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Top Ten Tips for Attending ISTE 13

This article was first posted on June 17, 2012 for ISTE 12

How to dress at ISTE13
Everyone is posting their dress and packing tips for the coming International Society for Technology Education conference – ISTE13. So I, as a professional conference go’er, thought I would contribute ten more tips for ISTE in Texas.

  1. San Antonio is cold this time of year, so wear heavy clothing. Dress in layers, because conference centers are notoriously hot. You’ll be doing lots of walking so wear boots, big ones, with lots of laces – Unless you’ve brought heals.
  2. You’ll want to take lots of notes, so carry several spiral-bound note books. Also carry pencils — #2s. If you can find them, use white or aluminum grey pencils. They’ll impress the people sitting near you.
  3. In the presentation rooms, be careful not to sit near anyone with a computer or tablet computer. They have almost certainly left their email notification alarm on, and when it goes off, everyone will turn around and look — at you! If someone with a computer sits near you, get up and find a more secluded spot.
  4. If possible, sit on the front row and straighten your legs out as far as possible. This is where the boots come in, because presenters love to navigate obstacle courses while presenting.
  5. The exhibit hall is the reason you came. There’s treasure here. It’s also a great place for play. Pretend you’re invisible. Wearing a dark cap will help. If you can achieve invisibility, then you’ll have the run of the hall. Simply walk into any booth and pick-up all the pens, pencils, letter openers, and soft fuzzy balls you can find, and slip them quietly into your bag–preferably a large brown paper bag. Chocolate is an especially treasured item and worth a return for more. If someone in a booth confronts you, then carefully put the pencil back on the table, look down at the floor and slowly back away.
  6. You’ll see areas in the conference center with comfortable chairs, where people will be milling, talking, and showing each other their computers. Shun these places. The people will try to brainwash you.
  7. If someone approaches you, wanting to talk, then turn invisible. If this doesn’t work, then look very stupid. You’ll need to practice this in front of a mirror. If they persist, then speak gibberish and walk away.
  8. If you hear anyone speak with an English accent, don’t believe anything they say – no matter how intelligent they sound or cute their accent. This goes double for Australians and New Zealanders.
  9. When the day is over, or by 4:00 PM, which ever comes first, flee back to your hotel room. This is the real challenge of conference-going, finding things to do in your hotel room. I like to remove the lids of shampoo bottles and guess their scent. Also, the extra blankets in the closet are expressly provided for the construction of elaborate blanket forts. ..and I hope that you are a fan of “Law and Order.” It will be playing during your entire visit – on at least three channels.
  10. What David really wants you to do is be comfortable, hungry to learn, ready to laugh and willing to cry, tweet your heart out and hashtag with #iste13, take every opportunity to meet someone new, and wear something strange. I like those satin slippers with toes that curl up and a tiny bell on the end.

If I see you at ISTE13, please forgive me if I’ve forgotten your name. I’m way past the need for excuses.

 

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Mostly Stupid

I found this photo on the Internet. I was to scared to stop and take a picture.

I do not believe I have ever, EVER been as frightened as I was yesterday driving between Kahului and Kapalua on the Kahelili Highway. It was mostly one lane, mostly on the side of the mountain and mostly unmaintained – no guard rails. There were yield signs all along the road, but no intersections.

When you encountered traffic, and could find room to let them pass, the wave you got from the driver was that of sweat-on-the-brow relief, especially from folks who appeared to live in the area. What surprised me were the venders tucked back in the hollows, in brightly painted old panel trucks, selling fresh vegetables, fruit and probably industrial grade sedatives.

I got about a quarter of the way to Kapalua, where the rational side of my brain yelled, “Turn back!” But the terrified, knuckles clawing at the lava rock walls said, “Hell No! I’m not going through that again, no matter how far I have left to go.” Fortunately, about a third of the way there, it turned back to two lane.

Now that I’ve read up on the road, I count my self partly lucky and mostly stupid!

