August 2008 Archives

At the end of the Brainstorming Breakfast this morning, Brad, Stubbs, and I were talking about the games we play.  After owning the Playstation 3 for a year and a half, I find that the great majority of the games that I play are small-studio games that are generally downloadable for $10 or less.  Typically, these are games that have an interesting gameplay experience, easy to learn, and have a good mix of music and an artistic style.  Here are some examples:



Eden.  In Eden, you're a little plant guy.  You jump and spin around collecting pollen to make new plants, navigate a garden, and find spirits.  I know...it doesn't sound like your typical shooting or leveling-up game, but it's a lot of trippy fun.




Echocrome.  In this game, you walk through an Escher-like structure that has odd laws of reality.  In this case, there are a couple of gaps in the structure that the dark character would fall through, but if you change the perspective of the structure so you can't see the gaps, they don't exist and you can keep walking.




Monsters.  This game is similar to other tower defense games where there are creatures who come into the maze and you have to set up automated towers to kill them off before they get through the maze.  The difference here is that you are actually in the maze as well as a little witch-doctor-looking guy who is protecting his babies.  If a monster gets through and kills a baby, you see its little soul fly up to heaven.  The music throughout the game is pretty relaxed.



Lumines.  If you really want to get sucked into an adrenaline-soaked Tetris-like puzzle game, this game combines seizure-inducing visuals with compelling music that merges with the sound effects from each level.

I like that these games are simple enough to enjoy right away, yet designed well enough to provide minutes to hours of fun.  With most of them, you can play them for a few minutes and then set them down again -- a good option if you are a busy adult or need a study break.  I also like that the downloadable games provide the chance for an up-and-coming independent game producer to share his or her concept with millions of gamers who are willing to shell out $5 bucks to try something that looks interesting.  Services like YouTube make it easier to see examples of gameplay before spending that money.  Brad told me about Braid (on the XBOX 360) which has a very odd time-shifting component.



I tend to shy away from big-studio games and ones that depend on online gameplay for the majority of the experience.  For example, I stopped playing World of Warcraft a couple of years ago because I couldn't commit to being online for a few hours every weeknight as part of 40-person raids.

About the only big-studio game that has interested me recently is Lego Star Wars.  Yes, the fun of Legos with the epic experience of the six Star Wars movies (see below and you'll get the idea):



As a final note, posts like this one would be extremely difficult and time consuming to do without a resource like YouTube.  If I had to create and upload these movies myself, it would have taken days and eaten up my storage space.  It's so easy to do that I wonder why there aren't more blog posts that include quick video clips to provide examples, set contect, or illustrate a point.  A picture is worth a thousand words.  A one-minute clip is worth a million.  

I did a TLT Talk today on the Learning Design Summer Camp.  It was mostly focused on how the event was put together, what influenced us (Berkman, Symposium, unconferences, etc...) unique features, facilities, preparing the attendees, how the day went, and lessons learned.  The marketing/communication group recorded most of it, so I'll add the video once it's done.  I might need to go back in and cover the last few minutes in a studio -- the memory filled up before I finished.

In any case, when putting together my presentation, it occurred to me that there may be some good qualitative data surrounding the event: pictures, e-mail, blog posts, and survey results, but also, the complete editing history of the wiki we used.  The problem with studying this event is that I was in the middle of it.  In cases like that, it's really difficult to set aside your biases.

Okay, so if not the Learning Design Summer Camp, perhaps I could sift through the wikis of other community-driven events (Berkman, Northern Voice, etc...) and see how they develop over time.  The data exists in the open.  I have an interest in event planning.  Educational event planning falls within Adult Education.  It seems like a good match that could lead to a publication or even my dissertation.  I should talk this over with my advisor.

As an aside, this is the first time I've been nervous about posting something online.  The PhD dissertation process is built around the idea of filling a gap in existing research.  It's possible that a full-time student could take this idea and start working on it before I can get around to it -- and by the time I do, someone else could have made the big publication on this kind of data. But in the grand scheme of things, that is unlikely to happen.  Even if it does, it still fills in a gap in the research, whether I was the one to do it or not. 

Ian Baptiste (one of the professors in Adult Education) told me about a dissertation he read recently that looked at the mental processes of people who write fiction.  It sounds really interesting and very familiar.  As a general trend, the people who were interviewed described the process as being closer to a medium channeling spirits.  It was like the characters already existed independently and the writer was writing as a way of letting those characters speak.

I used to write fiction as a hobby.  I never tried to write it in a way that would be publishable.  Mainly, I just felt like there were people in my head who were doing things and it would be interesting to write about them.  It was a lot of fun, but felt therapeutic as well.  I started writing when I was 12 and stopped doing it on a regular basis around 22.  After working through a lot of personal issues, I just didn't feel the need to write anymore.  The people in my head quieted down.

After Ian told be about the dissertation, I thought about my old stories and felt like trying to write that way again and purposely trying to find characters who had something to say.  The results of this include the narrative schedule for the Learning Design Summer Camp and two scripts for the Copyright Perspectives videos. (see below).  [The first video isn't included -- that was a collaborative effort.  The two below were mostly me, but I had nothing to do with the direction or production aspects.]





