August 2009 Archives

Yesterday I got to experience the thrill of the creative process conceptualizing a marketing plan for the symposium with two members of our marketing team. The goal of the meeting was to flesh out the meaning behind this year's theme, "Digital Scholarship and the Culture of Teaching and Learning." In the end we want three to five words or phrases that hit on what we're talking about to use in our promotions.

The exercise proved to be invigorating and cathartic. Invigorating because I could see the beginnings of a theme emerging; cathartic because the exercise forced me to articulate my thoughts on the subject. It's one thing to know something in one's mind and another to explain it to somebody else in a way that makes sense.

We started by defining a scholar as learned person. An individual who by intensive study has gained mastery in one or more disciplines. It's pretty much the boilerplate definition. The twist lay in the descriptive adjective preceding  it. What does it mean to be a digital scholar? How is that different from being labeled a garden variety scholar?

I was able to talk around the subject for awhile with the help of some great questions and observations from the marketing folks until the moment of epiphany. A digital scholar is a global scholar. It is a person comfortable being a teacher, learner, researcher in the open and in real time.

For all it's talk of openness and the marketplace of ideas, traditionally the academy is really a very private place where folks work on their ideas in a veil of secrecy until they could be unveiled to the world. Eventually, the great majority of us become local experts in our particular area. Very few achieve national or international prominence.

Well, the ubiquitous nature of the Web changed all that. Conversations that used to take place around the water cooler now take place in blogs. Your tribe, or close circle of confidants, while still relatively small is now comprised of people primarily based on similar interest and not geography.

This raises a key differentiator and an issue that gives many scholars pause: the fact that the web is permanent. In other words, a conversation is words in the air left only to each person's memory, whereas a posting on the Web is there. Your words mark the either, they reside for others even those not in your tribe, to see.

This led us to a conversation about openness. A digital scholar works toward the idea of good openness. That is openness that fosters conversation amongst your tribe, helps to forward knowledge in your field, and helps to establish your reputation as a lead thinker in your area.

This is where being a digital scholar is advantageous. Thinking and conversing iteratively and in the open helps you establish professional relationships that traditionally did not happen until you arrived-that is published your prestigious paper, achieved a degree or some other mark of recognition. 

Three A.M.  The kitchen table. Smoke curling around the overhead light like a snake. It's sobering when you know your life's outcome halfway through the fight. The way he saw it he had two options: He could tuck it in or he could throw a haymaker and hope for the best.

The last few weeks have been difficult. I've been traveling again. Both across the continent to Vancouver, BC and then to Philadelphia. Plus, I caught something on the plan ride back from Detroit to State College that's knocked me on my ass. I spent most of the last two days sleeping.

I did get out for a mid-afternoon run today: 7.67 miles in 59' 10" for a 7' 42" pace. I don't know which were heavier, my legs or my chest. I did take a soak when I got home hoping to sweat some more of the sickness out.

The Shepherdess is a painting done by Johann Hofner in 1866. I noticed a copy hanging in my room at the Gables Bed & Breakfast in the morning when I was getting ready for my session at the University of the Sciences. I did not notice it the first time I stayed there, Victorian art is more up my mom's alley. But this time it gave me pause.



I think it was the powder blue and red dressing on the girl. They match the colors of my high school, Father Judge. These are royal colors. The colors of the Virgin. Then I noticed she was holding a lamb. A reference to the Lamb of God? The Lord is my shepherd? Could the shepherdess be a descendant of Jesus?

Notice how comfortable the lamb looks in the girls arms. As if it's the best place it could be, even better than at her mother's side. A reference to the afterlife being better than life on earth? Finally, check out the eye contact between the mother sheep and the girl. It's as if there's an understanding that the lamb belongs with the shepherdess. 

The painting reminded me of when I was making my confirmation. Father Beatty came over to the house to make sure I was prepared. Part of the process required my to affirm my faith. I almost did not make it because at one point I was required to say that I loved God above all, including my father who was sitting there by my side. I was in fifth grade. I resisted. I fought. I cried. Finally, when it came to the priest leaving, I caved. But only when my old man nodded to me (As if it were our secret to get the damn thing over with). I still regret that decision. And to this day I do not belive that God could possibly love me more than my old man. But that's religion for you. 

