Moving at the Speed of Creativity

This podcast is a presentation by Barbara Wilson of Allen ISD at the ESC10 Technology Conference in Richardson, Texas, on May 15, 2008. Barbara provides an overview of the history of geocaching, explains to to get started geocaching with basic equipment and the website geocaching.com, and explores different classroom lesson possiblities for geocaching.

 

 Podcast251: Geocaching in the Classroom by Barbara Wilson [36:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (23)

Show Notes:

1. My text notes from Barbara’s presentation
2. Geocaching.com

Subscribe to “Moving at the Speed of Creativity” weekly podcasts!

Receive an email alert whenever a new Speed of Creativity podcast is published!

Technorati Tags: geocache, geocaching, geography, fun, learning, education, classroom

There are few people alive (or who have ever lived) who combine the passion for education, the digital saavy, and an amazing (and) beautiful geekiness together the way Lance Ford does. Without a doubt, Lance IS the Oklahoma Mac Jedi. I, along with a chorus of others attending the Oklahoma Distance Learning Association (ODLA) spring meeting in Oklahoma City today, are ready to pledge ourselves as Lance’s Padawan Learner. (Technically today, I think we would all be most accurately classified as “Younglings.” Sadly, I think true Jedis are only permitted a single Padawan at one time. Here is the Mac Jedi himself, standing this morning behind his customized Honda Element. (AKA “The X-Wing of the Oklahoma Mac Jedi.)

Tandberg’s mobile commander trailer solution costs around $75,000, and includes the capability to use H.323 videoconference equipment anywhere on the planet.

Unfortunately, the price point of that solution is slightly beyond the “normal” edtech budget of most K-12 teachers. Functionality: Great. Price point: Not realistic.

Enter Lance Ford, the Oklahoma Mac Jedi. Lance has reconfigured his own Honda Element for a total cost of about $1000 with a Mac Mini, a Xenarc touchscreen car stereo, and an AT&T 3G (USB) wireless data card. Here is Dawn Danker, another of Lance’s “Younglings,” speechless after this morning’s demo:

This next image shows the car-mounted Xenarc touchscreen car stereo, where Lance has clicked (using is finger, of course, not a mouse, since this IS a touch screen) to connect to the local AT&T 3G network:

The computing heart of this system is a Mac Mini which Lance purchased off eBay for about $300, which is mounted in the car’s ceiling just above the rearview mirror. Notice Lance’s winning smile in the mirror!

Lance does not yet have his USB webcam mounted within his vehicle, but that mounting system should be worked out soon. This image shows his webcam on the dashboard, prior to an iChat AV videoconference. Lance’s iTunes library (synced to his .Mac account) is open in the following image:

Lance has installed VGA and audio input and output ports to his Mac Mini both in the front of his Honda Element inside the glove box…

…as well as in the back of his vehicle, so he’s ready for a mobile presentation via a data projector sitting on his tailgate:

No word yet on Lance’s plan for powering the projector on the tailgate, however…..

If Lance has a co-pilot or navigator in his car and the need to enter text onto the screen, he has a Bluetooth keyboard connected and configured for the Mac Mini. Here is Youngling James Deaton in the back seat of Lance’s Honda Element, trying out the keyboard:

To cap off the demo of his homebrew mobile commander, Lance connected via iChat to videoconference with a friend. (The quality of this image is poor, and I apologize, but you get the idea.)

Lance Ford continues to redefine and literally reinvent the concepts of mobile learning and distributed learning. WOW!

We asked Lance if he’s available for a road trip to NECC. Could there be a more powerful vehicle for a group of geeks to use driving to the National Education Computing Conference?
I’ll try and conduct an audio interview with Lance later in the day for a podcast.

Lance Ford is the technology director for Howe Public Schools, in Howe, Oklahoma. Lance was recognized last week at the USDLA conference in St Louis with an Outstanding Leadership by an Individual in the Field of Distance Learning award. Go Lance!

Technorati Tags:
mobile, learning, jedi, lanceford

I am reading Rob Bell’s book “Velvet Elvis” along with about 50 other men in our church’s Friday morning men’s group, and came across the following passage recently which resonated with me as a teacher. Rob wrote:

Tour guides are people who see depth and texture and connections where others don’t. That is why the best teachers are masters of the obvious. They see the same things that we do, but they are aware of so much more. And when they point it out, it changes the way we see everything.

I love this analogy, and think this can be a powerful way to frame and structure learning tasks for students. Don’t just tell me about your topic. Become the tour guide. Show me what I could not easily see, identify, or discern for myself. Uncover the stories underneath the surface, the details and connections which weave a tapestry of greater meaning and understanding for listeners and viewers.

When I taught a week-long course for university instructors and professors in the Dominican Republic several years ago about online learning strategies, my wife and I had a delightful opportunity to spend an entire day with the director of the university’s department of travel and tourism who led us around Santo Domingo.

