Susan Carter Morgan writes,

These days, though, I am finding myself struggling to share. I remember waking up one day last summer, moving through my morning routine of checking twitter, Google reader (and then Google Plus) as I had my morning coffee. Suddenly, a thought flashed into my head. “I don’t want to do this anymore.”

Closing my laptop, I headed out the door and took a long walk. I wish I could tell you I had some epiphany. And, no, I didn’t immediately stop using social media tools. But these past few months, I have found myself slowing down to a crawl.

I value the friends and connections I’ve made online, but I have tired of the conversations and this need to always be “on.” Instead of joy, I feel stress. I know, that’s my problem, not social media’s. Yet, I wonder….

This is not a new phenomenon. For those of us who have dedicated significant portions of our lives online have likely all felt this way at times. Having just spend a few days completely disconnected, I have to say it was refreshing. Yet coming back I didn't feel like I needed to dive in fully. There was actually a moment when I wondered, not if I wanted to jump back in but how long it would take me to make a significant contribution. That's part of the reason I'm writing this, to get back in the sharing game again.

Given my livelihood now is firmly rooted in my ability to connect in a variety of ways I think about how and why I connect with others. I think about how I consume information, how I share ideas and what might truly make a difference. It doesn't take me long when i go down that road to understand just how big the web really is. My current reading of Dave Weinberger's Too Big to Know, he spends a great deal of time on filtering:

The most successful so far use some form of social filtering, relying upon the explicit or implicit choices our social networks make as a guide to what will be most useful and interesting for us.

​I continue to emphasize the social in all that I do. It's too easy to think only about the content and the ideas. Those are the things that can often be draining and bring fatigue. There's just so much to know. What drives me is the social. Connecting with people first, their ideas second. I know for many that's not how it works. They start with the idea and perhaps move to the social. I can't say it's a linear, right or wrong approach but I do know that the notion that my link, photo, question or occasional humorous anecdote my make someone's day a little better helps me avoid fatigue. I also think about this digital divide that has many folks just beginning to discover a world of networked learning. They need leaders and mentors and friends to participate. I realize that even if I don't, there are many others available to connect and share. The truth is I do love it. 

I do understand Susan's feeling and don't discount it or think bad of her. It's real and I wonder how others cope or have had similar feelings. I only offer my perspective but as always, would love to hear yours. 

Friday I left for Florida. Delta lost my luggage. This is the first time I've ever had my luggage lost. According to stats, airlines are 99.5% effective in getting people their luggage to the intended destination on time. I wasn't too worried. After all, I had my golf clubs which was really most important given I had a tee time the next morning. I knew my luggage was in trouble because it never showed up in Minneapolis where I have to claim it after I clear customs. The flight to Orlando had wifi on board so while in the air, I tweeted Delta's twitter account and they tracked down my bag letting me know it wouldn't make it to Orlando until the next day. They also instructed me to go to the baggage claim immediately after I got off the plane. I filed a claim and was told the luggage would be delivered to my Dad's place the next day between 6-10 PM. As the 10 PM hour came close it was evident the luggage wasn't going to arrive. I called the number on the claim form but only received an answering machine. Back to twitter. I tweeted @DeltaAssist again and they had me complete a form on http://whereismysuitcase.com where I was able to track the suitcase much the same way you track a package. Shortly after I received a call stating the luggage would be delivered somewhere around 2AM. 

The luggage indeed arrived and Delta offered me a rebate of my luggage fee as well as some Skymiles for the trouble. They were pleasant and quick to respond. 

Today I checked in to my hotel here in Orlando and immediately was faced with the $14.95 internet charge for a relatively crappy connection. Fine. Then as I go to connect my Ipad, I'm asked to pay another $14.95. I called the front desk and was told that's just how it is. I'll give you two guesses what I did next. 

Seriously Westin, $15 for internet and that's only a MB down and one device. @SPGInsider That's ridiculous.

— Dean Shareski (@shareski) January 22, 2012

I do this for a number of reasons.

1. I'm mad 
2. I think others should know about bad service or products
3. I like to see if companies are paying attention

Within a few minutes…

@shareski Hi Dean, Could we ask what hotel you are staying in?

— SPGInsider (@SPGInsider) January 22, 2012

And a few minutes after that the manager called my room and took care of the the charges.

I've tweeted about an even bigger resolution and many have had similar experiences I know. What I wonder is in the same way that some banks don't offer you the lowest interest rates unless you ask do companies only cater to twitter users because of its public nature? The hotel manager who called me specifically referred to my tweets as the reason he called. Is it simply a great way for companies and business to connect with customers or is it only about damage control? If I don't tweet, do I get the same kind of service? I don't think so. There's an immediacy with tweeting that and an ease at which they can respond to customers. I don't know if they watch how many followers you have and whether that plays a role but I do think it's a huge advantage to be able to connect with the people you have financial transactions with. (I wonder if any of the businesses, will track down this post since I tagged them?)

When I first began blogging and using rss, I wrote a post about how my expectations had changed. I expected to be able to connect and learn with people online and if I couldn't I was less inclined to read their stuff. I realize that's narrow and not very realistic but I'm feeling the same way about businesses and organizations and twitter accounts. I want to know that if I run into an issue, you'll be there to support me. I had that experience this week with Delta and Starwood. I recently had the same with Shaw Cable. 

I also don't want to use these connections only to complain, They all provided good service to me and I'm happy to recommend them because of that. I don't know if there's a lesson here for schools but at least it's one more reason to help our students understand how to leverage these tools. There are some literacies or skills here beyond simply creating an account. They aren't all technical but experience and being comfortable in these spaces is a good thing to have. It's been quite beneficial to me this week for sure. 