The little fat kid got his first real kiss from his first real girl the summer of sixth grade. Most. Strained. Sweaty. The couch in the basement of his best friend BB's house with BB's older sister. 10cc. Lights out. BB with her best friend. Playing seven minutes in heaven.

He told me he became a true believer the day he walked out of that hospital. "I owned nothing," he said. "No house. No car. Just the clothes on myself and some shit at a friend's. He said I couldn't stay there no more. Too crazy. Man, I'm like Jesus."

Mrs. Swayne's son gets crow's feet 'round those baby blues when he smiles thinking about the advice his old man gave him about growing old. He tried his best but it seems that life ain't finished with him just yet. So he goes to bed and dreams his dreams. Amen.

Riddle me this Batman, "When is a CMS not a CMS? "Perhaps when it it 'free-floating?'" The idea of a course management system (CMS) that is not within a box is not as far out as it seems nor as bad as my opening pun. Here's why I think this:

The Personal Domain. More and more kids are going to college with an established online identity and space. They, along with the rest of the world, are used to content that is accessible and portable. Asking them to create things that end up being temporary and locked down may become a non-starter for them when selecting a college. Add to that many high schools, such as Narragansett in New Hampshire, have implemented e-portfolios into the curriculum and states like Pennsylvania have made e-portfolio space available for residents makes the idea of having additional separate space seem cumbersome.

The Demand for Open Content. This is quickly becoming a need more than a demand. The idea of sharing resources, whether they be content items, methodology, and infrastructure has moved from an idealistic perspective to something that makes economic sense for universities looking to cut costs while improving the quality of research and education.

Small Pieces Loosely Joined. Managing separate applications has become a lot easier with the ability to feed updates from one to another. I can send a message from my mobile to Twitter and have that automatically update my Facebook page. Can we do something like that in education? Can I write a blog post in my personal domain and have it populate my class assignment as well?

There are many issues that need to be addressed both technically and legally but, it's no longer an insurmountable either-or choice. BYU is working on a free-floating gradebook, not attached to a CMS, that can aggregate content from a myriad of places. (Check out their session description and watch the presentation at OpenEd09. 

In other words, the factors making a closed system necessary and desirable are quickly loosing their luster. Will the CMS as we know it totally go away? Will it morph into something else? Nobody knows for sure right now. But with increasing economic stressors, people getting more comfortable working in the open, and with technology making it easier to aggregate outcomes from separate applications it seems that something has to give. 

From my window I saw the hearse proceed slowly up the tarmac trailed by a white SUV before the stewardess announced there would be a delay. The SUV carried four passengers, two women and two men in civilian dress but from the cut of his hair I knew the one guy was military. An officer and a midshipman came out of the terminal to greet the party. The woman wearing denim Capri pants and a summer top buried her face into the midshipman's chest. Whether she was the wife or girl, or sister of the returning corpse, I do not know. The late summer sun broke through the clouds as if it were blessing the proceedings.

The cargo hold of the plane opened and the conveyor slid out. The lips of the other man in the party began to quiver while the second man, the soldier in civilian clothes consoled the other woman in the party. There was a thud from the belly of the plane when the coffin was placed on it. When the conveyor motor switched on the officer and midshipman snapped to attention.

Slowly the coffin slid down. The driver of the hearse and his partner waited on either side at the end of the belt. The woman in the Capri pants collapsed sobbing. The soldier in civilian clothes turned away but you knew he was crying to.

When the coffin came to a rest the woman in the Capri pants said something to the officer to which he nodded. She walked over to the casket, which was inside a white shipping box, and placed a hand on it. I felt like the worse kind of pervert witnessing a moment so intimate. Several moments passed before she turned to the driver of the hearse and nodded.

The officer came over and offered his condolences while the driver moved the hearse into position. At that point, the captain turned off the seat belt sign and the stewardess welcomed us to Detroit where the local times was 8:15. 

Groundless from the day he was born, the orphan crawls from bed to bed looking for his mother. The world was never meant for the likes of him, he believes. And so with each new lover he craves something unconditional so he can break them down searching for his place. 

Copyright, like politics, is local. Or at least that's how we've been approaching it. When we talk about designing content we generally apply the law of copyright as understood in our own backyard. This, of course makes sense. Designers, instructors, and institutions need to make sure they are compliant with the rules of the land in which they reside. Well, it used to make sense anyway. But institutions, at least the ones that want to survive deep into this century, are really not local entities anymore. They are more like world-wide organizations with branch offices, in the form of campuses and individual students, dotting the planet. So do we need to change how we approach the matter of copyright and fair use?

