could listen to them all afternoon and evening at a summerfest stage in Milwaukee. They are highly talented and fun. I think we are going to get spoiled next week and want them at every e-learning conference.
Ok, I need to introduce them next week at the conference so I decided to interview them via email. With permission, below are their responses to this interview. I list Amy first since she was the one I corresponded with.
Curt Question #1. Do you see yourself in the e-learning field when you create a video?
Amy (and Herb): I think at first, not particularly. But certainly after we started posting to You-Tube and responding to fans (mostly teachers, students, and history buffs) and doing various interviews in the field, we did. There is definitely more pressure now as we work on new projects, but we still try to keep it fun and light-hearted, drawing from our own passions instead of catering to others. We’ve certainly learned a LOT about e-learning on our journey!
Curt Question #2. Did you expect to be celebrities in the e-learning space? What is this like?
Amy (and Herb): Haha no way! It’s surreal. I heard from a friend, for example, who was in a coffee shop in Oregon and heard some college kids singing our “Renaissance Man” song [i.e., "Blister in the Sun" by the Violent Femmes]. One fan wrote he was in a museum in Washington and they were playing some of our tunes in the gift shop! And when my students travel they always tell me they meet other kids who know about us. So bizarre. But what is most boggling is that it’s very rare that someone lets you know when they’ve written a blog post or article about you. We sort of have to google ourselves sometimes. And even more crazy was when I discovered one of our lyrics (fleas on rats) was an actual Twitter hashtag!
Curt Question #3. Which 2 music history videos that you created are your favorites and why?
Amy (and Herb): I really love the look and sound of “Elizabeth I”, to the Zombies’ “She’s not There”. And musically, my favorite is “Canterbury Tales”- plus nothing beats that Middle English rap segment. The way I envision “Guernica”, which is in production, might turn out to be my ultimate favorite. For Herb, I know he is most proud of “Joan of Arc”, because we also tried to parody the original White Stripes video…it took quite a lot of time and effort on his part to edit. As far as lyrics go, I think Herb’s lyrics were genius in “Chinese Dynasties” [i.e., "Mambo #5" by Lou Bega] and “Viva Roma #5” [i.e., "Vogue" by Madonna]…I prefer sticking to really specific topics, but he has a gift for synthesizing the broad topics.
Curt Question #4. What is the process like in creating a new video? Any interesting technology challenge that comes to mind?
Amy (and Herb): The biggest challenge for us is time…and now, geography, since we live on different islands. When either of us is inspired to pen lyrics, we do so, because that surge of creativity doesn’t happen all the time. I can go for months without writing a single line and then spew out 6 songs in weekend. Herb then creates the music, and we schedule a time to record. To me, recording is the most fun, and it really doesn’t take that long (maybe a half an hour for 1 song). He mixes/produces the tracks when he gets the time and then we brainstorm what the video should look like. I can never praise storyboarding enough! When we are ready to film I gather all the costume and make-up pieces and props and we head for a green screen. Herb uses a high def. camera and Adobe Premiere and After FX software. When my students make videos, they use Garageband and iMovie. The editing is the most time-consuming, but the more Herb uses the programs the better he gets. I always want to do crazy things that we probably need a Hollywood studio for, but Herb seems to make them happen. He is also a master at Flash animation, an some of our favorites (Henry VIII, Crete, Renaissance Man) are done completely in Flash.
Curt Question #5. What are your hobbies and interests?
Amy (and Herb): Herb is a classical musician at heart and plays for the Kamuela Philharmonic Orchestra, the University of Hawaii symphony, and the Kona Music Society. He teaches cello and piano privately, and is an experienced arranger and composer, who has even written 3 operas performed by the Hawaii Youth Opera Chorus. He enjoys hiking and has been involved in Boy Scout leadership.
Amy is obsessed with anything relating to design – graphic design, interior design, fashion design, etc. – and typically is involved in some related project. Her creative outlets are singing, writing, and photography, but more recently her attention has been on the use and implications of online curation, personal branding, and social media in education. She is often called to train peers in tech integration, and enjoys presenting on the topic. More recently, her interests have drawn her to the “Gutenberg Parenthesis” theory and the work of media philosophers Marshall McLuhan, Thomas Pettitt, and Alejandro Piscitelli, as well as the “EduPunk” movement.
