Moving at the Speed of Creativity

These are my notes from notes from Jim Carleton And Mali Bickley’s keynote at NECC 2008 in San Antonio on 1 July 2008. Jim and Mali were introduced by Lester Hope, and Lester facilitated a television-style interview “show” with them as a NECC keynote. MY THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS ARE IN ALL CAPS.

According to the current WikiPedia article for Lester:

Lester Holt (born March 8, 1959 in Marin County, California) is an African American anchor for NBC News who started out as a local Chicago news anchor and presently is the co-anchor of Weekend Today seen on weekends on most NBC stations and affiliates and is also the weekend anchor of NBC Nightly News, the flagship news program of NBC News.

Lester showed a video clip segment prior to introducing Jim and Mali
- quote : “we know that the NBC news clips are authentic and accurate”

THIS IS AN INTERESTING PLAY FOR AUTHORITY

iCue.com
- immersive, safe environment where users can collaborate and learn together”
- “iCue connects you to a community of friends and fellow learners for support, sharing, and discussion through the iCue Friends Network and Discussion Forums.

a shift in how young people access and use information

BUT DOES IT ALLOW ANYONE TO UPLOAD THEIR OWN CONTENT? (CITIZEN JOURNALISM)

Channel 1 News

Learn Digital Journalism from NBC (NY Film Academy)

Hot Chalk is the website used extensively by Jim and Mali and now sponsored by NBC

HotChalk is a learning environment for K-12 teachers, students and parents that includes a learning management system (LMS), a rich library of teacher-contributed lesson plans, premium digital content like NBC News video, and professional development for teachers in a Web-based environment. Available through any Internet browser, the HotChalk Learning Environment is an easy to use system and brings teachers, students and parents together to improve education.

http://www.iearn.org/

iEARN (International Education and Resource Network) is the world’s largest non-profit global network that enables teachers and youth to use the Internet and other technologies to collaborate on projects that enhance learning and make a difference in the world.

question for Jim and Mali: How do you definite collaboration?

communication, creatively, collaboration, change, co-learning, collective intelligence
- connecting and transforming our world
- all these web 2.0 tools: children’s ability to publish

My Hero Project- http://myhero.com
- students can create artwork, produce films, publish for a worldwide audience
- level of achievement come up through these projects
- kids can go home and share their projects with parents at home, which is published online

telling stories that tug at your heartstrings

we now have the ability to teach our students so they become lifelong

our kids are “lords of the eflies”
- it’s our job to help these kids learn to use these projects helpfully

one example is using webconferencing, we have been using Elluminate
- connecting students from all over the world to share their project: Mali, Israel, US, others…
- it is is so important to make live, interactive connections between classes

question: “Do you find kids today are more interested in current affairs and reading newspapers?”
answer: “Absolutely.”

MY THOUGHT: WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE OR SUPPORT FOR THE ASSERTION THAT KIDS TODAY ARE MORE INTERESTED IN READING NEWSPAPERS? I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT THINK THIS IS SUPPORTED BY ANY EVIDENCE OR RESEARCH.

“are the kids driving the curriculum?”
answer: yes!

MY THOUGHT: THE ANSWER TO THIS IS NO! THE POLITICIANS IN THE US WITH NCLB ARE DRIVING THE CURRICULUM. WE SHOULD BE PERMITTING KIDS TO HELP SHAPE THE CURRICULUM, BUT IT IS DISINGENUOUS AND MISLEADING TO SAY THAT KIDS DRIVE THE CURRICULUM TODAY IN THE UNITED STATES. NO ONE IS TALKING AT ALL ABOUT THE REALITY IN OUR CLASSROOMS TODAY, AND THE HUGE CULTURAL MINDSET WHICH EXISTS AGAINST DOING COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS LIKE THESE. THESE ARE GREAT PROJECTS AND GREAT IDEAS. BUT I THINK POLITICAL AND PRACTICAL REALITY IN OUR CLASSROOMS IS BEING IGNORED BY THE PRESENTERS. THE PRESENTERS WERE TEACHERS FROM CANADA WHO HAD LOST THEIR PASSION AND LOVE FOR TEACHING IN THE CLASSROOM.

TakingItGlobal

it’s not about the technology, it’s about the learning, the connections

our school is now all involved in this

I’D LIKE TO SEE KIDS FROM THEIR SCHOOL TALK ABOUT THIS. I’D LIKE TO SEE KIDS ACTUALLY HERE IN PERSON TO ADDRESS AND DISCUSS THIS. I’D LIKE TO SEE THE PRINCIPAL HERE TALK ABOUT HOW THIS PROJECT FITS INTO THE LEARNING THAT TAKES PLACE

question: “Some of the events we are talking about in some of these countries, like Sierra Leonne, are pretty heavy. Have you run into too much reality, too soon?”
answer: Some email communication from kids have included US kids asking about girls in classrooms in countries where girls are not permitted to go to school.

Some students have been interacting with students in Iraq
- Commit to Character traits are from our school board
- from these communications with Iraqi students, students were cultivating optimism, empahty, and other characteristics

these projects change kids and others in the world
- we are invigorated as teachers using these tools and doing these projects

now showing a video about child soldiers in Sierra Leonne
- One Dream Project

“we are getting computers for kids in Sierra Leone. It makes us proud to know we are changing other people’s lives.”

MY QUESTION: HOW ARE PEOPLE’S LIVES BEING CHANGED IN SIERRA LEONNE BY THIS? CERTAINLY THE PERCEPTIONS AND UNDERSTANDINGS OF CANADIAN STUDENTS PARTICIPATING IN THIS PROJECT ARE BEING CHANGED, BUT I’M NOT SURE ANY EVIDENCE HAS BEEN PRESENTED IN THIS SESSION ABOUT THE LIVES AND LIVING CONDITIONS, AND OPPORTUNITIES OF PEOPLE IN SIERRA LEONNE BEING CHANGED.

we are now listening to a song about “one dream, one hope” set to images…

WHAT IS THE WEBSITE URL OF THIS PROJECT? IT IS NOT BEING SHARED OR DISCUSSED IN THE KEYNOTE. I CANNOT FIND IT ON GOOGLE. ALSO, WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE CANDADAN SCHOOL WHERE JIM AND MALI TEACH NOW? THE PROJECT WEBSITES HAVE BEEN SHARED BUT NOT

Come to the NBC booth here at NECC (SHAMELESS PLUG THERE!)

now asking for advice for peers, a call to action

answer: be willing to take a risk
- following your passion

THOSE ARE GOOD PIECES OF ADVICE, BUT DANGEROUS

answers continued: collaborate
- please ask for help
- go to takeitglobal and iEarn

ready, fire, aim: don’t wait until you think you understand all the technology before you do it!
dream big