I've been thinking a lot about this question since sitting in on two sessions the first day of the Open Education Conference and I've starting to get an inkling that we may be tackling this issue at the wrong level. For example, say I'm designing content for an art class that will be taken by students here in the states as well as by students living in South Africa, I need to make certain that the materials I use meet the copyright guidelines of each country. Now we add a student from Holland so there are three sets of laws to comply with. And what if parts of the laws are incompatible or contradictory? Now think about this when talking about educational resources that are freely available world-wide. How can we as individuals reasonably be expected to ensure all standards are met? Would it be easier if we kicked the issue up a few levels?

I'm thinking something along the lines of what was done over in Europe to standardize the degree process. The Bologna Process was a decade long initiative where colleges across Europe came together and worked out what it took for a degree to be awarded. Well can we do the same thing with regards to copyright and fair use? Is it possible for universities from across the globe could come together and produce something along the lines of a manifesto that says, "This is the access to content we need if we are to successfully educate our students." Couldn't we then present it to UNESCO and see what happens?

I don't know. Reading what I just wrote seems a bit naive and simplistic. And I know more learned minds than mine have thought long and deep on the subject. But it does seem to me that if we are to truly create an open educational environment we need to raise the place where the discussion is taking place.

I've never thought much about education as a political weapon. Until yesterday when I attended an address delivered by Catherine Ngugi at the Open Education Conference in Vancouver.

As a practice I am fairly new to the concept of open education, the free sharing of both intellectual capital, such as knowledge and ideas, as well as tactical and tangible resources, such as pedagogical methodologies and infrastructure. But open education is an idea I certainly identify with philosophically. That everyone should have access to the best possible education they can get seems like a basic human right to me.

After writing that last paragraph I realize how naive my lead sentence is. I do think of education as a political weapon, it's just that I don't do it consciously. In other words, it pervades pretty much everything I do but it's something so ingrained that I don't need to think about it overtly. I just know it. And I don't think I'm the only one operating this way.

Catherine Ngugi is the Project Director for Open Education Resources in Africa, an organization dedicated to building a viable educational infrastructure across the continent and early on in her talk, and much to the ire of many in the audience, she invoked the C-word when laying out the current situation in Africa and how we got here. She was referring to colonialism, the practice of one people and culture, usually the outsider dominating another, usually the long-time residents. (Check out the twitter stream during her talk).

Many in the audience were uncomfortable, especially those of us from Western Europe and America.  We all know our past, in fact many of us in the audience are who we are as a result of our reaction to the past. We are the global thinking, like-minded, individuals who gathered together to rail against the current oppressive institution of education. We did not need a history lesson. We needed to get on with it. But, I think Catherine was talking about us there in the room.

She was referring to the unintended colonialist attitudes of the people on our side. Or rather, our collective unconscious colonialism, the idea that we want to help but in the way that we think is right. This attitude became manifest during the Q&A portion when one person asked, "What's in it for Michigan?"

So do those of us who count ourselves as one of the good guys or girls need to change for the open education movement to be successful? I think we might. Because if we don't, It may be the enemy within that ultimately defeats the revolution.

When it comes to travel, I still cling to the romantic notion of it all. I'm particularly daft regarding air travel. The farther the better. I enjoy packing up my dopp kit, making sure I've got mini-versions of all that I need. The rolling up of clothes. The layering of my suitcase so thinks arrive in good condition and basically wrinkle free.

I enjoy watching the takeoff and landing, the most dangerous parts of flight so I request a window seat. In the air I like the feeling of being temporarily disconnected from Terra firma and  all my responsibilities down there. For the time being, this is still a moment of complete detachment. I feel unfettered; I'm alone with my thoughts and I can go where ever the muse leads.

I like to eavesdrop of conversations, hearing about where others are headed and the big plans that lay ahead. This morning I got to hear a young girl explain time zones to her little brother. She told him they were traveling backward in time and when they arrived it would be six hours earlier. "So when it's six it's going to feel like midnight."

I like the excitement of visiting new places and getting a sense of the rhythm and style of life where ever I happen to be. I like the pampering of the accouterments of the hotel and crisp sheets and white towels.

There's a lot to hate about travel. The missed connections, lost baggage  and restrictions, brought on by both for cost and security. But I chose to ignore them as much as I can and cling to something that probably exists more in my mind than in reality.   
 

