Moving at the Speed of Creativity

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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At long last, Sheryl, Darren, Dean and I are pleased to announce the keynote speakers for the 2008 K-12 Online Conference! Stephen Heppell, Alice Barr, Cheryl Oakes, Bob Sprankle, Gardner Campbell, Chris Lehmann, Vicki Davis, and Julie Lindsay will all be keynoting this year. What a fantastic lineup of presenters!

If you’re not familiar with the K-12 Online Conference, check out our 2008 call for proposals which explains a bit about how the conference works and our four strands for this year. You still have just over two weeks to submit a proposal for this year’s conference which begins in October! (The new deadline is July 11th, a week after NECC is over.)

If you want to share a linked logo to K12Online08 on your blog or other website, that HTML code is available for you to copy and paste.

Please help us spread the word about K-12 Online, and consider joining the NECC 2008 Ning Group which we hope will provide good opportunities to solicit committee volunteers as well as more input for the conference!

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Wow! NECC 2008 is still a few days away, but thanks to ongoing discussions on the conference Ning I feel like the conference has already physically started. It HAS virtually started, thanks to the Ning, so perceptually for me and many others it HAS started… Are we living in exciting times or what?!

When I created discussions for my three formal (1 - 2 - 3) and one informal session at NECC last night per the official instructions for speakers, I noticed it was possible to enable RSS on the threads. I discovered this evening, however, that the RSS link specific to a discussion does not show up until there has been at least one comment on that initial discussion thread post:

I continue to love using the Safari web browser for most of my web surfing, due to its speed as well as its feature of letting me save RSS feeds in the bookmark bar. When I do this, and new comments or posts “come in” on the feed, the number of new items shows up in the bookmark bar making it easy to track and follow them:

Tools and tricks like this one with Safari are invaluable to me to stay abreast of “feeds” I want to track and follow. As I’ve said before (in a three part podcast series, actually) we live in an attention economy. Intentionally managing the flows of information which we permit and direct onto our personal attention “radar screens” is a vital 21st century skill. We should have an NECC Unplugged session on that topic!

What’s on your radar screen this evening? With NECC 2008 just around the corner, there are LOTS of new bogeys coming our way. The good news is, I think they are all “friendlies.”

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Great news! Thanks to comments from Mike Muir and Tammy Worcester on my blog this morning and yesterday, I was alerted to ISTE’s announcement emailed to NECC 2008 presenters at 23:15 GMT on 21 June 2008 (yesterday evening here in US Central time):

Dear NECC Presenter:

ISTE recently disseminated a code of conduct regarding video and audio recordings at NECC 2008 which has generated some thoughtful and energetic discussion.

We welcome your interest and comments and would like to clarify and amend the code of conduct for NECC 2008.

For NECC 2008, ISTE’s permission is not required for non-commercial video and audio recording of sessions and workshops.

However, for NECC 2008, written permission from the session or workshop presenter is required prior to capturing a video or audio recording. Any permitted recording should respect the presenter’s rights and not be disruptive.

Under no circumstances may any length or quality of video/audio capture be used for marketing, advertising, or commercial purposes without express written permission from both the session presenter(s) and ISTE.

Thank you. We look forward to an ongoing dialog about fair use.

NECC Program Staff

I have several responses to this new announcement, but the first and most important one is this: Thank you ISTE leaders for being “plugged in” and listening to the ideas and input of your members and constituents! I am very pleased to see ISTE making a policy change on this issue for many reasons, but one of the most important is the MODELING opportunity which ISTE has and is utilizing to show educational leaders around the world how new media recording, sharing, and collaboration technologies can be used CONSTRUCTIVELY to improve opportunities we have for professional learning and growth. Thank you ISTE leaders!

The NECC 2008 Attendees: Registration: Overview webpage which contains the original code of conduct has not been updated yet, but I’m sure it will be soon. (It IS Saturday here in the U.S., after all.)

This ISTE announcement sparked a large volume of discussion and conversations about intellectual property, new media coverage and publication, and educational conference participation in the blogosphere and in face-to-face meetups. I understand (thanks to a tweet from John Maklary) many people at the Classroom 2.0 meetup in Houston, Texas were talking about this yesterday. I sense this situation triggered MANY conversations at MANY levels with MANY folks. In this context, I think catalyzing these conversations is a wonderful thing.

I haven’t seen Miguel Guhlin get as worked up and passionate about an issue as he did with his original post on this topic, “NECC 2008- Old Fears and Habits Rule.” To Miguel’s credit along with ISTE leaders like Leslie Connery, these thoughts and emotions translated into thoughtful email messages which were not only received, but also thoughtfully considered. In reviewing the background of what transpired late this week, I encourage you to read Miguel’s posts “Not the Evil Empire” and “ISTE Responds.” According to Miguel, Leslie wrote:

We …have had great internal conversations in the last 24 hours about how best to respond. We needed to listen to and address the valid concerns of ISTE members while also protecting the rights of the people who have agreed to present at NECC… Post NECC2008, we are planning to convene a discussion around the issue of broadcasting presentations and to work together collaboratively with podcasters, bloggers, presenters, and other stakeholders to develop guidelines for NECC2009 that meet the needs of the education community… For NECC 2008, ISTE’s permission is not required for non-commercial video and audio recording of sessions and workshops.