I AGREE WE SHOULD DREAM BIG BUT I DISAGREE WE SHOULD ENCOURAGE TEACHERS TO “READY, FIRE, AIM.” PARTICULARLY IN OUR LITIGIOIUS US SOCIETY, THAT IS A POTENTIAL RECIPIE FOR DISASTER FOR A TEACHER

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These are my notes from David Thornburg’s NECC 2008 presentation “Open Minds: Open Education and Open Culture” on June 30, 2008. David has granted me permission to non-commercially record and share this presentation subsequently. MY THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS ARE IN ALL CAPS.

dthornburg [at] aol [dot] com

David has handouts not related to this session, related to a new project he’s started
- this session will include technology but it is a broader topic
- concerns the state of the WORLD right now
- I am an American expatriot, I am a resident of Brazil, I work both in the US and Brazil and commute back and forth

Have you noticed when you were outside the US you were able to think in a bigger way about some issues?
- we are in a point of new ages of discovery
- one of the questions I ask now, do PCs have the potential to be as transformative in our culture as the book
- what will it take to make this vision real?
- will this benefit the entire world?
- what about 1:1 computing

Indiana and Mr. Michael Huffman are pioneering the uses of open technologies for children
- open source software: see the Open Source pavilion that Steve Hargedon is running

challenge we face in education:
- pedagogical practices have not been standing still
- Gardner’s multiple intelligences, many other things
- the challenge isn’t that we aren’t taking advantage of new discoveries in pedagogies and taking advantage of them
- the challenge is that technology is changing faster than classroom practices

now our technologies let us do things that our pedagogical practices have not caught up with
- lots of sessions now are addressing issues:
– given current technology, how should classroom practices change?
– given current classroom practice, how should technology change

We marvel at current technologies, kids today just view it as normal
- kids are going to marvel some day that they didn’t have 3D holographic projectors when they were in school

problem with racing technology bandwagons is that sometimes we lose other things

Now, more than ever, we need access for every learner in the world
- before these tools, you couldn’t do these things AT ALL

Bringing tools to all children
- 1:1 projects must be scalable
- sustainable
- low cost hardware and open source OS and critical applications are the ONLY way the goal can be achieved
- this does not mean there is no room for some proprietary titles, but costs must be scalable and sustainable
- single platform software is anti-child

I DEFINITELY AGREE WITH THIS POINT ABOUT SINGLE PLATFORM SOFTWARE BEING ANTI-CHILD, AND HOW WE MUST PURSUE 1:1 IMPLEMENTATION PROJECTS AGGRESSIVELY

It is quite different kids you have in class may have very different computers at home
- children need to be able to use THE SAME SOFTWARE on any platform they have
- if you look at the number of vendors who are actually rising to that challenge, t

Tech4Learning is one of the companies leading the industry in this regard: Windows. Macintosh, and Linux versions

vendors who just publish on 1 platform are serving the platform and not the child
- I happen to believe in the children
- so I promote and support software that runs on everything

On the hardware side of things
- lots of talk about OLPC
- OLPC is definitely still around, has lots of management changes, not clear where it is going, they are continuing to go in the future

the OLPC has had a major impact on the industry
- before the XO was announced, you couldn’t buy a laptop for less than $1200
- now you can go to Tiger Direct and buy a powerful laptop for $350, without rebates and no limits on how many you can buy
- so hats off to MIT and this project

The Intel Classmate
- this machine is here at NECC]
- not as cute as some other machines
- can get your choice of OS: either Windows or Linux

Another machine in the One2OneMate: a Linux computer
- it looks like an AlphaSmart
- is a full blown laptop

Another example: koolu
- 10 watt power consumption

large hydroelectric dam is on the border of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay
- that dam generates all the electricity for all of Paraguay and half of brazil
- if the number of computers in the world doubled, we’d have to build 20 more dams of this capacity!

Another Example: N Computing Box
- idea is most personal computers have far more power than any individual student is using at one time
- the processor actually runs on just 1 box and is shared

lots of talk about the iPhone, but it was/is a closed platform

Our friends in Brazil who love the iPhone bought them in the US and have them working in Brazil
- but why have to do that

There is a completely open source phone: NEO1973
- you want to add new features to your cell phone, go right ahead! It’s open source.

An argument was started a few years ago that students don’t need a computer, they just need personal storage devices
- I’m more willing to accept this idea now
- if you have enough computers in your community, this is viable
- that is a BIG “if”

The price of flash drives is coming

booth 5260: you can get a 1 gig pen drive for free after you play a game
- if I had said that a few years ago, this room

new version of linux called Puppy Linux
- can put that entire OS on a flash drive

Why open source?
- do the math
- (number of computers) x $100/ year to just run the Windows OS
- 2/3rds of Indiana students do not know they are using Linux! (and they didn’t care. they just cared about their applications and data.)
- applications are robust
- service calls are minimized
- new applications are being created every day
- applications can be shared legally

In Africa: Freedom Toaster
- take a CD, choose the software you want, and you can take the software home
- you know how the principal makes money selling pencils? Try this at your school!

some African countries are letting people also upload files, like music (I am sharing this as some factual information, not as a recommendation)

Linux and Education
- finally easy to install and maintain
- reliable
- low total cost of ownership
- graphical user inferface
- applicable and usable by all grade levels

Now lets go back down to Brazil
- photo of “the digital port”

instead of going northeast and risking capture, some Dutch Brazilians went NW and were looking for an island with rivers on both sides
- came ashore
- the same Dutch from Brazil founded New York

consider Brazilian kids in our neighborhoods, who 20 years ago would not have been in school
- curriculum in Brazil is inquiry driven and project-based

President Lula was asked by Microsoft to please use Windows
- He asked Microsoft to charge them just $3 just like China is
- Microsoft refused and said they would change $100 per copy

we have to export 60 bags of soybeans then for every license of Windows

we think of Linux as an emerging market here in the US
- 36 million children in Brazil will be using Linux by December 2008
- 52 million by the end of 2009

some people in our country are viewing children as wallets, not as human beings

Computers for All: Brazilian governmental program
- stores in Brazil sell both food and technology
- special logo on machine means the government will give you a 24 month interest free loan
- sold 800,000 of these machines without any marketing at all (grass roots word of mouth)

some countries get serious about education and technology, and that is really cool

MLK quotation: 3-31-1968: “Through our scientific and technological genious, we have made of this world a neighborhood and yet we haev not had the ethical commitment to make of it a brotherhood.”