The plots came to me while I was doing other things and then the particulars of the dialog and direction worked themselves out as I sat down to write it out.  It all came out very quickly and it was fun to write again. 

It's also a little strange to see these characters in my head come to life.  The gestures, clothing, and emphasis are slightly different, but overall, it's what I had in mind.  The other weird thing is how much of my personality and beliefs have come out in the script.  Yeah, they're optimistic and quirky, but that describes how I work.

I'm glad that I don't write scripts all day though.  I had the luxury of having a lot of time to write the scripts.  If I had to write one of these a day, I would probably have to force the process instead of letting the stories come to me naturally.

Today was the second day of class.  I am taking a course on Globalization and Lifelong Learning (a core Adult Education course) with Dr. Fred Schied.  One of the assignments is to keep a journal of some kind throughout the semester and write about what we're reading and discussing.  I'll probably do that through a blog.  Maybe this one, or maybe a separate one.  I tried having separate blogs before and it didn't really make sense in the end because there isn't much of a distinction between my work, what I'm studying, and my general views on technology, education, and society.

First thought after the first day of this class: Definition of community.  In Adult Education, a lot of the serious work in community-based education focuses on marginalized communities: people in developing nations, low-income families, minority populations struggling for equality, etc... I sat next to a woman who is getting a PhD in Geography.  She is taking the course because she is interested in decision making among communities that are faced with climate-change water issues (flooding, quality of the water supply, erosion, etc...).  We're talking about the kinds of people in the Pacific whose islands are disappearing rapidly.  People in Alaska whose homes (built on permafrost) are falling into the ocean because of rising temperatures. 

What did I do this summer?  For one thing, I helped run the Learning Design Summer Camp, a community-designed event.  But in comparison to the work that some of the others are doing and the impact it has on people who are fighting for survival, I felt rather small ...

... until I thought about the impact that I have.  In class today, I helped Fred get his laptop online and change a setting in ANGEL so other students could see his syllabus.  I'm also thinking of offering to help the other students in the class set up blogs for their journals if they would like to.  I may not be preventing the glaciers from melting, but the work that ITS and our learning design community are doing has an impact on every college and campus.  The next generation of people who are going to try to save the glaciers are going to be impacted by our work.  And if that means that they are able to express themselves more clearly or use technology to connect to other concerned people, then I can sleep soundly tonight.

Okay -- so I admit that what I do may also make it easier for the next generation of evil scientists to create video blogs and try to rule the world.  So as karmic insurance, I donated some money to WPSU tonight.  Whew, that was a close one.

One thing that I especially like about web-based application is the idea that they are in beta (field testing mode) and will stay that way.  An application is never done.  There is always room for improvement.  The application will adjust, expand, refocus, and live for a very long time, or as long as it needs to live.

In education, we call this lifelong learning.  We can always be students.  We can continue  learning, growing, adapting, improving, and keeping ourselves as current as we need to be.  But for this to happen, we have to take personal responsibility, sacrifice a little, and act.

I started taking classes at Penn State in 1987.  It's now the first day of classes in the fall 2008 semester and I am still taking classes.  This semester, I'm taking two courses to finish my residency requirement: multivariate analysis and (coincidentally enough) a course on globalization and lifelong learning.  I pay for these classes out of pocket, $1300 in tuition and fees, even after my discount.  Beyond that, there is the payment of time and the stressful feeling of always having a project hanging over your head.

That's just the formal learning.  At work, I need to learn new technologies, improve my project management and communication skills, practice leadership, develop empathy, analyze politics, and so on.  Cole and I can talk about some areas that I need to work on, but he's not going to spoon-feed me what I need to know.  Also, most of what I need is going to come from experience.  For example, I took a couple of courses on program planning, but my first time running the TLT Symposium was a real eye-opener!  The real world is messy, but experience with ambiguity teaches you to take control and make some decisions. 

I pay for those learning experiences as well.  I've been writing for an hour or so in the evenings as part of the one post a day challenge, mostly to reflect and practice this kind of writing.  Andrew knows that when I have a big project going on, I will be working in the evenings so I can keep on top of things and reduce stress in the long run.  

It sounds like I'm about to fly apart at the hinges, right?  Actually, what they say about exercise seems to be true here as well.  After an initial shock to the system, this kind of activity can lead to having more energy in the end.  You get use to being constantly active and when one thing dies down, you start looking for something else to dig into.  On the other hand, you could choose a low-activity life: quiet, passive, easy.  That's not for me.

By the way, if you agree with most of this post, you are probably a Type-A, ball-of-stress personality who feels a little proud when someone calls you a workaholic.  Admittedly, my work and school habits began taking their toll on my health a few years back.  Fortunately, I rediscovered running and it has been a great active way of burning off the stress and getting fit.

Okay ... I've gotten a bit off topic, but the point that I wanted to make is that our professional development is not the responsibility of someone else -- at the professional level, no one is going to identify exactly what we need to know, find that knowledge, and hand it to us in gift wrap. As professionals, we need to take responsibility and initiate our own learning. Right? Or is that just the Type-A speaking again?

At the Brainstorming Breakfast this morning, a group of us were talking about the typical summer work pattern.  Things start off fairly slow in June.  At that point, spring courses are finished, summer courses have started, and the dust has usually settled from the upgrade to the latest version of ANGEL.  At that point, we typically turn our attention a few months ahead to the beginning of the fall semester and say "we should get this done by the time students come back" and then we work with that deadline in mind.