I was struck at the time by what a challenging but rewarding job he had, and helped others learn to do effectively. A good tour guide has broad knowledge about the history, culture, economics, social dynamics, and other aspects of a particular place and the individuals who live there. Spending time with an excellent tour guide is a delight, not because they are simply filled with a multitude of facts, but because they have the ability to stitch and weave those details together in a larger tapestry of understanding.

Perhaps we can benefit from framing our roles as learners, whether we are formally defined as teachers or students, as “tour guides” for others? I think the demonstration of higher order thinking is a required job skill for effective tour guides.

Technorati Tags:
learning, education, theory, tour, guide, tourguide, dominicanrepublic, tourism

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 (853)

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)

Subscribe to “Moving at the Speed of Creativity” weekly podcasts!

Receive an email alert whenever a new Speed of Creativity podcast is published!

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

My son and I conducted our third and fourth live webcasts over Ustream.tv today from the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport, about 30 miles outside of Washington D.C. Udvar-Hazy is an extension of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum which opened four years ago, and houses a wonderful array of aircraft and spacecraft in several enormous aircraft hangers. Our favorites in the collection were the Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird, the Boeing B-29 Superfortress “Enola Gay”, the Space Shuttle Enterprise (STS-101 Orbiter,) the Corcorde, and the Mars Pathfinder Lander Prototype. This is an exceptional museum, and is certainly well worth visiting.

In our first webcast from the observation deck near the center’s entrance, we discussed the SR-71, the STS-101 Space Shuttle Enterprise, the P-40 and the F-4U aircraft.

In our second webcast from underneath the Concorde aircraft, we discussed the Concorde, a little about the Enola Gay B-29, and recapped many of the learning moments from the past week in Washington D.C. We switched roles for the second half of this webcast, and Alexander let me interview him. We also got some audio input from one of the security guards at the center.

For today’s webcasts over Ustream, we ratcheted down our video quality considerably (to 25% picture quality) and ratcheted up our audio quality (to 30 kHz.) This worked better over our 3G AT&T cell network connection than the higher video quality settings we’d used on Sunday from the Air and Space museum on the mall in Washington DC. The audio was not clipped and had a good, constant quality, but the video quality certainly leaves a lot to be desired. I think it is WONDERFUL Ustream allows this type of audio and video quality adjustment. Ideally, I think I’d like to experiment and use a higher level of video quality (at least 50% picture quality) but maintain the same level of audio quality. Whether or not bandwidth can support that is a local, context-driven question. Here are a few lessons learned from our four “remote field trip” Ustream.tv webcasts to date:

1. CHARGE YOUR BATTERIES: Battery life for remote webcasts is essential. On both days of our webcasts from Washington DC this week, I failed to fully charge the laptop battery we were using. Ideally you want a full laptop battery, a spare battery, and a portable battery pack that can provide additional power to your laptop and possibly camcorder. An extra, charged camcorder battery would also come in handy.
2. USE AN EXTERNAL CAMCORDER: For our webcasts this week, we used a small, handheld Sony digital camcorder. This video quality was far superior to the video quality obtainable from a built-in iSight camera. iSight cameras ARE great, but with an external DV camcorder the person serving as the webcast videographer can zoom in and out as needed on subjects, and frame video shots much more flexibly.
3. USE A LONG FIREWIRE CABLE: A long firewire cable is essential when using an external DV camcorder. Although the laptop you are using for the remote webcast can be wireless / unplugged from electricity as well as a wired Internet connection, the camcorder must be plugged in.
4. CONNECT WITH LOCAL VIDEO FIRST: Using a Macbook running OS 10.5.2 and Ustream.TV this week, we had repeated problems with our web browser crashing when the video source in Ustream was initially set to DV Video and DV audio. This happened in three different browsers: Safari, FireFox, and Flock. We do not know why this happened, but we did figure out a workaround. By connecting to Ustream FIRST with local video and audio settings, and THEN (after the connection was established) plugging in the external DV camcorder and switching the video and audio input sources, we were able to successfully webcast using the external DV camcorder.
5. CHECK LOCAL BANDWIDTH: I like to use the Internet Frog Speed test website to check my upstream and downstream bandwidth from a particular location. I don’t know what the exact requirements for Ustream are, but generally anything less than 200 kbps is probably not going to work for a webcast or videoconference, from what I know and have experienced.
6. TEST VARIOUS USTREAM QUALITY SETTINGS: The first two times we conducted a webcast over a cell phone data connection, the audio was clipped because the video quality we’d selected was too high for available bandwidth. By reducing video quality and increasing audio quality, we avoided this “audio clipping” problem. Experiment with different settings to find an optimal combination for your available bandwidth and purpose/needs.
7. SCHEDULE IN ADVANCE: If possible, schedule the date(s) and time(s) of your webcast in advance, so others will know when they should be able to check in online to catch your broadcast. Remember folks around the world are in different time zones, so use a website like WorldTimeServer to provide a link to the exact time in GMT and/or a helpful link people can use to see the date/time for their local area.
8. ANNOUNCE ON TWITTER: It can be helpful to announce your webcasts on Twitter to let others (who are following you on Twitter already) know about the availability of your webcast. Since people using Twitter at a particular time are generally interested in “live updates,” chances are good at least some of those folks will want to check out your live webcast and provide feedback - especially if you solicit it!
9. CHECK LOCAL PORT SETTINGS IN ADVANCE: If you are using a hardwired ethernet connection or WiFi connection to the Internet, rather than a cell phone data connection, if possible check to see if Ustream is useable via that connection in advance of your scheduled conference. More hotels and other locations providing free WiFi are utilizing network configurations which prohibit streaming video, including the ports utilized by Ustream. If you can test for this functionality in advance, you may be able to save yourself headaches and disappointments later.
10. BE READY WITH EXTRA QUESTIONS: The chat feature of Ustream is wonderful for soliciting questions from viewers, but depending on your Ustream channel settings users may be required to establish an account and log in to submit something. This can delay their abilities to submit text questions or comments, if they have not pre-registered with Ustream. For folks you will be inviting to the webcast, recommend that they pre-register with Ustream and login before your webcast begins.
11. BRING EXTENSION CORDS: If you can conduct your entire webcast without electrical or ethernet wires, more power to you! (Literally!) Depending on time and the status of your respective batteries when you start your webcast, however, you may need to “plug in” one or more of your devices. Remember this can include three different things: Your digital camcorder and laptop to AC power, and your laptop to a wired ethernet connection (if applicable.) Bring an extension cord and power strip to insure you have enough electrical outlets if needed.

