…. Once upon a time there was a learner, a squire named Dennis who lived and learned in the kingdom of Twitter & Plurk. This learner thought he was very attentive. Many years of schooling had prepared him for facing the challenges of life. He was about to learn an important lesson…

Much of his learning occurred online with people he rarely got to see in person. When an invitation went out from Lord November to the citizens in the kingdom of Twitter & Plurk for the conference of BLC08 he got excited. Now he would be able to see and talk to his friends in person.

The day came for the conference and he had an opportunity to talk to some of his friends. He was happy, but really looking forward to the cruise in Ye Olde Boston Harbour that Lord November had planned for a thousand people. Now he could spend time with his friends and tell them about his hopes and dreams for the children and adult learners of the kingdom.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the cruise. In the Kingdom of Apple a plot of distraction was brewing. King Jobs know he could grab the attention of our squire learner by making a new talk tool that he had dubbed the iPhone 3G. Squire Dennis got the talk tool during the conference. He was excited to use it. He arrived early in Ye Olde Boston, 6 o’clock by most estimates. Be at the boat dock by 7 o’clock was his misguided conception.

Thinking he had time to spare he fired up his new talk tool. What magic! He was able to travel to the village of blog with this iPhone 3G. Sir Wesley Fryer from Moving at the Speed of Creativity had written a wonderful tale, a Quick-Start Guide to Audacity. That was a treat for Squire Dennis, our learner, to read. He wants to learn more about Audacity, he thought pensively and bookmarked the tale.

Sir Norman at Relexions had ironically written a tale of Teaching Attention to the young and old. Squire Dennis would have benefited from this teaching on this fateful night. In the tale it was written…

The ability to pay careful attention isn’t important just for students and air traffic controllers. Researchers are finding that attention is crucial to a host of other, sometimes surprising, life skills: the ability to sort through conflicting evidence, to connect more deeply with other people, and even to develop a conscience. Boston.com

So be it… Our learning Squire Dennis knew this was true. He distraction into these tales could be a problem if not managed well. At that point he cooled down his talk tool and tucked it into its leather case on his trusty belt. It was time to depart for the dock to board his boat for the cruise with his friends. Be there by 7 he mumbled to himself.

He had trouble finding the dock. Other citizens gave him incorrect directions that took him along a wayward path and he lost fifteen mintues, but he was not deterred. He persevered and found himself near the place he need to be and saw a lovely lass in a blue shirt with Ye Olde Boston Cruises emblazoned on its frontispiece.

When he asked this lass where the Provincetown II could be boarded, her face grimaced. Squire Dennis instinctively knew this was not a good sign. She paused turned to Ye Olde Boston Harbour and with a stalwart lunge of her body and thrust of her shoulder, arm, hand and pointer finger, an imposing figure that reminded him of Sir John Davitt’s illustrative pose from the morning lecture on diversity amongst the population of the kingdom’s learners, she directed our squires obviously untaught attention to the boat chugging away from the dock bound for the inner depths of the sea with a boatload of his friends. Alas, Squire Dennis will have to wait until next year to attend a f2f meeting with his friends on the cruise.

Later, as Squire Dennis bemoaned his tragic fate, he pulled out the sheet of paper in his pocket. Across the top above the directions was words he miss read. Boat will depart at 6:30 from the dock. Let this tale be a lesson to all of those in the kingdom of Twitter & Plurk with similar multitasking distractions as our still learning Squire Dennis…

Story Version 2.0

In March I had an idea. Actually, the idea has been percolating since July, but it began to take its current shape in March at the national convention for ASCD in New Orleans, 2008. A great experience, but it lacked something. Technology was not represented by the latest thinking in the education profession. So I decided to do something about it.

Valerie Truesdale, ASCD president mentioned to me that the 2009 annual conference in Orlando was “Learning Beyond Boundaries.” I created a wiki and invited my online colleagues to work with me to submit a collaborative proposal to ASCD. Many people showed interest and several contributed to the wiki. I used the content that people contributed to develop…

A Proposal for Collaboration between ASCD and the Web 2.0 Educator Community for ASCD’s 2009 Annual Conference: Learning Beyond Boundaries

The proposal is worth reading, but the process we went through is just as interesting.

First there were the “tweets” that went out through Twitter.com inviting those in my online Network to the conversation. You can read the conversation that started it all here. Then I created a page for drafting the proposal which you can see here. Finally, this week we finished the proposal and you can see that here.

I want to thank all who joined the Learning Beyond Boundaries wiki and others who visited and expressed interest and support for the effort. Earlier tonight I emailed the proposal page link to three leaders within ASCD. I hope we are successful. If we are, I hope you will contribute to this effort by joining the wiki and helping us as we work with the ASCD 2009 annual conference program committee to follow through on the proposal.

Nothing worth doing is ever done in vain. (I said that.)

November Learning ~ Building Learning Communities 2007

I am new to blogging, but I’m willing to learn. In fact, learning for me and the adults and students I work with is at the heart of what we do each day. Our school system’s mission, for example, is

… to educate students so they are engaged in their education in a way which develops their capacity to pursue their goals and fosters life-long learning.

Our core beliefs are enthusiasm, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach was kind enough to spend a long time with me yesterday on Skype answering my questions about web 2.0 and filling me in on her incredibly exciting work with schools in Alabama. Thank you to Sheryl for leading the way.

In my simple minded way, among other things, I learned that a blog is not a wiki. That is obvious to most of you reading this, but it was a useful insight for me. I won a wiki, a pbwiki, at a BLC07 workshop offered by Darren Kuropatwa and thanks to the generosity of the folks at PBwiki.com. I titled it www.innovation3.pbwiki.com and jumped in feet first to use it and learn it along the way. Three months later, I have posted to it a respectable number of times and I am using it it as a vehicle in my work. Very helpful, I would say. The problem for me is community is lacking at the site. I post, people may read, people go on their wiki way. Now what?

I need a blog to share my personality and point of view. As I understand it (you can help me with this),

• a blog is a place visible on the internet where I can share a point of view on the world and invite people to comment;
• A wiki is a platform for collaborative work.

So now I have www.innovation3.blogspot.com!

I posted an excerpt from a poetry site I visit from time to time sponsored by the Poetry Foundation.

I’d appreciate hearing from you about these comments, the excerpt or other thoughts I post in the future or themes related to the posts.

“Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.” GK