Creating a composition video is very rewarding for me and my family. While the photos are mine and represent the world as I saw it, it's a great way to see the past year and remember events and moments we shared and experienced together.  Many of the images have a specific story and memory. Others are representative of the beauty I see around me. Certainly the addition of HDR and other image enhancements add even more awe to the world around me.  A quick scan of the various subjects shows the following results:

• Family: 86 photos
• Videos: 44
• Friends: 40
• Dogs: 38 (of particular note, 14 of those featured Rue in some type of weird sleeping position)
• Sky: 32 (likely do do the HDR app but I seemed to be sky watching more than ever)
• Me: 30 (I need to work at getting that number down)
• Golf: 28 (I think that's down from last year. I need to play more courses)

Posting photos online continue to add so much to the experience. People have shared many of these moments with me both in person and virtually. We see the collection of these images to tell rich stories of one another and I'm happy to share some of my family and life with the world. 

Technically this video was pretty easy to create. I used iMovie instead of Final Cut Express. I simply brought in all photos I had tagged with 365/11. I cross referenced them with flickr and discovered a few errors. Unlike in past years, I didn't painstakingly go through each month to insure every day was represented. I'm sure there are a few days missing. Not because I didn't take a photo but because I didn't tag them properly. Big deal. Photos are set to 5 second and fit to frame by default. After adding music I tend to view and trim accordingly. Pictures of little meaning or content tend to get cut down to 3.5 or 4 seconds. Photos that have some story or object of significance seem better suited at times to using the Ken Burns effect. I'm not sure I always get it right but discreet pan and zoom can be effective. That's why I don't want to use it as the default. Choosing which photos need or benefit from that effect is intentional. I hope that comes through. I finish with a couple of songs from my daughter which I did in 2009 as well. I tried to make some smooth transitions between the end of songs and beginnings which required some additional adjustments.  

Anyway, it's meaningful to me. and easy enough to share with you. I'm Maybe you'll recall some of the photos, maybe not. Maybe you make an appearance in some, maybe you don't. Maybe you've got 30 minutes to watch it, maybe you don't.

This weekend I was on the lookout for moments of beauty inside our house. Having been taking a photo every single day for the past 4 years, I've developed a keener sense of beauty or mindfulness. Trying to capture moments, seeing something special in the way light hits an object or the way two people interact. It's a habit I'm glad I've been developing and will continue to pursue. 

This is what I came up with. 

It's not awesome but it's a story, our story. I can really see taking this format and tweaking it and making it one's own. Ben used his son as the theme of his video. That's a very compelling story and while it's obviously incredibly meaningful to him, he tells it in such a way that we are drawn in as well. As I watch my own, I'm not sure exactly where to critique it. Would a better camera made a difference? What shots would have been more compelling? Was there even an implied storyline? Was the music an appropriate choice? 

I think about my own assessment skills here. I've created enough of these stories to have some sense of what works and what doesn't, and yet I lack the vocabulary or expertise to truly dissect my work in this case. I'm not sure if it's because I'm using a new format or whether art itself is too challenging to always try and deconstruct. Certainly this is the dilemma of assessment in schools when it comes to creative work. As Royan Lee says, "why grade when you can reflect?"

I frequently optimize the very essence of the banal tweet. 

So when a stranger reads that anticipating they might glean some insight or wonderful resource, they're likely a combination of disappointed, confused or annoyed. Sure, if you're following me, you might now by now this is par for the course. I will post the occasional mundane tweet but hopefully with a dash of humor or cleverness. Not always, but I try. If I bring a smile to someone once in a while, that means as much to me as sharing a great link or insightful remark. For me it's purposeful, in the same way kibitzing in a staff room or with your friends is purposeful. Some call it social grooming. 

The whole notion of the word "social" and education is difficult to grasp when your experience with learning has been anything but social and void of fun. So rather than have people scared off immediately or having them figure it out eventually, I wondered if there was some way to give people a heads up, a twitter trailer if you will, on what they'll get should they decide to follow me. 

So I created this:

Using ifttt, new followers get a direct message asking them to take 90 seconds to preview the goods. I worried a little if it would come across as spammy or invasive. I still wonder that but I've received some great feedback from people saying they really appreciated the heads up. I even had one person say that really only were interested in the educational side of things and if they found my content too out of place for them, they'd unfollow. Fair enough. 

While I could have had a link to my blog, that to me, seemed spammy. The blog isn't a great reflection of my whole self. My blog is much more about my reflection and thinking as well as dumping ground of thoughts. Twitter is the blur of personal and professional. I realize everyone uses it differently and that's fine. The fact that I used a video and people hear my voice and see my face adds another layer of connection. I much prefer people's faces in their avatars. If I've heard them speak, I read their tweets with their voices, accents and all. 

So a month into this little experiment and I'm pleased with the feedback. It's likely a trade off, with a few people put off, thinking it's a little narcissistic, and maybe it is. But the pay off of potentially more informed and even more connected folks is worth it to me. 

I'm a fan of change and new. Particularly when I believe it's for the better. But even when I'm not sure, I don't mind a little risk.

It's with that spirit that I begin a new journey in January. I'll be joining Discovery Education and serving as the DEN (Discovery Educator's Network) Community Manager. The job will be largely about developing and expanding the Discovery Educator network here in Canada. In the US, the DEN is a vibrant community of exemplary educators passionate about teaching and learning with technology. My job is to develop a similar community across Canada. In many respects it will allow me to continue what I've been doing in Prairie South but now potentially be supporting exponentially more teachers. I'll be based out of my home and spending a fair bit of time traveling, visiting schools, working with teachers, presenting at conferences and fostering community in whatever way I can. 

