think:lab

The Real-time "Blog Bar" Feedback Loop

From the good pattern-forming folks at The Intelligence Group's "Trendcentral" e-newsletter, the following caught my eye today:

Young people often tell us how important their online lives and identities are, so the ability to immediately link participation in a real world event to the online world only adds value to the experience. Additionally, expect physical spaces to increasingly include virtual components, creating a mash-up hybrid environment.

What are they talking about?

• Some razzle-dazzle new school hybrid that will be all the rage at the next edu-conference you visit?
• Some ultra-funky school of the future already drawing together the world's great architects?
• Some light-leaning towards an understanding that schools might be better served by vibrant real-time collaboration with the real world that is repositioning what we mean by learning and academic ventures of all shapes and sizes?

Nope.

Although one can dream.  Or see a small pebble create a concentric circle of conversation towards such an end.  Perhaps.

Nothing that dramatic.  Just something they call a "Blog Bar":

As a way to create a more engaging, interactive and creative way for consumers to experience brands, stores and events, expect to see more “blog bars” (computer terminals which give the public the ability to post in real time and on location) to pop up in such settings. Consumers will have the opportunity to post fresh thoughts and reactions, pose questions, and receive immediate response.

Art Basel recently featured a blog bar, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art is currently hosting a blog bar, with eight computer terminals, at their current blog.mode: addressing fashion exhibition. The public can post their reactions to the show and ask questions which curators will respond to; in short, the blog bar is meant to “provoke commentary.” Excerpts of the blog will be included in the post-show book in order to document the impact of the exhibit and attendees’ participation.

Something wonderful about that "provoke commentary" element alone. 

What the IG "Trendcentral" description is pointing to is one of those so-obvious-its-obvious next steps that seem ripe for the picking if one were thinking futuristically about school as a larger system or a launching pad for new just-one-classroom ideas, at least.

They call it a "Blog Bar".  I'd like for someone to just call it a de facto, kinda-obvious classroom assignment that just integrates itself into the day-to-day business we call learning.  Everywhere we go. 

But I'm wacky that way.

Mind the Gap

Since I'll be in Chicago in a few days to visit my wife's family for the holidays (oh, and to see how Beckett handles real snow as a born-n-raised Texan), thought I'd begin to touch base with a few 'virtual' allies who might want to do coffee off-line.  Irony.

Grabbing Lucy Gray's email address from her blog tonight (after connecting with David Jakes), I came across a recent SlideShare presentation of hers that did decent work of integrating the recent Pew studies re: emerging technologies and how it might impact how 'dem kidz learn deese daze' [my emphasis added, BTW]. 

And much, much more!  Lots of familiar ideas that still are worth re-working in the brain space every chance I get.

And then I came to slide 58 (of 60) of her presentation.  And the business guru Peter Drucker quotation Lucy appropriately adds as a closing shot across the bow:

Mind the gap!

When Wii Hacks Free the Academic Mind

I'm with Will Richardson in terms of Johnny Chung Lee's cheap Wii remote hack that makes every surface suddenly 'smart'. 

It ain't about the tool.  Or the hack.

What it is about is the profound way it rewires your thinking.

Because when every surface becomes digitally interactive and when information is imbedded everywhere (as in QR codes that seem IMHO still so ripe for academic scavenger hunt creation/execution), then school truly becomes limitless.

Or at least no longer bound by the 4 walls. 

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For those who see Johnny Chung Lee's potential rock star status for wee humble teacher types, another video well worth checking out:

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Keep track of Johnny's on-going projects here.

What? A "School Design" Session at EduCon 2.0? Real Kid Leaders, Too? Go Figure!

Say it ain't so. 

Some little birdie is telling me that in the middle of all the Twitter-fied revolutionary wikifest Moodle-talk that will be taking place in late January at the first ever EduCon 2.0 conference (@ Science Leadership Academy, Philadelphia, PA), some educational blog 'upstart'from Oregon is gonna be leading a session on school design?  "Green" school construction, to be more accurate?

