Lila Oliver Asher – ART CART: Saving the Legacy, DC Artist 2013

ART CART DC Artist Lila Oliver Asher has been featured on WTOP radio’s website. “Slice of Life: Lila Asher, an active artist for more than seven decades,” by WTOP intern Hoai-Tran Bui. Check it out! http://www.wtop.com/1232/3278510/Lila-Asher-active-artist-for-more-than-seven-decades-

Via Flickr:If you are interested in purchasing any of these items, please go to <a href=

It took 1 and a half hours for our bus to get us to the campsite and the first thing we did was to review our campsite and separating into tents. There were six 13 by 8 feet Coleman Bayside™  tents that were set up on a gravel covered hill which held 6 people each. I was assigned a tent with my friend Cadet Jack Chen, three Troopers and a Master Corporal which loves playing with his knife so much that the Captain confiscated during the final day at the FTX.

The second day at the FTX was definitely the busiest and the night’s sleep was by no means helpful with all the yelling, hitting, and other obscenities–I got less than six hours of sleep! The day began at 6am with a MRE (Meal, Ready-to-Eat) and a warning that we’d be doing push-ups for every piece of garbage the senior officers find. It was my first time having a MRE and it tasted pretty nice by my standards. Then after we finished up our MREs we grabbed our water bottles and changed into clothing which we didn’t mind getting wet. It was then our commanding officer, Captain Wong, pointed out that we were going to be dunked in Alouette Lake–”Why do you think this is called ‘Duke Splash‘?”. Ironically, it could also be seen as a pun as the 2290 British Columbia Regiment is known as 101 Duke of Connaughts Own Rifles, or Dukes (i.e., Duke splash could translate into meaning slashing the Dukes, a.k.a., the 2290 British Columbia Regiment.) After this thought passed through my mind, we took the long way down to the shore instead of the quick jump off the cliff.  Once there, sunscreen was passed around, basic water safety was introduced, life-jackets and paddles were handed out, and we were taught the basic paddle strokes. After that, we laid down what we didn’t need on a picnic table and separated into canoes, two to each. I was with Cadet Jack and we were thoroughly confused to what to once out in the water. Finally, once we realized everyone was linking up, we did likewise to form up with the rapidly drifting away formation. After a long time of further chaos, it was figured our that we were to individually break off from the group and do a lap around our two instructors. The process took a long time and after we were done, we were just about ready to crawl onto shore. However, Captain Wong ordered us to dismount our canoes so that we could practice rescuing one another.  I was, frankly, quite horrified as a warning sign at the bow of my canoe stated on the bottom the following: “Hypothermia (exposure in cold water) kills.” and I’d put my hand in the water and boy was it freezing. We each found a buddy canoe and watched as Captain Wong demonstrated leaping sideways from his canoe to the corps which made me more confident about it then set off to a spot where we deemed reasonable and Cadet Chen and I took a dip. Kicking up to the surface, I realized that I’d still had my sunglasses on and had to move them out of the way to get a clear look at our canoe. To my horror, my partners only stared at us with bemused disbelief and ranted about not knowing what to do. Annoyed, Cadet Chen and I had to tip ourselves back into the canoe without the assistance of our buddy boat. To top that off, our buddy boat, namely one Cadet Veloso, was too scared to get in the water. After long pleads and reassuring promises of saving him if he starts drowning, he decides to put one foot in the water. He sits there. We wait. Then he cowers back into his canoe again and we try desperately to persuade him into getting into the water. Sadly, we ended up having to call over the Captain to help us deal with the problem when he’d called an order for us to return to shore. Veloso was wearing a life-jacket and knew how to swim for crying out loud! Then my bladder could take it no more–I called on Cadet Chen and we rushed to shore. I immediately asked for permission to go to the washroom and hurried off. Ah… four hours on the water and one of them spent holding in pee. When we returned to camp, we were ordered to do 10 push-ups for the pieces of garbage found, ravaging our palms and sat down with MREs. When that was through, a thoroughly dreary 2:17 hour hike commenced and when we got back to the camp, I was ready to collapse. MREs were passed around and soon we were out by the picnic area playing capture the flag. It was relatively dark when we’d returned to camp and the warm fire was a welcome thing. After push-ups, s’mores and the fire picket schedule was announced, we wrapped up and went to sleep.