We can talk of web 2.0 and these technologies
- the bottom line is that we CAN make of our world a brotherhood

Minister of Culture for Brazil: Gilberto Gil (also a singer and songwriter)
- founder of the movement Tropicalismo
- idea is that you understand someone else’ culture not so you can appreciate it from afar, but rather use it yourself in your own life and culture [APPROPRIATE AND REMIX IT]

Brazilian filmmakers are generally located on the coast
Quotations from Gil:
- a global movement has risen up in affirmation of digital culture…
- the creative impluses of teh Brazilian people need access to the digital world…

Gil is setting up schools on filmmaking in the interior, teaching final cut pro, seeing what types of creativity and innovation come out of this

Look at some of the AFrican cultures
- corn rows have a very rich cultural history
- there is a mathematical pattern there which is a fractal
- you can create a logo procedure which replicates that
- so now a kid who knows about corn rows (goes back at least to the 1700s) can now understand the mathetmatics of that
- and maybe that becomes a pathway to get students interested in mathematics who might

how can we build bridges to understanding and learning
a lot of schools now are like the United Nations
Many things like this can be used as pathways to learning, which are not in any textbooks

Breaking borders with software: CMap
- kind of like an ugly version of Inspiration, but it is a collaborative tool
- the map can stay open to other people and it doesn’t matter which continent you’re on

noticed when kids get stuck making a contact map?
- in CMap click on the suggestions map
- the program looks at what you have done so far, compares it to other Cmaps made by others on the web, and then gives you words it “thinks” (DAVID IS BEING APPROPRIATELY ANTHROPOMORPHIC HERE) might help you
- the idea may have come from Zimbabwe, it doesn’t matter
- you have to be online to use this feature

CMap runs equally well on whatever platform you have
- this is about the children, not the vendors

If your school server wants to be visible to the rest of the world, you can set this up with your firewall
- then your folders become available to the entire world, if you want
- you can also keep them restricted
- each child can then decide if their files can be viewed, commented on, or fully edited (sets permissions)
- this is about empowerment

Copyright has a very important role in our socity
- the default assumption in this country is that even if you don’t put a copyright sign on your work, you own it
- this is problematic when you want to share rights
- the clearinghouse for this is Creative Commons
- we have some papers on this on our website
- when you see the CC mark, that means you can freely use this without any legal restrictions
[HE IS TALKING ABOUT CC-ATTRIBUTION HERE, FOLKS SHOULD REALIZE NOT ALL CC LICENSES PERMIT COMMERCIAL WORKS AND DERIVATIVE WORKS]

I think these are very powerful and good ideas

what happens when we go from liberty, equality and fraternity to rip, remix and burn?

The Berkman Center for Internet and Society: H20 Playlist

MIT has made the bulk of its courseware available online
- once you say it is NOT about the content, you have to be really clear WHAT it IS about?
- what is it that justififes your salary then? it’s not just this body of knowledge that you are trying to protect

Gilberto Gill quotation: “Together we might become the most powerful laboratory of culture mixture in the world. (If we are) isolated from one another we may no longer be able to achieve that, since there is an increasing international tendency toward a multi-cultural style that hinders mixture, trying to reinforce borders as a strategy for the preservation of differences.”

Tropicalia is about cultural mixing: building networks, not walls
- It is xenophilic, not xenophobic

I like salads: you can keep the different tastes!
- there are surprises in salads that you don’t find in a soup bowl
- elements of different cultures (in the metaphor) are preserved
- this is powerful
- how are we doing in that regard

There is a movement afoot to build a wall with Mexico
- this debate will continue for some time
- if McCain is elected he may not build it, he was born in Panama
- there is a constitutional issue with that, but who has cared about the US Constitution the past few years anyway?

There was a problem with illegal aliens being used to build walls on the border
- story of listing some of the famous, very successful immigrants who at one time were here in the U.S illegally and whether

What is your fear?
- is someone going to sneak onto your property at night and mow your lawn?
- do you fear them sneaking into your house during the day, making your bed and cleaning your toilet

Story of a PhD from Monterrey who worked on the GNOME desktop
- is on a waiting list for 16 years to get a visa
- that is an exclusion policy, not an immigration policy
- 150K envelopes for H1B visas last year

Picture of Norma, David’s wife, took a process of 7 years and $15,000 in legal fees for her normalization documents

the longest part of the process in getting a Brazilian visa was fingerprinting

Questions
- who built the infrastructure of this country? Railroads?
- East: Irish
- West: Chinese

the infrastructure of this country was built by foreigners
- today it is being
- we have negative immigration now: we have more Irish leaving the US now than are coming
- we have a big challenge in terms of cultural issues, in the world we are living in

as we become more isolated, that diminishes the entire planet
- I want our children to see what others have, and others to see what we have

picture of the statue of liberty
- quoting poem from statue

I am so proud to be a citizen of a country people still fight to get INTO not to get OUT

book recommendation: “The Flight of the Creative Class” by Richard Florida
- we are seeing more people becoming bi-nationals
- not just about Brazil
- through modern telecommunications, the market is not just our neighborhood, it is the entire blue ball

familiar with the Phoenix probe
- the found salt and ice: they are THIS close to a good margarita!
we are really making huge progress

Toh Friedman: “The way to keep good jobs in this country is not by building big walls, but by attracting people with big ideas.”

“Your people, your people….” When will you realize that your people are our people too! (Graffiti david

We are all each others’ people on this planet.

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The June 5, 2008, BusinessWeek article “One Laptop Meets Big Business: The big idea of giving PCs to poor children has been challenged by educators and business. Here, follow the misadventures of One Laptop per Child” includes a variety of updates about OLPC, which I regard as the most important educational technology initiative in the history of our planet.

Some key points I found interesting:

At least some of the educational leaders in India remain firmly rooted to “sit and get” / transmission-based pedagogical models. This isn’t a real surprise, it’s one of the educational messages which comes through most clearly in the documentary film Two Million Minutes. According to this BusinessWeek article:

While this philosophy [constructionism] is essential to the mission of OLPC, it’s also a source of tension. Current educational leaders in Peru embrace Constructionism, but most countries base their education systems on the idea that teachers pass their knowledge to receptive students. That was a problem for OLPC in China as well as India. India’s education department, for instance, calls the idea of giving each child a laptop “pedagogically suspect,” and, when asked about it recently, Education Secretary Arun Kumar Rath barked: “Our primary-school children need reading and writing habits, not expensive laptops.”

How does India’s Education Secretary, Arun Kumar Rath, think that students acquire proficient and lifelong reading and writing habits? By sitting quietly in a classroom watching a teacher lecture holding chalk in her/his hand?! Does Rath know about Open Content? Without affordable laptop computers, exactly how does he propose India’s teachers and students will be able to benefit from the open content digital curriculum revolution currently underway? His quotation, sadly, reveals about as much understanding of the digital learning revolution as many of our educational leaders in the United States do who continue to champion NCLB. Will the REAL educational leaders please step forward in both India and the United States? To date, we haven’t seen them in the seats of political power.