It was certainly fun to successfully conduct four separate live, remote webcasts over Ustream this week from Washington D.C. (See my March 9th post, “Partial victory web-casting from the Smithsonian” for the first two videos and initial lessons learned.) We learned a great deal, and I hope to apply this knowledge in the future to some “new media” grants I’d like to write to support students and teachers traveling to interesting destinations and utilizing a variety of new communication and publication technologies to both document their learning activities and share those experiences with other learners “back home” as well as around the world who are not able to physically join in the field trip learning with the group. My experiences in December 2007 helping facilitate successful videoconferences with Pearl Harbor survivors and veterans to Oklahoma learners planted the seed for this idea. Hopefully it will bear some fruit in the months to come!

Technorati Tags:
ustream, webcast, video, videoconference, fieldtrip, learning, smithsonian, virginia

Ever since I heard and watched David Jakes present on Google Maps as well as Google Earth at TechForum Southwest in Austin this past November, I’ve been itching for an excuse/reason to play more with Google Maps. Last week’s visit to Seattle for NCCE 2008 provided me with just the opportunity I was looking for! I used Google Maps this evening to create a linked, customized map of our favorite restaurants we visited on our recent trip:

View Larger Map

I was thrilled to notice, after I created this map, that Google Maps now permits COLLABORATION between multiple people. How cool, as well as powerful! Unlike Google Documents, which (as far as I know) only permits collaboration with individuals you specify, Google Maps permits editing and collaboration with ANYONE:

Ah, the possibilities, the possibilities! In true web 2.0 style, visitors to a shared Google Map can “rate” it as well as leave comments. Look for more Google Maps coming soon from Washington D.C., as I journey there next week (accompanied by technical assistant, my 4th grade son) for the COSN conference!

Technorati Tags:
google, map, education, learning, collaboration, web2, ncce2008, geography

This past weekend I had an opportunity to tour the “back roads” of the Konza Prairie with a wonderful docent, Chod Hedinger, who had been one of my Scoutmasters when I was growing up in Manhattan, Kansas. I created a 10 photo VoiceThread this evening titled “Bison on the Konza Prairie” to provide greater context to the Flickr album I published after our two hour tour of the prairie. Approximately 300 bison live and roam on the Konza prairie, and we saw a bunch of them! This was a fantastic trip, and felt like we were in Yellowstone Park! I will be publishing the audio commentary Chod shared during this Konza prairie tour as a two-part podcast soon.

If you haven’t already read and seen it, be sure to check out the April 2007 National Geographic Magazine article about the Konza and the Flinthills of Kansas. The photographer for this article, Jim Richardson, lives and has a studio in Lindsborg, Kansas, AKA “Little Sweden, USA.” His .Mac website includes a fantastic web gallery of images he took for that article. Kansas is a BEAUTIFUL state, and Jim’s photography reveals that stunning beauty in its various forms. I particularly love the image he captured of the Milky Way galaxy over Kansas, as well as the image of the burning prairie. All of these images are for sale in Jim’s gallery, “Small World,” via his online “print shop.”

Technorati Tags:
kansas, prairie, tallgrass, manhattan, bison, buffalo, preserve, biology, climate, kansasstate, kstate, ksu, lindsborg, sweden

It’s been official for awhile but I haven’t posted about this till now: I’m thrilled to be traveling to Seattle in late February for the Northwest Council for Computer Education (NCCE) conference as an invited featured speaker. Many thanks to Jeff Allen for helping facilitate this! I am scheduled to share four presentations at NCCE:

(2008, February 29) Global Voices: Distance Learning Projects with Interactive Podcasting and VOIP Tools.

