think:lab

Never Bored by "Charlie Bit My Finger"

Confession:

Blogging about education policy, theory, classroom practices, futurism, technology, buzzwords, he-said-she-said politics, architecture, digital-x-y-&-z, and all the rest of its accompanying intellectual cousins has lately begun to lose its spark for me. 

Not entirely, I must admit.  My brain is still in the hey-that's-edu-bloggable gear 24/7 for the most part.  Hard to shake that instinct when you've been doing it for this long.  But I'm just not sure that I'm still driven by throwing more semantic and link kindling on an ever-moving camp fire of just-in-time global edu-publishing just because I (or the collective 'we') can.

On the other hand, being a still-new papa means I get to put all that blogging energy into the kid's evolving story for his grandparents.  Somehow it seems more real to me than 3 years of "think:lab" edu-cha-cha-cha, if I'm honest with myself. 

And maybe that's telling me something...

Now, back to what caught my attention this morning:  the ever-delightful "Charlie Bit My Finger" home movie. 

Consider it a diversion from edu-talk.  Or consider it why we talk about education in the first place.  It's entirely your call:

If my Beckett ever has a younger sibling biter, we're definitely suggesting he start speaking with a British accent.

Why?

Even in pain, wee British lads sound both elegant & adorable.

If your funny bone ain't nudged a bit by this now-classic video, you ain't breathing.  Gotta love when wee Charlie begins to giggle mid-way through. The frosting on the proverbial cake, me thinks.

And there is no doubt my 10th grade English students will 'meet' Charlie in class when we first pull out Lord of the Flies next fall!

Professors in the 3-Ring Circus of Laptop U.

I'm new to multi-author Pajamas Media blog where I found the "Laptop U: Where No One Looks at the Professor" article/entry, so I can't speak for the entire site (and its contributors). 

That being said, the article/entry caught my attention in a way I would have missed/overlooked before returning to the classroom this past fall.

Cut to the chase for those with little time: 

A college professor wonders aloud how she can compete for her students' attention in a laptop driven classroom/lecture hall world. 

The obvious 'us vs. them' set-up ends up being less the point than the ethical/professional questions that naturally arise. 

A snippet that caught my eye, although I highly recommend reading the entire article:

"The bottom line: in this strange new world of multimedia academia, I’m competing for my students’ attention - and I haven’t even mentioned the distractions of texting on cellphones. With all the distractions, I am essentially forced to shout for attention. The classroom has become a three ring circus, and I’m on the smaller stage off to the right."

Remaining Grounded in a Time of Shiny Objects

Somehow these not-so-connected elements have kept me grounded today.

One, re-watching (with a bit of humble awe) President Ronald Reagan's "Challenger" speech (take a look at the YouTube clip of his Oval Office talk). Also worth reading the transcript itself.

A colleague of mine who has been slowly and successfully re-introducing me to Reagan this past school year, reminded me to take a 2nd-in-a-long-time look at the way the President spoke to America about the Challenger explosion, the heroic nature of the true 'pioneers' that launch themselves into space (still only in the infancy of our exploration in that direction), and the nation full of children who watched the live launch as 'one of their own' -- teacher Christie McAuliffe who was chosen out of 11,000 applications to ride the Shuttle -- died tragically in the sky above.  I still remember being frozen in my high school cafeteria the day that occurred. 

Politics aside, there is something utterly calming about listening to Reagan speak to the nation that day.  Compare to any other political speech you recall with pride or infamy.  Try to imagine one that even remotely speaks to the 'point' of school children and visionaries alike dreaming about our collective future.  Reagan said:

"And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle’s takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It’s all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It’s all part of taking a chance and expanding man’s horizons. The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we’ll continue to follow them."

I think it is one of the few 'political' speeches that truly transcends politics, at least in my lifetime.

Two, reading (with a bit of it-can't-be sadness) an NYTimes article (registration?) about the impending closure of Ohio's Antioch College, especially when I came across the following level-headed 'human' reaction on the teacher front:

And with the distractions of the pending shutdown and the service cuts, he said, “I am concerned about students we’ve had here this past year. Have they gotten the equivalent of a good education?”

Absolutely, many professors say. Dennie Eagleson, a photography teacher, said professors have gone out of their way to keep the imminent shutdown out of the classroom. “It keeps us sane to stay grounded in teaching and learning.”

Living/Teaching in Dayton, Ohio as a still-wet-behind-the-ears educator years ago meant falling a bit in love with the Antioch campus and educational mystique (or something like it, although with a solid counter-culture twist to be sure).  Still remember taking a 'creative writing' class at 6am with writing guru, Nathalie Goldberg, who had all of us in a make-shift buddhist 'walking' experience -- often in the dark -- to inspire journal writing at various breaks before I would head to my school and teach 9th grade English hours later.