= = = = = = = = = = =
Hope you enjoyed the interview. I also hope to see many of you at the conference next week. If you see me, tap me on the shoulder and say hi. See also the blog post below for the E-learn Preconference Summit at the University of Hawaii next Monday afternoon. The program was just announced and it will be worth it.
Saturday, 24 September 2011
The E-Learn Preconference Summit at the University of Hawaii at Manoa
The following is not an "unconference" but a "preconference"...more info below.
“The E-Learn Preconference Summit at the University of Hawaii at Manoa”
It is............Free!!!
Date: Monday October 17, 2011
Time: 1 to 5 pm
(with an optional lunch at 11:00 am and potluck pizza dinner at 5:30 pm )
RSVP (and sign up to present): http://tinyurl.com/Elearn-Summit
Are you attending the E-Learn 2011 conference in Honolulu next month? Those arriving early to E-Learn might be interested presenting their innovative research and development efforts in a highly interactive and informal environment (perhaps expanding on ideas or topics that they will later present at the conference). They might also present a totally different project or initiative (perhaps you have an experimental or pilot project that just got funded or a new technology tool that you have developed). Perhaps you have designed a new instructional model or online learning framework. There will be four sessions and four presenters per session. Each presentation will be 9-10 minutes long. A discussant will end each session.
You need not be a presenter to attend this preconference session, Many of you might want to simply listen to the ideas of others and engage in some intense discussions. Still others might want to bring their graduate students to a highly informative and more intimate preconference session. If so, welcome to the E-Learn Preconference Summit at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Your role: sit, observer, share, present, discuss, or whatever you would like.
If you would like to make a short 9-10 minute presentation of your research or development efforts or just plan to attend without presenting, please complete this form: http://tinyurl.com/Elearn-Summit by 5 pm EST on Friday October 7th. All you need is a paragraph or two and a title, of course. Accepted proposals and a final schedule will be announced on Tuesday October 11th.
See below for event coordinators, location, and schedule. Feel free to forward this to interested colleagues, students, and other guests coming to the conference. We hope to see you there. Taxis can be taken from the Sheraton Waikiki to the Willows or the University of Hawaii. Groups might meet in the hotel lobby 30 minutes prior to the event and share a ride.
Event Coordinators and Contact Info:
Curtis Ho, University of Hawaii at Manoa, curtis at hawaii.edu
Peter Leong, University of Hawaii at Manoa, peterleo at hawaii.edu
Tom Reynolds, National University, treynold at nu.edu
Curt Bonk, Indiana University, cjbonk at indiana.edu
Location:
University of Hawaii at Manoa
1776 University Avenue
College Collaboration Center, Wist Hall 135
Honolulu, HI 96822
(upper left corner on this map, http://manoa.hawaii.edu/campusmap/uhmmap.pdf)
Lunch:
The Willows
901 Hausten Street
Honolulu, Hawaii 96826
http://willowshawaii.com/
Enticement: Pics of the restaurant
Note: Cost for buffet lunch is $19.95 plus tax and 15% gratuity (so about $24 should do it). Comes with coffee or tea but drinks are extra.
Tentative Program and Schedule:
11:00 Lunch at the Willows
12:45-1:00 Meet and greet and set up
1:00-1:05 Welcome from Curtis, Peter, Tom, and Curt
1:05-1:50 Session #1 (9-10 minutes for each presenter and brief 4-5 minute discussant at the end of each session)
1:50-1:55 Curt and Curtis lead in brief audience stretching and reflection/interaction activity
1:55-2:40 Session #2
2:40-2:50 Audience questions for first 2 session participants
2:50-3:05 Break and refreshments for 15 minutes (coffee and tea)
3:05-3:50 Session #3
3:50-3:55 Tom and Peter lead audience in brief reflection/interaction activity
3:55-4:40 Session #4 Most Innovative Paper/Idea/Topic Session
4:40-4:50 Audience questions and reflections for sessions #3 and #4
4:50-5:00 Quick comments and reflections from all the presenters, discussants, and hosts
5:30 Potluck Pizza ($5 contributions from those who stay for it)
Final Note: A presentation from Dr. Tom Reeves, University of Georgia, will take place after the potluck pizza. This is free to attend as well.