(2008, February 29) Lead Differently: Digitally Informed School Leadership for the 21st Century.

(2008, February 28) Copyright, Fair Use, Intellectual Property & Podcasting.

(2008, February 28) Cyberbullying, Liability, and Social Networking: What Should Educators Do?

In addition, I’m scheduled to share two workshops:

(2008, February 27) Cell Phones for Learning. (3 hour workshop)

(2008, February 26) Safe Digital Social Networking. (3 hour workshop)

All the links and materials for those sessions are NOT yet in place. I’ll be getting them together soon, however, as I have several upcoming presentations before NCCE when I am scheduled to address similar or identical topics.

I am now updating the handouts page on my blog to include links to resources shared during upcoming as well as recent presentations and workshops. Last year I did not have a regular way of sharing these, so I’m experimenting with some new ways of trying to share links with others who actually attend my presentations in person and those who don’t but are still interested in the content.

I am enthused to visit Seattle for multiple reasons. High on that list is the chance for my wife to visit the area for the first time, and to meet some people (including Mark Ahlness) who I’ve communicated with for a long time but never met in person. My plan is to move older presentation/workshop links to my vitae as the year goes on, and include the graphical “listen” icon linking to podcasts when they are available for past presentations. I also plan to migrate (at some point) my presentation/workshop links from my PBwiki site to a personal wiki site I setup recently on my own domain (as a subdomain) using the open source tool TikiWiki. I’m not sure when I’ll work on that conversion/moving project, but I’ll likely do it sooner rather than later. I learned in September that all PBwiki sites are blocked in China, and while I did create a partial mirror site of my sessions on wikispaces for the Learning 2.0 conference, that is not a viable publishing strategy for the long term. I saw Dr. Larry Lessig’s personal wiki site (using MediaWiki) recently, and that inspired me to start my own wiki on my blog site. There are multiple reasons this will be advantageous, but one of the most important is addressing content filtering issues in schools and nations– and hopefully providing greater accessibility to my ideas and thoughts to educators around the world.

Do you know of any good bed and breakfasts in the Seattle area you’d recommend? We’re going to stay in the area a couple of days in addition to the conference dates and would love to stay at a wonderful B&B.

The National Geographic Hands-On Explorer Challenge 2008 offers a great way to encourage U.S. students to develop their love of science and learning, as well as their natural curiosity to discover new things about our world. To enter students must submit a 300 word essay telling “us what you discovered as a hands-on explorer in your world and why you find it interesting.” A photo that illustrates the essay must be included as well. Any student who will be 9 through 14 years old during the expedition winners will take (with a parent/guardian to Australia) in July 2008 can enter, and the entry deadline is February 15, 2008.

Current teachers in grades 3-8 can “conduct a hands-on activity related to Australia” in their classroom, submit a 500 word essay about “the best practices you use to increase students’ knowledge and appreciation of the geography of Australia,” include “a detailed description of at least one innovative hands-on activity related to this instruction” along with a photo and letter of support from the campus principal. More details are available on the official rules for teachers.

2 grand prize trips to Australia will be given away for teachers. 15 grand prize expedition trips will be given away to winning students with their parent/guardian.

What fun! Whether you win or lose, this sounds like a GREAT project to support student scientific inquiry!
Picture yourself and your own child, or one of your students, in Australia “on assignment” with National Geographic! What fun!

I love the encouraging lines at the bottom of the official student contest page:

Be a hands-on explorer right where you live. Collect stones, shells, leaves, bugs, and look at them under a magnifying glass or microscope. Or try exploring a creek or pond to spot frogs, turtles, and fish.

Let’s hear it for hands-on science, and encouraging learners of ALL AGES to engage in inquiry-based scientific experiments!

Technorati Tags:
australia, science, contest, inquiry, geography, students, teachers, schools, fun, win, travel, nationalgeographic

I’m in Dallas this evening, and will be presenting what should be a fun workshop tomorrow at the Region 10 Education Service Center in Richardson for their staff, which I have titled “Powerful Ingredients for Digitally Interactive Learning.” As usual, I’m making some last minute adjustments to my presentation and curriculum for tomorrow, but unfortunately the Internet connection here at my hotel seems to be only slightly better than a dial-up modem. With an upload speed like this, desktop videoconferencing with iChat or Skype is definitely OUT for tonight:

It is WRONG for businesses to market this as “high speed Internet.”

As if this wasn’t enough of an affront to a digital bridge, I actually took the time to read the AUP I had to agree to in order to pay $10 for this ridiculously slow Internet connection, and learned that anything I transmit over this pre-Cambrian WiFi network will allegedly (according the hotel’s law firm, at least) belong to them. The AUP includes the following paragraph:

We may automatically track, collect and compile User Information and Transaction Data (as defined below) when you utilize the Service…”Transaction Data” shall mean information and data characterizing, describing, relating to, or comprising use of, including transactions (e.g., the sale and purchase of goods and services) conducted in whole or in part over or through use of the Service, whether such transaction was completed prior to or after the Acceptance Date, including, without limitation, User Information relating to parties to any such transactions.