Why do news article authors assume every topic has to fit into a sharp if/them either/or dichotomy anyway? Why can’t we hear more about advocates for blended learning, which recognizes the importance of both content delivery/consumption as well as idea construction? Personally speaking, I think the learning process is a combination of both. We need, however, to place more emphasis than we have traditionally on the “content construction” side of the recipe, and that is certainly something the OLPC project aspires to do. Read the OLPC News blog post “Controversial Constructionism” from June 16th for more on these issues surrounding constructionism.

The authors of this article (Steve Hamm and Geri Smith) seem to suggest in an opening paragraph that OLPC founders have erroneously stuck to their guns when it comes to constructionist pedagogy. They write:

They [the struggles of OLPC] also show what happens when differing philosophies of education and beliefs in how software should be created go head-to-head. Values the group has promoted have met resistance in the marketplace, government bureaucracies, and classrooms. That Negroponte and his colleagues took on way more tasks than they could handle only complicates the situation further.

I think the suggestion that OLPC leaders have taken on “more tasks than they could handle” is poorly supported by the facts and ideas presented in this article. To support this point, the authors relate how several OLPC leaders have resigned (OLPC President Walter Bender and Software security leader Ivan Krstic) and some countries have backed out of the project. Those are problems to be sure, but I hardly think they support the contention of the authors that Negroponte and others have bitten off more than they could chew with the OLPC project. I also take issue with the overall critical tone of this article, which seems to suggest people should either want:

• Poor kids in developing countries to not have access to digital technologies, because providing it amounts to cultural imperialism, or…
• Commercial companies should OF COURSE receive our support in selling their wares to the students of the world, even when free, open source software alternatives are available which exceed basic learning requirements, or…
• Students everywhere should be condemned to the age-old, traditional “fill the pail” educational pedagogy which Paulo Freire and many other educational advocates for the economically disadvantaged in developing countries have ardently pressed to reform.

I’m guessing authors Hamm and Smith haven’t read Pedagogy of the Oppressed. If they would take time to read it and thoughtfully explore digital divide / digital equity issues, I wonder if their perspectives would change to more favorably view OLPC?

Here’s another interesting tidbit I gleaned from the article which I hadn’t read previously: Microsoft wooed Libya out of the OLPC project by offering to sell them Windows operating system licenses for $3 each:

Originally, rather than using Microsoft’s pricey Windows and ready-made commercial applications, they [OLPC leaders] chose the Linux open-source operating system and created a new user interface and applications designed specifically to aid in learning by doing. A key reason to support open source: It allows students to tinker directly with software. However, some countries, such as Libya, which initially agreed to buy more than 1 million laptops, backed out and chose a Windows-based alternative from Intel. One attraction: Microsoft cut the price of a software package for poor schools from $150 to $3.

Kudos go out to the Microsoft representatives for pulling off this national-level bribe in Libya. Had the Libyan political and educational leaders ever used open source software previously? Did the Microsoft lobbyists woo the Libyan leaders with a ridiculous assertion like, “Most of the world uses the Windows operating system, so all your students in your schools need to also!?” I’m not sure, I don’t have insider information on this. I do know, however, it is a shame so many leaders continue to misunderstand and undervalue open source software and technologies. (See my post from this weekend, “Praise for NeoOffice (OpenOffice) and SeaShore (GIMP)” for more on this topic.)

Since when does offering a low-cost laptop with tons of free software programs on it designed to help students become the self-directed architects of their own learning amount to cultural imperialism? Article authors write:

Some observers accuse OLPC of cultural imperialism. “It’s arrogant of them. You can’t just stampede into a country’s education system and say, Here’s the way to do it,’” says William Easterly, a professor at New York University and author of The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good.

So Dr. Easterly has published some books on cultural imperialism… What expertise does he have specifically on the OLPC project and the way it has been implemented in Peru and other participating countries? I agree human beings (and those with light melatonin in particular) have been ridiculously and horribly misinformed, misdirected, cruel, and destructive in the past in “the developing world.” I am no fan of colonialism past, present or future. I am, however, a big fan of projects and people which aspire to empower others to attain an educational and economic future far brighter than those of their predecessors. What is Dr. Easterly’s plan for effectively fighting poverty across our globe? Based on his book publications, it seems clear clear he is no fan of US foreign aid. Fine. OLPC is not a U.S. aid program. Did Hamm and Smith seek out a critic of OLPC who truly understand the program, what it aspires to and how it is being implemented, or did they just reach out and call someone for a fast sound byte who is an established critic of historical and traditional foreign aid programs? It seems likely they did the latter, and that is unfortunate. Making such a mistake is kind of like asking Carl Sagan (or letting him) pontificate on topics outside his narrow area of expertise, like theology, and treating his thoughts as “expert testimony.” Just because a professor has credentials in one field, critically thinking citizens shouldn’t permit news reporters to “authoritatively quote” that individual on a topic tangentially related to their field of expertise. Why didn’t Hamm and Smith ask their local building custodian about his/her opinion about OLPC? If Easterly does not have specific, in-depth knowledge about the OLPC project and implementation initiatives himself, then his opinion about the project should be valued equally with those of another observer unfamiliar with its specifics.

Nigeria has apparently also been wooed away from OLPC and instead has opted to purchase Intel’s Classmate PC. Again according to the article:

OLPC might not be in such turmoil if Kane had been promoted earlier. Nigeria had agreed to buy 1 million XOs, but after a competition among three alternatives, the country chose Intel’s Classmate PC instead. Why did OLPC lose out? Intel provided more support, writes Isa Muhammad Ari, director of administration for Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, in an e-mail.

Better support, hmmmm. Certainly it does sound like OLPC has a small full-time staff. I wonder if Nigerian leaders considered the support available from the OLPC community? Did one person from Intel “make the difference” by quickly returning phone calls from a school administrator or government official? What is the REAL reason Nigeria went with the Classmate PC rather than the XO? I’d like to hear more, I’m certain there is more to this tale than this simple sentence in the article, “Intel provided better support.”

How does the Classmate PC stack up against the XO, incidentally? How many people in the seats of leadership in countries considering the purchase of an affordable laptop for students are qualified to make that judgement call themselves? And are the implementation plans for the Classmate PC in Nigeria the same as they would have been for the OLPC: One computer for EVERY child? I hope that is the case, but I am not sure. I’ll be eager to examine and use the Classmate PC at NECC this summer in a few weeks. I’m sure Intel representatives will be there hawking it and touting its relative benefits over other alternatives. Perhaps it is fantastic. I’m still waiting for Apple to release a lower-priced but fully functional iBook for education that resembles more the 1st generation “clamshell” model. Is that coming? I have no idea, but I hope so.