I began talking with the folks from Discovery back in May as we explored a potential position. This particular position didn't exist. We spent several months brainstorming what the job might look like. In the end, the posting was made public in October. When I read the job description, I felt like I wrote it.

I would be very hesitant joining a for profit business except for the fact that I have the utmost respect for people like Steve Dembo, Hall Davidson, Scott Kinney, Andy Schaefer and Lance Rouguex. These are high quality individuals. Many of these folks I've known for years and it's been evident their passion and focus lies in helping teachers. That will continue to be my focus as well.

I'll be taking a year leave of absence from my current position. This allows me and my family to decide if this job is a good fit for our family. Certainly increased travel will be a factor. It's nice that Prairie South offers that option. You can even apply for my job if you like. My years at Prairie South have been simply wonderful. I've had the opportunity to try many things and work with some outstanding people. If you've been reading this blog for a while you've seen me brag often about the work we do here. 

I'll continue to teach at the University of Regina. That's such a foundation for me as I can honestly tell people I'm still a teacher. It's something I truly wouldn't want to give up. I love teaching. 

Unless you work in Prairie South, our relationship probably won't change much. In fact, if you're in Canada, chances are you'll be getting to know me even more. We could be working together. If there's any way I can help, just ask. 

Thanks to everyone who reads this. In many ways you're the reason I'm able to have this opportunity. I'll try and do good work. 

My oldest daughter is taking a few classes at the University of Regina to finalize her teachers certification here in Saskatchewan. She's taking an elementary science course but since she's taken much of this in her previous B. Ed, she negotiated to do a major project in lieu of some more traditional activities.

She's used her musical talents to create a ebook that specifically aligns with the Grade 6 Saskatchewan Science Curriculum. The book contains a songwriting guide and 8 lessons and original songs as well as a video. She would love if you would download the book and ideally use them with your students. The topics will obviously span a range of grade levels as well as the songwriting guide would be useful for many ages. Use all, parts or just listen and enjoy. Either way, she's presenting this to her class on December 1st. It would be wonderful if you would give her some feedback on how you used it or see potential for this resource.

So download it like crazy. Retweet tweet it. Give it away. It's all Creative Commons licensed.

[Living Things epub version]

Alternate link

*Epub books work well on iPads, IPhones and iPod touches but can be viewed in it's full on a any device using the appropriate software. This page offers a list of many free applications that will enable you to enjoy all the features of the epub format.

PDF version (not preferred as audio does not play inline)

My talented daughter is having to take a few more courses at the University of Regina to get her teacher certification here in Saskatchewan. She's taking an elementary science course and convinced her professor that perhaps she could combine her music skills for a major project. She's been using the Saskatchewan Science curriculum to develop songs as well as a songwriting guide for students. It's a wonderful blend of science, language arts and arts education. She's created 8 songs covering a range of topics. I'm bias but I do think they're pretty good. Not your typical kids songs but they are pretty diverse in content and style. 

She's currently building an epub book that we'll share soon. For a little preview here's one of her songs and the study guide to go with it. 

Here's the m4a version if you prefer. (still not seeing this show up on an ipad…any ideas why?)

Analyze

What did you learn about living things? 
How does a plant poo?
How do you know you are living?
What is the form of the song?
What is the rhyme scheme in the second verse?
How many lines long is the chorus?
Create 3 more interesting questions to analyze the song.

Songwriting Activity

Pre-write

1.) Choose a plant or an animal that interests you.

2.) Is it living? How do you know?

3.) Create 3 of your own interesting questions about your species.

4.) Gather your information on your plant or animal.

5.) Start song writing!

a) What will your song be about (big idea)?

b) What information do you want to include?

c) Does this information help to communicate the big idea?

Write

Form: Verse, Chorus

Rhyme Scheme: Writers choice.

Lyrics: Must be original. Refer to your pre-writing work.

Melody: Choose 1.

a) Parody. Use the melody from "Does it Poo?" or use the melody of another song.

b) Original. Create your own melody!

Edit

Does your song show what you have learned about your plant or animal?
What is your rhyme scheme/ schemes?
How is the feel?
Is the melody clear and "catchy"?
How could you improve it?

Perform

Perform your song for the class. Acapella (just voices), or with music if someone in your group can play an instrument!

Where's the joy? I'm a bit disappointed to see a lack of joy in my own student's learning projects. It could be my fault, I'm not sure. But for me I find great joy in this learning. I picked my project and love the process. I wish that for my students. Why isn't there joy? Maybe my forcing them to pick something to learn isn't very joyful. Then again, they're going to spending much of their life helping others to learn, I would hope they could find joy in their own learning.  Anyway, thanks for watching, I hope you can at least laugh at me or hopefully laugh with me as I learn. 

Here's five more of my students. Ask them about joy or anything. 5 minutes to encourage a future teacher would likely be a good investment of your time and theirs. 

Adam…learning to climb

Colby….relearning piano

Kaylen…learning to speak French

Justin…learning Python, the programming language

Here's another 5 of my students that could use your encouragement. Whether you are an expert in any of these, leave a comment…better yet, leave them a great question. 

Mofizur….learning to cook

Linsey…learning Wii game Super Smash Bros.

Trina….developing webquests

Stacey…learning sign language

Rebecca….learning to draw

This video showcases a new little strumming drill I learned as well as highlight some others diving into a musical learning project. 

