Online Ed Doesn’t Equal Correspondence Ed

Most of my fellow course directors sit within earshot of my desk and on more than a few occasions we’ve pulled our chairs together and talked about things that seem to work in online learning and things that don’t. For starters, students who have the biggest trouble with online learning are the ones who thought that they were signing up for a go-at-your-own-speed correspondence program. I’m not sure how one can expect to do Masters’ level work, do 12 courses in 12 months, and also do it “at your own speed,” but some students are surprised by the work load. Of course students aren’t the only ones who mistake online learning with less-than-face-to-face learning. A few instructors from other programs have whispered doubts about whether we can deliver a program that is as full a learning experience, given that we work without the benefit of staring down our students on a daily basis. What the doubters-of-online-learning don’t know is that by disconnecting learning from going to a certain place we can keep the learning dialogue going around the clock and fit it into our students every day life. When online learning really works it literally becomes a lifestyle where instruction, questions, practice, and exploration is a continuous ongoing process for the whole time students are in the program.

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Zen Garden Bulldozer

In an ongoing story about an FS Zen Garden, L Monroe reports, “The Zen Garden has become a victim of eminent domain. The City of Winter Park has sent in their demo crew to make room for a new shopping center.” Note that no one seems to care about the sticky note graffiti in the background. Outrageous. jbb

6 Phases of Teaching

Phase 1

You are listening to jazz –Your first day at work is great. Your fellow teachers are wonderful, your classroom is cute, you love your students, and your principal is the best!

Phase 2

You are listening to pop music — After a while you are so busy that you are not sure if you’re coming or going anymore.

Phase 3

You are listening to heavy metal — This is what you feel like after ONE month.

Phase 4

You are listening to hip hop — You become bloated due to stress, you’re gaining weight due to lack of exercise because you are so tired and have so much school work to do and, when you do get home, you feel sluggish and suffer from constipation. Your fellow teachers are too cheerful for your liking and the walls of your classroom are closing in.

Phase 5

You are listening to GANGSTA RAP — After more time passes, your eyes start to twitch and you forget what a ‘good hair day’ feels like as you just fall out of bed and load up on caffeine.

Phase 6

You are listening to the voices in your head — You have locked your classroom door to keep people out. You wonder WHY you are even here in the first place and WHY you became a teacher!

(courtesy Latricia DD, thanks).

music/podcast: The Totally Rad Show - Episode 84 - Friendo - Fable 2, Changeling, Let the Right One In, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Halloween Pumpkins!

Home Rig for Grading SL Presentations

Geek moment, Full Sail students were doing presentations in Second Life and I thought that I’d take a picture of my rig. On the right is my macbook pro with my two chat clients running on the extreme right and Second Life running on the rest of the screen. The laptop is connected to my 32″ LCD TV running some software I use to write my notes as the students do their presentations (the software is called, appropriately enough, Notebook by Circus Ponies). On the left of the Notebook app is my Contact app, open to which ever student is doing their presentation, so that I can see their real smiling face and info while jotting my notes. Next to the TV, on the left is a third screen (19″ LCD), where I usually have a browser running to check notes/info while the sessions are running on the other screens. Yeah, major geek-out.

Just Another Day in Paradise - Happy Bosses Day @ FS

First part queuing up to “sing” Happy Bosses Day to our leader & chief, Holly. Happy place to work… compare our singing to the “Office Space” happy birthday, we’re happy and there’s no Melvin among us… well, kind’a

Writing About My Wonderfully Flawed Co-Workers

I need to be a bit more careful about the blog. I mean, I’ve been known to vent a bit and cause more than a few hurt feelings from said ventings. Alas, I met another Full Sail department director today who was familiar with the blog. Well, he was familiar because they have an app that looks for references to “Full Sail” on the web. Oops. Nervous smile. Damn. And now, having used the “FS” name this silly little entry is going to show up in the search. Well, I might as well own up to my foolishness and say “Hello” to unnamed FS director. Umm, “Hello.”

So, one other thing that came out of the conversation was that one of my best friends (and boss), Holly, generally reads the blog up to the first paragraph, but stops reading at that point if I don’t mention her. Hmm, so I wonder if she’ll continue to read this, in that I didn’t mention her until the second paragraph. Oh yeah, the point isn’t just to mention her but to say something witty (or if I’m smart, flattering). Awkward pause. Damn. Do you know how weird it can be to have shared years of very personal stories and experiences, hear the unfiltered thoughts of fellow-workers and try to remember to pay attention to who might be in earshot when I open my big fat mouth? The scary part is that I write a publically available blog. So on more than one ocassion Holly has stopped me mid-sentence and asked, “is X at her/his desk?” just as I was about to say something that might not be taken well by the party under question. Doh! Talk about being smart beyond her years. Smile.

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Technologically Rich but Quality of Life Poor

I have a very good job in Florida teaching masters students how to use media and technology in their classrooms and businesses. I left a very uncertain situation in public education in California where most of my co-workers are going to have to look for other teaching jobs or interview to keep the jobs they have in the next two-years. Another friend, who has been battling on-going medical issues, openly wondered whether it was worth the hassle for her to keep her house as the medical bills mount up. And yet with all of this my friends and I are by world standards very, very rich. Our difficulties are generally not about survival but about which luxury activity we’re going to have to forego because things are “a little tight.” It’s hard to balance this kind of life with issues like Poverty.