If I’m interpreting the legal-ease correctly, they are laying claim to every data packet of information which I send over their network, irrespective of whether it is my login information for different accounts or anything else. How ridiculous. If I am interpreting this correctly, why would any sane person ever agree to this?! But wait… there’s more.

The agreement also states that the hotel has the right to do anything they want, anywhere in “the universe,” FOREVER, with my data which they capture:

By using the Service, you voluntarily, expressly and knowingly acknowledge and agree with all of the foregoing and further agree to each and all of the following: (I) such Information belongs to HHC and is not personal or private proprietary information; (ii) such Information, wherever collected, may be processed, used, reproduced, modified, adapted, translated, used to create derivative works, shared, published and distributed by HHC in its sole and absolute discretion in any media and manner irrevocably in perpetuity in any location throughout the universe without royalty or payment of any kind, without, however, any obligation by HHC to do so; (iii) HHC does not represent, warrant, or guaranty the Information or its processing, use, reproduction, modification, adaptation, translation, derivation, sharing, publishing or distribution, including without limitation the accuracy, reliability, security, or any other feature relating thereto or its processing, use, reproduction, modification, adaptation, translation, derivation, sharing, publishing or distribution; (iv) HHC will try to provide you a way to review, correct or update the User Information you give HHC directly, but cannot guaranty that such will be possible or that changes will be reflected throughout all uses of such Information…..

Of course this was written by lawyers. Doesn’t it seem strange that lawyers get paid well to write documents that basically most “normal” people never even read or want to read, and even when they do may be unlikely to accurately interpret? Boy that sounds like racket.

Again my thoughts: What a ridiculously sweeping grant of intellectual property rights. What a ridiculously slow connection to have to PAY for.

This may push me over the edge and convince me to purchase a USB cellular network data access modem or card for my laptop. What I really want is a “pay per use” modem or card, since I only need to get online like this at irregular times. I may have to talk to Santa about this….. I’m not sure what I’m wanting is currently for sale, however. I basically want a cellular data network interface device on the same terms as a “Go-Phone”.

Practically speaking, I wonder if this particular hotel Internet access AUP has ever been actually enforced to “lay claim” to all the information someone has sent over the hotel’s Internet connection? I’m wondering if most hotel AUPs are similar in their sweeping terms? “Irrevocably in perpetuity in any location throughout the universe?” Give me a break.

One of the best things I could do, aside from accessing the web right now on my own cellular data device, is connect via a VPN tunnel which would encrypt all traffic traveling through this local network. I am not seriously concerned about the hotel management stealing my information, but it IS true that other people at this hotel connected to the same access point and network could “sniff” my traffic if I’m not using a VPN tunnel and grab anything they want. David Pogue’s post back in January “How Secure Is Your Wi-Fi Connection?” gives more details on this scenario. Unlikely? Perhaps. But the cost of identity theft IS certainly high, and likely to only get higher as time in our digital info-verse marches on. Hamachi would probably be my choice, if I was going to set this up for free using my home high speed connection.

Of course, if I tried to use a VPN connection on this slooowwwww Internet connection it would only slow things down more. Yes, a cellular network data card is definitely looking better all the time…..

Technorati Tags:
travel, hotel, bandwidth, slow, AUP, intellectualproperty, lawyer, security, wifi, celluar, data, modem, datacard, usb, hamachi

It’s a relief to be home at last from Honolulu after a 25+ hour travel day. Our final flight leg from Memphis to Oklahoma City was cancelled due to ice storms, so we took a flight to Dallas and drove (I did actually) all the way back home in a rental car. Glad to be home! I recorded some short video podcast segments from each leg of our journey, which ended up being quite an odyssey, and published this as a 9 minute video to my .Mac podcast channel.

I do not think I’ve ever taken 247 pictures in a single day. Until today.

I have enough videotape, audio recordings, and digital photos to probably work two to three days straight and still not fully document what we experienced today at Pearl Harbor and in Honolulu. Instead of working on that documentary process this evening, after a long day, I am settling for posting these images as a new photo set on Flickr (adding to the collection I’ve started for this entire Oklahoma Digital Learning Project - 2007 Hawaii adventure) and writing this blog post.

Our day started early with the high school students in Navy Junior ROTC at Claremore High School, Oklahoma, who had spent the night on the USS Missouri. As you may know, the USS Missouri is the ship on which the Japanese surrendered in September 1945 to the United States in Tokyo harbor. The USS Missouri now sits moored in Pearl Harbor, right next to the spot occupied by the USS Oklahoma during the Japanese attack of December 7, 1941, which brought the United States into “The War.” I thought our experiences the previous day touring Ford Island, touching a remnant of the USS Oklahoma’s mast, seeing the USS Utah Memorial, along with other things would be the highlight of our trip. I was wrong.

