Jott’s no longer free

Well, good things cannot last forever, I guess. By Sept 12, 2008 the Jott service will be a service that we all pay for. I don’t think I’ll go that route. But it was fun to Jott while it lasted!

Interactive Fiction in Action

One of my students used Interactive Fiction in his classroom and has good things to report. Read more here:

http://thefamousmredtech.blogspot.com/2008/05/of-zork-and-dorks.html

I’m a Twitter dropout

Well, despite my many a’ blog extolling the virtues of Twitter, I have ceased to Twit (or I am one, as the case may be). Life got in the way. Which is, in essence, what Twitter is supposed to be about — everyday folks telling other folks about their everyday life. But I just lost touch with it. Which leads me to the bigger issue…

Why?

I still use Facebook. And lord knows people still flock to MySpace. But Twitter just didn’t seem to stick for me. And I hear this from many of my friends and family about all other sorts of technology — “I tried it but it just didn’t do it for me”. And I say to them…I argue with them, often heatedly, about how much better my life is with those things in it. And they say “But I just don’t have time”. So I say “But you’ll save time, you’ll see. It gets you so much more…blah blah blah”. But the irony is present and it really stings now.

Because here I am, post-twitter advocate, saying the same thing about Twitter. I feel like a hypocrite. But in my defense, I love technology tools. I love to play with them and see what they can do for me. I try my best to find a purpose for them. But with Twitter, I sound like the quips and quibbles of the folks I try to convince.

It just didn’t do it for me.

Maybe someday it will. Until then, email me. Find me on Facebook. Pick up the dang phone and give me a call. I’ll be there. Just don’t send me a tweet. Not now. Maybe my brain needs to evolve. Maybe I need to experience a greater paradigm shift. But until then…

Surfing and SDSU

Great article here about understanding the surfer mentality.

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/EDTEC470/spring08/2/index.htm

Enjoy

Surfing after the San Diego April 2008 shark attack

I’ve braved the waves twice now since the shark attack in April off Solana Beach, and I have to confess that my mind invents some pretty horrible scenarios as I float and bob on my surfboard. Yep, it’s scary. And yep, I can see how many folks out there think it’s crazy to go surfing in light of recent events

But man, if felt great. I was in waist-high with some chest-high surf, and it tasted sweeter than ever. And I was not alone. There were about 10 of us out there. Sure, we stayed in a tighter group than normal. And maybe I imagined it, but I think we were even a little more courteous with each other out there. Despite the fear and trepidation was a stronger sense of purpose and being.  Surfing still held all the charm, grace, and wonder it did before the shark attack.

For that, I am grateful.

San Diego Shark Attack April 2008

I must admit I have not been out surfing since the recent shark attack on a local Tri-athelete in Solana Beach. But I have been to the beach — Solana Beach, in fact — and watched the surfers enjoy the waves. This was three days after the attack. It seems that surfers, for reasons unfathomable to most folks, ignore the inherent ‘dangers’ of the deep and keep on going. Why, you might ask? Here are several reasons I can come up with, being a surfer myself and intent on surfing again one day…

1. This is only the second fatal shark attack in SD county in 50 years (the 1994 attack was later found to be an accidental plummet off a cliff).

2. The chances of a shark attack are very low, period. I’ve a better chance of a fatal car crash on my way to work.

3. Have you ever watched surfers? Or watched folks who watch surfers? They get this far-off stare, this thousand-mile gaze as if they are taken away to a better place and achieving just a little taste of Zen for the first time in their lives. They are at peace just watching surfers — so imagine the peace, the Zen that a surfer experiences when they are actually surfing. This, above and beyond talk of statistics and chances and the ‘dangers of the deep’, is why surfers risk going back into the ocean. Surfing is the closest I’ve come to peace, to that Zen state of satori.

I wouldn’t give that up for the world. And I don’t think any surfer would. That’s why they go right back in the water one, two, or three days after a shark attack. It’s part of living — being — and that’s a hard thing to run away from because life might do what life does. Death is inevitable, but a great life is not. Work hard at the latter — the former is unstoppable.