Second Final Note: Check out the keynote and invited speakers for E-Learn. Among them are Herb Mahelona and Amy Burvall who will give a talk, TechnoTroubadours and Teacherpreneurs, based on their "History for Music Lovers" channel. If you have not seen any of their fascinating history music videos, check them out. Want to hear about the Trojan War song to Soft Cell's "Tained Love" anyone? How about "The Canterbury Tales" to the Mamas and the Papas "California Dreamin?" Ok, then, how about "Elizabeth I" to the Zombies classic "She's Not There"? Seeking something more current, well then, there most viewed music video is "The French Revolution" sung to Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance." There are many more I can recommend. And many topics--Joan of Arc, Napolean, Martin Luther, the Vikings, Julius Caesar, Shakespeare, King Arthur, and so on.
Check em out. Or better yet, come to the E-Learn Conference October 18-21. Better yet, come to the preconference summit on October 17th at the University of Hawaii. It will be highly informative and engaging. The entire week will be a blast.
Third Final Note: By the way, the Sheraton Waikiki is most lovely. And that is where the conference is being held. When E-Learn was last there in October 2006, it was rocked by back-to-back earthquakes like 6.9 and 6.6. The entire building swayed. But it still was a fabulous venure. Some presentation rooms have a view of the ocean as you walk in and out. Gorgeous. I once gave an all-day workshop there (think it was 2003) and I had 100 people in the morning but only 50 for the afternoon. I wondered why. Then, when we took a break I stood at the doorway to my workshop and leaned over and saw 50 people from the morning session waving up from the hotel pool sipping Mai Tai's. This could be you!
“The E-Learn Preconference Summit at the University of Hawaii at Manoa”
It is............Free!!!
Date: Monday October 17, 2011
Time: 1 to 5 pm
(with an optional lunch at 11:00 am and potluck pizza dinner at 5:30 pm )
RSVP (and sign up to present): http://tinyurl.com/Elearn-Summit
Are you attending the E-Learn 2011 conference in Honolulu next month? Those arriving early to E-Learn might be interested presenting their innovative research and development efforts in a highly interactive and informal environment (perhaps expanding on ideas or topics that they will later present at the conference). They might also present a totally different project or initiative (perhaps you have an experimental or pilot project that just got funded or a new technology tool that you have developed). Perhaps you have designed a new instructional model or online learning framework. There will be four sessions and four presenters per session. Each presentation will be 9-10 minutes long. A discussant will end each session.
You need not be a presenter to attend this preconference session, Many of you might want to simply listen to the ideas of others and engage in some intense discussions. Still others might want to bring their graduate students to a highly informative and more intimate preconference session. If so, welcome to the E-Learn Preconference Summit at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Your role: sit, observer, share, present, discuss, or whatever you would like.
If you would like to make a short 9-10 minute presentation of your research or development efforts or just plan to attend without presenting, please complete this form: http://tinyurl.com/Elearn-Summit by 5 pm EST on Friday October 7th. All you need is a paragraph or two and a title, of course. Accepted proposals and a final schedule will be announced on Tuesday October 11th.
See below for event coordinators, location, and schedule. Feel free to forward this to interested colleagues, students, and other guests coming to the conference. We hope to see you there. Taxis can be taken from the Sheraton Waikiki to the Willows or the University of Hawaii. Groups might meet in the hotel lobby 30 minutes prior to the event and share a ride.
Event Coordinators and Contact Info:
Curtis Ho, University of Hawaii at Manoa, curtis at hawaii.edu
Peter Leong, University of Hawaii at Manoa, peterleo at hawaii.edu
Tom Reynolds, National University, treynold at nu.edu
Curt Bonk, Indiana University, cjbonk at indiana.edu
Location:
University of Hawaii at Manoa
1776 University Avenue
College Collaboration Center, Wist Hall 135
Honolulu, HI 96822
(upper left corner on this map, http://manoa.hawaii.edu/campusmap/uhmmap.pdf)
Lunch:
The Willows
901 Hausten Street
Honolulu, Hawaii 96826
http://willowshawaii.com/
Enticement: Pics of the restaurant
Note: Cost for buffet lunch is $19.95 plus tax and 15% gratuity (so about $24 should do it). Comes with coffee or tea but drinks are extra.