Standing on the deck of the USS Missouri this morning, hearing the docent re-enact the speech of General Douglas MacArthur and others at the surrender of the Empire of Japan in September 1945… (which I recorded in its entirety and will share later as an audio podcast, of course)… was quite overwhelming. We could see the memorial for the USS Arizona, which represents the starting of World War II, and were standing on the deck of the ship where World War II ended in the Pacific theater. It was a powerful and emotional event, and one which I will never forget as long as I live.

After that experience, we spent three hours in the late morning and early afternoon at the amazing Punahou school in downtown Honolulu, which has been on a one to one learning adventure for the past eight years with students in grades four through eight. The opportunity to spend time with teachers and administrative leaders of Punahou was thanks to Chris Watson and a connection we made several weeks ago via Twitter. The connections possible now in our wired world are amazing. Much more to come on that visit and the instructive story of Punahou’s educator leaders on the topics of instructional transformation and one to one learning.

The day concluded with a three hour adventure touring Pearl Harbor by boat with about 75 other people, including seven military survivors of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Three of those men were aboard the USS Oklahoma at the time of its attack, and are pictured here with the current commander of US Naval Station Pearl Harbor on the USS Arizona Memorial.

I took many photos I think will be worth sharing and remembering, but this one is certainly one of the best. This is a reflection of a Navy sailor saluting the memorial to the USS Oklahoma, on Ford Island, Pearl Harbor:

Powerful. Amazing. Emotional. Priceless. Words are inadequate to convey what these moments meant, and how precious it was to be included in the small group of people who spent several hours together on the blue waters of Pearl Harbor this evening, remembering the events of December 7, 1941, as well as the many sacrifices which followed that dark day in United States history.

I will share more in the days and weeks ahead but for now, I’ll stop with those words and these 247 images posted to Flickr.

At several times during the past three days, I have experienced a surge of pride in my heart and in my soul for our nation, the men and women who have served our country in the armed forces, and those who continue to serve her today. It is an amazing and remarkable privilege to be here in Hawaii and at Pearl Harbor to both experience and share the events taking place here this week.

If you can, please plan to join us tomorrow for our live videoconference and webcast at 2 pm US Central time, from Ford Island in Honolulu, Hawaii. The link to the webcast will be available on the Educator’s portal of the Oklahoma World War II Stories project website. (This is the direct link, which will be active during this 1.5 hour videoconference and webcast.)

Technorati Tags:
worldwarii, hawaii, navy, pearlharbor, ussmissouri, missouri, arizona, ussarizona, history, oklahoma, ussoklahoma

I have good news to report regarding connectivity and successful test calls today for our upcoming ODLP live videoconferences/webcasts from Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, today– but before going into that news I’d like to share two rather amazing news items from the local paper in Honolulu. One of these I actually saw, the other I have indirectly experienced, and wished I could have seen!

The first amazing thing which we saw yesterday as we drove back along the coastal road to Waikiki from Pearl Harbor was this: a 20 story rocket launch pad owned by the company Sea Launch:

We were totally blown away by how HUGE this structure was. According to the local news article “Giant launch pad makes Isle pit stop,” this structure was created to be a mobile oil drilling platform and saw service in the North Sea. Now, it is deployed to the South Pacific to launch rockets into outer space. WOW.

The tower you see to the left of the vessel or structure is the Aloha Tower, which is 10 stories high. This was the largest seafaring vessel I have EVER seen in my entire life. Amazing.

The second news item concerns something else extremely big: Huge waves on the north shore of Oahu. Ever since watching the outstanding 2004 movie “Riding Giants” the existence of “big waves” on the north shore of Hawaii has fascinated me. When I was here last November to keynote the Hawaii Library Association’s annual conference, I learned that the “big wave season” for Oahu’s north shore is later in the winter, usually December through February. I visited the north shore briefly with my aunt that trip, but the waves were low in November. this is a photo I took then (November 12, 2006) of the beach at Camp Erdman, near Makaha, with Waimea Bay in the background:

Today and yesterday our schedules have been full of equipment setups and testing for videoconferences, so I unfortunately missed the 40′ waves which were reportedly hitting the north shore of Oahu on Monday. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to go OUT into or onto those waves, but it would have been amazing to see them and see others surfing them. This is a photo taken by a photographer for the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper of surfers on Monday in Waimea Bay:

Whoa! Those are some BIG waves. The following paragraph from the news article really caught my attention:

At Waimea Beach Park, the yellow tape barred people from the left side of the beach, and no one was allowed to body-surf or bodyboard, said Kerry Atwood, an ocean safety officer at Waimea for 18 years. “It’s very dangerous when the big sets come in — the whole area goes underwater,” Atwood said. “It looks like a sandy beach, but when the larger sets come, it surges and you’re under six feet of water.”

Yikes!

If you’re interested in watching movies about surfing huge waves, you can find other suggestions (in addition to “Riding Giants”) on the WikiPedia page for Big Wave Surfing. Saturday before our plane leaves we may head up to the north shore for a chance to see Waimea and the surrounding area again. Compared to the furious bustle surrounding Waikiki I found the north shore to be quite “tranquilo.” A much slower pace, and far fewer people, which are both good things if you’re wanting to find some time to relax anywhere!