Day three of camp was, to put it mildly, annoying. We began with a noisy wake-up call from a radio at 7am, a MRE and clearing out our tents. Then we packed up the tents. Master Corporal Zhang seemed quite fond of the idea of carefully folding it up and shoving it into the bag from which it came without regard of space. We then took began searching for sleeping bag liners in the sleeping bags–we unraveled the lot and reassembled it THREE TIMES. Then we had to take out the tents and check them then stuff it back into there bags. After all of that, we did push-ups, ate, did a garbage sweep and set out on a walk where we were talk basic hand signals. Later, when we returned, we did even more push-ups, ate, and did even more push-ups. The funny thing is, my last MRE had the two spiciest meals there were: Mexican Rice and Chili w/ Beans– I was breathing so hard throughout the meal! :3 Then we loaded up onto the bus and headed home. At the Drill Hall, we packed up the supplies and, as to be expected, did even more push-ups, totaling a total of about 120 push-ups. Once I got home, I immediately collapsed into bed after changing.

The FTX was indeed tiring and painful and held some amount of fun, but I certainly gained a lot from it. I learned how to get back into a canoe when out of it, I learned how to roll a sleeping bag, I learned how to pack up a tent, I learned just how painful push-ups on gravel are and gained  a bit of muscle all over my body, most notably my shoulders. It was also completely free! I definitely found the experience memorable and now, thinking back on it, wasn’t so bad if I hadn’t been sick. Camping is fun and it brings out new things in people, building character; a FTX is an excellent way to get the most out of it (mostly).

I recently enrolled in a Royal Canadian Army Cadets Corps in downtown Vancouver by Beatty Street and have been participating in their activities every time it came up since I have joined. The Army Corps I joined is formally classified as the 2290 British Columbia Regiment “101 Duke of Connaughts Own Rifles”. Every Thursday I rush home, make myself some food, eat, brush my teeth, do some homework if I can, and charge out to the Drill Hall to engage with other Cadets until past 9pm. The main activity that I partake in is the ACR (Anual Ceremonial Review) drills; this consists of a lot of stomping, shouting, shuffling and marching.

Last Thursday, I just passed my Air Rifle Safety Test after three tries. We used old Daisy M853 Air Rifles with flat-pointed Calibre Air Gun Pellets throughout the night. The Daisy was quite annoying as air rifles go–I had to crank a pump far forward and force it back into the body of the rifle, fit the minute pellet into the tiny space where one’s supposed to load it, take aim looking through the tiny sight, switch off the safety, and fire. It was a very long process to do this but I managed it well enough. Another pain was that we were lying down in the prone position, a position by no means comfortable with a rifle in your hands.

I actually managed pretty well at the shooting range considering that I’d just taken off my glasses before putting on the already blurry safety goggles and so my vision was not that reliable. I was given ten pellets and allowed ten rounds. On my own time, I managed to hit 4 pellets into my several dozen meters away, 1 inch diameter targets. As this was the first time I had handled an air rifle, I was quite pleased with this though I’m almost certain I could have done better–one of the pellets got stuck without me realizing it so when I was “unloading and preparing for inspection”, the last pellet never got a chance to go to the target. All in all, that night was a very pleasurable experience.

Registration Desk Open at 8:00am

Start Time 9:00am

Last Session: 2:15pm – 3:15pm

More details to come!

Dooley said he is looking forward to tank days, better known as “Tank Saturdays.”

Starting in May on every second Saturday of each month, a tank will be up and running and out for show in the airport lot. May 12 is the first tank Saturday, and the RCAC is planning to bring out a M60 Patton Tank, Dooley’s favourite. “The sucker will go 35 miles an hour,” Dooley said. “It’s a reserve tank for the U.S. marines.”

“We have about 80 running military vehicles,” Dooley said, who is hoping to have every vehicle that works up and running for mid-July. The second Saturday in July is Roll-Past Day where all the armoured vehicles will be outside the museum for live demonstrations.

Tank Saturdays run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at 1000 Stevenson Rd. N. and admission is $5.

