Them’s fightin’ words.
Sharks, Graboids, and Marshmallow Men, oh my.
Hartford, CT | Vintage Travel Poster
DS106Radio Telethon
Salon TechOS
The first gathering of Salon TechOS will be this week at the home of Jim Groom in Fredricksburg, VA.
Salon TechOS will bring together individuals who are committed to open source, and to experimentation with online technologies and tools in service of productivity, creativity, and human flourishing.
Rather than being leisure based or ‘schools of civilité’ salons were instead at ‘the very heart of the philosophic community’ and thus integral to the process of Enlightenment.
Can the members of Salon TechOS, those physically present and those dialed-in via DS106Radio, bring the fire (and the campfire) to a 21st Century Enlightenment? Can we exemplify the use of open source materials, dialog, creativity, and play as ways to transform perceptions and mindsets related to the role of online technologies in our lives?
Will Salon TechOS have sustainability? Will we make contributions to something? About anything?
I have no idea. I just made up the name. Frankly, I’ll be content and personally enlightened if all we do is play 21st Century Parlor games and have a few Death in the Afternoon cocktails.
21st Century Parlor Games
- PechaFlickr
- Animated gif slam
- iPa#d karaoke
- Deaddropping
- Storyboxing
- Digital storytelling a la telephone (i.e., someone begins with an artifact, they pass it on, each subsequent player adds an element)
- Digital storytelling a la charades (i.e., everyone writes down an idea and puts it in a hat, each player draws an idea and then makes something, other players guess)
In life-long reverence of truth, beauty, freedom, and love, let the games begin.
______________ Dena Goodman, ‘Enlightenment Salons: The Convergence of Female and Philosophic Ambitions’ Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 22, No. 3, Special Issue: The French Revolution in Culture (Spring, 1989), pp. 330
Summer Lovin’
The MOOC E-Monster
M is for MOOC
[E]
and that’s good enough for me.
My desired outcome of participating in the #change11 MOOC life as articulated by the master of obvious, commonsensical wisdom, John Dewey:
Such happiness as life is capable of comes from the full participation of all our powers in the endeavor to wrest from each changing situation of experience its own full and unique meaning.
My addendum for the #change11 MOOC
I want to get turned-on to some new web-based tech toys and tools. I want to make notes about them for my future reference, converse with other folks using them, and maybe practice using them myself.
Who’s afraid of the MOOC E-Monster?
Not me.
p.s.
M is also for Muppets which are, and will always be, better than MOOC Es.
gearing up to diss down
With my dissertation defense imminent (date to be announced in the next week or so), it’s time to figure out how to share stuff that may be of interest to my edufolk.
I’ll start with the absurdly long title of my dissertation:
Teacher Problem-Finding Ability Under the Influence: An Exploratory Study of Demographics, Experience, Environment, and Social Justice Stance
What in the halibut is problem finding? Do teachers do it? Do differences exist between how groups of preservice and practicing teachers do it? Jeez-o-flip. Not sure anyone cares about these questions which my dissertation research sought to answer. Apparently, no one cares about dissertations.
Beyond the absurdly long title of my dissertation, I’ll add a tidbit I used to frame my own definition of a teaching- and learning-related problem, “In problem finding, a problem is a question that arises during an inquiry. It is not a difficulty or an obstacle in life, but a desirable situation that one strives to find or create” (Getzels, 1987 and Jay & Perkins, 1997).
References
Getzels, J. W. (1987). Creativity, intelligence, and problem finding: Retrospect
and prospect. In S. G. Isaksen (Ed.), Frontiers of creativity research:
Beyond the basics (pp. 88–102). Buffalo, NY: Bearly Limited.
Jay, E. S., & Perkins, D. N. (1997). Problem finding: The search for
mechanism. In M. A. Runco (Ed.), The creativity research handbook (Vol.
1, pp. 257–293). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
How many social media horcruxes do you have?
My brother Alan aka @cogdog recently blogged “The Vague Line” wherein he problematized what he (myself, and others I’m sure) believe to be a false dichotomy between the “reality” of online and offline friendships.
Alan also succinctly took on the issue of his own on and offline identity. He wrote
… I am ready to drive a stake into the notions of “online” vs “offline” states of being; such differences don’t exist for me anymore- I am one Alan, not some frankenstein sewed together personality, and I float fluidly on the bits and atom states of the world.
The line is so vague, for me it is gone.
I agree fully with brother Alan. I have always felt this way. I am one GNA.
Sometimes I get a little pinch or even burnt for being audacious, critical, or just plain stupid. Most of the time my authenticity is rewarded with trust, loyalty, and respect. Best of all, I attract and maintain relationships with folks who are also striving for congruency within their life spaces and life ways, all the “bits and atom states” as Alan called them.
I like this because it reminds me of Sagan’s words, “We’re made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.” Sagan refers to us as the little parts and the whole all at once. Even though we are made of bits, our essence is integrated. I told you all that to ask you this:
How much have you dispersed yourself, your identity, maybe even your soul across social media?
How many social media horcruxes have you created?
I’ve wondered for a long minute and am just getting around to asking. Blogging is a justifiable distraction from dissertating, no? Strike that. Reverse it.
Eighty-six percent of teaching is routine?
MI GENTE: friends, colleagues, comrades, wise-folk all.
I desire your thoughts, questions, and answers.
Please listen to my four-minute audioboo recording, “Dissertation Woes.” I describe teacher problem finding, teacher decision making, and raise questions about the role of routines in teaching.
Right now, I’m here:
The literature on teacher decision making focuses on describing the routinization of practice as a way teachers might avoid the complexities inherent in on the fly decision making. Assuming educators possess the desire and tendency to establish routines in lieu of treating each teaching and learning encounter as an opportunity to be creative in determining, meeting, and fulfilling students’ affective and cognitive needs is to subjugate interactive teacher decision-making, as well as teacher problem finding, as activities that happen only when all routines have been attempted and failed.
Please tell me what you think.
- What percentage of your average daily classroom time is routine? [Assuming there are average days.]
- Do you strive for routinization? If so, what are the benefits? Drawbacks?
- What informs and/or influences the way you make decisions while teaching?
Thank you in advance for any time you dedicate to responding.
Sincerely and most humbly,
GNA