One immediate result of these blog posts, email messages, and conversations is the official email announcement from ISTE which I quoted at the beginning of this post. It appears, however, these conversations will continue at an official level, and that is outstanding.

As I wrote in my post last week, “Are teachers in your building parallel players?” it is conversations which change us as individuals, and collective conversations which change the cultures and organizations in which we live, play and work. It takes TIME to change perceptions. It can be frustrating to wait for changes, especially when we see something taking place slowly or a policy announced with which we strongly disagree. Conversations, however, are the key to change. Conversations involve thoughtful sharing but also intentional and careful listening. This photo remains one of my favorites to visually communicate these ideas:

Chris Rogers, a management consultant, echoed this perspective of organizational and cultural change in his comment to my post last week. Chris wrote:

As a management consultant, I view organizations as networks of conversations, through which people make sense of their world and decide how they are going to act. Outcomes emerge from the interplay of these formal and - most importantly - INFORMAL conversations, and the actions that flow from them. As the content and patterns of conversation change, so does the organization.
The more scope that individuals have for meaningful conversation with others, the more likely it is that novel perspectives will emerge and new behaviours take hold, as people coalesce informally around these emergent themes.

These perspectives have been important as I’ve attempted to articulate “who I am” on my personal bio page, which includes the phrase “catalyst for creative engagement and collaborative learning.” According to WikiPedia:

Catalysis is the process by which the rate of a chemical reaction (or biological process) is increased by means of the addition of a species known as a catalyst to the reaction. What makes a catalyst different from a chemical reagent is that whilst it participates in the reaction, it is not consumed in the reaction. That is, the catalyst may undergo several chemical transformations during the reaction, but at the conclusion of the reaction, the catalyst is regenerated unchanged. As a catalyst is regenerated in a reaction, often only a very small amount is needed to increase the rate of the reaction.

Authentic conversations have great potential to constructively change ALL the participants. Conversations are NOT simply one-way delivery exercises in content delivery, but a dialog. My favorite definition of dialog comes from Stephen Glenn and Jane Nelson, who defined it as “a meaningful exchange of perceptions in a non-threatening environment.” When we engage in conversations and dialog, we grow in our thinking and our intellectual development. Sometimes, cognitive changes lead to behavioral changes. Sometimes, those changes lead to larger political and policy-level changes in organizations.

To ISTE’s credit and specifically to the credit of ISTE’s current leadership, it is clear they ARE listening. And to the credit of many others, like Miguel Guhlin and Christian Long (who wrote not only in their blogs but also directly to the leaders of ISTE on this topic) we’ve seen in a few short days how the voices and opinions of ISTE members can and DO shape the policies of the organization.

Along these lines of organizational participation, Sylvia Martinez summarized the opportunity this situation presented and continues to present to US, the members of ISTE, in her blog comment post yesterday:

ISTE is a member organization. This is not “us” against “them”. Every member should expect that these policies are open for discussion and can be changed.

This is a perfect opportunity for ISTE members to make their voices heard - so now seems like the time to get involved. How about coming to the ISTE Member Welcome session Sunday afternoon and state the case there?

In fact, in past years, wasn’t there a member meeting at NECC to discuss ISTE policy and direction? Did that go away? Or am I not seeing it in the schedule?

I plead totally guilty of ignoring my duty as an ISTE member to speak up and take part in the organization policy development.

Sylvia is absolutely correct, this IS and REMAINS “a perfect opportunity for ISTE members to make their voices heard.” In much of the world, the opportunities for individuals to freely participate in public discussions about organizational policies and procedures are sharply limited. I know we are not talking directly about human rights issues, terrorism, or other more “explicitly political” topics, but the subjects we are addressing here and the processes through which we are discussing them are HIGHLY relevant and important to multiple facets of our connected, digital lives and societies in the early 21st century.

For some time, I’ve sensed that the potential for new media technologies like blogs, podcasts, photo and video sharing sites to constructively catalyze and organize conversations focused on supporting change at political, organizational, and societal levels is HUGE. If I had the time and opportunity to develop and lead a university course this fall on any topic, I would choose citizen journalism. When new media technologies are combined with more established communication technologies like email, television, radio, and print publications, the results CAN be dramatic. Any of us are just a phone call away from an invitation to be on Oprah. It doesn’t take a traditional television broadcast program leader like Oprah, however, to galvanize attention on a specific topic or situation today. “Regular folks” can do that as well, via the extended, digital learning communities which now connect us. While we may feel isolated and alone at times in our individual educational contexts, the web 2.0 world has offered us the potential (which is now only beginning to be realized) of drawing us ever-closer together in more tightly connected communities. When leaders in these contexts are responsive to the ideas and imaginations of individual members, the result can be a dynamic, forward-thinking and relevant role for the organization in helping influence and guide others who are both members and non-members.

