I’m sat on the flight not knowing if I’m allowed to turn on my laptopfor fear of the auto pilot being interferred with by the magnetic force of the ‘intel inside’ and us having to ditch on the ice, just shy of Scott Base, in a freezing blizzard and have us freezing to death one finger at a timeand then having to resort to eating our fellow passengers over the course of the ensuing fortnight of continual blizzard with little hope of rescue…
So I’m handwriting this on napkins with hope of posting later. I’ve probably saved the lives of all the passengers and crew by this simple act of kindness.
My mind is at a dull ebb and one thing about being on stand AND doing presentations is that there is little ‘down-time’ – my mind is over flowing with a collection of unprocessed thoughts and opinions from the past few days- I need time to process, It is like @Keamac was saying to last night. Now is the only time I have to process, 50 mins of flight and all I can do is ramble on, I guess I have to clear my head.
Some, or all of you, heard of my slight mishap with the flight details. I twittered yesterday morning…. from my motel room as I was dashing out the door. I couldn’t believe it! 12.10 Chch–> Wellington then 19.05 Wellington –>Napier landing at 20.05. How many hours waiting at Wellington!
My morning was busy- managed to catch up with a few, not nearly enough, of you to say goodbyeBy the time morningtea has finished my friend and colleague, another Simon, sped me to the airport and left. Within 5 minutes I called him on the mobile.
I had reached the counter and the friendly lady from AirNZ politely pointed out that the flight was actually Chch–>Napier 19.05 direct and I was 8hours early, all very professional, but I sensed the "you’re a plonker" flash across her face at one point.
Anyway, Simon returned, kindly, and picked me up.
19.05 was a great time to leave, it meant that I was around for the big ‘pack up’. If you have never seen a naked expo room before her it is.
As I travelled to ULearn08 this year I did 2 things- Firstly I was madly taking pics of my trip to support a PhotoStory3 breakout I was running. Second, there were huge breaks in my journey where I could boot up the laptop and jump on Twitter. The follow is the result of both of those.
I suggest you simply smile and shake your head at me. It was a 3 hour journey that took 5 and a hour, or something like that.
My Journey
It’s been a funny old day at ULearn08 today. The backchannels through Twitter ran like a dream – in the most part. The wireless network held out well enough.
I am of the opinion though that the length of the keynotes should not over run the battery life of an average laptop. My machine lasted well through Sheryl and Will but took a turn for the worst during Bruce McIntyre. I have to say a got a great deal from the back channels today. But then I had not read them all through since leaving toward the end to man my stall. Apparently words were shared regarding the keynotes, after the fact.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/group/SalemOregonObamaNetwork
http://www.teacherleaders.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forming-storming-norming-performing
http://abpc.wikispaces.com/
http://scratch.mit.edu/
http://www.fanfiction.net/
http://www.amazon.com/Here-Comes-Everybody-Organizing-Organizations…
http://twentyfivedays.wordpress.com/
These are the links for the majority of ’stuff’ Sheryl and Will were talking about.
I do think there ideas of the progression is dead on. I also think that on the whole the NZ teachers are somewhere along that continuum. I really don’t think we can say ‘we have all arrived’. There is a wide audience out there listening to that keynote. Sometimes its difficult to see that as one ‘this far along the learning journey’ we are so often focussed on those miles that still need to be travelled that perhaps we need to turn around now and again and consider what encouragement a message is to those what are ‘back down the track’.
There is much to celebrate here today. With Wellington closed ‘til further notice die to high winds a very able and supportive AirNZ checkin crew member at Napier Airport transferred my flight and I’m now flying via Auckland, sitting next to a very charismatic karate club from Hawke’s Bay on their way to Brisbane for a championship challenge. As I look out the window at the complete whiteout IO wonder how the flight crew can see where they’re going let alone negotiation through a very windy, rough day. But we’re all sitting comfortably; secure in the knowledge “they know where they’re heading”.
But can we afford to do that in the rest of our lives? There are students (and parents) out there who are all sitting comfortably; secure in the knowledge “they know where they’re heading”. The “they” referred to in the last sentence being schools and educators.
There are two principal points that arise from this observation: Firstly, I’m not entirely convinced we know where we’re heading- especially in this 21st century environment. And secondly, you can no longer be a passenger on this journey called “education”. It is up to each one of us to identify our goals and let that denote the flight path of our education.
I’m going to stop now before I stretch this analogue too far.
