I have a lot to say about Bryan’s presentation on ARGs (alternate reality games) but no time to say it just now. In the meantime, this picture speaks pretty well on its own.
A Virgil for all seasons. That’s an allusion, not a code … but there’s a distinction worth discussing and perhaps blurring.
Thanks, Bryan. Lead on.
Through one mentor’s incredible generosity, I was humbled and honored to sit next to Alan Kay at lunch. He told me he never ate before a talk, so I didn’t feel quite so bad about all the questions I was asking. The topic was music and musical instruments. The talk was fascinating, with rich implications for thinking about human-computer interfaces. I’ll blog about this conversation at greater length soon. For now, suffice it to say that this moment was an honor far beyond my deserving. I will forever be indebted to the person who handed me this opportunity.
Doing what he does best. ‘Nuff said.
Standing room only at the “Beyond the Blog” session. Note Bryan “source code” Alexander at left, ready to mix it up with audience and presenters.
The session was lively, provocative, and a useful synthesis and recap of all that’s happened in the past year or so. We have come a long way, and we wouldn’t have come so far so fast without these two mentor/practitioners.
The CogDog prepares to go beyond the blog. Note the protective headgear and the evil glow on the plasma screen. Alan will soon put Dr. Glu to the test, and Dr. Glu makes a narrow escape.
This was a terrific session, one of the best at the conference. The flickr materials will repay much careful study. I recorded the session, and a quick check of the audio suggests it came out pretty well.
Getting ready for the Marc Prensky opener. Andy’s jet lag is evident, but soon will be overcome.
What a day. So much has happened in so little time that I feel as if I’m living in several time zones simultaneously.
The day began with a couple of hours work this morning, a little of this and that. The two hours were courtesy of the time change for me: I was up at 5:30 feeling fairly well rested. I wish that were the case all the time. Then a drive out to La Jolla with Ernie and Andy for breakfast at Harry’s Cafe. A delicious breakfast was followed by a sudden effusion of sunlight as we walked along the beach at La Jolla Cove. Sea gulls, sea lions, sea spray, and sunshine; flowers in bloom everywhere; fine-grain salt air. It was good to be alive.
A quick trip back to the airport, and Brian Lamb joins us. The company is nearing completion (that will have to wait until the reception, where Bryan and Gene and Colleen and Patricia and Alan and Julie appear and the circles are knit again). We drive to Point Loma and get some more grub, this time fabulous fish at Point Loma Seafood.
An afternoon ensues. A workshop on e-portfolios, then a newcomers’ meeting where I get to speak my piece about what ELI has meant to me and my school.
And then the aforementioned reception, where I met the CogDog, Alan Levine, for the first time. It was a stirring moment for me, though Alan’s modesty kept him saying “just regular people, just regular people.”
This evening eleven of us board a trolley and head to Old Town Mexican Cafe. The conversation reaches new heights. Even on the trolley ride back.
Before I experience total system collapse (okay, poetic license, but I am very tired) I simply need to say “thanks.” You know who you are.
It’s worth six hours in a tin can to trek to this event, and not just because of the lovely weather in San Diego or the trippy corridors at Chicago’s O’Hare airport (above). No other meeting has been as catalytic and inspiring for me as the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. The meeting this year promises to be the best yet. Lunch with Alan Kay? I’m there, friends.
This year’s UMW team once again includes faculty and staff from both campuses. I’m especially thrilled that Steve Greenlaw, one of last year’s team members, is a presenter at this year’s meeting–and he’s brought two recently graduated students with him as co-presenters. It’s been an honor and a privilege to see the way my colleagues have been energized by the ELI. That energy has already made a difference at UMW. I’m sure this year’s team will only add to that energy.
I reflect on what ELI has meant to me in terms of knowledge gained and shared; friendships and enthusiasms kindled; passion, inspiration, and vision nurtured. I’m humbled. At the 2004 meeting in San Diego, I came by myself to scout out the territory. This year as I checked into the conference hotel, the same one we used two years ago, I felt an enormous sense of gratitude as I thought about how quickly my initial solitude was transformed into community at that first meeting. In the two years since then, that community has grown deeper, more extensive, and in truth more precious to me than I ever could have imagined. I talk a lot on this blog about what I call “real school.” ELI keeps that vision alive for me. There’s no end to wondering.
Kickoff for me is this afternoon: I’m in an e-portfolio pre-conference workshop. Then it’s newcomer orientation, the welcome reception, and another luminous San Diego evening. Bring it on!
One spammer gets a free ride from me today. The spam comment (I’m 99% sure that’s what it was) lodged on a post that was marvelously appropriate to my experience at a staff meeting earlier today. My own thoughts returned to me with an unalienated … well, if not majesty, at least dignity and purpose intact. (Apologies to Ralph Waldo E.) Following on from Martha’s thoughts on how blogs re-mind you–that is, give you your mind back again by returning you to earlier thoughts and stages of your own thinking–I see that I am spiraling upward (I trust) over a set of consistent concerns.
That’s reassuring. I can see some kinds of deep learning taking place that would be too slow or too delicate for me to track otherwise. Gives me hope. Gotta keep hope in the e-portfolio.
