The book is definitely on top of my nonfiction reading list (my fiction reading, on the bus ride commute, is currently another Gregory Benford book I’m deliberately reading out of sequence…)
One of the great comments on my BCEdOnline2006 Unkeynote Debriefing included a link to a wiki page by Chris Corrigan on Open Space Technology - a set of ideas, practices and guidelines for conducting “open space” meetings. Very cool stuff, and it resonated quite well with what we got to do as part of Northern Voice 2006 - specifically the Social Software Salon and the Edublogger Hootenanny. I finally had a chance to go through the linked wiki page, and it’s chock full of goodness. I don’t think it has to go as far down the kumbaya spectrum as Chris describes - even just the arrangement of the chairs sends a powerful message and sets expectations.
The performance of my shared server at GoDaddy leaves a LOT to be desired. Pages render out of the database in several seconds, when they should be easily generated in under a second. Their tech support response was to blame images and javascript, when the actual database-based page generation itself is waaaay too slow. Even when pages are rendered OK, they may be spit out somehow triggering a file download rather than content in the browser. (you may have seen a “Download file: index.php” dialog box - I get it all the freaking time) Comments on the Wordpress support forum pointed to perhaps the server being overwhelmed and reverting to a “safe” download behaviour.
We were able to record that Intro to Podcasting presentation I gave on Wednesday, and the video has been processed and compressed. The audio is a bit wonky because the microphones were fixed and all turned on - and I wasn’t wearing a lapel mic so I get hard to hear as I wander around the front of the room. Next time, I’ll wear a lapel mic, and warn everyone that all of the microphones are on all the time to avoid the paper rustling and desk drumming that got picked up.
I’m sitting in the airport in Vancouver (and later on the plane coming home) and wanted to capture some of the thoughts I have about how the keynote went. I’m absolutely exhausted, so I’m not sure how coherent this is going to be, but it’s important to get this down before it’s glossed over and starts to fade away.
Some context - this was my first keynote as presenter (well, co-presenter), so I was a bit intimidated by that. I’ve been part of (and have given) presentations to very large groups, but never as Keynote Presenter™. Our ideas about what the keynote should be about all revolved around topics involving individual autonomy and control of content and learning, of ownership, and of thinking critically about the nature of relationships between students and teachers, as well as with institutions. Education vs. learning. Individual vs. institutional. Some potentially radical and non-traditional keynote topics, which would be completely unsuited to a conventional powerpoint chalk-and-talk presentation.
I’m sitting in the hotel lobby with Brian and Stephen, putting some thought into wtf we’re going to try during our keynote. One idea Stephen had was to have an open web-based chat room, so attendees (physical or virtual) could ask questions, make comments, etc… without the intimidation of grabbing the microphone.
After a quick Google, and a few false starts, I found a link to Lace - it’s a simple PHP + “Ajax” chat server, using flat files to store session and chat data. That means it can run anywhere PHP can run, without needing a database.
I checked the registration for the session tomorrow - it’s up to 50 people. We’ll have to open the extra wings in the Big Room, but there will be lots of room for all.
I just tested the visualizer to make sure it showed my old 3G iPod clearly, and it looked like a Stevenote circa 2004 - I should pick up a black angora turtleneck. :-) Should be fun. I’ve grabbed a copy of the Creative Commons Senate Content Pack, and have a bunch of mixed podcasts preloaded for demonstration.
The playoffs start on Friday, with Calgary in first place in the North West division.
If you’ve got a spare ticket or two (or have some extra room in your Superbox) and want to support your friendly neighborhood edublogger, give me a shout. I’m willing to trade for some space on this award winning edublog :-)