• Shannon Smith
• Alan Levine
• Bryan Jackson

If you want to participate in helping others with their learning project, considering gifting one or more of my students with a little comment, whether or not you're an expert in any of these fields, a kind word of encouragement can go miles in helping them realize that learning in public is a good thing. 

​Dan…learning to make sushi

Danielle…learning to sew

Jeneane….learning sign language

Jennie…learning to read Chinese

Josh.…learning graphic design

Watching my students struggle through this in varying projects, I likely have to revise the project but I truly believe in this process. If you're so inclined, leaving a comment or two on their blogs would be great. I'll highlight 5 of them today and share another 5 next week.

• Cole….learning Japanese
• Nicole…learning crochet
• Hillary…learning meditation
• Edgar….learning Assassin's Creed
• Courtney….learning to draw

​Any comments for them would be truly appreciated.

Although Thanksgiving has just passed, I was able to have a wonderful time with family in the Maritimes. Our days were full with no turkey dinner but lobster instead.  While reflecting about the idea of thanksgiving,  I remembered a  moment from America's Game, one of my favorite series from NFL Films. (My secret fantasy is that one day I'll be able to work for them) This clip is from the 1983 Oakland Raiders Superbowl win. I think I was reminded of this because of Al Davis' death. This team was ranked 20th of best all time teams but I quite liked hearing Todd Christensen reflect on this team. Not only he is extremely articulate, he actually used the word loquacious once, but his love and gratitude for being a professional athlete is clearly evident. This clip describes what he did right after the Superbowl ended and the Raiders became world champions. I'd seen this episode a few times and wanted to capture this specific moment so I apologize for the poor quality but I think his message is clear.

"There is only one sin and that's the sin of ingratitude".

My Dad also instilled that in me. I never want to be one of those people either. Not as thankful as I should be, I do try hard to remember to be thankful. Like Christensen, I often feel I have no business having all that I have. So I figured it was time  to be thankful while I had some quiet time on the plane. I won't list all my blessings here but just a few.

Family

Blessed with a great wife and kids, our house is filled with lots of love, laughter, with a good dose of crazy mixed in. I've shared some of this on The Twitter and hope it translates in a good way. While we tease each other lots, our house is a great place to be. Come by for a visit sometime. I think you'll agree.

Friends

We tend to spend time with about 3 or 4 couples that we all share lots in common. Whether it's a game of golf with the boys or potlucks with everyone, it's quite wonderful to live life with these good folks. It would also seem that a requirement is that you must be able to pull up a Seinfeld reference on a moment's notice. I'll also add to this list the addition of many new friendships I've developed online. Others have written more about these new type of relationships but I simply know that although the word "friend" may be changing, I know the folks I'd be comfortable sharing life's challenging moments and struggles with. If you really don't understand this concept. Read Alan's adventure. That might help.

Work

For 23+ years I've been working for Prairie South Schools. I've worked for wonderful Principals and Superintendents who have allowed me the luxury of exploring and playing as I learn. I'm never sure if it was because they really believed in what I was doing or if they were just too busy too worry about me. Either way, it's been rewarding work. I really do love to teach. Teaching for the past 5 years at the University of Regina has been awesome. Being able to work for up to 4 months with pre-service teachers and exposing them to the possibilities of new learning via technology is truly exhilarating. I can't think of one session out of approximately 100 where I didn't say, "Yes, I get to teach!" Mind you, many of those included some of the best edtech presenters on the planet, but still. Thanks specifically to Alec Couros for opening that door for me. I'm also grateful for the opportunity to work with schools, speak at the odd conference work with people like Sheryl and Will. What is most rewarding here is that usually I end up learning as much or more with these experiences as the folks I present to.

Thanks also to spaces like this and for you, who bother to read what I write and even offer up advice, fix my writing and even suggest once in a while that I rethink some things.

What are you thankful for? Write it out and share it. I'd be grateful to read it. Happy Thanksgiving. 

These updates really serve two purposes. One is for me. Like the before picture when you go on a diet, these videos will one day serve to remind me just how brutal I once was. I have no illusions of grandeur but continue to desire to be able to play for personal enjoyment. In that sense, I've already achieved it to a small degree. Documenting my learning via video is a useful and easy way to track progress. Outside of jotting down a few ideas to reflect upon, it's totally impromptu. I know, it's hard to tell.

Lesson 1
Lesson 2
Lesson 3

The second purpose is for modeling. I'm hopefully showing my students that learning is hard but fun and that being a reflective practitioner is something that will serve them well as they progress in their careers as life long learners. And teachers too. 

I suppose there's a third purpose or outcome here is to demonstrate that by sharing your learning you open up the opportunity for others to join with you and teach. That people would take time to watch me struggle and offer support and advice is an illustration of using technology in transformational ways and is amazing. And when I say amazing, I mean amazing. 

So here I am, still looking for support and moving forward.

I'm not sure why I'm calling these lessons, since they really aren't anything more than me reflecting and updating my progress. I don't think it shows much on the video but I feel decent about my progress. Certainly it's not like the rapid and immediate feedback of a video game but I'm hearing songs in my head. I really have to focus on chord transitions as you can tell. Of course as I watch guitarists do their thing I keep thinking "How in the world?". The more I learn, the more I understand and appreciate their skill and craft. It's the same way I look at professional golfers. And yet, like golf, every once in a while you play the chord perfectly and you're encouraged. 

So, keep those cards and letters and comments coming, any suggestions on specifics to work on? 