Today’s Student — Funny (and sad) yet true

I came across this comic from Doonesbury about the digital age and the traditional classroom. Funny, poignant (as Doonesbury always is), and also true. Read it and weep — and perhaps learn a little, too:

Doonesbury's Take on Today's Student

Why I touch my iPod touch

 Growing up, my family held onto all sorts of media for far too long. I remember my friends coming over with cassettes in the 80’s and making fun of the turntable I had that also played 8-tracks (wore out Peter Paul & Mary’s Greatest Hits, too). I loved that thing — not because I refused to get with the times, though, and buy a boom box that played the latest and greatest. Rather, my love of music was cultivated by my experience with the raw power of the vinyl record.

The experience of selecting and playing vinyl engaged all the senses, and iPod has brought that back, just a little bit, with the iPod touch. It was a psrt of me I’d long forgotten — sitting over the turning record, looking over the album’s cover art. Sifting through the entire record collection, deciding which would be next. Which album cover spoke to me. It engaged my sight as well as my hearing. It make the act of selecting the next album like perusing some old museum at my leisure, fingering each album in my collection until one spoke to me.

That, my friends, is back. What really sells me is the music interface — specifically, the ability to sort through my album artwork and select the album I want to hear. The iPod touch lets me rummage through my albums, shows me the cover art, and brings back gobs of nostalgic goodness. Bless you, Apple. You’ve reminded me why listening to music is so much fun.

For more about the iPod touch, see this blog: http://blogofwishes.com/mp3video-players/the-new-ipod-touch/

Scientific Discovery and Play

Andy Carvin recently spoke with Alan Alda, who exulted in how the act of play leads many scientists to discover new and wondrous things about our world (see more at PBS Teachers — Alan Alda: the Play’s the Thing).

I’ve spent a good deal of time in the K-5 classroom and found that there is a great site for letting kids — and adults, mind you — play. I found that the kids could be quite inventive. They displayed problem solving skills and creativity that I had not often seen in their assignments that asked for one correct answer. I enjoyed playing with the tools on the site, too, so I’ve put the link below:

Invention at Play — http://www.inventionatplay.org/index.html 

There are several different ways to play and create and invent on the site. Some you’ll find more useful that others. Try them all and let kids explore them — it’s fun and can lead to some great discoveries. These are qualities that are often forgotten or bypassed in today’s classroom as the quest for higher achievement scores often leads to teaching to the test. Perhaps playing with these tools will bring back some of the joy you once experienced as you discovered something new.

Go ahead. Play. I dare you.

You can lead a horse to Twitter but you can’t make him tweet

I’ve asked, begged, bargained, goaded, and just about hunted down many friends and associates imploring them to try Twitter, but to no avail. I say “Try it. You’ll like it!”. So they try it, and in a week or two I stop seeing tweets. Why? Twitter has all the elements of a great social tool — it’s fun, it’s easy, it’s avoids the socially awkward formalities that meeting people in the real world entails, and it’s highly informative. What gives?

It could be some lofty, esoteric thing like: Hey, man, they just don’t dig the paradigm shift and since they aren’t digital natives, bra, they never will. That just seems improbable though. My spidey-senses tell me that it’s probably something more basic than that. More like: Hey man, all I ever hear about is someone telling me about the incredibly banal details of the past hour of their life . I guess I can’t necessarily argue with that. Well, I could try…

So I’ll end this post with a thought for all you folks on Twitter who, like me, hope to convert the masses from nay-ing (or neighing, to keep with the metaphor) about the idea of Twitter to tweeting like birds who flock together (Ok, I’ve pushed the whole metaphor too far now, haven’t I?).

My thought? A big part of adopting the tool is trusting that you’ll get if you take the time to give. So I think us Twitter-lovers out there should do our best to tweet more about things we do that other people can use. In my area of interest, educational technology, I try to tweet about what tools I use and how I’m using them. If we all keep doing something that, I think that will help those we lead to Twitter begin to sing like canaries themselves.
Personally, I also love hearing about how a little bit of basil in your lemongrass soup made all the difference at the local Thai place, the latest in politics, or how you can’t help but wonder why ‘woot’ ever came to be. But that’s just me. Maybe that’s why I love the idea of this tool, and I love using it. Maybe t it’s tweets like those that turn others off to the tool — I don’t know. Until the whole thing gets sorted out, though, I ask you to try Twitter (if you haven’t already) and give what you want to get in return.

If that just doesn’t work for you, you can tell me why below. I really do want to know.