"Predicting the future is easy. It's trying to figure out what's going on now that's hard" (Dressler, 2005)
Ada Lovelace (per Wikipedia) “is today appreciated as the ‘first programmer’ since she was writing programs-that is, manipulating symbols according to rules-for a machine that Babbage had not yet built. She also foresaw the capability of computers to go beyond mere calculating or number-crunching while others, including Babbage himself, focused only on these capabilities.” Wikipedia… Read more Ada Lovelace Day
After two 3+ hour flights and one flight delay, I have crossed the country to attend Innovations 2009 in Reno NV. Innovations is an annual conference of the League for Innovation in Community Colleges, and this is my fifth or sixth. While I am no longer associated with two-year colleges, I still stay in touch… Read more At Innovations 2009
Over the last four weeks, Jon Becker and I have facilitated a journey for our online students into the heretofore unknown world (for them) of Web 2.0. Our students are all K-12 teachers from three different states in our Education Technology and School Leadership course. After two weeks of typical “schoolroom” topical exploration and discussion,… Read more It Is the Journey, Not the Destination … Nor the Goat
The participatory web has allowed groups with common interests to organize and collaborate in ways that were not possible just five years ago. Yesterday, Dr. Jonathon Becker, professor of Educational Leadership in the VCU School of Education, joined Jeff Nugent, Bud Deihl and myself of the VCU Center for Teaching Excellence to record a podcast… Read more Professional Development in a Networked World
Last night, Jon Becker, with whom I am co-teaching the online Educational Technology and School Leadership course for Virginia Commonwealth University, used Wimba Classroom to have an extended conversation with Ben Grey, instructional technology coordinator for a school district in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. Ben had heard Jon’s presentation at K12Online Conference on “Facilitating… Read more The Becker – Grey Conversation
We had a fruitful faculty brown bag lunch conversation today. The topic was Building Connections and Communities through the Web. Ten folks present locally, and since Jeff Nugent was using UStream, another crowd actively joined via the internet. I used these slides to guide the conversation: Building Connections and Communities through the Web View more… Read more Timesharing Dogs
A week from tomorrow, I am scheduled to lead a Brown Bag lunch session on “Building Community and Connections Through the Web.” Bud Deihl and I were brainstorming this session (and he earlier also blogged about it). As we talked, we realized that “community” is very nuanced. The following slide emerged from our white board… Read more Communities and Tools
It is the last day of 2008, and as with many others, it is a time for reflection. 2008 was certainly a very different year from my 57 previous ones. Even though I had worked with computers for years and had engaged in online learning for the past dozen years, in many ways I was… Read more A Year in the Spiral
I have just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success (2008). For those who have not yet read it, it is a terrific book. Rather than focusing on intelligence and ambition as cause agents for success, Gladwell instead argues that success is more complex, linked to chance events and accidents of birth. Gladwell… Read more Am I An Outlier?
It has been ages since I posted anything here…a combination of end of semester and work in the Center. Part of what has been driving me lately are strategic questions, and I have some for you. For the past two weeks, I have been drafting a white paper on the state of the union regarding… Read more Strategic Thinking and Strategic Resources