Technorati Tags:
surf, surfing, waimea, sealaunch, hawaii, news

I’ve posted a few photos from Honolulu this morning, some maps and links to our ODLP team blog in the post, “Initial Pictures from Honolulu and Maps.”

Technorati Tags:
odlp07, hawaii

Greetings from Northwest Airlines Flight 609, 10,980 meters above planet earth bound for Honolulu, Hawaii via Minneapolis, Minnesota. I thought I would take a few moments to write about the amazing “in-flight entertainment 2.0″ system I’ve been playing with for the past half hour. It is increasingly difficult to get bored on and in the 21st century information landscape, and the new in-flight entertainment system on this Northwest Airlines flight supports this contention. Incidentally, I greatly value the experience of boredom for several reasons, but principal among those is the fact that I so rarely have (or make/create) opportunities to be bored. I think boredom is very underrated and undervalued in the fast-paced lifestyle common in “modern” 21st century society, and I think we need to find more opportunities to have unstructured time in outdoor spaces where we cannot help but be bored. But I digress…

I know we are over 10,000 meters above planet earth because of the amazing in-flight entertainment system available at my seat. Let me first clarify I am sitting in a coach seat, this is not an entertainment option reserved for “business class” or “first class” passengers. I’d like to have the opportunity some day to fly first class, but to date I haven’t had that experience. I’m sitting in a “regular” coach seat, enjoying and experiencing the same options available to EVERYONE on this large aircraft.

Before I share some thoughts and photos of this remarkable in-flight entertainment system, I want to explain why I have titled this post “In-Flight Entertainment 2.0″ and how this relates to teacher professional development. In the days of “In-Flight Entertainment 1.0,” which is essentially every other commercial airline flight I’ve taken before today (December 2, 2007) the potential entertainment, media consumption, and interactive media experiences available to me as a passenger were MUCH more sharply LIMITED. For a flight like ours today to Hawaii, which lasts over eight hours, there would be at least one in-flight movie available, if not two during the course of the flight. Significantly, there would be ONLY one or two in-flight movies available. If you wanted to watch one or both of these movies, you would watch THE SAME MOVIE, at THE SAME TIME, with EVERYONE else on the aircraft who wanted to watch the movie. You did have a choice, but that choice was limited to the following:

“Do I want to watch the movie(s) which have been pre-selected by someone else for me to watch or not?

In-flight entertainment has not been limited to movies in my past experience, however, in some cases recently where a personal LCD screen was available for each passenger, a series of about ten different channels of pre-defined programming were available to watch. While it was possible to “channel surf” and exercise limited choice in selecting video programming to watch, those choices were still fairly limited.

That past situation contrasts markedly with my potential consumptive and interactive media experiences today. There are a myriad of different choices available to me in this entertainment system, but in the category of “movies” alone there are thirty-five different choices. These are organized into genres (Hollywood Hits, Independent, Critics Choice, and Comedy) and are also browsable under the “All Films” menu choice. There is NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE for viewing any of these movies. I can start, pause, or stop any of the movies at any time during our flight, and am only interrupted when the captain or flight attendant makes an announcement over the airplane’s announcement system. In addition to “movies,” I can enjoy musical channels, games, “marketplace” (items for sale,) interactively explore maps showing data on our aircraft’s current location/speed, and other options.

A robust and diverse array of activity options are available to me in this “in-flight entertainment 2.0″ media system. In the past, besides choosing whether or not to watch the in-flight movie(s), the penultimate limit of my personal choice in selecting media to consume was selecting different radio channels to listen to during the flight.

This interactive and differentiated media experience can be contrasted instructively with teacher professional development contexts. In traditional, “teacher professional development 1.0,” educators were not generally given choices. The principal or other administrator selected topic(s) and/or speaker(s) for the day of mandated professional development, and EVERYONE was forced to watch/consume the same presentation. In many cases, irrespective of the interests or professional background of the educator, s/he was forced (in the PD 1.0 world) to consume EXACTLY the same information and idea stream as other teachers. There is minimal or zero differentiation in “educator PD 1.0.” That was the model we generally followed in most U.S. schools in the 20th century for educator professional development, because it was the easiest, the cheapest, was the model with which everyone was most familiar, and it become an expectation.

Just as “in-flight entertainment 1.0″ is giving way to a 2.0 model, educator professional development needs to change and transform as well. Let’s examine some of the media consumption and interaction options available to me today on Northwest Airlines Flight 809 and think of the ways this analogy can be extended to educator professional learning. In particular, let’s consider the professional development model of the K-12 Online Conference as we proceed.