 

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Top 10 Tips for Attending ISTE

Dressing for the ISTE12 Exhibit Hall
(cc) photo by Heath_bar

Everyone is posting their dress and packing tips for the coming International Society for Technology Education conference – ISTE12. So I, as a professional conference go’er, thought I would contribute ten more tips for participating in this MMORGPD•

 

  1. San Diego is cold this time of year, so wear heavy clothing.  Dress in layers, because conference centers are notoriously hot.  You’ll be doing lots of walking so wear boots, big ones, with lots of laces – Unless you’ve brought heals.
  2. You’ll want to take lots of notes, so carry several spiral-bound note books.  Also carry pencils, #2s.  If you can find them, use white or aluminum grey pencils.  They’ll impress the people sitting around you.  
  3. In the presentation rooms, be careful not to sit near anyone with a computer or tablet computer.  They have almost certainly left their email notification alarm on, and when it goes off, everyone will turn around and look — at you!  If someone with a computer sits near you, get up and find a more secluded spot.
  4. If possible, sit on the front row and straighten your legs out as far as possible.  This is where the boots come in, because presenters love to navigate obstacle courses while presenting.
  5. The exhibit hall is the reason you came.  There’s treasure here.  It’s also a great place for play.  Pretend you’re invisible.  Wearing a dark cap will help.  If you can achieve this, then you’ll have the run of the hall.  Simply walk into any booth and pick-up all the pens, pencils, letter openers, and soft fuzzy balls you can find, and slip them quietly into your bag–preferably a large brown paper bag.  Chocolate is an especially treasured item and worth the return for more.  If someone in a booth confronts you, then carefully put the pencil back on the table, look down at the floor and slowly back away.
  6. You’ll see areas in the conference center with comfortable chairs, where people will be milling, talking, and showing each other their computers.  Shun these places.  The people will try to brainwash you.
  7. If someone approaches you, wanting to talk, then turn invisible.  If this doesn’t work, then look very stupid.  You’ll need to practice this in front of a mirror.  If they persist, then speak gibberish and walk away.
  8. If you hear anyone speak with an English accent, don’t believe anything they say – no matter how intelligent they sound or cute their accent is.  This goes double for Australians and New Zealanders.
  9. When the day is over, or by 4:00, which ever comes first, flee back to your hotel room.  This is the real challenge of conference-going, finding things to do in your hotel room.  I like to remove the lids of shampoo bottles and guess their scent.  Also, the extra blankets in the closet are expressly provided for the construction of elaborate blanket forts.   ..and I hope that you are a fan of “Law and Order.”  It will be playing during your entire visit – on at least three channels.
  10. What David really wants you to do is be comfortable, hungry to learn, ready to laugh and willing to cry, tweet your heart out and hashtag with #iste12, take every opportunity to meet someone new, and wear something strange.  I like those satin slippers with toes that curl up and a tiny bell on the end.
If I see you at ISTE12, please forgive me if I’ve forgotten your name.  I’m way past the age for excuses.

 

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It’s What I’ve Learned…

1

North Carolina born Robert Morgan, spent about 40 minutes of that evening reading from a simultaneously published book of poetry, stemming from his research for Lions of the West, but most of that time talking about the history of America’s westward growth.

Known as a “poet, novelist and short-story writer”2 and recipient of an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Cornell University English professor has written one other history, a similarly acclaimed biography of the nearly mythical American icon, Daniel Boone (Boone: A Biography). Lions of the West starts with Thomas Jefferson, and the Louisiana Purchase, which included

…all of present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska; parts of Minnesota that were west of the Mississippi River; most of North Dakota; nearly all of South Dakota; northeastern New Mexico; northern Texas; the portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Continental Divide; and Louisiana west of the Mississippi River, including the city of New Orleans.3

The book ends with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which added all or part of,

..California (1850), Nevada (1864), Utah (1896), and Arizona (1912), as well as the whole of, depending upon interpretation, the entire State of Texas (1845) that then included part of Kansas (1861), Colorado (1876), Wyoming (1890), Oklahoma (1902), and New Mexico (1912).4

..and was negotiated by Nicholas Trist, Jefferson’s grandson, by mariage.