Tentative Program and Schedule:
11:00 Lunch at the Willows
12:45-1:00 Meet and greet and set up
1:00-1:05 Welcome from Curtis, Peter, Tom, and Curt
1:05-1:50 Session #1 (9-10 minutes for each presenter and brief 4-5 minute discussant at the end of each session)
1:50-1:55 Curt and Curtis lead in brief audience stretching and reflection/interaction activity
1:55-2:40 Session #2
2:40-2:50 Audience questions for first 2 session participants
2:50-3:05 Break and refreshments for 15 minutes (coffee and tea)
3:05-3:50 Session #3
3:50-3:55 Tom and Peter lead audience in brief reflection/interaction activity
3:55-4:40 Session #4 Most Innovative Paper/Idea/Topic Session
4:40-4:50 Audience questions and reflections for sessions #3 and #4
4:50-5:00 Quick comments and reflections from all the presenters, discussants, and hosts
5:30 Potluck Pizza ($5 contributions from those who stay for it)
Final Note: A presentation from Dr. Tom Reeves, University of Georgia, will take place after the potluck pizza. This is free to attend as well.
Second Final Note: Check out the keynote and invited speakers for E-Learn. Among them are Herb Mahelona and Amy Burvall who will give a talk, TechnoTroubadours and Teacherpreneurs, based on their "History for Music Lovers" channel. If you have not seen any of their fascinating history music videos, check them out. Want to hear about the Trojan War song to Soft Cell's "Tained Love" anyone? How about "The Canterbury Tales" to the Mamas and the Papas "California Dreamin?" Ok, then, how about "Elizabeth I" to the Zombies classic "She's Not There"? Seeking something more current, well then, there most viewed music video is "The French Revolution" sung to Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance." There are many more I can recommend. And many topics--Joan of Arc, Napolean, Martin Luther, the Vikings, Julius Caesar, Shakespeare, King Arthur, and so on.
Check em out. Or better yet, come to the E-Learn Conference October 18-21. Better yet, come to the preconference summit on October 17th at the University of Hawaii. It will be highly informative and engaging. The entire week will be a blast.
Third Final Note: By the way, the Sheraton Waikiki is most lovely. And that is where the conference is being held. When E-Learn was last there in October 2006, it was rocked by back-to-back earthquakes like 6.9 and 6.6. The entire building swayed. But it still was a fabulous venure. Some presentation rooms have a view of the ocean as you walk in and out. Gorgeous. I once gave an all-day workshop there (think it was 2003) and I had 100 people in the morning but only 50 for the afternoon. I wondered why. Then, when we took a break I stood at the doorway to my workshop and leaned over and saw 50 people from the morning session waving up from the hotel pool sipping Mai Tai's. This could be you!
Saturday, 17 September 2011
The World is Open in "Simplified" China
The World is Open in China:
I am still recovering from jet lag from the Korea trip. This is especially apparent at the end of the week. Of course, it is doubly difficult to be gone at the start of the semester and there is much catching up to do now. However, yesterday, I got some excellent news that I have been waiting on for months. Here it is...announcing ta da da daaa...The simplified Chinese version of The World is Open book is out. It is already sold out on Amazon China. Cool. And sold out on other sites as well.
I like the cover a lot (more than the original here in the USA, in fact, though the USA one is improved in the paperback version which just came out with blue lettering). The Chinese publisher picked the book cover that I preferred. And they are using 6 Amazon-like sites to sell the book. You can check out their book cover selection at one of the first 3 links below. You can also order the book if you so choose. I guess it costs roughly $6 US dollars.
Online bookstore sites for World Is Open book in Chinese:
1. 300 buy
2. Dangdang
3. Amazon China
4. 99 Read
5. Beifa Book
6. China-Pub
Here's Johnny:
The translator was Dr. Jiao Jianli from South China Normal University in Guangzhou. Dr. Jiao (also known as "Johnny") is famous for his blog on educational technology. He is a Professor of Educational Technology and Director of Future Education Research Centre. In addition, he is Deputy Dean of School of Information Technology in Education at South China Normal University. Sounds like a great person to work for or with. Dr. Jiao had a team of graduate students help with the translation efforts. I spoke to them a couple of years ago from a Webcam in my basement office in mid July. It was quite fun. For a few months in the early part of this year and late last year I was responding to questions about the book on a daily basis. Some of my American humor and English terminology was apparently quite difficult to translate. But it is done now.
The publisher is East China Normal University which apparently is known in the field of educational technology. Apparently, it is more prestigious to have a university publisher in China than it is in the USA.