The advocacy issues at stake in this conversation over who “owns” the right to give permission to record and share non-commercial copies of a person’s ideas at an educational conference extend far beyond San Antonio, Texas, at NECC in a few weeks. The tools and communication potential now at our fingertips as bloggers, podcasters, educational change agents and digitally connected learners in the 21st century are unprecedented in human history. It may seem repetitive and now blase, since I stay this fairly often, but I personally find this reality to be mind-blowing. Convergence is taking place before our very eyes, and we are participating in this digital communications revolution.

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Although ISTE has published a controversial “Video/Audio Recording Code Of Conduct” for the NECC 2008 conference in San Antonio, they also have announced facilities will be provided for podcasters at the conference. According to the “NECC Presenter: Final Preconference Email” message this evening:

NEW! PODCASTING SUITE
Room 215 at the convention center will be set up as a resource for people who wish to create podcasts. There will be two stations for conducting and recording interviews and tables with electricity and Internet connections for editing and uploading.

From what I take from this “code of conduct,” ISTE is wanting participants to create podcasts of interviews from the convention hallways and vendor floor, rather than recordings of full conference sessions.

As in the past, selected NECC presentations will be published as podcasts by Apple on the Apple Learning Interchange following the conference. The NECC session program search includes a radio button to query the database for those sessions pre-selected for podcasting.

As of this evening, 27 sessions show up as “pre-selected for podcasting” presentations. I wonder if all these presenters have provided written permission to ISTE in advance that it is OK for their session to be recorded and shared? One of the presentations designated to be officially podcasted is “One Hour PowerPoint: A Strategy for Improving Presentations” by David Jakes and Dean Shareski. I’ve asked them both via twitter:

Has ISTE asked you both to provide written permission for your NECC session to be recorded and shared as a podcast?

It will be interesting to see the answer.

I did submit this evening via email a formal request to ISTE conveners to audio record for subsequent, non-commercial podcast publication 32 different NECC 2008 sessions, including two of my own. Hopefully ISTE will say yes! Since they are providing podcasting facilities at NECC 2008, I’d sure like to be able to use them!

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Ever since I first saw the Clay Animation Kit from Tech4Learning at the TCEA conference in the late 1990s, I have yearned for an opportunity to play with its contents and have fun making my own claymation videos! Members of our immediate family are BIG TIME fans of claymation movies like those of Wallace and Gromit. My 4 year old daughter’s favorite movie of all time is “A Close Shave,” and it amazes me how these films have encouraged her to develop a pretty sophisticated sense of humor. (Incidentally, production is ON for the next Wallace and Gromit film, “A Matter of Loaf and Death.” Read more on the official production blog.)

Stopmotion and claymation films are not only fun to watch, they are also a BLAST to create! About four years ago, when my oldest was in kindergarten, we spent quite a few hours together creating three “Stopmotion Western Classics” with his set of lincoln logs and the characters which came with the set. My favorite of the three movies is definitely “Minders Rescue,” which features some musical excerpts from Clint Black as well as the old Flash Gordon theme by Queen.

My long awaited opportunity to play with the Tech4Learning Claymation kit comes next week! I’m taking a week of vacation from work to teach a class on “Stop Motion Filmmaking” for our church’s Fine Arts Camp for 3rd through 9th graders. I’m very excited to have this opportunity!

In the past, I’ve created stopmotion movies using iStopMotion and iMovie. This time, however, we’ll be using Frames software by Tech4Learning.

This evening after dinner, my 10 year old and I spent two hours creating a quick sample movie with an old Mavica digital camera I have (yes, it would still take floppy disks if I owned any!) and Frames software. As expected, it took about 30 seconds to get oriented to the Frames software options and create a reasonable stopmotion movie with it. (In other words, like all good software, it was very intuitive and easy to use.) Frames is cross-platform, so we can use it on our Macs at home as well as the WindowsXP computers at the church where the fine arts camp is being held. The Claymation kit came with the software and licenses for five software installations.

The short (1 min 16 second) movie we created tonight has 105 photos used as frames, and about six still frames for the intro and outro. We obtained our music from the Podsafe Music Network. This isn’t a Spielberg quality film, but it was fun and gave us some good experiences getting familiar with Frames software and reviewing the stopmotion filmmaking process. We borrowed some of my 4 year old’s NASA play toys, and titled this epic video, “A Day On The Moon.”

