Conversations

"Good conversation has an edge: it opens your eyes to something, quickens your ears." -James Hillman

My Current Events class is still in low gear, waiting for our blog to be enabled (we have gotten administrative approval, so progress is being made!).

Inspired by David Warlick's Keynote for the K12 Online Conference 2007, I started some informal conversations with students today about their understanding, and every day use, of technology.

One senior told me that he wants to major in psychology in college and has some programming experience. He's quite adept at data manipulation but only has a vague idea of what "tagging", online collaboration, and wikis are all about.

A second, younger (Grade 8) student was doing some research for a career report on designing video games. He was initially puzzled when I asked him if he knew what "Second Life" is. He recovered quickly, though, and compared it to various Sim games he had played. Then, he took the discussion to a higher level by offering the opinion that businesses would really benefit by holding conferences in Second Life rather than in the "real" world. "You could save a lot of money on airfare to Japan and China!" he decided. You could indeed.

I'm going to keep my eye on that gentleman! He definitely has Flat World potential.


"What students lack in school is an intellectual relationship or conversation with the teacher." -William Glasser

Photo by spies and spying

Tentacles

"When they enter the classroom, we chop their tentacles off." David Warlick, K12 Online Conference 2007

It's an image I can't get out of my mind: school personnel ruthlessly hacking tentacles off the torsos of hapless students.

The sci-fi films of my adolescence featured monster squid with powerful suckers and deadly teeth. But some plants and mammals also have an "elongated flexible unsegmented extension".

The broader meaning of the word refers to "the ability to grasp or stretch." So by removing, "chopping off", students' "tentacles", we are restricting their reach, limiting their ability to stretch and grow.

“Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?” -Robert Browning

Photo by Dawdles

Playing with Boundaries

The K12 Online 2007 Conference, "Playing with Boundaries", begins today with David Warlick's pre-conference Keynote.

This will be the first time I've "attended" this event, and I'm sure that it will be an engaging, challenging, and stimulating experience.

Set aside some time to visit the site and take measure of your own boundaries.


"Your current safe boundaries were once unknown frontiers." -Unknown

"I have reached no conclusions, have erected no boundaries, shutting out and shutting in, separating inside from outside: I have drawn no lines:" -Archie Randolph Ammons, Corsons Inlet