A final news item I gleaned from this article is that OLPC may roll out in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere:

Just getting started in Haiti will be a challenge. The group’s second trip there was delayed by riots over food shortages in April. The first shipment of laptops was held up in customs for weeks. Donors are paying for some laptops, but not all. Asked how Haiti can afford to pay for PCs when its citizens are starving, Guy Serge Pompi, the Haitian educator coordinating the project, answers: “You can’t just focus on the present. The starving is the present. The future is education. We need to train our students for better jobs and a better future.”

I have some close friends who served in the U.S. Foreign Service a few years ago in Haiti, and the stories they told were very eye opening. The Haitian educational coordinator for OLPC is absolutely correct, however, in noting that improving EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES is one of the most important and viable, long term economic development paths for nations as well as individuals. Can an OLPC implementation help the people of Haiti move forward into a brighter economic future? If it can help the people of Haiti, surely it can help the people of ANY nation.

Like other educational technology contexts, however, we must remember that a project implementation process has to do with MUCH more than simply the hardware and the software. Hardware and software is important, but people are primary. My high hopes as well as prayers continue to go out to all of those working hard at implementing OLPC around the world.

When will leaders in my own state of Oklahoma recognize that one to one learning is a PRESENT NEED for our students today? Will the leaders in other states and other nations see this “light” anytime soon?

Will the real educational leaders please step forward?

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The headline of today’s AP article, “Violence no worse than usual in Ciudad Juarez” trivializes a ridiculous and unacceptably violent situation in the border town across from El Paso, Texas. The second paragraph in the article reads:

But violence did not appear to be worse than usual in Ciudad Juarez, home base of the powerful Juarez drug cartel and one of the hardest-hit cities in a surge of homicides across Mexico.

“Worse than usual?” Are readers of the AP and MSNBC expected to accept the following “as usual” for the citizens and residents of Juarez?

Security officials reported at least six homicides since Saturday, including two municipal police officers who were riddled with machine-gun fire as they were getting into a car. Several businesses were set on fire, but nobody was hurt. The weekend homicide figures were not especially alarming in a city where more than 200 people have been killed thus far this year. Eight people were killed on Friday alone, including five men whose bodies were dumped on a street corner wrapped in blankets. Two of the men had been decapitated.

“The weekend homicide figures were not especially alarming.” Who is this AP writer kidding?! Eight people were killed on Friday and two had their heads cut off… and that is not “alarming?” Goodness gracious.

Following my post and reflections on Friday (“Drug violence in Mexico is bad: VERY bad”) I wanted to check in today and see how the weekend went in Juarez. Despite this misleading AP headline, I would conclude the situation continues to be HORRIBLE in terms of out-of-control drug cartel related violence.

Today’s El Paso Times article, “25 slain during weekend in Juárez,” reports:

More than 33 people were killed this past week compared with 25 slayings the previous week.

If this is not a case of drug-related violence spinning out of control on the Mexico - U.S. border, what is?

According to the May 18, 2008 AP article, “Police chief resigns in Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez amid wave of killings,” of twenty-two public officials threatened by the drug cartels this month, only ONE remains in office today. The rest are dead, injured, or (like the police chief of Juarez) have resigned:

As police chief of Ciudad Juarez, Prieto served during a period in which drug cartels grew increasingly bold, advertising for drug couriers, shooting it out with rivals in the streets and issuing a hit list threatening 22 top city police officials. Of those 22, seven have been killed, three more have been wounded in assassination attempts and the remainder, save one, have left their posts.

From an educational standpoint, I realize many (if not most) students and teachers in midwest U.S. schools are either out for the semester or will be soon. This current event would be a good one to track in the remaining days of the school year, however, both on Google News (a simple keyword search for “Juarez” turns up plenty of articles) as well as Technorati. Surprisingly, there have not been any recent articles on Global Voices Online about drug cartel violence in Mexico. The latest article I find there is from Eduardo Avila in January 2008: “Mexico: Drug-Related Violence in Tijuana.” Are Mexican bloggers reticent to speak up about this wave of crime and drug-cartel related killings? They may be wise to take such a position. Apparently all the authorities are bowing to the violence and threats of violence.

Do we, in the United States, living as many of us do in protected pockets of relative peace and tranquility, realize the violent and harsh reality lived daily by many of our fellow North Americans living just south of our border? Drug-related violence is certainly a reality in the United States as well, but similar situations to that in Juarez where city and police officials are silenced and forced from office by the drug-cartels are not happening in the U.S. as far as I know. But what do I know? Relatively little, but at least Internet websites and new media publication sources permit access to a much greater set of voices than would have been possible even a few years ago. Today’s Ciudad Juarez news article, “Bad Moon Rising: The Crisis in Ciudad Juarez” reports:

“Juarez has been lost to us,” shrugged Arturo Dominguez, president of the city public safety commission. “The crime rate comes from not paying attention. All of us, citizens, functionaries and businessmen, lost control of the city watching was happening on the corner but saying nothing. It is regrettable there is no order, but if we’ve lost control, we shouldn’t at least lose hope.”

From a documentation standpoint, I’ll point out that I was unable to find this article on what I think is the original source’s website. Tracking news events like this with search tools like Technorati is MESSY and can lead to many important discussions about information, credibility, validity, and sources. Certainly it is much easier to simply teach out of the textbook and from previously utilized blackline masters, but in our digital information age it is ESSENTIAL for students and teachers alike to grow adept at filtering and verifying information sources about different topics. Who is the source? How can we verify what they said? Do they have an obvious agenda or bias? If others disagree with their point, what reasons can we provide for those disparities? These are all good questions, and the issues at stake in this case are NOT trivial.

New media information fluency skills are needed by ALL learners, not simply those enrolled in technology applications courses. How will our students formally learn and practice these skills in school, if our teachers are not provided with sustained professional development opportunities to learn and practice them? As David Warlick exhorts us, literacy is EVERYONE’S business. We should strive to make the most of every learning opportunity each day, and this horrific situation in Juarez certainly provides many options for exploring and learning about new literacies.

Larry Lessig, The Sunlight Foundation, and others are fighting to curb corruption in U.S. politics via the Change Congress campaign. Who is fighting to end not only drug-cartel sponsored violence in northern Mexico, but the endemic and institutionalized corruption which permits it to flower? I don’t know. That would be a great question for your students to tackle in the weeks ahead.