For a single project, sure that makes sense.  I think it breaks down when many projects (not just within our group, but across the university) have the exact same deadline.  It creates a lot of pressure on a few critical resource people and creates a bottleneck and raises stress levels. 

I'm not singling out any one particular person or project.  I think most of us are guilty of doing it.  This summer, I had several things that were all finishing up right before the start of the fall semester: the Learning Design Summer Camp, the Copyright videos and Web site, and the arrangements for the Intermediate Studiocode training. There was also the new TLT Web site, but I can't claim credit for that one -- Audrey did the work and launched the site. All things considered, I think I handled it fairly well. 

We started discussing the Copyright Videos and Web site in April and we knew that everyrhing definitely had to be finished by the time students returned so the Provost could send out the site to incoming students.  We pulled together the team and the Digital Commons staff filmed a proof of concept video.  After working through some decisions that would affect all of the videos (tone, style, titles, etc...), we created the first script in about a day and took another week or so for filming and editing.  The second script was also fairly quick.  Those two videos gave us enough content to design and build the Web site, create the marketing plan, and work on the third script (shot and edited this week).  So by the time this week rolled around, it was mostly a matter of just putting the pieces together.

We started planning the Summer Camp at the end of May, so we couldn't have had it much earlier, but we also held it on August 12-13 so it wouldn't bump into the fall semester directly.  Fortunately, the learning design community pitched in to shape and run the event.  My work was to fill in the remaining gaps and organize things so they wouldn't be too chaotic.  We also kept things fun, but minimalistic.  For example, there was no printed agenda and no one asked for one.  Also, the meal cards eliminated the need to make arrangements with a caterer.  The stickers and special name badges took some attention, but I never mind doing that kind of work.  Next year, we'll move it to June so people will have time to follow-up with ideas from the Summer Camp before feeling overwhelmed.

Finally, the Studiocode training was pretty easy to put together.  Our Training Services group has a process in place for requesting a teaching lab space and a registration system.  I arranged the times between the trainer, faculty, and Training Services; get the word out to Studiocode users; and then help the trainer learn about our lab/podium setup.

I'm pretty "upstream" on these project timelines.  I can balance my work to avoid a crunch because most of my work happens well before the deadline.  However, I did have to call upon some of the TLT staff toward the end to finish these projects on time and most of those "downstream" people are busy with many other projects at this time of year. 

So two things.  First, my thanks to Audrey, Derick, the WebLion group, our Digital Commons staff, the learning design staff who pitched in above and beyond the call of duty, and people like Jason who are the go-to people for certain critical pieces.  Second, I plan to continually work toward balancing the workload as much as I can, so we can give each project the attention it deserves without a deadline breathing down our backs.

I really like shows like Project Runway and Top Chef.  Yes, they are reality TV shows, but they are also an opportunity to see artists and their creative process in action.  Most of my friends excel at some kind of creative process, most of which are either secret or atypical.  I know at least three people who are really into cupcakes.  I have a friend who is really into performance art: dancing cardboard robots, drag shows, and interactive sculpture.   In addition to being able to beat anyone at nearly any video game, Andrew composes and remixes music. Another friend of mine is a fantastic artist and her normal writing style is so poetic that Andrew can pick any page of her journal and set it to music.  Cole can explain his big picture ideas so convincingly that Brad and I have labeled it his Reality Distortion Field.  I could keep going ...

What's my superpower?  I started programming computers and writing fiction when I was 12 (I combined these two and made a computerized Choose Your Own Adventure book).  I never got into real programming complexity and writing fiction was mostly a way to work through some personal issues.  I love podcasting, but I'm not a natural radio-quality audio person. 

If I had to pick something that sets me apart, it's probably program planning (Symposium, Summer Camp, workshops, etc...).  I really enjoy these types of events because seeing people learn something new is a big motivator for me.  I also love teaching, but program planning is not the same thing. With the events I've been working on over the past two years, I'm not really teaching anything.  I'm just creating an environment in which other people feel free to teach, learn, and otherwise share ideas. 

So I think a superpower is an alignment between your creative talents, your passions, and your personality.  If that's true, then it seems that a superpower is more likely to emerge as we explore our own creative potential.

What is your superpower?

After writing my post yesterday entitled "Hear one, do one, teach one", I decided to change the name of my blog to that title.  In the post, I was talking about hearing an example of something like a podcast, trying one, and then teaching it to someone else.  But then I thought about how the "Hear one, do one, teach one" idea is much more aligned with what I write about than "Portfolio" -- which sounds more like a historical record of what I have done instead of how I'm using this blog -- as an active part of what I'm thinking, learning, and sharing.

I also thought about the "one" in this phrase.  I was originally thinking of it as a the object of what is being learned, tried, and passed along (a technology, technique, process, etc..), but at a higher level, "one" can also be people around us.  We hear each other, work with each other, and teach each other. 

I had a similar idea at the Learning Design Summer Camp as part of Cole's discussion of new forms of professional development.  A blog can be a record of your own development, but it can also be a way of helping along the development of the people around you.  Hopefully, we're all working on challenging projects.  Challenges lead to learning.  But what we learn is trapped within our own heads unless we get it out there in some way.  We all have so much to teach and so much to learn.

