"Predicting the future is easy. It's trying to figure out what's going on now that's hard" (Dressler, 2005)
On Friday, I attended the ECVA Conference at Virginia Tech along with Jeff Nugent and Bud Deihl. Two delightful companions with whom to do a road trip – we left Richmond at 5:30am and got back at supper time. At the conference, we had the opportunity to hear two excellent keynoters. Michael Wesch talked first… Read more How Much Hand Holding?
It has been seven years since I saw a Yahoo news feed that a plane had hit the World Trade Center, and then watched with my wife in horror as the events of 9/11/2001 unfolded. In those days, I was night dean and director of online learning at Gwinnett Technical College, so I worked 2pm-10pm… Read more Our Family’s 9/11 Memorial
I know this is not really true, but all kids grow up thinking that their father taught them to swim by throwing them into the pool/lake/river/bay. And most of us did learn to swim! I was thinking about this as I watched (in a virtual sense) my graduate students swim for the first time in… Read more Using My Father’s Method
One has to love some of the innovations coming out of Australia. Thanks to CogDog, I tried out the “Lazy Bloggers Post Generator“. Using the drop down boxes, I quickly crafted the following post: OMG! I just got slapped with a wet salmon – really – I have not updated this since people stopped clapping… Read more Slapping with a Wet Salmon
It has been interesting (to say the least) to juxtapose the two political conventions with the start of classes. I must admit that my mind draws some strange parallels sometimes, but I am seeing some interesting parallels between the candidates and my students. I should begin by admitting that while I consider myself an independent,… Read more My One Political Post (Maybe…)
Stephen Downes is one of my heroes – a pioneer in online learning. However, I think he missed the mark with his post yesterday entitled “My Take on the Top 25“. Stephen took Jane Hart’s Slideshow of the Day list of the top 25 technologies – and commented on where they fit (or did not… Read more Living In the Real World
This Saturday, I will be doing some guest lecturing in our Fast Track Executive MBA “mini-camp” here at VCU. They have asked me to demonstrate “collaborative software.” I am looking forward to this session, but the language they have used demonstrates how the world is evolving. We really do not use “software” anymore for collaboration… Read more Web Collaboration
My wife and I are down in Augusta GA to celebrate my parent’s 60th anniversary. Here is a picture from August, 1948, when my parents wed in Atlanta GA. I came along 2 years later, followed by my two brothers. They were typical of the Greatest Generation – hard working, dedicated, and committed to making… Read more Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad
Image via Wikipedia Academics go by a different timeline than the rest of the world. Our year does not start on January 1, but rather on the first day of the Fall semester. There is a different feel to Virginia Commonwealth University today with smiling students jossling between buildings and classrooms. I threw the switch… Read more Happy New Year (and Zemanta)
Following up on my post earlier this week on The Meaning of Free, I joined my colleagues Jeff Nugent and Bud Deihl for some coffee and conversation – triggered by the announcement that Jott was out of beta and would now cost for service. This is a service that we have grown to depend on,… Read more When Free is Not Free