I found it interesting that a majority of people who came to hear the talk were at least as old as Brenda and I, most of them much older. This was a generation who grew up on westerns. But what became clear from this talk and much of the revisionist history that has emerged in recent years, is how little we know about this era that so defined a generation of youngsters.

And this brings me to the second thing I found interesting about Morgan’s talk. It was a compelling story that he delivered powerfully, eloquently, and certainly unhampered by the charms of his southern roots. But it wasn’t until a conversation with Brenda, during our drive home, that it occurred to me why his talk was so compelling. Brenda said that she liked the way Morgan wasn’t trying to sell the book, and I realized that it was his perspective. The story that he spun in his talk was about what he’d learned during his research.

One area he said that he dug into was Mexican history, written from that country’s viewpoint, by Mexican historians. Many of Morgan’s statements began with, “What surprised me was..” Among his surprises was that Mexico was supposed to have won that war. They were, according to European observers, far superior to the United States in almost every way. Another surprise was James K. Pope, the North Carolina born 11th president. The author now believes that Polk was one of America’s six greatest presidents. An especially unlikable man, Polk was the only president who accomplished everything he’d promised voters, including spending only one term in office. Another surprise was how many of the Indian wars actually involved Indian tribes as allies to the American “cavalry.”

But it was this angle that I think especially charmed me, that Morgan did not talk about what he knew. He spent a half hour talking about what he’d learned.

..and of course, this brings us around to one of my continuing themes, that learning, learning practices, the sharing of learning, and what you can building from your learning, are far more important today than even the very best practices of teaching.

“Here’s what I’ve learned,” I think, is a golden key for unlocking the learner-impulse in others.

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  1. BARNHILL," data-image="http://davidwarlick.com/images1/skitched-20111028-072827.png" data-site="2¢ Worth">

skitched-20111028-072827.pngBrenda and I went to a book signing last week at the celebrated independent bookstore, Quail Ridge Books & Music. It was Lions of the West, which has apparently already received much acclaim, Raleigh’s News & Observer saying the author “..should be declared a national treasure.” ((BARNHILL, A. C. (2011, Oct 16). Morgan looks westward through eyes of history. News & Observer. Retrieved from http://goo.gl/gFw4V [↩]

  • Department of english at cornell university. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.arts.cornell.edu/english/people/?id=97 [↩]
  • Wikipedia contributors. (2011). Louisiana purchase. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Louisiana_Purchase&oldid=458992606 [↩]
  • Wikipedia contributors. (2011). Treaty of guadalupe hidalgo. InWikipedia, The Free EncyclopediaWikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Treaty_of_Guadalupe_Hidalgo&oldid=459017384 [↩]

    • Visit to the Museum

    A picture of Mona Lisa rendered with spools of thread and scene through a crystal ball

    It might sound more like the truth to say the Brenda got me out of my office yesterday for a visit to the museum, but it was actually my idea. The North Carolina Museum of Art has recently moved into a new building. I would love to say that it is a beautiful structure, but my most honest observation is that that it’s strange and interesting — which is often what I say about art that I like.

    I’ve come to see art museums differently since some folks I met at a conference took me to a an art museum in Shanghai for a visiting collection from Europe. Three things struck me anew as I looked at those works, painted hundreds of years ago. First, I suspect that locals as they saw these works back then, must have been in awe. Pictures were probably not very common and the skill of rendering them may have seemed magical.

    Secondly, I am fascinated much of the art that I see up close, because it’s like going back in time. You are looking at a scene through the eyes of someone who is there. You see that this is what they thought of themselves, not what historians think of them. I guess the history teacher in me would call it primary source documents.  But it’s a lot more organic and immediate than that.