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/evilmutent/384401502 by Hugochisholm

As per usual, when I come up with an idea, I don't always have it all mapped out and don't foresee potential pitfalls. One student suggested she wanted to get in better physical shape. We had a brief discussion about how that may not fit with the spirit of the project as it needs to have a fair degree of cognitive processing and reflection. We discussed that learning a skill or discipline like yoga may be a better fit as it requires you to think and learn as opposed to simply creating a habit. I'm not sure I offered her the right language but I know I need to be more clear about what I mean by learning. Given this is the first go, I hope to repeat the process again with students and will undoubtedly learn lessons.

My own learning is being documented via video. Students can choose any means by which to reflect. I hope the reflections include personal struggles and triumphs but also examination of the experience itself as  a student. Thinking about learning. 

Here's me after 2 weeks of learning the guitar. 

As you can see, I've got a long ways to go but that's okay, I like learning stuff, being doing it since 1964, (see what did there?)

It's been said and discussed often here and many places that a real shift for educators is moving from teacher to learner. Not so much moving, we still need teachers, expertise matters but until we see ourselves as learners and intentionally show are students we can't be the educator our students need us to be. 

Last week I began my ECMP 355 course with largely freshman pre-service teachers. My usual introduction to my course reminds them that they are the winners of education. They were successful students because they were largely compliant and knew how to survive and thrive in a system that values a "mind your own business" style of learning. Do what you're told, when you're told to, and you'll be fine. Learning isn't very self directed in this system. Students wait to be told what to learn.

I'm trying to get them to consider something new. I truly believe that the best coaches in sports aren't usually the best athletes. They are often the bench players, backups and lesser known players who end up becoming the best coaches because they truly understand and can break down the subtleties  of the game.  Understanding not only how you learn but being able to articulate it and express it is a skill I'm not convinced all our teachers have. 

Last year i read Ewan's post about a 100 hour challenge. I tucked that post away because I knew I'd come back to it. So with that idea in mind, I'm asking my students to take 25-50 hours and learn something new. While Ewan's goals were somewhat different, I want my students to explore a few things.

1. Learn a skill, concept or idea you know very little or nothing about but that you're interested in learning

2. Document the learning. Write about it, video tape, audio record, whatever.

3. Consider all the sources you use to learn. Collect those resources. 

4. Take a early baseline snapshot of your understand at the beginning and another one at the end. Compare and analyze. 

That's it. As the quote above says, make your learning transparent.  I've never done a project like this with students before. it's not really about technology and yet it will be as students share their learning and consider people who can be their teachers. I feel like I need to participate in this as well. So I decided that I'd like to learn to play the guitar. I love music, have some musical background but have never learned to play the guitar. Starting with my daughter as one of my teachers, I completed my first lesson.

I'm really looking forward to my own learning but also watching others learn as well. If you have any ideas on how to make this idea/project better, let me know.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/langwitches/3500044331

….than this?

Many would look at the first photo and see it as a wonderful family evening. Some may see the second photo as a sign of our society being turned into cyborgs. One of the ongoing debates discussions around attention, socialization and time often pits books vs computers. We've stopped saying reading vs computers because we at least realize that we can read on a screen too. But for the most part books are seen as more intellectual. We can narrow and define the cognitive process of reading whereas being on a device seems like a parallel activity, we know the range of activity is too broad to compare it to reading.

I took these photos, staged as they were, (watch for these to appear in a presentation)  to help me illustrate a point around our perceptions of what is meaningful and intellectual. Our societal bias usually leans towards the idea that books are more virtuous than technology. There's this feeling of guilt if you tell someone you spent the entire evening online but a sense of accomplishment if you say you spend the evening reading a book. Is it because we assume the default for reading is Shakespeare and the default for online is Facebook?  Perhaps statistics would suggest that's not far off, yet these generalizations are dangerous and often polarizing. 

There's two things here I think are most important to discuss. First, I think we need to ignore the medium and talk about the content. What books or magazines were they reading? What were they doing on their devices? Why? What value does it have?  I think the answer lies in intention. Whether they were reading a trashy novel or article, playing a game online or chatting with a friend, it always comes down to attention and intention. Being purposeful is something I've been cognizant of lately and will continue to try and be more intentional with my time and attention. That means acknowledging that socializing is important, be it face to face or online.  Watching or reading a variety of content from self help books to stupid cat videos is important

The other idea is the that of presence and space. Being aware of the space means attending to those in it. While there's nothing wrong with spending some quiet time alone and together, at some point this seems wasteful. In the same way our schools need to leverage the presence of each other, that should be in our minds at all times. Books have the potential to destroy community as well.  Ze Frank so eloquently takes a seemingly bad image of being disconnected and illustrates how it's doing the opposite. 

Whether it's with a book or a device, community and family happens as people share and experience life together. That's why photos like this make me smile.

So rather than characterizing books as good and wholesome and technology as frivolous, let's ask better questions and make better observations. 

Perhaps my greatest accomplishment this summer is that I did a lot of nothing. My July was unusually quiet, void of the summer gigs at conferences that have kept me in presenter and work mode. Outside of my PLP commitments, I played a lot of golf and took the odd nap, read a little, wrote very little and hung out with family and friends. I needed that. 

In the early part of the month I took part in an unique event called Unplugd. As part of the organizing committee, it was a year long process that finally came to fruition over the long weekend. For me it was a bit odd as I went from doing nothing to being placed with some pretty incredible and passionate folks ready to work, share, think and play. As soon as the event ended, I went right back into vacation mode and had little time to really reflect. I'm not even sure I'm ready yet. There was and is much to process. Many have already written some great personal reflections. 