Well, I'll be dumb-fiddled.  And intrigued.  And definitely sitting in that audience with a "So, Designing School 2.0 Ain't Just Intellectual Blog Talk" banner waving overhead.

Sign me up, Jeremiah.  Sign me up! 

Oh, and perhaps with the one-two punch of Jeremiah's session -- "Little Green Schoolhouse (or School 4.0)" -- and the "Cyber Mentoring: A Case Study in Action" session co-led by school designer/architect Peter Brown and SLA student Allison Campbell, perhaps the American Institute of Architecture and Council of Educational Facilities International teams might want to take notice as to how their bread-n-butter topics are being integrated into these on-the-fringe edu-tech conferences. 

Ain't the world a funny place.

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Also, I'm really intrigued to see Arthus Erea lead his "We're All  Student Teachers" session. 

Yet another example of 'just some high school kid with a blog' having the audacity to contact the conference organizers to see if he could travel from his home state to lead a session filled with adults who already know enough to fill a dozen walls with college degrees.  Perhaps -- in my humble opinion -- the best bang-for-the-buck of why one should consider heading to Philly next month to be part of the EduCon 2.0 conference is (no offense offered, especially since I consider him a friend/mentor) NOT to see Will Richardson keynote and debate and WOW our collective minds (amongst other A-listers who are always worth listening to and learning from).  No.  All good, but not THE reason.

THE reason, IMHO, is that here is an wang-bang education conference that actually has 'kids' leading sessions.  And not with the typical ain't-they-cute pat-on-the-head applause, either.

What do I mean? Besides digging how he's using the Chip In widget to raise funds virtually (look to the upper right of his blog when you go to this link) so he can pay for the entrance fee to the conference itself, check out what Arthus, this high school kid with the audacity to apply as a workshop speaker at an adult edu-conference, said in a recent blog post of his:

It is time: time for authentic student voices in the edublogosphere; time to hear from those who are affected by education the most; time to regard students as more than just blank floppy disks to be written upon. It is time for Students 2.0 - a new generation of students: articulating their experiences, exploring the future, finding the best, and besting the rest. In short, it is time for authentic student engagement in the classroom.

Get down with your bad, bad self, Arthus.  And save me a seat in your EduCon 2.0 session, too!

Not About What It's Actually About

Seen "Blogs in Plain English" (by leelefever) yet?

Once you get the bloggedy-blog-blog topic sorted out and filed away in a conveniently deep place within your brain matter, go back and watch it again.  Not because of the 'blog' topic (although a fair enough subject to continue explaining/exploring).  But not the real reason to watch it again.  No.  Watch it again simply because of the power of storytelling.  And design.  And presentation.  And simplicity itself.  I think Dan would approve.

A few other leelefever offerings if you're finding yourself drawn in a bit:

• the wiki one
• the social bookmarking (and tagging) one
• the social networking one
• the RSS (or 'how do I subscribe to that blog?) one
• the Google Docs one

Mr. John Pederson (and a recent blog post of his) gets credit for allowing my mind to meander back to this, something I had planned on posting myself a week or so ago.  And then I became busy.  And forgot about it.  [Insert brain-overload sad face here]

Was most pleased to find it nestled inside a recent post of John's as I was roaming around his site tonight.  John's good that way.

Is There A Manual For These Moments?

Life's funny.

I gotta have a license to catch trout. I gotta show 2 forms of ID just to board a 45 minute plane to Wichita.  And I gotta type in my zip code just to use my credit card at the gas pump. 

But never were we asked to prove much of anything when my we decided to become parents.

And now that the little bugger -- at all of 15 months of age -- is climbing kitchen step ladders the second I turn my back to get him a second container of yogurt, I gotta wonder...shouldn't there be some sort of an 'Are you ready and able?' multiple choice test for this parenting job? Or is after-the-fact daddy blogging enough to at least get a passing grade?