My former student, Dr. Subude at California State at Monterey Bay taught a course with Dr. Jiao this summer at Beijing Normal University (see pics of Subude teaching it and their students). Subude told me that “Dr. Jiao is a highly productive professor and his blog has many followers in China. He is certainly playing a leading role in Educational Technology in China. I highly appreciated the opportunity to work with him and learned a lot during our collaboration.”
The Godfather?
A number of my former students are sending me emails today telling me what the promotional materials are saying. Interesting...first, they say that my name translates well in Chinese. "Bonk" definitely does not translate well in the UK or Australia. Smile. But it does in China. They also menton that the book has already sold out in Amazon China. That is certainly wonderful news.
Next, I was also told that the promo materials refer to me as "The Godfather of Educational Technology." Or Godfather of Instructional Technology. I find this hard to believe since I doubt I could even pass the qualifying exam in my own department or any educational technology department or program for that matter. But if I am considered the Godfather, I want to meet the Godmother sometime. My students better watch out since Monday night I am coming to class dressed as Al Pacino or Marlon Brando. Back to listening to the Who on my iPod and the Quadrophenia song comes on: "The Punk And The Godfather." Ta da da daaa...ta da da daaa...ta da da da.
Anyway, I hope some people can explore the Chinese version of the World is Open book and let me know how well my jokes translate. Soon the Arabic version should be out; in fact, it might already be out. I am checking. More soon.
I am still recovering from jet lag from the Korea trip. This is especially apparent at the end of the week. Of course, it is doubly difficult to be gone at the start of the semester and there is much catching up to do now. However, yesterday, I got some excellent news that I have been waiting on for months. Here it is...announcing ta da da daaa...The simplified Chinese version of The World is Open book is out. It is already sold out on Amazon China. Cool. And sold out on other sites as well.
I like the cover a lot (more than the original here in the USA, in fact, though the USA one is improved in the paperback version which just came out with blue lettering). The Chinese publisher picked the book cover that I preferred. And they are using 6 Amazon-like sites to sell the book. You can check out their book cover selection at one of the first 3 links below. You can also order the book if you so choose. I guess it costs roughly $6 US dollars.
Online bookstore sites for World Is Open book in Chinese:
1. 300 buy
2. Dangdang
3. Amazon China
4. 99 Read
5. Beifa Book
6. China-Pub
Here's Johnny:
The translator was Dr. Jiao Jianli from South China Normal University in Guangzhou. Dr. Jiao (also known as "Johnny") is famous for his blog on educational technology. He is a Professor of Educational Technology and Director of Future Education Research Centre. In addition, he is Deputy Dean of School of Information Technology in Education at South China Normal University. Sounds like a great person to work for or with. Dr. Jiao had a team of graduate students help with the translation efforts. I spoke to them a couple of years ago from a Webcam in my basement office in mid July. It was quite fun. For a few months in the early part of this year and late last year I was responding to questions about the book on a daily basis. Some of my American humor and English terminology was apparently quite difficult to translate. But it is done now.
The publisher is East China Normal University which apparently is known in the field of educational technology. Apparently, it is more prestigious to have a university publisher in China than it is in the USA.
My former student, Dr. Subude at California State at Monterey Bay taught a course with Dr. Jiao this summer at Beijing Normal University (see pics of Subude teaching it and their students). Subude told me that “Dr. Jiao is a highly productive professor and his blog has many followers in China. He is certainly playing a leading role in Educational Technology in China. I highly appreciated the opportunity to work with him and learned a lot during our collaboration.”
The Godfather?
A number of my former students are sending me emails today telling me what the promotional materials are saying. Interesting...first, they say that my name translates well in Chinese. "Bonk" definitely does not translate well in the UK or Australia. Smile. But it does in China. They also menton that the book has already sold out in Amazon China. That is certainly wonderful news.
Next, I was also told that the promo materials refer to me as "The Godfather of Educational Technology." Or Godfather of Instructional Technology. I find this hard to believe since I doubt I could even pass the qualifying exam in my own department or any educational technology department or program for that matter. But if I am considered the Godfather, I want to meet the Godmother sometime. My students better watch out since Monday night I am coming to class dressed as Al Pacino or Marlon Brando. Back to listening to the Who on my iPod and the Quadrophenia song comes on: "The Punk And The Godfather." Ta da da daaa...ta da da daaa...ta da da da.
Anyway, I hope some people can explore the Chinese version of the World is Open book and let me know how well my jokes translate. Soon the Arabic version should be out; in fact, it might already be out. I am checking. More soon.
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