Technorati Tags:
juarez, violence, border, killing, death, drug, cartel, assassinate, threat, corruption, police, resign, education, learning, technorati, globalvoicesonline

This evening I took some time to review the ClustrMaps for my blog over the course of the past month (April 2008.) ClustrMaps is a wonderful website which provides code people can insert onto their blog or other website to track (by IP address) the general locations of people who are accessing and viewing content on that particular website. As I have remarked previously, these visual representations of readership continue to absolutely astound me! The Pitcairn Islands ClustrMap Mystery continues, however. I would love to know who my reader(s) are on the Pitcairn Islands, or on the other south Pacific island which is showing up on my ClustrMap again! The April 2008 ClustrMaps show visitors to my blog from almost 25,000 different locations worldwide. This is a clear sign of the times. We’re not living in 20th century Kansas anymore.

Hello to Sue Waters in Perth! I can see your city on the ClustrMap image above! But who is making that access dot in Alice Springs?!

What I’d really love to do is arrange to travel IN PERSON to all these locations around the world, along with members of my family. Planning an international education, learning, or educational technology conference in 2008-2009? Please consider me as a possible keynote speaker and drop me a line! I was able to take my son to COSN this past March in Washington DC, but I’m sure he’d flip if at some point he could accompany me to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, or another location which seems quite exotic to us living here in central Oklahoma!

Technorati Tags:
clustrmap, blog, readership

Thanks to Lee Anne of The Eighth Floor in Tulsa, Oklahoma for drawing my attention today to the marvelous TeacherTube video “6 & 7 Year Olds and BLOGS” (from Nelson Central School in New Zealand) via her post, “What About Blogs?”

My favorite responses from the students to the question “Why do you like having a class blog?” were:

We enjoy showing other people what we have learned.

My parents can look at what we have been doing in class.

You can write on it and you might become famous.

Thanks to Rachel Boyd for posting and sharing this video!

Technorati Tags:
blog, blogging, school, classroom, classroomblog

A couple of years ago when our family spent time in and around Jemez Springs, New Mexico, I met several local residents who aspired to “live off the grid.” By “the grid,” they meant the electricity grid to which most of us in the “developed world” are connected every minute of our lives, and without which most of us could hardly conceive daily life. All of these “green living” people I met had “unplugged” from the electricity grid, but several still used propane for cooking and other household power needs. They were not entirely “off the grid.” Yet.

The March 2008 issue of Smithsonian magazine includes a fascinating interview with journalist Doug Fine, who lives off the grid in southwestern New Mexico. According to Doug’s website and blog:

Adventure journalist, NPR contributor and Cosmos-nudger Doug Fine speaks several languages, including suburban American, rural American and Alaskan American. He has reported and sent panicky emails from Rwanda to the Arctic Ocean. At last sighting he was living in New Mexico with too much livestock and just the right smear of stars.

In the article, Doug explains his motivation for wanting to live off the grid in as a public experiment. He relates:

I wanted to see if I could reduce my oil and carbon footprint but still enjoy the amenities that we expect as Americans. In other words, to continue driving a motorized vehicle and have power at my house—not live like a total Grizzly Adams. Can I enjoy Netflix and the Internet without fossil fuels?

Solar energy and a diesel automobile converted to run on waste vegetable oil from restaurants provide the energy Doug’s lifestyle requires. He raises and grows his own food, offering the following advice for those of us who might respond with a comment like, “I’m just too busy to do all of that:”

Growing your own food takes an hour or two a day. But I would suggest that if one doesn’t have an hour or two to work on one’s life, one might be too busy.

Too busy. That’s an affliction I think is all too common these days. It’s refreshing to learn about Doug’s journey and the real possibility of living off the grid. The following five minute YouTube video summarizes much of Doug’s adventure living off the grid, which he has also documented in a new book “Farewell, My Subaru: An Epic Adventure in Local Living.”

Certainly many people might read this entry and view this video with a noticeable air of doubt and even distain. “I could never do something like that.” “That’s just not realistic.” “How could our family ever take such a radical move?” There certainly are folks who take an even more extreme approach to green living than Doug, but personally, I like his approach. He hasn’t given up Netflix or Internet access! Are these life choices sustainable over the long term? Time will tell. I think, however, that technologies SHOULD provide us with options in our lives rather than dictate we live a prescripted existence. Doug Fine certainly is demonstrating that this ideal is not merely theoretical, it can be a lived reality.

Additional video interview segments from Doug are available in the YouTube video, “Farewell, My Subaru - Stories & Soundbytes,” which includes footage not used in the “main” five minute video segment linked above.

Technorati Tags:
dougfine, newmexico, solar, energy, grid, offthegrid, green, vegetableoil, environment

Scott McLeod has announced an official contest to develop a logo for the phrase, “I’m here for the learning revolution.” Scott’s idea for these buttons in advance of NECC 2008 and this contest was a motivator for my post last week about wanting to write a book with this title.

Scott’s center (CASTLE) is paying for contest prizes and the buttons, and promises “Anyone who attends the Edubloggercon 2008 and [the] Classroom 2.0 ‘LIVE’ session at NECC gets a free button.” I am glad to see Scott taking this phrase “Here for the learning revolution” and running with it! I hope wearers of this button at NECC and afterwards will invite others to ask some natural questions. These might include:

1. What is the learning revolution?
2. How can I help advance the agenda of the learning revolution in my school and community?

In my view, the learning revolution is not about picketing and protests, it’s about powerful creativity and collaboration. It’s about making normative claims for what education SHOULD be like by showing others in our communities the engaging, digital learning projects of our students. Creating and collaborating. Those are the keys. Paul Wood’s post today, “Are you part of the Revolution?” provides an excellent example of what operationalizing the learning revolution can mean and DOES mean in some schools. After describing a recent powerful experience, when Sister Immaculee Mukabugabo from Rwanda spoke to students at his school, Paul wrote:

… we decided we needed to start our own voices project. In the next few days we hope to have posted to our school site a section called “Voices.” This will be voices of people that have spoken to the students on different subjects with Sister’s being the first one. We also hope to include many others who have stories to tell. The power of the voice will truly be something for us to be a part of, continuing to take us further down the road of revolution.

The digital learning revolution. It’s real. It’s here, And you’re invited to not merely spectate, but participate, as a catalyst for learning change in your local community.

Thanks to Scott for sponsoring this button contest. I’m hopeful these buttons and this phrase will catalyze even more conversations about needed changes in our schools and PRACTICAL PATHS FORWARD for those of us who have volunteered to join the learning revolution.

Technorati Tags:
learning, revolution, necc, necc2008, necc08, CASTLE, scottmcleod, contest, button

This weekend our family rode the Heartland Flyer from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth, Texas, and fell in love with travel by train. I was not only reminded of the messages of Carl Honore in his book “In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed,” but I actually watched his TedTalk again during the trip down to Texas. If you haven’t seen this or read his book, I commend both to you.