    Finally, I am astounded at the cleverness of their world, their houses, farms, towns, cities… They probably weren’t up to code, but I suspect that their houses were constant works in progress. They needed an extra room, and the found a way to add it, even if it meant digging it into a hillside.

    The two biggest differences that I see between my world and the ones I saw through the eyes of those artists yesterday is that they lived without electricity and we’re living without large animals among us. ;-)

    - Posted using BlogsyApp from my iPad

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    On the Other Hand

    I probably made a dozen of these from scrap lumber and discarded lawnmower wheels or disassembled roller skates if I was desperate

    This morning, while preparing for an upcoming presentation on Internet ethics, I jotted off several comments that began with, “Remember When.” They were all designed to lament back to a time before the Internet, when we did things differently, because we couldn’t surf, text, or tweet. My plan is to illustrate how much we have come to depend on a dependable information network. I posted most of them on Twitter (#rememberwhen) and Facebook.

    For the fun of it, I also listed in my notes some of the elements of my own pre-Internet childhood that I suspect most children today are not experiencing because of the Internet, video games, texting, etc. I decided to post some of them here for your enjoyment.

    • Remember when childhood happened almost exclusively outside?
    • Remember when a child’s most important resource was a saw, hammer, and bag of straightened nails?
    • Remember when we daydreamed about building a raft, putting a propeller & wings on our bicycle, or exploring a wilderness with a musket and bowie knife?
    • Remember when there was more you could do with a pair of skates than just strap them on your feet and skate?
    • Remember when we use to pretend — out loud?
    • Remember when every tree was scrutinized for its treehouse suitability?
    • Remember when playing house was done with chairs and blankets (not with simulation software)?

    Does this ring true for you?

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    Tech for Creativity

    Some of you may be aware that I have spent a good part of the last week in the air, about 27,000 miles as near as I can calculate, from Raleigh to Calgary, to New York, to Brisbane, to Christchurch, to Melbourn, to Los Angles, to…

    Much of it is a dramamine induced blur, but for many enjoyable hours, I illustrated a point made by Kevin Kelly in a recent podcast that I watched. The Author of What Technology Wants, Kelly, like myself, has followed much of the emergence and evolution of personal information and communication technologies — and has had a hand in guiding its use for many people. Among his many contributions was Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World, which was required reading for the principal actors of the film, The Matrix.

    I haven’t read What Technology Wants (yet), but it appears to be a cautionary tale. Kelly doesn’t tweet or participate in many of the techs de jour. However, one thing that he said that really stuck with me was that ICT’s power is in it’s providing new avenues for expressing ourselves creatively. As near as I can paraphrase, “We would never have had a Jimi Hendrix without the invention of the electric guitar.”

    Rebirth by Propellerhead
    Rebirth by Propellerhead
    Back to my time in the sky — just before leaving I purchased a new music app for my iPad. I have pages of music apps, most of them mocks of musical instruments, and none of them have captured much of my attention. I’m not a very good musician. The exception was Propellerhead’s Rebirth (see right), which resembes no instrument I’ve ever actually played. ..and so, even that was not all that much fun. I did complete one project (Shangri La) and upload it to my Sound Cloud.

    My new toy is MusicStudio, “..the only complete music production environment for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad” to quote the developers, and they’re not off the mark. It gives me access to a number of instruments (with more purchasable sounds), a virtual piano keyboard to perform and record from, audio effects devices, and a piano-roll style track system (see left) for fine tuning. This is where I spent my time, copying and pasting, dragging, and editing those little dots and dashes that represent individual musical notes.