My recent nano difficulties brought to the forefront just how inter-dependent my technology ecosystem is and how dependent I've become on it. The loss of my nano also meant I could not use my Nike+ system, which meant I lost the convenience of storing all my run data in one place. Not to mention the loss of accuracy in distance, time, and calories as I would be estimating based on past experience. But, it also meant the loss of other things as well like the ability to conveniently hook into my JBL stereo system, build specifically to work with Apple products, and the ability to play music through my surround sound system downstairs.

I know, I know. Poor me bitching about luxuries like this. But while these are nice-to-have's, I certainly can run without all the accoutremonts, I got me to thinking about how much we're designing things for these ecosystems in education. More and more we are designing applications and formatting content so that it works with mobile devices such as iPods, iPhones, and Blackberries. And we should be doing this. This is the way the world is moving. But what happens to the student who loses her phone or whose iPod breaks? We store a lot of content on these devices and we rely on their portability and connectivity to provide us virtual access anytime and anywhere.

Fortunately, there are other ways of getting access. Many students have laptops and the computer labs keep late hours so hopefully, in most cases, it's a loss of convenience more than anything. But it does point out how these items are quickly becoming necessities. How many people will use only a mobile device to connect in the near future? How will this change the educational landscape?

Just like how the automobile made it possible for people to move farther away from where they work, these devices make it possible for you to be anywhere and still be connected. And with applications and services being so inter-dependent having one part of the ecosystem breakdown could cause a critical failure.

I don't have any answers. Really, this post is about my own stark realization of how dependent I am on all the pieces of my technological ecosystem functioning. It's a gradual thing, this building of the ecosystem. So subtle you do no realize how deep you're in until something breaks down.

I've been living large lately. Judging by the scale a little to large. So large in fact that all the running I do has only slowed down my weight gain and no abated it. This doesn't come as a surprise. I know better. Good health is equal parts exercise and diet. Don't believe me? Check out the unremarkable findings cited in the Times article.

Personally, I've struggled with my weight all my life. Going on four years ago I joined Weight Watchers and lost 46 pounds. I've been a lifetime member since but, these last few months, I've faltered. So much so, I'm now 10 pounds over my goal weight of 160 and 12 pounds over my ideal weight.

So I'm rejoining the purer faith in order to lose a dozen pounds. My goal is to go from 170 to 158 by the Philadelphia Marathon. This gives me three+ months, plenty of time to be smart and healthy about it. I'm also going to try and be a little more scientific about it, nutritionally speaking, planning my meals and selecting foods that fuel my workouts and maximize recovery between them. This means increasing fruit and vegetable consumption (dark colored ones like cherries and broccoli seem to provide a greater benefit) along with more whole grains, proteins, and healthy fats, from sources like almonds, walnuts, and olive oil. It also means strategic eating as well. Some studies suggest that a good protein and carb. combo, e.g. a glass of chocolate milk or a cup of yogurt with blueberries, no later than 1 hour after a workout maximizes recovery. And while the evidence is very preliminary (see the abc News Report and the Washington Times article) , I'm giving up drinking diet soda and replacing it with flavored water.

Probably the hardest part is coming to terms with the personal shame and sense of failure I feel about the weight gain. In a sense you really need some selective short-term memory loss. Forgetting what got you here and focusing on what to do about it. Easier said than done but necessary for success.

My wife bought me a iPod nano (PRODUCT) red this past Valentine's day. (PRODUCT) red is a special edition of the iPod that can only be purchased directly from Apple. Proceeds from sales go to Global Fund fighting AIDS in Africa. She even had a special engraving put on the back. Needless to say the device meant a lot to me for many reasons.

A few weeks ago I noticed a single line going through the screen, kind of like interference on a television. Soon there were more lines and eventually my screen became unreadable. Being under warranty I called Apple Customer service and they were nice enough to send me a kit, postage paid, so they could check it out. The gentleman from customer service said it was probably covered but he did caution me that if their technicians found that the product was broken due to accidental damage or misuse, my nano would be returned to me in the same shape they received it. Well, having not subjected my nano to any such condition I felt confident that all would be taken care of. Until they returned it with a form letter stating:

"A diagnostic evaluation has determined that the iPod has internal damage related to a liquid spill or submersion, evident by the pink/red color of the liquid submersion indicator. The liquid submersion indicator is located inside the headphone jack."