By the way, if you are not working on a job that challenges you and keeps you learning, it may be time to look for another job.

I've been thinking of something since we had our educational podcasting discussion during last week's Learning Design Summer Camp.  I've always been a fan of a three-step approach to learning something where you are first exposed to something new; then you try doing it yourself; and finally, you teach it to someone else.  The initial exposure is useful in defining the objective, setting expectations, and providing a model.  The second step is an opportunity for hands-on experience and feedback.  The third step gets to higher-order thinking: reflection, critique, and synthesis of a student's experience is necessary before you can do a good job of teaching someone else.  In addition, questions can arise while teaching that makes you reexamine your experience.  Finally, this third step propagates what is being taught.

So if we are trying to teach students how to interview (using podcasting as the technology), then the process could be something like this: 

1. Hear one: Students download and listen to some good examples of interviews and identify the qualities that make that recording a "good interview".  You could also have people listen to examples of bad interviews (real or staged) so they can identify common mistakes in the interview process such as asking yes/no questions.  This would be a good time to introduce a rubric or have the students collaborate on building one.
   
2. Do one: One group of students conducts an interview (with topics and subjects that are appropriate to your discipline).  Have them compare their own work to the rubric. Have the rest of the class critique their interview.
   
3. Teach one: The group of students now teaches the rest of the class (or the next group if you are doing a rotation through different topics) how to conduct a good interview.  Hopefully the second group will actually do better than the first, having learned from both the example interviews and the first group's performance.
   

This is kind of obvious, right?  I think so, but too often in the workplace and classroom, we ask people to "do one" without the rest of it.  We don't provide the initial exposure and model expectations.  We don't provide detailed feedback.  We don't provide an opportunity for reflection, synthesis, and sharing what has been learned.

This is one of the reasons that I was saying that educational podcasting should involved multiple recordings instead of a single instance.  It sounds like some instructors have asked their students to "make a podcast" (just an audio recording) without providing a good example, hearing each other's work, or giving students an opportunity to try again after a first attempt.

The good news is that by being an active participant in the learning design community, I am able to continuously participate in the three-step process in my own professional development.  I am able to see what new things other people are doing and talk to them about best practices.  I am able to work with others and try new things (services, teaching activities, processes, etc...).  And at the end of the day, I have as much opportunity to teach as I like, either in formal settings, one-on-one mentoring, or by reflecting/writing in this blog.

It's an ideal situation for me - learning, working, and teaching at the same time.  The community makes this possible.  I hope everyone has the same opportunity.

This week was focused on the Learning Design Summer Camp for me.  I have read through some of the comments that the participants submitted and most of them said that the most valuable thing they got out of the summer camp was the potential for the learning design community to support and help each other. 

However, in a few other place, I saw people asking questions like: Who is in charge of follow through?  Who is going to keep the engagement going?  Who is going to expand the community?

My answer: everyone.  Seriously.  Sure, we have people working on rolling out new services, but in the current budget situation, we can't exactly afford to hire more people who are going to take complete responsibility for every aspect of implementation.  I don't think we would want to.  The Learning Design community is already implanted throughout the university and understand the issues in their domain. 

I'm not asking individuals to rise up and shoulder huge new responsibilities either.  But if everyone keeps their eyes open, stays connected, and shares information and resources, we can keep the ideas flowing.  Our group (ETS) has created some engagement opportunities, but it will be everyone's responsibility to choose to stay engaged -- or create open opportunities of their own.  And if we all share what we are doing and learning, the community will expand as a result.

Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.

When I worked at the Hazleton campus in the mid-90's, I was basically a one-man ITS.  I was in charge of labs, faculty/staff computers, networks, workshops, etc...  I was in my early 20's, worked long hours, and had no life (one of the reasons I moved back to State College, but that's another story).  When I needed a break, I would "frankenstein" computers -- taking four broken computers and make two or three working ones by swapping components.  It was nice because I could unhook my brain a bit and let my hands do the work.

I had a similar feeling today while working on the Copyright Perspectives site.  It's not ready for prime time yet, but take a look if you like and you'll get the idea.  I wrote a few descriptions, edited some simple graphics in Photoshop, and played around with code.  My brain was still in use, but I could immediately see the results.  Most of the time, I work on things for months before seeing any results.  Working on the site has been a nice shot of instant gratification goodness.

I've just been thinking about what I would really include in my list of core beliefs as a professional.  I believe that variety is a key element to keep your work fresh.  I like juggling projects because it lets me take a break from one, but still be productive elsewhere.  [Am I just a restless Type-A freak, or do other people do the same thing?  I can't seem to rest by actually "resting".]

The Learning Design Summer Camp included university personnel who normally don't get a chance to talk with each other: faculty, librarians, instructional designers, technologists, media producers, trainers, student support personnel, and leaders.  I hope it was a chance for people to step outside their routine, talk to people they don't normally see, and get some fresh ideas.  Actually, I heard several people say that they didn't think the event would be relevant to them until they came to Summer Camp and saw how all of us have an impact on learning design.  For those who were unsure but came anyway, THANK YOU!