Several things were reinforced during our moviemaking time this evening which will be helpful tips to share with students next week:

• Keeping the camera and tripod still is vital and one of the most important things to do in a successful stopmotion movie.
• Be aware of lightning and shadows, and minimize unnecessary or unwanted shadows if possible by moving to a location that is not between the light source and your set.
• Taped together manila file folders make a reasonably nice backdrop for a set. (Thanks Tonya Witherspoon for this tip!)
• Make very small movements for each frame of the movie. It takes a LOT of frames to create just a few seconds of video! (The default setting in the software program “Frames” is half a second per frame, but you can alter this as desired.)

Monday we start the stopmotion workshop with students at the Fine Arts camp. It’s going to be a fun and exciting week! I hope Alexander is going to be my camp assistant, but I don’t think he’s made up his mind yet if he’s going to attend or assist his dad!

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This podcast is a recording of a presentation by John Jones on June 12, 2008, titled Drupal for Education. John presented this session at the Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 21st Century Learning conference in Wichita, Kansas, hosted by the Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central Kansas (ESSDACK). The conference program description of this session was: Drupal is an open source web community engine that has the power and flexibility to provide highly customized user experiences for schools and districts. This presentation will review the software, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of open source solutions like Drupal, and showcase what these sites can do. A link to John’s PowerPoint presentation is available in the podcast shownotes.

 

 Podcast259: Drupal for Education by John Jones [65:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1283)

Show Notes:

1. Drupal (official website)
2. My text notes from John’s presentation
3. John’s PowerPoint slides from this presentation
4. My post “Moodle as “the killer app” (includes a great discussion in the comments about Drupal vs Moodle)
5. Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 21st Century Learning Conference
6. Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central Kansas (ESSDACK)
7. CivicSpace WikiPedia article (formerly DeanSpace, based on Drupal)
8. John’s personal gaming/blog website (built in Drupal, of course) - Radiating Gnome
9. Siteground, my web host (which supports Drupal via Fantastico)

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This podcast is a recording of the keynote address shared by Kevin Honeycutt at the Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 21st Century Learning conference in Wichita, Kansas, on 12 June 2008. The TTT conference is hosted by ESSDACK, the Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central Kansas located in Hutchinson. Kevin is one of the most innovative and passionate educators I know, and is a compelling storyteller. He is able to masterfully focus educators not only on issues related to learning and educational technology integration, but even more importantly on the vital role teachers play each day forming and strengthening relationships with students. Kevin reminds me about what matters most in the classroom and in education, and that is students. Many thanks to Kevin for sharing permissiosn to podcast this session, as well as the entire ESSDACK staff for hosting a fantastic conference last week in Wichita. Be sure to also check out the Ning social network which Kevin facilitates, titled Art Snacks. (Links are available in the podcast shownotes.)

 

 Podcast258: Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 21st Century Learning by Kevin Honeycutt [44:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1071)

Show Notes:

1. Kevin Honeycutt (website, blog and podcast)
2. Art Snacks (Ning Social Network facilitated by Kevin)
3. Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 21st Century Learning Conference
4. Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central Kansas (ESSDACK)
5. My Flickr photos of the infamous Honeycutt treehouse in Inman, Kansas

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Technorati Tags: school, education, reform, schoolreform, school2, leadership, learning, vision, ESSDACK, ttt08, ttt2008, essdack, kansas, literacy

Whether or not you’re bound for San Antonio in a few short weeks for the National Educational Computing Conference, take a few moments today (if you have not already) and join the NECC 2008 Ning! I was delighted to learn (via a group invite from Lucy Gray within the Ning) about this social network today. It’s wonderful to see ISTE embracing social networking and Ning specifically. Whether or not any of us are prepared for the volume of user-generated conversations that are coming, they’re on the way! This is sure to be the best NECC ever!

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This podcast is a recording of a presentation by Steve Wycoff on June 12, 2008, titled “Natural Learning - What Schools Don’t Do” at the Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 21st Century Learning conference in Wichita, Kansas. TTT is sponsored by ESSDACK, the Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central Kansas in Hutchinson. The official program description for this session was: How we learn naturally is far different than how we are taught in schools. If we are going to succeed in actually leaving no child behind, we’ll need to understand better how individuals learn and more importantly how schools will need to look to accommodate the learning needs we all have. We’ll also demonstrate what curriculum might look like in a learning environment designed for the way we learn naturally. We’ll also connect this new learning environment to the needs we are experiencing in society related to workforce readiness. Be prepared to have your thinking stretched

 

 Podcast257: Natural Learning - What Schools Don’t Do by Steve Wycoff [62:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1248)

Show Notes:

1. Blog of Steve Wycoff
2. Podcast142: Rethinking Teaching: How Online Learning Can and Should Completely Alter Your View of Education (Roger C. Schank)
3. Changing Schools: A conversation with Roger Schank
4. Roger Shank (WikiPedia article)
5. Socratic Arts (Roger Shank website)
6. Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central Kansas (ESSDACK)
7. Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 21st Century Learning Conference
8. My text notes from Steve’s presentation
9. Charles Eliot Norton (WikiPedia entry)

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Technorati Tags: school, education, reform, schoolreform, school2, leadership, learning, natural, ESSDACK, ttt08, ttt2008, essdack, kansas, literacy

These are my notes from Kevin Honeycutt’s breakout session titled “” at the TTT conference in Wichita, Kansas, on 12 June 2008. Kevin’s online safety website is mysafesurf.org. MY THOUGHTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. I’m recording this session to share as a podcast later. My notes from Kevin’s keynote this morning are also available. Kevin’s main website is kevinhoneycutt.org.

How I got into talking about online safety
- listening to Terry Aftab?

Even good kids will do bad things when they think no one is watching
- even adults
- people shouldn’t have a secret life, it doesn’t lead to good things
- we’ve
- parents treat the computer like a child’s diary and that is a mistake

do you ever become your own parent?

Had an experience with my son where he quickly closed the lid on his laptop when interrupted, and said it was “none of my business” what he was looking at
- we started the conversation that we should have had before we got online

the world has changed more in our generation than in any other generation in human history
- where is the curriculum for online behavior in schools?

we have to get to the playground whether we understand it or not, and identify the rusty edges

there is no lazy way to do this
- you have to ask questions
- who are you chatting with online?

lazy parents raised kids with television in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s
- TV is a push technology
- computer technologies are push/pull
- they are amazingly sticky

book: Made to stick (about sticky learning) - Made To Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath

For a long time I made the mistake of teaching the tool rather than teaching WITH the tool
- there is not curricula around “pencils”
- we need to stay experts with our tools

web 1.0: I have a website, 1 way delivery

web 2.0: asking for your opinion, join my social learning network
- asking for your input, it becomes a conversation

ever watched your kid playing a game and you have trouble staying up/ keeping up/ understanding
- kids have no fear of software
- we are slowed down by legacy code and experiences: blue screen of death

wired kid research indicates some kids can make 110 decisions per minute (not necessarily good decisions tho)
- our kids don’t necessarily think before they click

video: Panasonic Ideas for Life video

classrooms were designed by people who have the most keys in the school
- space between desks is there because you can fit a broom between the desks
- that has nothing to do with learning or what is best for kids or teachers

kids in the middle of the room are policymakers
- kids in middle can go either way
- kids in the back are disengaged

did you learn proximity in teacher education
- assertive discipline: hand on your shoulder
- workshops actually taught repetition in commands to students

there should never be worse than a second row seat in any classroom in education
- do theater in the round

how do we take kids from the back of our rooms and get them to participate, get a front row seat

now showing “Introducing the Book”

have a room full of tense teachers
- love on them first
- then help them have fun (if you don’t have them laughing soon, you’ve failed)

Game skills translate to real world skills
Ever since our kids have been, there have been computers

Dan Pink: the rise of the creative economy
- people buying a designer plunger

Outsourcing and the death of education

are we teaching our kids to build creative, experience-based products in our schools
- are our schools promoting creativity?
- in the majority of schools, adults are dictating what students are expected to do

we all think creative is fun, but do we have time for it?

idea of “consolidation”
- when your dream consolidates the new things you learn, new things are looking for places to attach
- how much unstructured time do we have in schools today?
- adults concerned about wasting too much time letting kids play

divorcing learning from play

On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins
- I am on my 7th time reading through the book
- this book has changed my life
- key: NOVELTY

creating uncertainty in the classroom creates great opportunities for learning

Friedman talking about fungible and non-fungible jobs
- what jobs can be outsourced?

is teaching and learning fungible?
- depends on your vision?

If your brother is in Iraq, Skype matters

How many of you using Google Docs?

We need balance in our lives
- lost children, whose parents don’t come to parent conferences
- just like you shouldn’t eat all pudding
- the web puts out a buffet of options, but our kids are eating the napkins
- they have the library of congress at their fingertips and they are reading about Britney Spears
- we’re not helping kids get a balanced diet

THESE ARE IMPORTANT ISSUES TO DISCUSS IN THE CONTEXT OF ONLINE SAFETY FOR SURE

Kevin’s ideals for PBL on his website

I THINK GARY STAGER SHOULD ARRANGE FOR KEVIN HONEYCUTT TO GET A SCHOLARSHIP TO STUDY AT MIT FOR HIS DOCTORATE…

We’ve got to start having these conversations with kids at an early age

cyber golden rule: don’t do anything online you wouldn’t do face to face

My mom is hooked on the Internet because of geneology and research

If the web is going to define
- take control of your virtual image
- why do these pictures keep showing up

what kids call a “hottie” picture we used to call slutty

story of a grandparent whose grandchild shared a compromising photo and ruined her local reputation…