One of the best things about traveling by train is that you are provided with a lot of TIME to do things you might not do otherwise, especially if you are normally saddled with the responsibility of driving the family van on the Interstate to get to a new destination. Train travel provides time for conversations, for sleeping, for eating, for reading, for simply looking out the window and daydreaming, for telling stories and for listening to stories. I am reminded of the motto of the Center for Digital Storytelling:

On our five hour train ride back to Oklahoma yesterday, I did have an opportunity to listen deeply, and the story to which I listened absolutely amazed me. A women in her late twenties from El Reno, Oklahoma, sat in front of my wife and son and related the story of what happened when she and her boyfriend were vacationing in New Orleans and got trapped there by the arrival of Hurricane Katrina. The story she told was one of absolute survival amidst unthinkable anarchy. I had not realized until I had a conversation with a Red Cross worker the previous week that Louisiana authorities had literally opened up the gates of the prisons along the Gulf Coast and let everyone out, before the hurricane struck land. I knew the situation had been crazy and dangerous, with aid workers and many others being shot and robbed, but I guess I hadn’t realized just HOW bad things had been. This woman told how she survived with 40 others on an upper floor of a building for a week in New Orleans, getting just 10 hours of sleep for 7 days, and had to venture down into the dark mall below to scavenge for food among the looters each day. They subsisted primarily on tortillas and ranch dressing. The stories of the looting and looters were perhaps most chilling. It is difficult to imagine that setting, when hordes of desperate people were completely set loose to destroy, pillage, loot and kill. I don’t know that a science fiction novel could be more gripping or harrowing than the tale she lived through and told.

After about a week, she was sent with others to a college dormitory and campus outside New Orleans, and eventually convinced the local sheriff to get her a taxi ride (which cost $150) to the local airport. There, she paid $160 to rent the last remaining car at the airport, for there were no outgoing flights, and she drove non-stop to Dallas where at last she and those with her found a motel room where they could get some sleep. She had to take several diet pills and put ice under her front lips to stay awake, because if they pulled over to the side of the road to take a break other refugees on foot were sure to mug them, possibly kill them, and take their car. After getting a few hours sleep in Dallas, she continued on to Oklahoma City and back to her home in El Reno.

Good grief. This woman is a survivor. I was reminded of my own brief experiences with survival training, both as a Boy Scout and later at the Air Force Academy, as a survival school student and later as a summer program survival instructor. When I think of survival, I think of being faced with challenging circumstances in the mountains or in a faraway jungle. I would hardly think of facing a survival situation in an urban city of the United States. Yet that is exactly what happened during the hurricane Katrina disaster.

Listening to this woman tell her story, I was further convicted of the importance of recording and archiving the stories and experiences of others in our communities and in our homes. It was impossible to listen to her tale and not be moved. Too often in school, I think we focus too much on facts and dates, and fail to connect personally with a context. Listening to the lived experiences of others who have survived harrowing circumstances can be an impactful learning opportunity. I count my blessings that my family and I did not have to live through and fight to survive in the hurricane Katrina disaster. We may have tornadoes to dodge here in Oklahoma, but at least we do not have to worry about hurricanes and all the associated problems they can bring.

I think we need to focus more efforts on engaging our students in oral history projects including the stories of hurricane Katrina survivors. The Hurricane Digital Memory Bank from George Mason University is one project focused on archiving and sharing these stories. The Katrina Stories Project is another initiative, but does not appear to have been updated recently or to be ongoing.

A search this evening on YouTube for “hurricane katrina” yields over 9000 videos, and I will readily admit I have NOT taken the time to watch many of these. Of the videos I have seen, however, none communicate the desperation and all-out battle for survival which the woman on our train shared in her story Sunday night. I have an abiding sense that much of “the story” of the Katrina disaster remains untold and undocumented, at least for those of us who would be students of this recent history. I’m hopeful that perhaps as our statewide “Celebrate Oklahoma Voices” digital storytelling and oral history project continues to grow, we’ll have opportunities to digitally archive stories like the one I heard on the train this weekend about a brave Oklahoman who had to fight for her own survival against unimaginable odds. Her story simultaneously amazed, shocked, and inspired me. If put to the test, I would hope I could have similar courage and fortitude in the face of overwhelming circumstances and physical threats to my life and the lives of others around me.

Technorati Tags:
katrina, story, stories, oklahoma, cov2008, cov

This podcast is a recording of a wonderful videoconference conversation with Jonathan Gayton and Sue Waters from the Western Australia Maritime Training Centre in Perth, Australia, with our family in Edmond, Oklahoma. At the time of this videoconference, it was 8:30 pm on Thursday, April 10, 2008 in Oklahoma (US Central time.) It was 9:30 am on Friday, April 11, 2008 in Perth, Western Australia. Prior to the videoconference (see the shownotes for a link) our children brainstormed a list of questions they wanted to ask Jonathan, who they were told was an experienced sea captain who has logged many days of travel on the open ocean. Jonathan graciously framed the conversation by helping the children understand what it is like to be out on the open water, without any landmarks. He told us about modern day pirates, the ships he has sailed on, what it is like to work 96 hour days as a sailor, the things he finds most challenging as well as rewarding as a sailor, and whether he thinks the stars in the southern hemisphere or northern hemisphere are most beautiful. Jonathan also told an amazing story about thousands of dolphins he and his crew encountered on one of their sailing trips. This was a remarkable learning experience, and we all deeply appreciate both Jonathan and Sue taking their time to share these stories with us and with you via this recorded podcast. We did have some technical trouble with Skype and our Internet connections, and as a result just watched the 1-way video from Jonathan and Sue and only sent audio to them in Australia. This seemed to improve the quality and stablity of our Skype connection, which was made over the commodity Internet. (We didn’t use any private telecommunications lines to make this connection, we just used the commercial/consumer Internet.) It was amazing to talk to Jonathan and Sue who were literally on the other side of planet earth, 11 hours ahead of us in Oklahoma. Welcome to the 21st century, when learning experiences like this are not only possible but actually taking place from the homes of learners connected to the web and the edublogosphere! This conversation took place thanks to edublogging and twitter!

