The TWAIN blog

I heard the story of these three grey whales in church this morning. The story was summarized from a book on worship by Craig Larson so I am not direct quoting it but summarizing the summary I received this morning.

In 1988, three grey whales were trapped under ice off the coast of Alaska. You may remember this item in the news as there was such an effort to help the whales move out to free waters. Under ice, the whales had no where to come up and get air. They did manage to find one small hole in the ice where they were gathered to share the air.

The whales were gathered around a small hole in the ice which they were using as a breathing hole. The rescuers drilled a hole in the ice about 6 feet down to expose another hole 20 yards away. The whales moved over to the new hole. The rescuers then drilled another hole 20 yards away again and the whales moved with them. This continued for 6 miles with the crew drilling holes every 20 yards for the whales to get access to a breathing hole. After six miles, the whales were out in the waters and no longer under the ice sheath.

Now, one could use this story to connect philosophies of how we need to put out more breathing holes for teachers to use to connect to global learning. But I choose this story to connect to my last post.

What if we - the ed tech community - are the ones bunched up around one breathing hole? We would need to spread out. I think we are all reading the same things to add to the same conversation that we keep having over and over. And we are all stuck under the same ice sheath.

I believe we need to spread out. We need to check for other breathing holes. Or as we heard at the NECC first keynote by James Surowiecki - we need to fill our groups with more diverse individuals. We need to listen to diverse thoughts and endulge in diverse conversation.

As discussed in my last post, I think we need to hear a little more dissention in the ranks. Its okay to get frustrated with what is going on. It is also okay to vent a little and let people know. I don’t think we all have to be pro-Twitter if some of us don’t think its useful for our teachers or students. I don’t think everyone needs to blog or wiki either. Its okay if you don’t listen to certain podcasts too!

I was not greatly impressed at NECC by the content of the conference. I was more impressed by the growing gap between the speakers and followers at the front of the room vs. the ones who just want to try in the back. The cliques of the Twitter crowd and the teachers/administrators who are just starting to untie their shoes to put in a toe to test the waters.

*I keep picking on Twitter only because I hear more people complain about it than anything so far. I pick because I love.

Lemme ask you this:

Have you read any divergent thought lately?

Who are you following on Twitter/Plurk?

Are you following education specialists?

What about small business owners? Media specialists? Mathematicians? Scientists? Innovators in other fields?

Are you following anyone in a field other than your own?

Can I make a suggestion? Go through your followers’ followers’ followers. You may find your own breathing hole further down the ice.

Another suggestion? Think about and post a thought that may be different than the group.

I post blog after blog and I read blog after blog. In our education circles, I read the same posts over and over. One person posts one idea and then their idea is reposted on everyone else’s blog until the next idea. And then they all comment on each other’s posts and it all ties them together more and more. It reminds me of junior high when all the same people dated within the same group. It just was a perpetual date it seemed with the same person over and over.

Find the divergent thought in the group and if it isn’t there, be the one to speak it first. Take the devil’s advocate point and see where the discussion goes next. Don’t jump on the bandwagon.

I don’t get it. But then again, I never liked crowds. I like my own breathing hole. Better than that, I like my own ocean to swim in. And I like the other creatures in there who may not ever get an iPhone or a Twitter account.

I find this concept to be very interesting, especially for our current students and the realm of future job presence. In the edu-bloggersphere, there is talk of Daniel Pink’s book A Whole New Mind and his discussion of jobs non-existent now being ready for the next generation.

I guess since my background has been working with students in design programs and working with web and server design, I see how this idea of Conjunctured or Co-working is so beneficial to the design community. Many of these designers work from home or the local coffee shop without getting the interaction of others in an office. And they genuinely miss that interaction. They can do the watercooler discussions online but they can’t participate in instant feedback communication or sharing of ideas that an office brings.

Co-Working and Jelly in Austin are what I believe we as educators should be looking into for how future jobs can be developed. The concept is explained better in the video and I have posted about it before (I may have deleted it). But the concept is to gather a group of independent workers in an office space where they can still work on their independent projects; but they can co-work on each other’s ideas. Sharing. Networking. Collaboration. Creation.

