Archives: January 2009
Thu Jan 22, 2009
FETC 2009: Once More in the Land of Educational Technology Geeks
I'm sitting on the floor of the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando taking in the sights at yet another Florida Educational Technology Conference (FETC).
To my left two of my colleagues are typing away on their laptops, posting to twitter, reading other posts from attendees, and simultaneously checking their cell phones. That pretty much sums up what happens at a conference where thousands of geeks who happen to be educators come together to learn about what's new and what's being used in their fellow teacher's classrooms.
The opening session is still an hour or so away, but breakout sessions have already started. Hall Davidson presented this morning on some of the fascinating ways that he's seen teachers using all of these free online tools in a session titled Thinking Big as the World Gets Smaller (handouts at the link) where he makes the point that with the advent of cell phones and video sharing and simple means to do so many things that the world has already changed--and that in 3 to 5 years schools will catch up and begin teaching students how these tools can be used for learning and sharing and collaborating.
It's a good point. We always lag behind in the education world--sometimes dramatically so--but that there is far too much inertia at this point in the way that these tools are being used to ignore their place in education.
I'm looking forward to more great sessions like that one as the conference unfolds. But mostly I'm interested in the one-on-one interactions you get a conference like this where you get to talk to teachers and the vendors that are exhibiting at the show.
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Mon Jan 05, 2009
Winter Vacation By The Numbers
I posted earlier today that it was back to work day after a long restful two weeks of lazing around. I discovered when I got to work that I was far from the only one who had the same sort of winter break. As my friend Mark said, "It's the whole reason we live here. This beautiful winter weather. Who wants to stay inside?"
But on reflection I decided that I had in fact accomplished quite a bit over the last two weeks. When you count it all up, it was really quite an impressive list of things that I'd achieved.
Twelve: Total working days taken off. Gotta love the education business at times like this.
Eleven: Species of birds seen from my front porch one morning as I sat reading the newspaper. Ladderback woodpecker, common heron, osprey, parrots, doves, mockingbirds, boattail grackles, oriole, blue heron, redtail hawk, and seagull. Despite repeated hours spent on the porch I was not able to top that figure.
Ten: Levels of Command and Conquer completely and thoroughly well, conquered. The shocking thing? This was the computer application I spent the most time with during the holidays.
Nine: Hours reading in the backyard. At least. Mornings, afternoons, this time of year it doesn't matter. You can read outdoors any time of day.
Eight: Shooting stars seen while sitting in the back yard when it was too dark to read. Really.
Seven: Total trips out jogging along the gorgeous South Flagler Drive during the holidays. See Number Six below.
Six: Varieties of pork served at the annual family Christmas day brunch. Sausage gravy with biscuits (required), country ham, spiral cut ham, sausage and cheese puffs, bacon, and link sausage. When did my family become swineherds?
Five: Hours spent at the beach.
Four: Manatees sighted swimming in the Lake Worth Lagoon while out on my morning jogs. Probably the same one each time, but still.
Three: Lunches at the wonderful Dune Deck Cafe' perched on its overlook above Lantana Beach.
Two: Trips out on the boat.
One: Great freaking vacation.
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Get On Back to Work
Well, here we are. January 5th and my winter vacation has run its course. It's been an unusual one for sure, since for the first time in a very long while I actually took the entire two weeks and did essentially nothing. This was a major departure from my behavior over the last 10 years where every extended time off from my day job was filled with some other kind of work--writing books and articles, working on the house, speaking at conferences and on and on. Even when not actively working I've been in this heavily-connected, always-on worldwide community of people that are available 24/7 through a newsgroup, blog, and now, God help me through the wonders of twitter, right in my pocket.
Disconnecting from all of that isn't easy, but over the last two weeks I've set out to unplug, turn off, and slow the heck down for a while. And while my Puritan work ethic stabbed me occassionally with pangs of guilt for having nothing more involved in my day than some time sitting in the sun and reading, it's been a good time for me to relax, pause, reflect, and just rest for a while.
But now the trips to the beach, the time out on the boat, the long afternoon naps and the lazy days of winter are over, and it's time to get back to work. Lots of projects and deadlines are sitting in my cubicle waiting for me, and I expect a low hum to emit from our mail servers as everyone goes back to work today and starts the process of grinding away once again.
For me, I think I've learned some lessons about achieving a better balance between work and the simple human need to slow down and rejuvenate from time to time. It's been fun and relaxing, but now it's time to get on back to work.
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