I have no idea what they are talking about. I'm the only one using it and I know neither of these occurred. The only thing I can think of is that I sweat too much. Perhaps that's the liquid that tainted the indicator? If so, that's pretty dicey for a device that's designed to be used for exercise. After all, my wife bought me the Nike+ kit to go along with it.

But okay, if that's what the strip said, that's what the strip said, Unfortunately, there does not seem to be much recourse. There's no name or department to contact listed on the form, if I want to discuss this more only a number to call if I want to pursue my out-of-warranty options. In fact the last paragraph of the letter pretty much makes further pursuit of my warranty a mute point:

"If your product is determined to have failed because of an external cause such as a liquid spill or accidental damage and is re-submitted, in the same condition, for any reason other than to receive an Out-of-Warranty repair as explained above, Apple may charge you  diagnostic fee of up to $100."

So, it's going to cost me a Franklin just to have them look at it again? And what are the chances the test comes out different? Plus the cost of repairs? The device only cost about $150 to begin with and while I love it, can I justify paying more than it's value to fix it?

That pissed me off. And I got angrier the more I realized how emotionally invested I was in my nano. This was a niche edition of the nano with proceeds going to a cause I want to support that contained a sentimental engraving. If I knew the fault was mine, I'd be angry but, at myself and not Apple's prefunctory business attitude. After all, don't they market themselves as a lifestyle brand? This seems a little more of a PC than a Mac attitude if we're to believe the commercials. Unless the fact that my claim was denied by a technician wearing an ironic t-shirt and jeans is supposed to make me feel better.

Apple is kind of like a boutique electronic company operating in a closed ecosystem. You're willing to pay a little extra to be part of it because, generally speaking, their devices are elegant, easy to use in their world, and, let's face it, have a bit of "je ne sais quoi" about them. I gave in and bought a new nano, silver, at Target last weekend. I like it but it's not the same. The emotional value is missing. This nano is just a device. If something happens to it I'm a little more inclined to look at other options. 

Junkie Jim is a guy in the neighborhood. Another of God's creatures trying to get along. Those nights when the insomnia bites I grab some beers and meet Jim on the corner. Never fails when I go to leave, Jim always says, "God bless," as if I need it more than him.

She found out too late that life doesn't overcome you all at once like a tidal wave. Life buries you slowly, a single grain of sand at a time. Soft, subtle, insidious you don't realize until it's to late. Looking at her tiny daughter sleeping peacefully, she brushes her cheek. 

As I work Penn State's e-Portfolio initiative, one question keeps nagging me: What makes a successful portfolio? Is it the inclusion of a blog? Is it in the multimedia elements? Or, the look and ease of navigation? Perhaps it's in the skills and accomplishments you choose to showcase. Well, after doing much writing on the topic I've come to the conclusion that's it's no of the above. What makes a portfolio successful is it's authenticity.

Philosophically speaking, authenticity is the measure of how much of your true self you put into something given the fact that there are external pressures of an opposing nature pushing up against it. Take a blog for example. How often do we self-censor ourselves for fear of disapproval from others? I know I was very guilty of that when I started out. That's why I had five failed attempts before the blog I incorporated as part of my portfolio. I was so concerned with writing what I thought others wanted to hear I became paralyzed. I was liberated when I decided I could not afford to care that much about what I thought others wanted to hear and decided to write about what I was interested in, figuring I would eventually reach the right audience for me. And it seems to be working.

For me, one of the most amazing, and in hindsight obvious, revelations was that people would read and comment on my work. Amazing because I'm flattered that anyone is interested in my thoughts. Obvious, because it's the same reason why I am drawn to read and comment on the blogs of others. They're authentic. The underlying appeal of most anything lies in its authenticity, how true it seems to be. Write what you understand to be true and an audience will find you. 

I'm going to encourage attendees of the portfolio workshop to work at finding their authentic voice. I know it will probably be a struggle for most, and most will probably have multiple attempts at a portfolio before it finally feels right. And I want them to know that that is okay. In fact, for most of us, it's a necessary step towards success.

This was a good week running wise starting with the 16-miler last Sunday (see last week's report for details). The Wave Inspire's are working well so far. The balls of my feet feel much better. I got in five runs this week culminating with a short, just under five, run today, in the mid-afternoon heat.