As I prepare to begin a new year I'm also going to be presenting at the ABEL Summer Institute. I playing with some old ideas and exploring a few new ones too. That's pretty much the mindset I'll have entering the new year at both Prairie South, my day job and teaching pre-service teachers at the University of Regina, my night job. I'm slowly getting back into my RSS reader and really beginning to think deeply again. Tonight two posts have me thinking. Bud writes a wonderful little pep talk to teachers as they begin the new year. My favorite part:

Be an expert when you need to be. Be a learner always. You are probably the most experienced learner in your classroom. But don’t assume you’re the most knowledgeable person or object. If you’ve a computer handy, then you’re not. Embrace that. Relationships and mentoring cannot be outsourced or Googled. They take time and genuine concern.

That's gold. Read it again and tell me that's not gold. 

The second thing I read tonight was Hugh MacLeod's post about quitting Twitter and Facebook to focus on blogging. What I think is important for me is both the emphasis on doing something that's hard and owning it. You see, writing this post is much more difficult for me than cranking out 20 tweets. I'm not so quick to discount twitter as distracting and useless. I've advocated the opposite many times. But I do think the balance needs to be watch carefully and for me the balance needs to shift here. This is where I do my most meaningful work. The comments you leave me both agreeing and at times disagreeing are gold for me. This is my space to tell stories, and "stories is all we are" I think it's a much richer space to tell stories and besides I own these stories and this space. I pay for it and it's worth it. Bud's post that I shared with you is 3 years old. He owns it. He wrote and first posted it to his blog. Not twitter, not Facebook but HIS BLOG. That's kind of a big deal. You need a place for your stuff. Twitter is like a neighbourhood bar. You might want to visit but it's kind of an icky and awkward place to live.  I'd love to come hang out where you have stuff and tell stories. You'd be surprised how many others would too. 

​So my summer of nothing is winding down. It's been a great summer. I hope you take some time to read both the posts I mentioned. I also hope, if you haven't a place to tell your stories that you find one. And don't tell me you don't have any to tell because that's all we are….stories. 

​Photo by: charbeck 10 http://www.flickr.com/photos/23046603@N00/6023520691/

It's been a month since the course concluded. I had 27 students and for what it's worth, the class average was 73, whatever that means. 

The first few times I taught this course the glaring issue I had was work overload. As a sessional and new instructor, I really had little conception of time expectations. I wasn't trying to be tough on students, but I simply wanted them to experience as much as possible. This becomes more challenging when the course is a 6 week course as opposed to 4 months. At any rate, I've carefully considered what I think are essential and what might be optional. I've tried to allow students as much choice as possible. As a result, I think I'm getting closer to achieving a reasonable work load.

18 of the 27 students completed the survey. 

As you can see, I've still a ways to go but the first time I did this the results were overwhelmingly in the "greater" section. 

I continue to see blogging as a challenge for many students. I've become better as explaining the variety of ways to use a blog and also realistically tell my students many won't continue but hopefully we explore enough examples that they might return or use it sometime in a new way in the future. That's become evident as students graduate and become teachers. My favorite folder in my RSS reader is my former student's blogs. As I tell them repeatedly throughout the course, I'm a lifetime subscriber. 

The specific feedback of how to improve the course is usually most helpful. This year, as in the past, I've not done a great job of clearly laying out assignments. I need to recognize their anxiety better and although I want them to take full ownership and feel free to modify and personalize assignments, most are being exposed to that idea for the first time and it's difficult.  I need to get better at that.

Here are the open ended responses:

• list online sessions in course description so people can try to make them
• Perhaps try to find an alternate time for live sessions so more people could attend? Vary the times more?
• shorter sessions
• Hard question. Maybe offer elluminate sessions at more varied times. I think many people worked or had activities at night so they missed out. I would consider actually offering the class with an assigned time even if it is online. 
• A clearer and more defined syllabus and assignment due dates please. 
• Perhaps respond to emails a bit sooner. I would to have liked more comments on my blog about my thoughts and about my final project etc.
• I felt the course was pretty good! As of now, I like everything he had included in his class.  As I discover more, and he does, Im sure this class will change over the years (in meaning content and programs he decides to teach the students).  I liked all the programs and tools I learned and feel like I have knowledge and can use them now!
• Given clearer direction on what is required in the portfolio.
• I thought it was very well done seeing how we couldn't physically be all together was a class.
• Offered it in a classroom setting as well. 

I love teaching. I love that I've evolved as a teacher and my role has truly morphing into a sherpa,dj, connector and yes, sometimes a traditional teacher and instructor. I love all those roles. But as much as I love them, I need to be able to understand my students needs and expectations. I believe and value the idea of co-construction of assessments, assignments and even my role. I need to utilize this feedback to make myself better. This is extremely valuable for new students and for me. 

Just curious, what methods, tools or process do you use to make you better at what you do? What can teach me about this?

That become the intro to this video I put together along with the help of about 75 others.

The Big Picture Learning Stuff

While at first glance it may be seen as simply fun, silly and maybe a wee bit cool but I think there's something more here. Lots of lessons perhaps around being connected may be extracted but I'm thinking about Shirky's notion of Cognitive Surplus.

These 75 people contributed about 5-60 seconds of video. While I know that it may have been a little more time the idea that cumulative of all this content could be pieced together for something of value and meaning is non-trivial.

I wonder if the more difficult the question the greater the strength and/or structure of the organizing principle required to make the results intelligible/useful? Meredith Stewart

in this case, Alec is a compelling personality that has made huge contributions to many. I could have easily found another 75 people and likely could have made 10 videos given his network. But we can certainly come up with compelling ideas that would benefit greatly from the contributions of others. This is why having and building a network, while not easy and magic, offers new possibilities for learning and change.