Cyberbullying
- kids reaction to bullying has never been good
- now for many reasons people are saying it is worse: no escape, not a safe haven

Teenagers: the quest for a frontal lobe… (What were they thinking?)
- by 18 girls are developing executive function (frontal coretex)
- boys marry one (develop that ability slower)
- kids are making takeoffs and landings and their is no one in the air traffic control tower!
- we’ve got to be up in their grill

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These are my notes from Dean Mantz’s presentation “LoTi: Elevating Expectations, Performance and Accountability” at the TTT Conference in Wichita, Kansas, on 12 June 2008.

From my work in Kentucky, rather than calling LoTi “levels of technology implementation” we started to call it “levels of technology innovation”

LoTi goes back to 1994, developed by Dr. Chris Moersch
- starts with level zero’- a scale developed in an effort to accuragtely measure authentic classroom technology use

the higher the LoTi level, the deeper your relationship with them, as you facilitate the lesson the stronger their engagement level can be

How many of you have seen “A Vision of a Students Today” from Kansas State?
- shown in the context of “Why LoTi?”

Education with LoTi
- writing
- PAWS
- accountability measures
- vertical alignment
- more…

Education with LoTi
- an organized map for engaging students and challenging them at higher levels
- thoughful education, Marzo’s research-based practices, inquiry-based instruction, higher order thinking skills
- project-based instruction, questioning techniques, authentic/real world application, professional learning communities
- rigor/relevance, 21st century skills, formative assessments, NCLB and AYP, more…

Now: to to the Loti Lounge if you have a laptop
- click sign me up

Melinda Stanley from KSDE has been promoting LoTi
- Maize is going Loti, so is Lyons

if you want to disaggregate data down to the building level, there is a charge, and to get summary data
- Melinda has negotiated that price down for the state of Kansas

the LoTi “details questionaire” is available for:
- Media-Technology Specialists
- Preservice Teachers
- Inservice Teachers
- Instructional specialists
- Building administrators

This is information for you as an educator: if you are taking this and NOT in the classroom now take it as if you WERE in the classroom now

it is VERY interesting when you take this as a pre-service teacher
- in my preservice class for Sterling College, scores are all over the table

“greatest obstacle to further using technology in your instructional setting?”
- access to technology
- time to learn, practice and plan
- other priorities (statewide testing, new textbook adoptions)
- lack of staff development opportunities

THE LOTI SURVEY WAS CREATED WITH WEBOBJECTS

Level 6: everything you want and need is available to you (you are living on cloud 9, you have everything you want to integrate and use technology in your classroom)

national average for a district or teachers in general on this scale: 2 to 3 (typically closer to 2)
- are numerous school districts in Texas, New Jersey, other states utilizing LoTi

Levels of Teaching Innovation:
0: Non-use
1: Awareness (teacher is using it for online gradebook and email)
2: Exploration (powerpoint shows - generally knowledge base of Blooms, regurtitation)
3: Infusion
4a: Integration: Mechanical
4b: Integration: Routie
5: Expansion
6:

Revision of Bloom’s taxonomy (ANDERSON AND KRATHWAHL 2001)
- this is the digital Blooms, created by a former student of Bloom
- verbs: make students interact and participate, not just sit back and absorb, not going to enthrall and try to make your kids sponges
- kids are engaged and active

so many vision statements in schools say students are going to be lifelong learners
- if teachers are not lifelong learners, how are kids going to be?

key verbs that go with each level of revised Blooms

how many of you have sat in in-service that is not relevant to you?
- that is where differentiation comes in

HEAT: Analysis of Student Learning (in Celsius Degrees)
- Higher order thinking
- Engagement
- Authenticity
- Technology

done by Western Kentucky University professor
- Loti is superimposed over this

LoTi is not the answer to everything, but it gives you a structure, a map to guide you and help you find that light at the end of the tunnel
- to help guide you to that next level

iSpring converts PPT to Flash (free and commercial)

As 21st century learners you are trying to help your students become self-directed
- this is the difference between LoTi levels 4a and 4b (mechanical versus natural, letting instincts take over)
- teacher is facilitating with level 4b: it is student centered, not teacher centered

Pulling from Marzo’s focus on real-world applications

I encourage you to revisit the “Explore LoTi resources” over the summer (requires you log in)

LoTi aligned lesson plans

Elevating performance
- addresses dynamic ways of improving student achievement
- more…

Even though we are 1:1, we have projectors in every classroom, CPS systems in most classrooms
- we have the technology, but teachers are not using it to the level they can
- we are failing our teachers in this case