Exposure to people with different perspectives helps me understand learning design issues more completely.  I get my best ideas by being exposed to the creative efforts of other people.  So my thought is this: working with a group of peers is great, but now that the learning design community has grown and diversified it has become a source of the variety that I need to keep my work fresh.

For my post of the day, I thought I would capture some of my thoughts about the execution of the 2008 Learning Design Summer Camp. 

The facilities were excellent!  We held the event in Foster Auditorium in Pattee Library.  On Monday, I went there with some of our video production staff to bring in the equipment and supplies. The room has a computer podium with two video screens (mirroring the same image on the left and right sides of the room).  We set up a third screen for the Live Question Tool, so anyone could submit a question during the presentation and other people can vote and reply.  Every seat in the room has a power outlet.  That alone is a huge deal, considering that about 80 people brought their laptops.  The seats also had wired internet connections or people could log into the wireless network.  There was a minor problem with getting the audio feed into our recording equipment on Tuesday morning, but we got to the right people and the problem was fixed 30 minutes before our official start.

The stickers were more popular than I thought they would be.  People there tended to take more than one and used different badges each day.  Practically no one just wrote their name on a card and put it in a traditional name badge holder.  Most used the special name badges that had prompts like "I stay current by ..." (fill in the blank).  There were 16 different options and I saw most of them in use on one day or the other.  However, there was a little bottleneck getting into the room since people were reading over the name badges and picking out stickers.

Using the special meal cards (from the ID+ card office) was a good idea.  It let us use any on-campus dining facility where people could get what they wanted instead of trying to bring food into the library.  It also let everyone pick the food that they wanted to eat -- especially important for people with dietary restrictions.  The University Libraries staff was kind enough to donate library-safe mugs for everyone. So people could use the meal cards to get a drink at the cafe (attached to the library) and carry them into Foster Auditorium in the mugs.

The back channel communication at the event (mostly Twitter and Berkman's Live Question Tool) were a fantastic addition.  It was a little odd seeing so many people typing away on their laptops, but nearly everyone was engaged in some way.  We had dozens of questions posted to the Live Question Tool for each of the main sessions.  People were voting on the questions they liked and also replying to or clarifying questions asked by others.  Twitter was being used more for general comments, opinions, humor, and facility-related issues.  For example, there was a question on Day 1 about problems getting a MacBook Air connected to the wireless network that was handled over Twitter.

Stevie Rocco brought a big bell to Summer Camp on Day 1 to ring if anyone went over their 10-minute time limit during the Lightning Talk session after lunch.  That bell is loud.  I was the first to do my Lightning Talk and the first to be belled.  It really woke people up and added a game-like atmosphere to the talks.

During Day 2, the session on Open Education had Keith Bailey join in via iChat while in the passenger seat of his car.  Keith was on vacation, but wanted to participate in the event so badly that we worked out the details so he could connect in using a Verizon wireless card.  There was a lot of audio feedback when he spoke, which was unfortunate, but the idea of him connecting into the Summer Camp while on the road was very cool.  It was like seeing videos from astronauts in space.  Keith is also a very smart guy and had a lot to add about the Open Education topic, so I'm glad he could join in.

A couple of areas for improvement: this event is less structured than a typical conference, so when it was time for people to pitch new session ideas or organize their groups to walk to their meeting area, they weren't sure what to do.  I have heard that Northern Voice uses a white board to organize its small-group unconference meetings, so that may work better.  Coaching the discussion leaders would have been a good idea as well.  I have to wonder what percentage of this is just me getting used to this kind of event, where people are expected to stand up and start a new discussion topic.  The unconference elements were beyond my control, but maybe instead of making those elements more structured, I should make the whole event less structured so people understand their role from the beginning.  I'll have to give this more thought.

Also, after lunch, there was a definite energy drain in the group.  To some extent, it was the post-lunch lull.  But I  think that mental exhaustion kicked into gear.   The three morning sessions were pretty tightly packed together with no break, and then lunch was also a discussion time.   Add that on top of the new ideas that were being thrown around and I think people just needed a break to think and digest.  So we did some report-outs from the small groups from 1:00 until 2:30 or so, then we wrapped up the Summer Camp a little early. 

Cole set up a form attached to a Google Spreadsheet for the conference evaluation.  I'm really looking forward to seeing the results so I can see what people thought about this kind of event and what we can to to make it better.  I'm sure I'll be revisting this topic again in the blog. 

A few final thoughts and fodder for future posts:

• If we do this again next year, June or July would be much better.  August is too busy with preparations for fall.
• We had a talk early today about blogs as portfolio and then a lunch talk about professional development.  My mashup is this: blogs can help you with your professional development, but they may be even more useful for your community.  Even this post -- it's a memory-aid for me, but it may be a source of good ideas for someone else who is planning this type of event.
• Another thought on open education: IMHO sharing content should be seen like swapping recipes.   You hand over something that has worked for you and then let others adapt it for their own tastes.
• Are the people who attend and actively participate in an event like the Learning Design Summer Camp more likely to have an internal locus of control?  In other words, are they more likely to be the type of people who take responsibility for things like their own professional development?  I doubt they are the type of person who waits until someone assigns them to attend something like the summer camp.  As far as I know, the only people who were required to be there were me, Brett, and Cole.
  