The Little Picture Technical Stuff

A few people have asked about how I put this all together so here goes:

1. Jon Becker sends out a tweet suggesting I do something for Alec

2. I create this google form.

3. I waited until I had about 70 entries. I'm not sure why I choose that number because as it turned out I had to do some fancy stickhandling to make everyone;s part fit.

4. I send out this email:

5. I was careful not to ask people to submit in a specific format since it may be another barrier for some. As entries came in I used MPEG StreamClip to convert any weird files (Windows type files) I used dropittomedropittome.com for people to send their video clips. This is linked to my dropbox account and was a very efficient way to gather the clips. They ranged in size from 989k to 70MB. Dropittome has a limit of 75 MB which was sufficient even for HD submissions of only a few seconds.

6. I began inserting video as it came in except for the parts with multiple video.

7. By Saturday night I had most of the videos and went at creating the final product in Final Cut Express.

8. I again used MPEG Streamclip to take the full Quicktime video to a more youtube friendly mp4 format.

That's it. I'd really like some more thoughts on the big picture part but am happy to answer questions or discuss the little picture part too.

All the video and photos were taken using my iphone4 and the cartoon downloaded from Youtube using pwnyoutube. I didn't write out a script, which is fairly obvious. I did have to retake the narration about 4 times until it was somewhat coherent. Looking forward to see what others create. 

Last year I challenged myself to name all my photos of the day with a one word title and not repeating a word in the process. That was somewhat difficult but kept things interesting. The use of the daily shoot has been very useful for some, but I only use it sparingly since my priority is capturing our lives. For whatever reason, I decided that for 2010, I would attach a song to every photo of the day. That was not only challenging but time consuming and maybe even bordering on stupid. The stupid part comes from the fact that I know that at the end of the year, I take my photos and compile them into a video. (see 2008 and 2009) The video is something as a family we treasure more than any year end newsletter or summary could ever provide. The mix of significant, trivial and eventful photos truly give a sense of a year. The storytelling is indeed personal and leads to more stories that exist behind many images. In the past I've simply brought the images into imovie and added a soundtrack. Still it was a fair bit of work but nothing like I went through this year. I knew this as I began in January and intended to create a monthly video which I did for the first three months. Then I fizzled out and relinquished using a good part of my Christmas vacation to work on the project. 

So after approximately 24 hours of work, it's complete. 

A couple of footnotes:

• There are not exactly 365 photos. I cross check my flickr photos and iphoto library and invariably miss a day or so a month, and some months have an extra photo. As you can see it's not as precise as one would assume. I think I have about 359 photos. The past 2 years I spent time making sure I hadn't missed. 
• I unintentionally used the same song twice on 2 occasions. 
• Many of the songs won't make sense. Some of the songs are inside jokes/stories or just lame efforts as I ran out of creative juices. 
• I use Audacity to cut the songs, imovie to create the monthly videos and Final Cut Express to compile it. I did use FCE to edit February and so you may see a few different motion paths. 
• I used my iphone more than ever this year. Particularly after I upgraded to the iphone 4, it does an excellent job. When I discovered HDR, i went a little nuts for a while. Thus the higher number of sky/landscape images this year. 
• Continuing my association with others doing the same project is essential. i love seeing their photos from both a technical standpoint as well as a personal one. I even created a twitter account to feed all their photos there. I never post to it, only subscribe and have my contacts feed into it. 

I don't expect anyone to take 45 minutes and essentially watch a home movie but perhaps there's some inspiration, creativity you can use in the future even if you just watch parts of it. It's quite a visual and auditory onslaught I must admit. Not sure it's very artful but certainly unique. 

 I'm never likely to do this again but it did provide some creative juice for me throughout the year. I'm still thinking about a theme for 2011. Guaranteed it won't be this taxing. 

Photos

I use iphoto to organize and edit photos. For the photo a day project, I use the 365/10 tag and create a Smart Album to find them easier. I also upload to Flickr and the tags are retained. I don't worry too much about adding them to the set in flickr but I do that manually inside flickr. I wonder if I could eliminate a step there. Fortunately when I access the photos in iMovie, they are in chronological order so I can grab them all at once and drag them in. Currently I cross check the number of photos in my flickr set and inside iphoto to insure I haven't missed a day or forgot to tag them properly. Usually about once a month I do this and so far I'm bang on. As far as editing, I realize Aperture is much more powerful but I've been satisfied with basic touchups using iPhoto.

Audio

To find a song title for each photo is not really a big deal. I typically have one come to mind right away. Once in a while I leave it for a day until one comes to mind or I've farmed out the task to my twitter followers and they usually find something really good. Once I come up with the song I check youtube for it. Youtube is a great place to find music. I'll add the hyperlink to my flickr description. If I don't already have the song, I'll use this site to download the song. I don't keep the song but take it to Audacity and find 6-10 seconds of the song to use in my year end montage. I'm not sure of copyright infringement but I may well be violating it. Clipping the songs takes a fair bit of time since I don't do that everyday. Thus far I'll I've done it about 4-5 times where I'll clip a batch of songs in the evenings.

The real time consuming part comes from creating the soundtrack. At first I tried using iMovie to edit the audio song by song. This wasn't very good as I needed to crossfade the songs and iMovie isn't very good with multiple audio tracks. I switched to Final Cut but the challenge comes with the photos as it's more time consuming to add any type of pan and zoom to images. I decided to use Audacity to create a soundtrack. Bringing in each song clip and lining them up allowed me a high level of control. 