I THINK IN MANY CASES WE MAY BE CONTINUING TO THINK ABOUT TOP DOWN CHANGE AS BEING THE KEY, RATHER THAN SEEING THE NEED TO EMPOWER STUDENTS

movie “Summer School” - point at the end, students during the summer actually learned something and their gains showed it

Examples of LoTi measured improvement in terms of AYP

focus is getting kids engaged and taking ownership over what they are doing

LoTi “Sniff test”
- is technology being used? (no: 0, yes, continue…)
- Is there evidence of content-related higher order thinking by students (No: could be level 1 or 2… Awareness if teacher is using technology only for productivity tools, 2 if students are using technology for lower level cognitive skills. In both cases it is teacher-centered.) If yes…
- Is the learning experience student-centered? Real-world, applied learning. (To be “student centered,” student generated questions must dictate part of the content, process, and/or product) - If NO, it is level 3: Infusion (products emphasize complex thinking skill strategies, ie problem solving, decision-making, reasoning) If yes..
- (CAN’T SEE REST OF THE SLIDE)
- more…

THIS IS A VERSION OF THE LOTI SNIFF TEST ONLINE WITH FISD - NOT THE SAME ONE DEAN IS SHOWING THO.
- another shorter version - also here from Chris at METC 2007

THAT IS A GREAT SLIDE, I LOVE THE FLOWCHART STYLE

now showing a

authentic project idea: students creating their own movie trailers for books assigned for reading in school (like “The Scarlet Letter”)

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These are my notes from the keynote address by Kevin Honeycutt, titled “Trends, Tools and Tactics for 21st Century Learning” on June 12, 2008, in Wichita, Kansas, at the summer educational technology conference sponsored by ESSDACK (Educational Services and Staff Development Association of Central Kansas.) MY OWN THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS ARE IN ALL CAPS. KEVIN IS LETTING ME AUDIO RECORD THIS SESSION AND I WILL POST LATER AS A PODCAST HERE. KEVIN IS A PHENOMENAL TEACHER, AN ARTIST, AN AMAZINGLY SKILLED STORYTELLER, AND AN INSPIRATIONAL SCHOOL CHANGE LEADER. WOW. WHAT A PRIVILEGE TO BE ABLE TO HEAR HIM SPEAK AND SHARE HIS MESSAGE WITH TEACHERS HERE IN CENTRAL KANSAS! KEVIN’S WEBSITE IS: kevinhoneycutt.org

Mike Cook’s advance comments:

Goal is to leave the conference with at least 1 thing that is going to improve learning for your kids
- if you can also leave with ideas to lighten the load on your teachers, that is great too
- focus on improving learning is our key focus

THEY ARE USING A VERY CLEVER IDEA FOR PRIZES, EACH PARTICIPANT HAS A BAGGIE OF BASEBALL PLAYING CARDS (BASEBALL IS THE CONFERENCE THEME: “THE FUTURE AIN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE” - YOGI BERRA) AND EACH ONE HAS AN ESSDACK STAFF MEMBER ON IT. AFTER EACH PRESENTATION SESSION YOU GET 2 NEW CARDS. THE GOAL IS TO HAVE THE COMPLETE “TEAM” FROM ESSDACK BY THE END OF THE CONFERENCE. GOOD IDEA, AND GREAT TO HAVE THE VISUAL “PLAYING CARDS” TO GET TO KNOW ESSDCACK STAFF MEMBERS AND THEIR ROLES.

Kevin’s keynote address:

I collect antiques and love old stuff, but I also like new stuff
- I love my iPhone, it challenged my marriage
- the book is an information conveyance like the iPhone, they do the same thing but differently
- picture of a book with an iPhone

Theme by Yogi Berra: “The Future Ain’t What It Used To Be”
- the brain learns in stories

How do you want to spend your heart beats? - Wesley Fryer (ACTUALLY CREDIT FOR THIS GOES TO WILLIAM (BILL) CASEBEER AND WILLIAM H. RHODES)

We learn through stories

We don’t choose our family, it chooses us
- looking for goodwill, school clothes shopping
- story of going into the Goodwill box through the slot
- people judge you on what you look like, and that is not fair
- story

This whole business of school is about relationships: connecting with kids and making them superstars

I grew up in a mobile home
- mobile homes are finger food for tornadoes

our dreams are based on our experiences
- trailer with skirting
-

HOw are you going to win me?
- the relationship is key

Want to find the best teacher in a building?
- often the one who is in trouble
- the one who is not afraid to get snot on them

when the human brain is on survival mode, it has a hard time learning
- the only way to help a child like that learn is to build a relationship and create a safe space

Intelligence is relative
- in Tennessee they said “That Yankee is sma-hert”
- then we moved to Pennsylvania where I was NOT smart (math teacher

in math if you miss 1 key concept which other things build on, you can have a defining moment