This is the individual remote control which I have at my seat in this airline flight, and was able to detach from the armrest which separates my seat from the person beside me:

The screen in front of me, at eye level in the back of the seat in front of me, provides helpful instructions in multiple languages which permits me to learn this new media system. I have never used this system before today. I did not receive instructions prior to boarding the flight about it. I did not attend a hands-on workshop from an instructor about using this media system, to include a helpful step-by-step printed handout with instructions and colored screenshots. This media system assumes I have the capcity to be A NAVIGATIONAL LEARNER, able to explore the options available in my environment and, on a trial and error basis, determine how to get information or share information through the system without “formal instruction.”

I hope you are already seeing some important implications of the design of this media system to our teacher professional development habits in many schools, as well as Internet access environments for both teachers and students. As the user I AM IN CONTROL of the content I watch and utilize. A limited but still robust menu of options have been provided for me, which reflect a variety of decisions made by the “content gatekeepers” of this media system. As an example, of the 35 movies available to watch, only two are rated “R.” The rest are rated “G” (appropriate for all ages,) “PG-13″ (some material may be inappropriate for children under 13,) or “E” (edited for airline viewing.) None of the movies, for some reason, are rated “PG” (some material may not be suitable for children.) Most of the movies (17) are rated “E.” 12 are rated “G.” 1 movie is rated “PG-13,” the rest are “not rated.”

Just as this Northwest Airlines in-flight media system provides diverse and differentiated, but yet pre-selected options for entertainment, our educator professional development programs should offer a similar range of choices.

After finishing this blog post, I’m going to watch a movie full of memorable music from the 1980s, “The Wedding Singer.”

My fellow passengers may not share my nostalgic enjoyment of music from the 1980s, and the humor of Adam Sandler. That’s OK. They have the opportunity to choose their own media selections, and I have the power as well as access to technology devices to select my own.

I love this in-flight entertainment system. I did find the following menu choice quite amusing, however. The last available menu choice on the system is “email.”

After selecting that choice, passengers are presented with a screen titled “What Is Email?”

The last paragraph of the email screen series reveals the hidden catch: Feel free to send as many emails and SMS messages to your friends back on planet earth, but Northwest Airlines and the makers of this in-flight entertainment system (Panasonic) will happily charge you $2.50 US per message.

Just swipe your credit or debit card using the provided slot on the side of your personal remote control:

Wow. Imagine if an older adult is reading that screen for the first time….. What is email? According to the information presented on this media system, “It is a system of sending messages electronically to people around the world with a cell phone or an Internet connection for $2.50 US per message.” Somehow I’m thinking this introduction to email might go over like a lead balloon with most folks….. I’m wondering who decided the “fair market value” of a SINGLE email or SMS message sent from the airplane is $2.50?! It could likely go without saying (but I won’t let it) that I think this is a RIDICULOUS price. I can purchase unlimited high-speed Internet access for my home for $15 per month. That’s unlimited email messages and web surfing for thirty days, for $15. Similarly, I pay $15 extra per month for my iPhone plan to have unlimited email messages and web access. (Currently on the speed-challenged, but still highly accessible EDGE network.) Why would I ever pay $2.50 to send a single email message? I wouldn’t and I won’t.

This in-flight airline system IS wonderful, and I love the fact that there is not a charge for seeing or using any of the media options (including video games) with the exception of email. Why the exception? Have the designers of this system heard of “micropayments?” I might pay ten cents to send an email message, but I certainly won’t spend $2.50. I would be more likely to spend $10 for unlimited WiFi Internet access for the duration of this 8+ hour flight to Hawaii… especially if that access permitted me to access my own IM networks.

Despite this somewhat amusing strategic error in the pricing plan for in-flight email, overall I think this media system is remarkable and wonderful. Unlike other in-flight entertainment systems, including the one on Northwest Airlines which my wife and I experienced in September in our flights to and from Shanghai for the Learning 2.0 conference, there are NOT any forced advertising or commercials in this system. I LOVE that.

I will close with two more observations and comments.

I think the provision of an interactive survey option right within the media system menus is very smart. Question 9 specifically asks how important you think the availability of video games is for in-flight entertainment. Interesting.

The results of this survey may be unreliable and invalid, unfortunately, since the same person can take the survey an unlimited number of times. (I took it twice so I could take the image above.) I’m not sure how many people actually take it twice though, and I suppose the system may just permit one survey result per seat per flight. If it does not do that automatically, certainly the system could be programmed that way to improve validity.

Lastly, I’ll share two quick pictures of the contents of my backpack at my feet. Ugh. I am SO FAR away from the dream of a completely wireless computing experience!

I would guess I’m the only person, or one of a very select group, flying today to Hawaii with a 300 GB fireire hard drive in my carry-on luggage!

TSA scanned my backpack twice in Oklahoma City, and I’m guessing that hard drive could have been the reason. I don’t normally travel with such a robust data tool, but I wanted to make sure I had plenty of space to save, edit and publish video podcasts during this week of travel!

Aloha for now from NW Flight 809. The interactive map shows we’re about to leave the airspace over North America and venture out over the Pacific… Hawaii here we come!

Technorati Tags:
northwest, airlines, panasonic, education, school, teacher, professional, development, professionaldevelopment, media, choices