Right now, I'm between Day 1 of the 2008 Learning Design Summer Camp and the evening "Food for Thought" dinner at Mad Mex, so I thought I'd get in my blog post for the day. Day 1 went very well. We had a few glitches with the audio system at first, but we got them worked out by 9:30.

The room began to really fill up around 9:45 and I noticed the "name tag" that Cole filled out:

 

His "name tag" says "My community is ... Kick Ass!" Yep, that's the attitude we are trying to cultivate. Fun, energetic, communal, inspired, but also genuine and focused on real issues that we all face.

At 10:00, I did my welcome presentation and talked about how the event is "by the community, for the community". It's a very democratic philosophy of event planning.

At 10:30, Cole and Scott did their talk on how they integrated social tools into their graduate course. That was our first use of the Live Question Tool (also used at the Berkman@10 conference) and it went well. We're thinking of creating a tool like that, based on the Movable Type platform. At 11:30, it was time for the "Birds of a Feather" lunches around campus. We gave our meal cards and mugs to participants and they wandered off to various on-campus dining locations. I went to Cole's session, where we continued to talk about integrating social tools into courses.

 

After lunch, we had the Lightning Talk sessions: 10 presentations, 10 minutes each, with an incentive for getting finished in time. I intentionally went over time when I was doing my wikis/Google Docs talk, so the other presenters would know how freaking loud the bell was. It worked. Most people finished in just under 10 minutes. Chris Millet did his lightning talk about Digital Commons:

 

At 3:00, we had a 1/2 hour break, so people could talk, use the rest room, and get something from the cafe (using the Library mugs). It was also a good time to check out the Technology Timeline that shows when we have implemented some educational technologies at Penn State and where people think we will be in a few years. Jeff Swain and Dave Stong put this together. Here is Jeff taking a picture of his masterpiece:

 

At 3:30, we had our final talk. Matt Jackson talked to us about the incredibly complex issues of copyright law, the TEACH Act, fair use (including news use, parody, etc...), mashups, and so forth. It will be a good resource for our new Copyright Perspectives site.

 

And then we ended the day with our pitch session, where the people who were organizing talks on Day 2 could "pitch" their topic to the audience. At the end of the day, I think we all felt a little like the image below.

 

Yeah, it was a good day.

While preparing my welcome presentation for the 2008 Learning Design Summer Camp, I was a little surprised by all of the technology options that we will be using: wikis, Flickr, del.icio.us, PSU blogs, Twitter, and the Berkman Live Question Tool.  I would have kept adding more to the welcome message, but I didn't want it to sound too intimidating or too focused on the technologies.  These things are in place to let us collaborate in whatever ways people are most comfortable: taking notes, sharing pictures, sharing links, writing about the event, connecting with people who are distributed throughout the event, and submitting anonymous questions.  I hope that some of the attendees see the educational potential for those tools as well. 

As it is, I've asked everyone to try at least one of those tools.  However, I think the best results come when people are comfortable enough to shift fluidly between these tools, using each with the ease of a native. As I've had time, I have been peeking into the current Twitter.  When I do, I occasionally see things like this "business card":



First off, Robin is in everything, which is pretty cool.  But more interesting to me is that I would need geneology software to track all of the people, ideas, technologies, and online services that had a creative influence on Robin's card.  That's not to diminish Robin's contribution at all.  I think that as we progress with our skills in multiple technologies, we develop expertise in mashing them together.  It's just comforting to me to see these kinds of efforts continue to snowball as they circulate around and around a group of resourceful people.  It's a little like seeing a family resemblance in a new baby.

I don't think Robin's card is the end of this chain either.  Someone will take her idea, alter or adapt it for a different purpose, and then the cycle will start all over again.  It's fun to watch.

Quick note tonight, put together during commercial breaks of the 2008 Olympic opening ceremony.  First off, China's show was pretty amazing.  Thousands of people in sync, drumming, dancing tai chi, fireworks, and some crazy video displays.  I don't know if I completely buy the message of peace and an environmentally responsible future, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.  Tonight, it's their party.

As I'm watching the march of athletes, I keep thinking back to questions of identity.  I don't care so much about each country's costume, but it does say a lot when you see some countries that have all-male teams.  Then there are the "countries" where it is debatable whether they should be separate or not.  For example, I thought that it made a lot of sense for China and Taiwan (called "Chines Taipei" in the ceremony) to have separate groups, but Hong Kong also had its own athletes.  It came a little closer to home when I saw that Puerto Rico had its own athletes. 

There are athletes who are part of American sports teams, but who join their home country for the games.  There are naturalized citizens of America who are proud to compete for us.  And then the commentators mentioned that there are some athletes who aren't picked for their home country's teams, who quickly shop around to other countries who will take them and put them on their team's roster.  And when you think about it, what does it really matter?  Most people in the U.S. are descended from people who immigrated within the past 100 years (myself included).

This morning at the Brainstorming Bookclub, we talked about the book Everything is Miscellaneous.  Even when it seems like we should have distinct boundaries/categories for people, when we look a little closer, we see how that structure is superficial and somewhat arbitrary.  But anarchy isn't the solution either.  If everyone could compete in the Olympics, they wouldn't have much meaning.  If you made a simple rule stating that anyone who exceeded a certain qualifying time/score could compete, you would see the best athletes in the world, but many countries would have no chance of being seen at all.  The commentators mentioned that 80-some of the coutries present have never won any kind of Olympic medal.  No system is perfect.  But I like that the International Olympic Committee is constantly challenged and adapts to stay current with politics, technology, and evolving sports.