    Continuing the music work with Logic Express 8 on my office computer

    I often demonstrate this process in some of my talks as an example of working numbers to accomplish goals — working the numbers embedded in digital sound. But doing music like this has always required me to break out some fairly sophisticated software, sit at a desk, with mouse, and sometimes an attached musical keyboard. Now, I can do it from a flat surface (iPad) that I can carry in a shoulder bag, sitting at the park or in an airline seat. (demo here)

    Here are the results of my 50+ hours in the air! Because Brenda likes it, I am now refining the work using Logic, a more professional music editing tool. But this is the version done exclusively on the iPad.
    Brenda’s Song by dwarlick

    Sorry for the self-indulgence, but, you know, I’m getting old enough to not have to apologize for it.

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    Happy New Years – Cherryville Style…

    Image care of Rusty Wise’s “The History of Cherryville New Years Shooters” web site.

    I grew up in a small mill town in the foothills of North Carolina, Cherryville (pronounced Cher’-vel). I recollect three stop lights in the town, when I was growing up. They’re up to seven now, that I can count.

    Settled in the 18th century by Scots-Irish and German immigrants, including my surname’s ancestor, Daniel Johann Wahrlich (spelled to Warlick by a near-literate ship’s clerk), a German tradition was carried over and still observed in Cherryville — that of traveling from home to home, reciting a chant (below) and firing overloaded mustkets to “..drive out demons, witches, and other non-desirable entities on the property and bless the land for the upcoming year.”1

    Here is a video, produced in 2007 by, Cherryville resident, Rusty Wise that includes the chant (posted below) and much footage of the shooters.

    Happy New Years to you, everywhere!

    You can also enjoy a New Year’s Shooters music video here.

     

    Chant of the New Years Shooters

    Good morning to you, sir.

    We wish you a happy New Year, Great health, long life, which God may bestow

    So long as you stay here below.

    May he bestow the house you’re in,

    Where you go out and you go in.

    Time by moments steals away,

    First the hour and then the day.

    Small the lost days may appear,

    But they soon mount up to a year.

    Thus another year is gone,

    And now it is no more of our own,

    but if it brings our promises good

    As the year before the flood,

    but let none of us forget It has left us much in debt,

    a favor from the Lord received

    Since which our spirits hath been grieved.

    Marked by the unerring hand,

    Thus in His book our record stands.

    Who can tell the vast amounts

    Placed to each our accounts?

    But while you owe the debt is large,

    You may plead a full discharge.

    But poor and selfish sinners say,

    What can you to justice pay?

    Trembling last for life is past

    And into prison you may be cast.

    Happy is the believing soul,

    Christ for you has paid the whole.

    We have this New Year’s morning Called you by your name,

    and disturbed you from your rest,

    But we hope no harm by the same.

    As we ask, come tell us your desire,

    And if it be your desire,

    our guns and pistols they shall fire.

    Since we hear of no defiance,

    you shall hear the art of science.

    When we pull trigger and powder burns,

    you shall hear the roaring of our guns;

    Oh, daughters of righteousness, we will rise

    and warm our eyes And bless our hearts,

    for the old year’s gone and the New Year’s come

    And for good luck, we’ll fire our guns!

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    1. Wise, Rusty. “The History of the Cherryville New Years Shooters.” The Cherryville New Years Shooters Inc.. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Jan 2011. <http://bit.ly/5q0OQM>. [↩]

    The iArm I almost got for Christmas

    We enjoyed Christmas Eve with my wife’s family at our house this year. Usually, we celebrate family holidays at that the home of her sister, in Cary, because they have a much larger house and her husband, Kirby, a retired Fire Captain, is a celebrated cook. Don’t recall why, but this year it was at our house, with many covered dish contributions from Kirby — and my wife’s soon to be celebrated banana pudding.

    That was followed by my handing out packages from under the tree, being delivered by our niece’s young son and younger grandson — who both struggled to remember the names of their extended family. Then we took turns opening, youngest to oldest.

    I started in on a moderately heavy package, about the size of shirt box, but thicker, and weighing about nine pounds — all indications of something special. As I started to tear strips of wrapping from the box, I spied the picture to the right.