Sensing that Antioch could really shut down makes me wonder what happens when we end up losing institutions like this -- institutions that ideally serve a certain type of educator/student better than so many others, in a way that is so absolutely about service, community voice, and experiential education without narry a single trapping of the digital age -- all the while we are able to embrace virtual/global options left and right.  A poor equation, but it's all I have as the school day winds down here on a hot-n-humid Texas spring afternoon.

Both links above -- to rob Eagleson's quote a bit -- allow me to "stay grounded in teaching and learning" when so often the temptation is to get giddy as a ferret chasing shiny objects into the future.

Happy [Noun] To [Pronoun]!

There are [number] reasons why [pronoun] became an [adjective] teacher:

1. [Subject] allowed [pronoun] to talk about [noun].
2. [Plural silly noun] made my [noun] [verb].
3. [Adjective] [noun] [verb] beyond anything [pronoun] could [verb] [exclamation]!

In other words, Happy 50th Birthday, Mad Libs! 

You're the [adverb] [adjective or noun, depending on your formal understanding vs. informal speech habits, mon frere]!

Johnny Bunko: 21C College Counselor?

Now I know why Dan Pink headed off to Japan last spring at this time.

While I had the pleasure of working with him as one of my guest jury members in the 2007 DesignShare Awards program (article just released in Edutopia magazine) while he was overseas, I sensed that the bigger project he was working on -- with a manga spin -- was going to be something worth pushing A Whole New Mind a few inches to the left on the book shelf for.

From the following trailer you might see why I also think The Adventures of Johnny Bunko might even make a compelling college counselor on some level.

A sneak peek at the book claiming to be the "Best Graduation Gift of 2008!"

Johnny Bunko trailer from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

Thanks to Thomas Clifford -- corporate film guy -- for sending me the link.

Perhaps the Perfect Visual of "Digital Natives"

All "But what about Dan Meyer's ice cream spilling over the top of his half-shirt depiction?" reactions aside, I continue to believe there is better. Really.

Have you checked out the mae shi's "Run to Your Grave" video?

IMHO, it is the absolute best, bar none, hand's down, and spot-on depiction of what we really mean when we say "digital native". [cough, cough]

Why?

Watch for yourself and then scroll down for my reasons:

Run to Your Grave from the mae shi on Vimeo.

Here's a smatterin' of quick idea-hits just for starters:

seemingly messy and chaotic, but organized

open source mindset

give it away to get something back attitude re: vid posting

leader and yet no leaders

easy-to-use title/chorus to tease the age-gap issue

playful video antics in terms of the post-production editing riddle (can you figure it out?! - he smiles)

Yup, I really, really, really want to use it as a playful way to kick off my upcoming conference presentation. Because it will give the audience:

A burst of hard-to-forget, hard-to-not-shimmy-to music.

A what-am-I-seeing? sort of reaction from the audience.

An unexpected metaphor of sorts.

At least a guarantee that they'll have one wait-until-I-tell-my-kids moment to share when they return home later that week.

I did so at an all-day keynote presentation/workshop I gave this summer.

Thinking about doing it again.

What do you think? Will the school design types enjoy it? Or frown?

Like Those Little Wooden Russian Dolls

Disclaimer: This post is for 1% of 1% of 1% of people who 'might' wonder.

***

For what it's worth, I'm starting to "comment inside comments". Check out a recent post's comment thread to see what I mean if you'd like a visual.

What?

This essentially means that instead of writing my own comment as as separate 'entry' in the sidebar and comment thread, I'm going to simply 'edit' my comment into the bottom of anyone who leaves a comment here.

More time consuming, I suppose.

But I've been doing it this way with my students in our classroom blog all year and it works really well in that context. Feels more personal to me, too.

Plus, I just added the tag features inside my blog. What took me so long? Hey, I'm a tech luddite at best. Smart things under the hood take me longer.

So, feel free to add formatting tags if you'd like to use bold or italicize, etc.

Or don't. It's your call.

Oh, and look for any of my future comments to be located/found 'inside' your original comment rather than hogging space as its own separate island in the comment thread ocean. Note: Suppose if I had WordPress...

Hope that's cool.

If not, leave a comment so I can [wink, wink] return favor with a "commnet inside a comment" to tell you why I disagree [he smiles like Cheshire Cat].

Image link

School Designers: Where Do We Go Next?

Note: 

There is a video (I'm planning on showing at a school design conference in 3 weeks) at the end of this post that I'd love feedback on by anyone with time/interest. Thanks ahead of time.

***

Preparing my keynote presentation for the CEFPI (Council of Educational Facility Planners International) Southeast Regional Conference in early April in Myrtle Beach, SC, I've been re-working my "Designing School 2.0 --Agile Environments for Tomorrow's Learners" slide deck this week.

One of the unique opportunities is to re-think the entire premise of designing schools and 'learning spaces' that will be relevant for our collective futures. 