The torch is lit.  Long live the Olympic spirit.  Let the games begin. 

Earlier this week, I was thinking that there might be some "community fatigue" going on in relation to next week's Learning Design Summer Camp.  Today, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was wrong.  I've just found out that not all of the activity is revolving around me and that is a GOOD THING!

For example, Jeff Swain and Dave Stong have been working away on a computing time line that shows where we have been in the past 10 years and gives people the opportunity to predict where we'll be going.

After recommending that people bring business cards to the Learning Design Summer Camp, some of the attendees who don't have business cards started designing special ones, just for this event.  In addition to the typical name and phone information, they include their avatar images, Twitter IDs, and other contact information that makes sense for this crowd.

Pat, Kim, Justin, and Matt have been working through video recording options.  We met with people from the University Libraries to test the audio and video systems.  While there, we got the idea of having a third screen set up to show the Live Question Tool that we'll be using -- and then people took responsibility for the components.  Ellysa is going to submit a request to get a screen.  Lennie is going to bring the laptop and projector.  Done!

During that meeting, Ellysa also came up with the idea of creating signs for the discussion leaders to hold up so people knew who to follow for which topic.  She also pointed out that all of the seats in Foster Auditorium have power and wired internet connections, then Lennie offered to bring ethernet cables to everyone could have a wired connection if they wanted.  Foster Auditorium is even more impressive than I initially thought.

Did I mention that the wiki pages for the event have been going crazy?  Several new discussion topics have been added and the existing ones are being fleshed out.

I'm glad that people read through my latest Countdown to Camp note and acted upon it.  Even more, I love that I have been able to witness someone else put forth an idea and then others jump in to make that idea happen without being asked.  It shows that people care.  That they are creative.  That they can take a leadership role.  That they can help someone from a completely different unit, not because they are being assigned to, but because they want to contribute. 

I have a bunch of projects that all seem to be coming to a head at the same time.  It's kind of like the feeling students get as the end of a semester approaches -- when you have papers, presentations, programming assignments, and tests on the near horizon. 

I have heard from a couple of people that they would have liked to do the one-post-per-day challenge this month, but they were too busy.  Actually, I think that's the best time to do it.  If I can do one-post-per-day while I'm this busy, maybe I can do it when things are a bit more "normal".  Also, it has the potential to help me think through the issues I'm encountering -- and get others to understand those issues as well.  I could always use some advice (BTW, thanks Cole and Ellysa for your comments about Pandora in yesterday's "Feelin' Groovy" post). 

The downside is that there is no way I would have time during the day to write, so my attention to Project Runway is suffering, but I don't think Tim Gunn or Heidi Klum mind much.  Don't let Nina Garcia get wind of this though.  She'll eat me alive.

I also want to revisit the idea of "being nervous" about my upcoming projects in light of an episode of Zencast that I listened to this morning about the Buddhist conception of mindfulness.  I need to let that simmer for a bit for a little longer.

At one of the Learning Design Summer Camp meetings, one of the volunteers recommended having music playing when people come into Foster Auditorium for the first time.  Music sets the tone.  I'd like that tone to say that this event is supposed to be spontaneous and a little playful, but still adult.  Sincere, but not somber.

The song that popped into my head this morning during my walk to work was Simon and Garfunkle's "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)".  I'm not going to make a "mix tape" between now and the 12th, but I thought Pandora might be able to do the trick.  The problem with Pandora is that it focuses on the sound and style of a song, not the message, so it created a station full of 1960's folk music, most of which I have never heard before and don't particularly care for. 

But I also wondered what my music selection and these once-per-day blog posts will reveal about the inner workings of Allan's brain.  The truth is that when I crack open my head and examine the contents, it's often "Doo It Doo Doo, Feelin' groovy". 

Not everyone is like me though.  I don't see a conflict between the idea of having fun and getting something of value out of the same experience.  In fact, if I'm engaged in a conversation or an interesting challenge at work, that's "fun" for me.  Granted, it can be stressful as well and I tend to want to do everything that comes down the road, but I would prefer that to predictability any day.  I think that's why I like working with technology, students, faculty, and a community of bright people.  There is always something new on the horizon and a potential educational application.  So until science stops and/or I get to the end of the Internet, I'll be Feelin' Groovy.

Maybe it's just me, but I really get energized when I see a bunch of people coming together to work toward a common goal.

I like watching the Olympics.  But even more, I like the idea of the Olympics. Countries set aside their differences and send their best to compete in a central arena.  There are rare moments where these athletes let down their guard and you get to see them give their all to be the best in the world at their chosen sport.  Personal glory and national pride play their part, but so does sportsmanship and international cooperation.  It's a celebration of humanity and pushing our limits beyond what we thought possible.

Finding Nemo (yes, the Disney movie) has a moment where a bunch of fish are stuck in a net.  At first, they are all in a panic and swimming in different directions.  It looks like they will all be caught, killed, and eaten.  So Nemo tells them all to swim down together.  They slowly start to swim in the same direction and break free of the net.  That scene chokes me up every time.