    It looked like and iPad or Kindle, I started getting excited. Ripping on through, I found the pictures on the left, and my excitement started to be replaced with “Just how geeky do these folks think I am?“
    And then this..
    And this..

    Finally, they were all laughing historically, as I opened the box to a small sack of potatoes (which they said they had to get back for tomorrow’s breakfast) and a very generous Amazon gift card. It was a wonderful family gathering with fun had by all.

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    Engagement v. Empowerment — continued thoughts (part 2)

    If you haven’t already, it is best if you read part 1, first.

    I think that what has haunted me about Chris Lehmann’s recent blog post on engagement and empowerment is that the two terms seem related to each other in some logical and almost mathematically way.  But it was like completing a puzzle that is bigger than the only two pieces we have sitting in front of us.  So, as is often the case, I wake up early, on the morning I’m to take off for somewhere (Fort Collins, CO [-14f]) with visions of stuff yet to be done.  And then, my attention shifts to meandering thoughts about Chris’ post.

    So I thought I would take this opportunity, early hours of the morning, to map this out and explain it to myself, as a way of processing the parts of the puzzle.  Without belaboring the point, here’s what I came up with, at 3:30 AM:

    Now that I look at it, written out, it seems a bit ridiculous.  But let’s play this out.  I can always decide not to post this.

    What got me going was that when I think of the way that we seem to talk about engagement and even empowerment, It seems to be something that we want to apply to our students or infect them with.  A more worthy conversation might be to clarify that, which is our over-riding goal — at the heart of every talk I’ve ever had with Chris Lehmann

    I express it as E(V), just because I couldn’t think of a better way. The E is for enrichment — another frequent term used in teaching (enriching the curriculum). But in trying to go beyond mere learning, as the goal, it seemed more useful (at 3:30 in the morning) to want our students to be and to feel enriched by that learning. The relationships between the elements of V still seem a bit fuzzy to me, but essentially, it’s New Knowledge and/or (with/without) New Skills equals Value. To feel enriched, the learner needs to feel more valuable in some way to himself, to others, to his environment, than he did before.

    Now for the more complicated part.  The elements are:


    • for reference

      IS — started out being just I, for information.  But what’s necessary is an information system, such as a textbook or other packaged instructional materials.  Of course, what is far more relevant today is a socially moderated hypertext environment, such as the World Wide Web or some subset.

    • S — stands for skills: reading skills, reasoning skills, mathematical skills, technological skills, etc.
    • R1 — I ended up with two Rs so I needed an R1 and an R2.  R1 is one of several effects of teacher facilitation.  It’s resourcefulness.  When we do not provide all of the information or even all of the skills necessary for the experience, then we expect the learners to be resourceful in their work.
    • SM — is another creativity-stimulating effect of teacher facilitation.  It’s simple.  Teacher says to the learner, “Surprise Me.”  We shouldn’t want the same thing from every learner.  We should not standardize our expectations.  It is a disservice to them and their future.  We should expect to be surprised.
    • R2 — notches everything up exponentially.  It’s Responsibility.  Feeling responsible to the teacher — well that’s like two to the power of one, and what’s the real point of that?  When the learner feels responsible to himself, that ramps the action up a bit.  But if the learner feels responsible to classmates, or teammates (carrying Chris’ empowering coach metaphor a little further), or some other audience, customer, or community, then we’re starting to multiply the action of learning, times itself — again and again.

    So, I’m saying that learner enrichment (newly gained value from newly gained knowledge and/or skills), and its artifacts, result from working accessible information with attained or attainable skills, applying resourcefulness and a whimsical desire to surprise, all to affect somebody in some value-adding way.

    If this still makes sense at 9:30, at the airport, then I’ll post it.

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    Cultivating Your Personal Learning Network
    2nd Edition (2012)
    Redefining Literacy 2.0 (2008)
    Classroom Blogging
    (2007) • Lulu
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    Raw Materials for the Mind
    (2005)

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