Needless to say, this demands we balance 2 sides of our wish-list:

practical issues of construction costs, safety concerns, enrollment projections, long-term maintenance questions, funding strategies, traditional views of what 'school' looks like, etc.

vs.

opportunities to design 'schools as center of community', partnerships, new ideas re: learning styles & brain science, 'green' design, 'flex-spaces', emerging technologies, customizing learning opportunities for tomorrow's 'digital natives', etc.

With that in mind, I have been playing around with a variety of ways to engage a large conference keynote audience filled with architects, builders, and educational leaders -- that I won't be able to 'workshop' or casually talk with due to the size of the room -- that manages to speak to how learning in the future will be affected by both physical spaces and emerging technology/ideas

Less about providing specific answers, my keynote tries to provoke new questions for all of us who are racing to grasp what the future of school design & education will look like, no matter our roles. 

Furthermore, I hope to try to bridge the gap that often arises between differently-focused experts working on design projects in an effort to foster a shared future-think language that ultimately supports learners & communities.

Now I come to the part where I'd love feedback from anyone w/ time:

During the opening 10 minutes of my presentation, I'll be showing the following video of a single toddler classroom.  I'll then ask my audience to use their professional expertise to:

a) take notice of what they literally see design-wise inside this toddler classroom

and

b) to make design/construction suggestions as if the toddler classroom actually belonged to a client or a colleague. 

Towards the end, I'll shift gears suddenly -- the 'Designing School 2.0' set-up -- in an effort to ask my audience to consider 'how' they're even able to watch these kids.  Ultimately, this opens up the door for the design concept of 'school' as a 24/7, transparent, 2-way 'hub' of collaboration and interaction.

The rough time-line for this 10-minute video goes as follows:

Note: There is no soundtrack as I'll be talking with my audience and also asking them to idea-storm with folks sitting near them.  Feel free to fast-forward (esp. during the 1-2 minute segments where you watch the kids move around the room without sound). 

0:00   Let's visit Toddler Room #1.
0:11   As designers, builders, educators: what do you notice about this space? (1+ minute watch-n-notice)
1:51   As designers, builders, educators: what changes would you suggest if this were a client's or colleague's space? (1 min watch-n-brainstorm)
3:02    Share ideas with your group. (2+ min discussion @ your table)
5:57    How are we even able to 'see' these kids, 'see' this classroom?
6:12    The epiphany: whenever we want, wherever we are.
6:20    As designers, builders, educators: how does this change your view of the project?
6:45   If you could connect this easily to your child, how would it change your relationship?
6:58    Let's reverse the idea:  Imagine if your students could connect this easily to the world of 21C ideas, 21C experts, 21C opportunities
7:14    What would the impact be on their futures?  What would the impact be for your leadership?
7:24    Idea-storm (1min discussion)
8:29   These are the questions we must begin to ask ourselves, we must begin to ask our partners, we must begin to as our communities
8:45    Beckett, class of 2024, expects nothing less from us; same with his classmates. (note: a this-is-personal papa moment)
8:58   So...where do we go next? (1 min discussion before the slide deck and heart of the presentation actually begins)

The remainder of the presentation -- approx 45 minutes -- is a slide deck with a focus on emerging technologies & a re-imagination of what it means to 'learn' in the future.  Ultimately I'll ask my audience how these ideas/examples CAN/WILL shape the buildings & campuses we will design & renovate over time.

Thanks in advance for any feedback on this opening video. 

Still plenty of time for me to re-think & edit.  Just keep in mind that 90% of what will matter most will be the conversation happening as the video sparks questions and plays in the background for my audience and me.

Nothing Better Than A "Food Court Musical"

I'm way, way, way out of touch with most of my students pop culture deities.

Why?

Oh, I've never seen High School Musical.  Nor its peppy pop culture sequel. 

[insert old guy out-of-the-loop shoulder shrug here]

However, how many of my students have seen Food Court Musical? Huh?

This gem -- and many others -- are brought to you by the ever-impressive underground improv group called Improv Everywhere.  They're based out of NYC since 2001 and are infamous for sending 'agents' into unsuspecting public spaces to conduct improv experiments called 'missions'.

Here is a list of every 'mission' they've ever launched. 

Good stuff: some of it quirky, some of it delicate, some of out outrageous.  All of it good fun in the name of unexpected good fun.

Re-Catchin' My "i"-Attention

As I wait for Saturday Night Live to start, my channel clicker took me to Mad TV where I had the good fortune to be re-introduced to the mock Steve Jobs product announcement for the "iRack". Loved this the first time I saw it; even funnier the 2nd time around.

As a new Mac guy, it does make me smirk to see how I'm already getting iCrazy for my little MacBook crush.

Note:

This is NOT a political statement of mine by showing this.

You're all big boys and big gals and can decide what you think about the war, et al.

It's funny no matter what side of the political fence you're sitting on because when comedy can be so socially timely on multiple fronts, then funny really is funny.  My brother, a Marine who served 2 terms in Iraq recently, would laugh, too.