 

 Podcast244: Stories of Life on the High Seas by Jonathan Gayton in Perth, Australia to Oklahoma Over Skype [40:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1346)

Show Notes:

1. Western Australia Maritime Training Centre (Perth)
2. Sue Waters’ blog: Mobile Technology in TAFE
3. Sue Waters on Twitter
4. Six Le Ponant pirates captured (11 April 2008)
5. Malacca Strait Pirates - National Geographic Magazine (October 2007)
6. Skype
7. Learning Signs post of questions for Jonathan Gayton (0ur family learning blog)
8. Call Recorder (the program I used to record this Skype videoconference)

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Technorati Tags: ocean, sailing, ship, story, stories, tales, australia, perth, maritime, skype, videoconference, learning, distancelearning, fieldtrip, virtualfieldtrip

I was both impressed and thrilled by the quality of the digital stories created a couple weeks ago by the largest group of teachers we’ve had participate together to date in our statewide digital storytelling project, “Celebrate Oklahoma Voices.” My interest in and passion for digital storytelling has been fueled by multiple people and experiences, but the muves of Marco Torres as well as my conversations and interactions with Marco over the past 3 years have been pivotal. Marco’s film “Tocayo” is one example of a video which has made on strong impression on me, not only for the ideas it communicates about families and immigration, but also for the power of digital media to speak directly to both the heart and the mind.

During our latest “Celebrate Oklahoma Voices” workshop, we divided participants into two groups for our “digital show and tell” activity the last day. I have not yet watched all the videos of the other group, but do want to share two more videos created by teachers in our group. Both of these videos can provide a rich backdrop to discuss some very important topics with our students: the multiple faces of immigration policies as well as realities, and the important need we have to meaningfully acknowledge and understand the continuing sacrifices of many of our countrymen and women (as well as their families) in military service around the world.

Jon Corea’s video “Torres Family” tells the story of an Oklahoma family which immigrated to the United States from El Salvador in 1982. Similar to “Tocayo,” but with more basic digital storytelling techniques (this was Jon’s first experience with digital storytelling and PhotoStory3,) I think Jon succeeds in telling a compelling and important story using both his own voice as well as the voices of other members of the Torres family. (I do not think there is a family connection between the Torres family this video describes and Marco, btw.) I visited El Salvador in 1993 when the UN sponsored “Truth Commission” was gathering evidence about the death squads which had plagued the nation for years. If your students do not understand “death squad” on a personal level, they should count that a blessing. Videos like these can help our students connect with concepts which include ideas in the formal curriculum but also may extend far beyond them.

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

Angela Dormiani’s video “Iraqi War: Five Years Ago” tells part of the story of her husband, former Sgt. Mark McDevitt, who served in the US Army in Iraq in 2003.

Find more videos like this on Celebrate Oklahoma Voices!

Here in the United States where I currently live, we are surrounded by a media-centric society. According to Dr. Lynell Burmark, the human brain processes an image over 60,000 times faster than plain text. OF COURSE we should use images and other types of media to help extend our learning and expand the learning opportunities of our students when we can. I think our abilities to connect ideas to our personal lives can powerfully amplify the “stickability” of the stories and lessons we share. These videos provide two examples of this contention.

Thanks to Jon, Angela, and all our other participants in the Celebrate Oklahoma Voices project for not only taking time to learn some of the skills of digital storytelling, but also contributing to our growing archive of digital stories about the lives of Oklahomans.

We’ve only just begun to document, archive and share the stories of Oklahomans safely on the global stage of the Internet.

Technorati Tags:
oklahoma, story, stories, digitalstories, digital, cov, cov08, history, heritage, immigration, war, iraq, military, family, sacrifice

Out of failure (or at least a little public embarrassment) comes opportunity.

You are welcome to join Sue Waters, an Australian sea captain, my family and I in an interactive videoconference over Ustream.tv at 1:30 am GMT on Friday, April 11th. That will be Thursday evening, April 10th at 8:30 pm for us here in Oklahoma, 9:30 am on Friday, April 10th for Sue in Western Australia. Use the previous GMT link to determine what time this conference will take place where you currently reside on our planet.

We’ll be meeting on Sue’s Ustream.tv channel. Hope you can join us. If you can think of additional questions to pose to an experienced sea captain, please add your questions to the list we’ve started over on Learning Signs.

Technorati Tags:
australia, oklahoma, videoconference, ustream, learning, questions

CNN is reporting “ordinary Cubans” are going to be allowed to have cell phones, something not permitted when Fidel Castro was the leader of Cuba. Fidel’s brother, Raul, made this decision. I think it is likely to have major effects on the Cuban economy, political culture, and society in general.

Limiting access to information and ideas has been a hallmark of closed societies in historical and contemporary times. I’ve heard (but haven’t confirmed) that the only person on the Internet in North Korea is their leader, Kim Jong-il. Chinese authorities continue to wage a digital war against the free flow of information and ideas using the “great firewall of China.” Iran restricts and filters content accessible from computers within its borders, which led Hamed Saber in Iran to create the Access Flickr plug-in for FireFox to circumvent those restrictions. The Tor project continues to expand with the goal of protecting people (including human rights and democracy advocates) from network surveillance and resulting state police/military action in states and communities which actively enforce web access restrictions.

What is the import of permitting cell phones in Cuba? Writing for GlobalVoicesOnline.org, Janine Mendes-Franco reports that Cuban authorities have recently been blocking access to certain blogs which are critical of the Cuban government. Does Raul realize that many cell phones permit web access? Is Cuba going to filter Internet access via cell phones in the same way they filter desktop and laptop computer access to the web?

Reactions to Fidel Castro’s announcement that he was stepping down as the leader of Cuba have been mixed, but it is clear that some changes are afoot. The disruptive potential of cell phones to be used as tools for constructive change is not limited to economics, as Iqbal Quadir highlighted in his TEDTalk “The power of the mobile phone to end poverty.”

Cell phones will play an increasingly important role in pro-democracy and self-determination movements around the world in the years to come, as their power and connectivity potentials continue to grow. I think Raul Castro has made a good decision for his nation by permitting “ordinary” folks to obtain cell phones. The economic benefits of this decision will be HUGE for Cuba and Cubans. Whether the full political implications of this decision have been anticipated by the current Cuban government remain to be seen.

Technorati Tags:
cuba, cellphone, cell, phone, politics, china, iran, kora, change, mobility, poverty, democracy, selfdetermination

I did quite a bit of driving this past week, traveling to and from Tulsa, Oklahoma, on both Wednesday and Friday. It’s about two hours of driving one-way from where I live north of Oklahoma City, so that’s almost eight hours of driving in two days. One of my favorite things to do when commuting or traveling in my car is listening to my iPod on “random shuffle.” Since I am subscribed to 53 different podcast channels (via the free PodNova sevice, my OPML is available) there is little chance of boredom when I’m in the car and want to take a break from listening to music. My loaded iPod is a deep reservoir of compelling content about science, art, technology, history, education, and many other topics. I like to drive in the car because it gives me a chance to reflect on things and put my brain, to an extent, on autopilot. Having a content-rich iPod allows me to immerse myself in a world of complex and compelling ideas whenever I desire that experience, and I think those opportunities are both amazing as well as often compelling.