This evening at our church’s annual congregational meeting, a leader of the mission committee stood up and talked about a recent trip he’d taken to Uganda. He commented that this time, he noticed more Muslim mosques in the towns they visited, and said this was evidence “the enemy is advancing.” I almost fell out of
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Nic Robertson’s video report on CNN today, “How Terrorists Recruit Online,” raises important issues relevant to social media and our need for constructive uses of video websites like YouTube in our schools and communities. This fall I visited with a friend who has been studying the importance of storytelling and the formation of individual as
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President Obama shared an important speech Tuesday night at WestPoint calling for changes in US policy and troop strength levels in Afghanistan. Use the following Wordle “word cloud” with your students and ask them what they can “see” were major themes in the President’s address. Larger versions are available from Wordle.net and Flickr. Next, follow
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Teachers in Kansas, Oklahoma, participated in our phase 1 Celebrate Oklahoma Voices workshop this past week, and created some superb digital stories. These are five we’ve featured among the 431 videos now included in our online learning community. The Five Fighting Starrs of Oklahoma tells the amazing story of Paul Starr’s grandfather and five of
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The highlight of my visit to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum at the end of June this summer, when I was in Washington DC for NECC 2009, was definitely seeing the completed UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) exhibit. My son, Alexander, helped me film and upload (from the Smithsonian, on-site) a five minute video from
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We wrapped up another Celebrate Oklahoma Voices digital storytelling workshop for twenty more educators today, and again I was blown away by the quality and themes of the 3-5 minute stories they chose to tell with still images and audio narration in the space of just 2 and a half days. “Innocence Lost” by Andrea
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It is a sad day indeed when everyday citizens of the United States actually debate whether or not torture should be blessed by the U.S. President, our military, and our various security forces operating abroad and at home. Having served in the U.S. military, having studied the U.S.-led war in Indochina extensively (including the plight
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Friday’s CNN article, “Army hopes interactive videos make smarter soldiers,” could be more aptly titled, “Army using interactive games to teach problem solving to new recruits.” These were the sentences which caught my attention in the article, and suggested the US Army is proactively addressing social networking challenges: …In the 21st century, the Army was
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We had a wonderful “partners” Celebrate Oklahoma Voices (COV) workshop this week on Thursday and Friday in MidDel Schools. These are just two of the amazing stories our participants created in a very short and concentrated time together. Scott Charlson created “A Few Sketches of Minnie’s Cafe,” telling the story of his grandmother and her
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Thanks to my mom for sharing the link to “They Have Names,” a website dedicated to the soldiers, sailors and airmen who have given their lives in the service of the United States and both need and deserve to be remembered not as simply “another statistic” in our ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but
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Today on July 4, 2008, we celebrate our independence day in the United States. I saw part of a documentary this afternoon about Rocky Mountain News reporter Jim Sheeler’s book “The Final Salute.” In the book, Jim documents the moving stories of US servicemen and servicewomen who are the first to speak with and support
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Remember the ENIAC computer? (Well, I guess I’m not actually asking if you REMEMBER it– as in you SAW it in person– more if you read and learned about it in the past.) According to the current WikiPedia entry, it was unveiled in 1946 and cost approximately $500,000. ENIAC was designed and built to calculate
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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,
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This podcast is a recording of a presentation shared by a docent aboard the USS Missouri battleship, now docked at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 5, 2007. It was on September 2, 1945, in Tokyo Harbor aboard the USS Missouri that generals representing the Empire of Japan surrendered to General of the Army
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Podcast214: Surrender of the Japanese to the United States Aboard the USS Missouri (a re-enactment in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii) [ 21:35 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (6453)
I have uploaded the entire dedication ceremony for the USS Oklahoma Memorial from December 7, 2007, in Pearl Harbor Hawaii to the OETA ftp server for subsequent transfer and posting to the NewsOK.com “Brightcove” video server. The entire ceremony was approximately two hours long. These videos will be subsequently “chunked” into pieces that are less
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I have been thinking about issues relating to immigration, the politics of borders and walls, the importance of international relationships and friendships, and the responsibility we all have to tangibly promote the causes of understanding and cooperation in our own contexts and spheres of influence. Several events have influenced my thinking lately and precipitated new
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USA Today’s headline article “Military beefs up Internet arsenal” from Wednesday suggests new offensive capabilities are in development for the U.S. war on terror. While I don’t have any insider information on this, I do know that for some time the mission of the U.S. Air Force has included fighting in cyberspace: The mission of
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This podcast features an interview with my mother, Angie Fryer, recorded in a coffeeshop in Manhattan, Kansas on March 2, 2007, following the MACE conference. For several years now, my mother has read and subscribed to a number of blogs from a diverse group of people including U.S. students studying abroad in other countries, milbloggers
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Podcast139: Powerful and Meaningful Connections from Blogging International Students, MilBloggers, and Others (An interview with Angie Fryer) [ 38:24 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1899)I listened to two NPR podcasts driving into work that really framed my thinking for the morning in powerful ways. The first was an NPR “This I Believe” podcast titled “I believe that my husband will call me tomorrow” by Becky Herz. For people who don’t have loved ones serving overseas in the military, podcasts
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I listened to the podcast “The Mighty and the Almighty” by Madeleine Albright today in the car, and I found her reflections and responses to questions from the audience insightful and thought provoking. Her view that the decision for the U.S. to go to war in Iraq was a decision of choice rather than necessity
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