But without a boss. Without the pressure of administrators. Without the hierarchy.

Equality.

Click here to view Co-Working Video from Austin American Statesman reporter Omar Gallaga

I used to teach classes of technology subjects to students. I wanted them to see how technology applied to changing simple, everyday items into new areas of comfort. Example, I would talk about the television and how someone got tired of getting up and turning the knob to change channels. So, they invented a remote but the remote was tethered. So they made a wireless remote but that remote didn’t work too far. So they made a different remote so the person could lie on the couch and change the channel…and so on.

We would do this with several items ranging from mechanical toothbrushes to even cell phones.

The next step was to diagram a current technology and list the “problems” that it had at THIS CURRENT MOMENT. We would then discuss our own $Million Dollar$ ideas for improving those products.

Great classroom discussions!

I say all this as an intro to learning about a new site today called Posterous - http://posterous.com which allows us all to post a blog without making a blog or blog account. Posterous lets you just email your text and/or attachments to one email address that then timelines it out in a micro-blog setting.

Back to my classroom discussion:

We have blogging. What’s a negative about blogging?
You have to setup a blog account. You have to log in to the blog. You have to then post your blog item.

Now:
No need to setup an account. You email your blog to the address. You can even send attachments and Mp3s to Posterous.com

Lesson for everyone: Take a concept in existence now. List the negatives of that concept. What’s your $Million Dollar$ idea?

Run with it.

Better yet, gather a group of kids and diagram a timeline of the development of a technology and how it developed. Get to the stop point of current. Have them decide the next level of development for the product. There’s the Million Dollar Idea.

Collaboration. Open Discussion. Creation. Evaluation. Planning. Strategy.

As for me, I am still waiting for a former student to develop the implantable cell phone to be located somewhere near our nasal cavities. The device would project sound internally so no need to hold a phone to our ears anymore. And by talking, the device would translate the movement of air internally into digital (and clear) voice for the others on the phone.

We did have a problem figuring out what a sneeze or a cough would do…..

Just bought these tonight to read:

Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky

First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham

Now Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham

Also bought two CDs on sale (haven’t bought CDs in a year and thought I would never again) in the bargain area for adding to my iPod for working out: Paul Oakenfold and the Chemical Brothers. Electronica Trance music for the uninitiated. Mellows me out.

Interesting link I just found as well. http://isbn.nu/ - Do a price comparison of books in categories of hardcover, paperback, and multimedia.

I have been testing out the use of Twitter, Plurk, and Seesmic for the past few days. I see the benefit to each of them for social uses but am trying to figure it out for classroom use.

Twitter is the social instant messenger that is all the rave right now. With Twitter, you submit a short summary of a question or a statement of what is happening. Then people can respond to what you submit or they can simply read your post. Its a very short amount of space to type anything but its great for sending a short note linking to a blog or a link you have elsewhere.

Plurk is a Twitter but with the ability to read in a timeline and respond visually to each post. Its the evolution of Twitter but not as well accepted as Twitter is right now. With Twitter in constant flux in either running or being on the mend, Plurk is getting more attention. I like Plurk a little better than Twitter because I can understand the timeline concept easier and it visually cues responses for each post.

I did learn today about Tweetdeck which is an Adobe Air product that also gives Twitter some leg-room for changing how we view it. It is also getting some good play in the Twitter community.

Lastly, I am using Seesmic which is a video system for posting quick social chats as well. Videos are posted on a public timeline and then anyone can respond to something you post or you can respond to them. Having an iMac with a built-in camera has really helped me start using video chat technology better.

I actually have been posting my personal blog posts I share on MySpace using Seesmic since I can embed the videos directly on my MySpace account. My friends like it too because they can still see me even though I have moved away. I am posting one tonight for my family’s website as well.

All of these have significant impact because they take the blog to the next level. Who has time to read blogs anymore anyway? This way, I get a one-line summary or a quick video that I can respond to in a matter of seconds.

Plus, I can check my Tweets and Plurks on my phone during lunch.