The soundtrack is indeed the most important element of this project and adjusting image duration would be much easier than trying to tweak the music. I exported it out as a mixed down mp3 file. I'm going to try and create 12 files, one for each month. Having 30 tracks in Audacity is a bit taxing on my computer so I think it's best to create a monthly video and bring them together.

Video

As I mentioned, I wavered back and both between imovie and Final Cut. While I'm getting more comfortable with FC, iMovie handles images really well. I first changed the project preferences to have each image 8 seconds in duration which is about the average length of each. The longest I have in my March video was 13 seconds and the shortest about 5. I also turned off the Ken Burns effect and simply used it for a few photos rather than every one. 

That's a quick overview of the workflow. It took a bit of trial and error to get it right. The audio was definitely the most time consuming. To create that March soundtrack took me 3-4 hours alone. I'm going to try and do a bit more before the end of the year to avoid an overwhelming amount of work. I'm pretty pleased with the results. Any tips you have to improve this are welcome.

Knowing that the end of the year I'll put together a montage, I started thinking about this immediately and testing out two possible methods. The first method didn't work at all for me. Thanks to some great feedback I think I found the best way to share the photos.

Either way, I didn't want to leave this to the end of the year as I've done in the past. So I figured I needed to establish a work flow that will take some of the sting and time out of production. Anyway, here's a continuation of where I left of in February and includes all of March's photos.

I'll write another post outlining my workflow.

Last year I purchased shareski.ca but wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. For a while I used it as a place to try and sell our house. This weekend I went ahead and built a portal page much like you see at flavors.me. I see Ian Hecht created one as well.

I’m not totally sure how this will play out, whether this will actually impact my identity or simply be something I use to point folks to when they want more than my blog. The simple idea of owning my personal domain name seems like something more people should be doing.

Anyone else explored this concept and figured it out?

This one’s mostly for me. Yet, it’s been interesting to learn about other’s experiences growing up. Lots of similarities largely due to a very different attitude toward safety and community. (By the way, I recall a blog post/website a few months back where someone detailed the changes in how far kids are allowed to roam from home, if anyone knows it please leave a link)

Besides the content, the use of Google Maps/Streetview as storytelling tools is largely underused as Alan Levine has said a number of times. Watching Jim Groom’s video, was like literally like going for a walk with him.

I created this with about 3 Jing movies stitched together and then uploaded to blip and youtube. One take. No rehearsal or editing, other than adding a title and one image I had handy. It lacks polish but most of our stories aren’t rehearsed, they’re spontaneous accounts of memory. I’m not advocating for us not to edit and craft our stories but we need to have room for many kinds of stories, some polished and edited to death and some a little rough around the edges. Bottom line is we need more stories about significant experiences. Google maps and street view is powerful tool for that. I for one would be happy to take a walk with people sharing significant stories about places that have meaning.

Here’s mine.

What’sWhere’s your story?

After 7 years, we have to put our dog Rudy down today. It was a difficult decision, one we’ve been delaying for quite a while but we realize it is the one we need to make. Having never really had a pet before, I was unaware of the attachment and affection you feel for these creatures. Rudy, a Jack Russell, was the runt of the litter.  We named him Rudy after the movie by the same name and discovered the meaning of his name is tenacious.  So appropriate. Like most terriers, so I’m told, he was very territorial, very full of energy. For the most part he was quite content to snuggle with one of us on the couch and until recently in a bed at night.  Rudy always brought smiles from people when we took him for a walk and like most dogs was thrilled to have his owners come home.

My greatest memory of Rudy comes in having him be my personal golf ball retriever.

No doubt my short game will suffer as a result of his absence.

I post this here for a few reasons. First I remember a few years ago Miguel Guhlin sharing the loss of his father on his blog (sorry Miguel, I couldn’t track down the post, if you’d like to share, please put it in the comments and I’ll update this). This is in no way compares to that but I did remember how grateful I was that Miguel shared a piece of his soul as I had been reading his stuff for a while.  That’s part of what makes blogging different for me. I read people, not just their ideas.

I’ve had the privilege of having Alan Levine present to my students and teachers on a number of occasions on his wonderful work of 50 Ways to Tell a Story. I have heard many times the story of  Dominoe and in the back of my mind wondered what it would be like to tell the story of a dog that used to be. Now I know.

Finally, I write this because many know that I often speak about my dogs in a love-hate way. I’ve shared photos of them, told stories about them and they’ll even had a place in both my classes and in the Edtech Posse podcasts. We live in this strange world where we share not only the great ideas we have, but our lives. I guess that’s part of community. Thank you for all the kinds words. I feel very blessed to be associated with people who I know are offering their heartfelt thoughts.

Rudy, you’ll be missed.

I switched to Final Cut Express since I have more control and can use multiple tracks. I have to admit I still feel like a novice in that program even though I’ve used it for a number of projects. Keyframing in particular is something I don’t have quite right yet and need to learn a few more shortcuts to improve my work flow.

I also found it much better to use Audacity to edit each music clip and bring them into FCE after that. I would say overall this is a much better product but maybe you disagree. I’ll be happy to take further suggestions on improvement. It took more time I think so I’m weighing that as well. This isn’t even a full month as it includes the last day of January and photos up to February 20th.

I thought I'd try doing the month of January as a test. I'll be honest, I don't think it works. It seems sloppy, lacking any elegance.
Watch.

So while I plan to continue finding a song for each image I post, I'm not sure this will be the way to package it. I like the concept but not sure I can pull it off. I considered titling each image but thought that would simply add to the cognitive load. Maybe there is a way but I'm not seeing it. I could use your help. Can this be improved? Be honest. I can take it.