I ran my first marathon in Philadelphia last year with thousands of other runners and thousands more lining the streets to cheer.  I was overwhelmed by the feeling of being a small part of something big.  We were all swimming together.  We were all pushing our limits beyond what we thought possible.

After the 2008 TLT Symposium, I helped tear down and carry out some of the equipment and supplies that we brought and then I went down to Legends.  I thought there would be about 10-12 people who had stayed behind, but I was very happily surprised to see the 50-or-so people who stuck around after the event to celebrate and continue the conversation.  I was greeted very warmly by that group.  I was both proud and embarrassed by the attention.  The really cool thing was that most of the people who stayed afterward were the ones who helped to shape the event.  They were presenters, bloggers, introducers, handlers, committee members, interviewers, and people who spent countless hours helping me to put everything together.  Thanks to them, we had the biggest and most successful Symposium ever.  It was a celebration of what the Penn State learning design community can do.  We were all swimming together.  We were all pushing our limits beyond what we thought possible.

The Learning Design Summer Camp is next week.  People from across the university's multi-campus system will set aside their daily work and have some frank and open discussions about the issues that are common to all of us and to work toward some solutions.  When the camp is over, instead of personal congratulations, nothing would make me happier to see a celebration of what we can do collectively, and to see the emergence and recognition of people who are stepping up as leaders to take a new idea and turn it into something that will affect teaching and learning across the university.

As part of my participation in the One Post A Day blogging challenge, I plan to focus themes that I think about the most.  Things like community, leadership, openness, and creativity.  The common thread is that all of these concepts make the most sense when seen in the context of a group.  I'll use the Learning Design Summer Camp as an example.

The Learning Design Summer Camp is a two-day event on August 12 and 13.  Several people at ETS have been talking about an event like this for more than a year, picturing a different kind of open professional development opportunity where instructional designers and educational technologists could get together, form spontaneous working groups, and hash out issues.  Everyone could have a chance to gain access to the ideas and creativity of people across the university who work on similar problems.  This would be an event where everyone could let their hair down, relax, and explore in an unstructured and resource-rich environment.  The real difference between this kind of gathering and a traditional professional development event is that it would be less-structured, more spontaneous, more converstational, and hopefully more fun.

Someone needed to "call 911" on this idea to actually make it a reality.  So now that I'm no longer running the TLT Symposium, I was looking for my next big project and heard about Brett Bixler's All-ID meeting that he has been running every summer.  Cole, Brett, and I started talking about changing the All-ID meeting to an unconference-type of event.  At first, it seemed like we would do a "Boot Camp" to help designers get caught up with the latest technologies, but that's an ever-shifting target and without knowing why they should use a technology, any training would be lost as people got busy with the fall semester.  So we put together the Summer Camp to talk about more high-level issues that affect us all for the long term.  Issues like engaging students, intellectual property, measuring outcomes, openness and transparency, etc...

We started off with a wiki page for the Learning Design Summer Camp.  I added a few sections on the audience, vision for the event, and how it would work.  Then we used Twitter and the ID Lounge listserv to invite people to come in and start editing.  We gave the community the power to shape the event, recommend topics, propose the process, register, volunteer, and add their own creative touches.  A good example is the Sticker Page, where I put up a few sticker designs that we used during the 2008 TLT Symposium and other people had mashed up.  The community took those sticker designs in many different directions, including several concept-related stickers and many cartoon avatars that represented individuals.

• Community: The people attending the event also shape the event.  Also many people have joined in Twitter in preparation for this event.
• Creativity: Discussion topics, Sticker designs, and the overall structure of the event
• Openness: Everything is in the wiki.  Anyone can see it, review older versions, and change at will

Most of my involvement is spent working on the leadership aspect.  The community is good at the brainstorming, but at the end of the day, someone has to be around to kick things off and execute the community's plan: set up the wiki, tell people about it, push to secure a venue, coordinate the volunteers' activity, select rooms, and make the final choice among a large variety of ideas.  I actually hate saying no to anyone's ideas, but without a large committee and more structure, I can't implement everything that has been suggested.  The good news is that we'll save some of those ideas for our annual TLT Symposium.

So with a week left before the Summer Camp, I still have a lot of work to do to groom the wiki, nudge people to prepare, make facility arrangements, and so forth.  This morning, I told Robin Smail that I'm nervous about the event.  After all, I've never attended the type of event that we're creating and despite my Countdown to Camp notes that are intended to mentally prepare people for this event, I think many will expect it to be a traditional local conference.  Robin told me that it is my job to be nervous.  It will ensure that someone is looking after the details and execution.  I think she's right.

If everything goes well and the Summer Camp is a reasonable success, it will probably become an annual event.  Next year, I expect the repeat attendees to be even more involved in shaping the event since they will know what to expect.  I also hope to have more people step up next year and take a leadership role. If it is a success and you would like to run an event in a similar way, I would be happy to share my insights. 

Ultimately, I think it will be successful because I really believe in the ideas behind anything that is driven by a community of people with a common interest and a little creativity.  I know that so many people are tired of sitting passively at traditional conferences and workshops.  I'm still nervous about it though.