In a discussion session with a group of masters students last night, one student posed the question about whether our use of technology (some might say “addiction”) was preventing us from living a life connected to our neighbors, our environment or our heritage. He followed up with an observation that it seemed like places that are less driven by technology like some parts of Europe and the Third World move at a much slower pace and seem to actually have a better quality of life. It was an interesting insight to imagine that we are technology rich but our lives our poor in terms of meaningful connections, whereas parts of the world that we would consider poor might have richer, more meaningful existence.

I do not pose these thoughts in an effort to generate some “we should feel guilty for being so rich” kind of thing. If anything it should be obvious that there isn’t a one-for-one connection between being “rich” and the quality of one’s life. I’ve been thinking for some time that I need to contact my local chapter of something like Habitat for Humanity and get involved. In a life that’s often overly crowded with things and thoughts I need to do this for me, get my hands dirty and join others helping ourselves by helping each other. Sending a check isn’t such a bad idea, but spending some weekends in someone else’s shoes and neighborhood would be much better… for all of us. jbb

Music: Mad World from the album “Donnie Darko (Music From the Original Motion Picture Score)” by Michael Andrews

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This post is part of Blog Action Day 08 - Poverty

No Web 2.0 Friends

The week began with me catching some playful hell for twittering while I was supposed to be “judging” my friends’ game of Trivial Pursuit. I only volunteered to “judge” because I was the fifth wheel and preferred drinking my beer, watching the traffic go by and offering an occasional opinion than committing to the game. Actually the fact that my co-workers were aware of Twitter was noteworthy (though none of them are active twitter participants). So here I am, surrounded by some very brilliant people who are always looking at new technology trends, but in this case not seeing the point of things like Twitter. If my awesome co-workers don’t get it, what’s the chances that unwashed masses will get it? Or, like, my family?

I told a co-worker that Twitter is my virtual water-cooler where I get a ton of info, sometimes amazing, often mundane. Other’s use RSS readers to keep up on what’s happening on the Tech world. Since I first signed up and discovered that most of the tech voices that I listen to or watch are on Twitter, Twitter has been my “RSS” feed. Besides the “A” list bloggers, I’ve “met” so many other interesting voices in tech and in church things and in education. And sometimes it was just the amazing serendipity of getting a notice that so-and-so is following your twitter and then checking out their website and discovering someone interesting that they’re following. For example, some time earlier in the year I got a notice that this “old hippy*” living in Maine was following me (*he’s probably younger than moi). When i checked out his website I found some amazing videos and found someone else he was following, a young journalist living in NYC named Alana Taylor who perfectly expressed this frustration of being alone in the Web 2.0 world:

What To Do When NONE
of Your Friends Use Web 2.0
by Alana Taylor

I have a problem. I am addicted to social networking sites. But I have no one to social network WITH! All my friends (who are mostly girls) think Web 2.0 is a type of advanced cellulite-reducing body lotion. And when I try to explain what it really is, they get annoyed, confused, and impatient.

They don’t care. They don’t want to know.

Do you have this same problem? If you do, then I know exactly how you feel.

Like me, you have a lot of “real” friends on Facebook or MySpace, but none at all on the new start-ups like Pownce, Virb, BrightKite, FriendFeed, etc. Who is going to share pictures with you on Flickr? Who is going to recommend songs on Last.FM? Who is going to tell you about their latte on Twitter? How are you going to tell someone about ALANA TAYLOR??

You feel like you are in the dark, and there is no hope for you in the social online world.

Well, there is no need to get down on yourself just yet! Even as little as two months ago, I was exactly in your position. I figured “if my friends don’t do it, I can’t do it.”

So how can you go about making friends on the new sites? Here’s what I did:

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LumberingThruLife Featured Again…

Much to my co-workers’ chagrin, my blog has shown up on Full Sail’s website for a second time. Yay, me! Of course my blog isn’t mentioned until the final paragraph. As with the last time, it’s not available to non-Full Sail students or staff… that is, not available except here:

Link Out: Full Sail Bloggers
by Ashley Belanger

Full Sail’s finest bloggers post on a variety of topics.

Full Sail University is unique in that it assembles a diverse group of individuals who share an extraordinary amount of industry knowledge and talent but also exhibit an equal amount of enthusiasm for outside interests. Exploring the blogosphere, you’ll notice that the diversity of topics covered in just a small sampling of Full Sail’s bloggers edifies the assertion that what the faculty has to offer goes well beyond the classroom.

For further reading on industry-related news, you’ll find a wealth of experience blogs, like Film Lab Instructor Constantin Preda’s “Alone in the TV Producer’s Bullpen” where he documents his personal work as well as offering advice to others. If music is your industry, look no further than Session Lab Specialist Paul Harlyn’s “Music Producer Blog” and for those looking to conquer the World Wide Web (and are proficient in Spanish!), check out Curriculum Development Director Luis Garcia’s bilingual blog “La Vox de Luis.”

As a media school, it’s no surprise that some of our bloggers choose to reimagine the concept of blogging, resulting in interesting sketch blogs like Graphic Design Course Director Oscar Cortez’s “DRA Studio” and “Paper the City.” Equally creative are the videos promoted by FSNet Content Producer RG Lacandola in his video blog “Viddler.” (LumberingThruLife ed.: Error, Lacandola’s blog is not the video website Viddler but dynamitekid.tx and he has videos on the Viddler website under the username dynamitekid ).

© Copyright 2008 - Full Sail University

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Zen Garden Pirated!

Will the disgrace never cease?! The tranquility of this peaceful place has now been replaced by a bold pirate marking his spot in the sand… [sadness]. jbb

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