P.S. Or could there be at least a manual with some practical tips to head off moments just like these?

What It's Now All About

From "The Trick Is...", a teaser:

None of that is on my wish list these days.

What is on that list, however, is the desire to see my students shine in ways that are limited by my 4 cinder-block walls. 

And for them to begin to see the value of being truly capable when a real-time audience is a) paying attention, b) giving real-world feedback, and c) willing to collaborate based on their abilities (not just their pat-on-the-head potential).

The kicker?

In spite of having been the talking head and "School 2.0" guy on occasion, I'm nervous as heck...and have to admit that I have never 'been here' before.

The only way we'll see what is possible given the legitimate constraints of a real school, a real classroom, and a real student/teacher relationship is to put a toe in the water.

Even if it ain't much more than a gentle ripple across the surface of possibility on day one.

A Delightful Next Chapter

Dan, I continually come back to your thoughts about the design savvy of one of your 4-Slide Contest winners. Not bad for a 'kid', right?

I first ran into Ethan a year ago when he asked me a seemingly 'innocent' question about blog-linking. Still think saying, "No", then was the best possible answer either of us could have come up with.  Especially given what he's done since.  He never really needed some edu-blogger gift-link.  He was gonna earn them the hard way:  by being an idea super-junkie with a infectious instinct that can't be taught.  And never looking back.

Have loved seeing his words, ideas, designs, and overall 'brand' develop since then.  Not just because he was a 'kid'.  But because he was talented and on the front-end of something really special.

Seems that your 4-Slide 1st-place co-winner has been nudged up a bit on the 'pay attention' design scale since then.  One doubts that this will be the final rung, either:

HOW Books -- you know: ID, Print, HOW magazines -- is apparently about ready to publish Ethan's collection called the "Grab Bag" Book.

Here's a quick description of book project from Ethan, which I've been keeping a delighted eye on for some time now:

I started this project last spring when I came up with the idea to have a collaborative visual book that challenged artists to explore their creativity.

Each of the participating artists from around the world is randomly assigned a "creative task" which is something they normally don't do, anything from photography to illustration to design. This random task is drawn from the "Grab Bag" and the artist is also able to submit a piece of their work that comes from their normal field of work.

It is a book about trying something new. It is about exploring your creativity and learning to do new things. It is about opening up to a new idea and gaining respect for it. It's a book of visual creations by people from around the world that have come together through the exploration of new things to create something beautiful.

The book will feature 100 artists, be around 200 pages long, and will come out in Spring 2009. Each artists will have two images in the book (one of the creative task and one from there current field of work), a biography, and a short paragraph detailing their experience with the creative task.

Might be worth checking out, don't you think?

Conversation Bound in Philly

Chris, enjoyed the Skypechat late last night.  I think we can all offer a bit of empathy as to the real reason you may not have been blogging as much these days. (Good on ya!)

Glad to see today's forward-push in terms of releasing key details for your first EduCon 2.0 conference .   Should ensure that SLA/Philly takes center stage on the edu-front for a few days the weekend of Jan 25-27...with lingering influence long after.

As you say:  "...there are some amazing conversations planned". 

Agree in spades.   Especially with what will follow an amazing host of sessions throughout the 3-day event:  Sunday morning's debate with some striking voices/leaders.  Even better?  All of it will be fueled by participants in the audience sparking where the conversation needs to head.  Not too unlike having one of your own students at SLA design the conference logo, huh?  (he smiles)

Just bought my plane ticket a few minutes ago.  Can't wait to see it all unfold in real time.  Oh, and hang with Theo, Jakob, and Kat when downtime arrives.

Seeking Advice: Posting Student Videos On-Line

Perhaps someone out there might have an anecdote or two about their efforts to publish student videos on-line as an extension of their classroom.

Perhaps they'll even offer a bit of advice -- gaining permission, libability, class rules, etc -- that would help a teacher (and his students) out as they consider dipping their toes in the water.  All feedback/advice welcomed.