When we moved back to Kansas I was average again

I want to thank the Angels who were the teachers
- the ones who made the connections with us
- examples: recess aide, teacher

you never know when you are making a difference

first Honeycutt to graduate from college
- I was a teacher always helping other kids, and my own kids were always waiting
- story of the Honeycutt treehouse
- made one fast, son said “Dad that’s a deer stand”
- men need structure and limits
- went to Inman lumber and wrote a check for $1000

kids we teach today are living in a different world
- they are playing on digital playgrounds we didn’t play on
- we’ve got to get there so they are not alone
- Pomona High school we got computers first in 1984, we got two

the twitch generation
- kids can do more with two thumbs than many of us can do
- cell phone in hand, can take a picture and put it on myspace in 30 seconds
- what are the rules?

we have to talk to kids about these issues when they are very young

story of Atari vs. XBox
- old school
-

what are we willing to learn to connect with these kids?
- with all the digital things going on, how are we going to capture their attention
- video: Team Hoyt: Dick and Rick Hoyt

THIS IS SUCH A POWERFUL VIDEO, PARTICULARLY SET TO THE MUSIC… WOW. I LOVE HOW KEVIN HAS SITUATED THIS IN THE CONTEXT OF TEACHERS NEEDING TO FORGE MEANINGFUL RELATIONSHIPS WITH STUDENTS.

take you to the finish line
- the son graduates
- people believed in him

research now in Second Life, quadriplegics can manipulate an avatar in SL
- can they work in that environment?

We want to grow good brains
-freedom and context
- allow kids’ brains the luxury of free-association and help foster, promote and grow richer neural networks

do many of our students know things but not know how to do things with the things they know
- we need to go for messy learning
- it can’t always be predictable
- we DON’T want forests without branches

Michael Gelb “Discover Your Own Genius”

Another video… student diagnosed with autism who is team manager for his high school basketball team

I collect “conversational lubricants”
- inspire teachers

How can we create chances to shine?
- Google Sketchup
- is the project kids are creating helping prepare them for their future?
- story of students figuring it out

you ever seen a kid “launch?”
- kids can grab this and go with it
- don’t try to learn it

Ginger will not “helicopter” for students (do the assignment for students)

change the world moment
- learning is free
- I work with schools who have nothing
- can you still do something
- UC Berkeley just put a lot of their curriculum on YouTube free
- learning is free, but you have to pay for the diploma

YouTube viral video of Charlie biting
- taking your teachers on a YouTube treasure hunt
- let them giggle and have fun

1- go find something funny

2- go find something personally rewarding that you can learn from

3- go find something that would be beneficial for your teaching

story of learning the guitar
- a yard sale guitar with no strings attached
- I taught myself to play the guitar
- kicked out of a music store for “thoughtlifting” guitar

student creates a video for “Long train running by The Doobie Brothers”

Guitar lessons for my kid?
- my role came when my son got a guitar
- playing stairway to heaven learning from a guy on YouTube
- who is this kid? Eddie Van Halen’s son?

son said: Dad it’s not personal. I can rewind this as many times as I want and he doe

we can help our kids become rock stars
- go to these sessions and learn the what, we can hook you up with

you work on the “why?”

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If you live anywhere near Wichita, Kansas, get yourself and your teacher peers to the “Trends, Tools, and Tactics for 21st Century Learning” conference in The Hotel at Old Town this Thursday and Friday, June 12-13, 2008. I just learned about this conference tonight thanks to my uncle, Ron Henley. Wichita is just under three hours away from our home in Oklahoma– If it’s possible, I’m going to try and make it up for the conference. Sharing presentations is great, but it’s also wonderful to just ATTEND educational conferences and spend time learning from others. The presentation lineup for TTT looks great. There are TONS of innovative educators in Kansas willing to share their ideas with others, and here’s proof! I hope I can join in the fun and the learning in Wichita later this week, and hope (if you’re able) you will too!

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If you have not already, be sure to mark your fall (northern hemisphere) or spring (southern hemisphere) calendar for the 2008 K-12 Online Conference. The 2008 conference theme is “Amplifying Possibilities.” This year’s conference begins with a pre-conference keynote the week of October 13, 2008. The following two weeks, October 20-24 and October 27-31, forty presentations will be posted online to the conference blog for participants to download and view. Live Events in the form of three “Fireside Chats” and a culminating “When Night Falls” event will be announced. A call for proposals has been released, with a deadline of June 23rd. Selected presentations will be announced at NECC on July 2nd.

This evening, following a 2+ hour conveners meeting, we recorded a brief (13 minute) podcast discussing this year’s conference theme and selection criteria for conference keynotes.

In addition to checking out this latest podcast, please add the K12Online08 conference badge to your blog, wiki, or other educational website to let others know about the conference. We have updated the same graphic we’ve used the past two years, so if you placed our conference badge on your website previously it should already be showing the logo for 2008!

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