The museum is open from May until November on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and holiday Mondays. The museum is staffed entirely by volunteers. Tours are available by request when the museum is closed. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for veterans, seniors and children. Along with jeeps, tanks, carriers and trucks, the museum has plenty of artifacts, medals, uniforms, photographs and information on regimental families.

You can visit the website for more information: http://www.ontrmuseum.ca/events.htm

A special thank you to my presentation guests:

Elaine MacKenzie
Dan Ballantyne
Adrienne Fiander
Shannon Smith

Related Links:

Ontario ConnectEd Leader Consortium
Log into Facebook to see OntCLC on Facebook
OCT Backgrounder
OCT Advisory
OCT Social Media video
Principals and Social Networking Report (2010)
Log into Facebook to see Dan Ballantyne’s Teacher Fan Page
RCAC

~Mark

As some of you may know, the Ontario Coroner has launched an investigation into cycling deaths in Ontario. The public is invited to comment by November 30th.

One of the other hats that I where is Chair of the city’s Roads and Cycling Advisory Committee. We believe that there is merit in getting cyclists from the Ottawa area together to discuss safety issues, with the intent to generating a list of recommendations that we can submit to the coroner as part of his study. As background, the announcement for the current study is here; a 1998 Toronto Coroner’s report on cycling safety is available here.

To that end, we will be hosting a Cycling Safety Brainstorming Session on Saturday November 26th. All are encouraged to attend. So if you bike recreationally, as a commuter, or in races, please consider coming out. Similarly, if you’d like to bike more, but have safety concerns, please also come out. Details are as follows:

What: Cycling Safety Brainstorming Session

Why: To generate a list of reccomendations for the Ontario Coroner’s cycling death study, but also to get the community together to talk about what needs to be done.

Who: You! Me! Anyone else that has an interest in cycling in the city and region.

Where: Colonel By Room, City Hall

When: 10:00AM to 12:00 PM, Saturday November 26th.

I’d like to have a sense of numbers, so if you plan to attend, please RSVP to cycling.committee@gmail.com

For those unable to attend,  we’ve set up a brief online survey, available here.

I had not planned on having a seizure at 63, or at 40 or 90 or any other age. I’m not much of a fan of seizures. But it got my attention. And it got me thinking about my living accommodations now and in the future. And about my finances and how clueless my kids were regarding the financial state I am in. My own mother, who always balked at letting us know what she had in the bank, gave my sister and me bags of paperwork that I am still sorting out after two years. The nursing home wants an updated accounting every six months, and I am having a major hissy fit as I plod through the papers each year. Seriously, folks, there is no reason to leave this kind of stress to your family. I don’t care if you are 40 or anywhere between there and my mom’s 100 even. Take the time to organize all your papers.

Write out account numbers for all the places you do business. Add a contact name and number for each account. Give your family all your computer passwords. Be sure they know where the power of attorney statement is. Keep a current list of meds and dosages you take. List all savings account numbers, CDs, IRAs. Keep a file of health insurance information. Make an appointment with yourself to do an annual update of all the files. Maybe the day you replace the smoke alarm batteries each year would be easy to remember. Your family will bless you royally the day they need all these facts, because it will be a crazy busy time in their own lives. That’s just the way it works.

Tomorrow I am facing old age squarely by visiting an RCAC senior living apartment.

I don’t mind the senior part of it.

At least they didn’t name it elderly living.

What I mind is the acronym.

As if they had to hide what they were selling.

Which they do.

RCAC stands for Resident Care Apartment Complex. In the fine print, they point out that it’s the first level of assisted living.

What?

Me, in assisted living?

I was planning on following George H.W. Bush’s example of skydiving someday. Can people who live in the first level of assisted living skydive? Where was I when all this aging crap took place?

But I guess you have to face the calendar and the evidence of the whacks Father Time has taken on your body.

At least I won’t be the oldest person in the new place since the resident ages run from 52 to 95.

And I’m determined to love the RCAC and move in by the end of the summer. Meanwhile, I’ll continue to go through all my important papers and be sure the kids know where I stored them.

Go forth and do likewise.

The venue is again the beautiful Lamplighter Inn in London, Ontario.  The events of the day include a couple of external perspectives through keynote addresses and then breakout sessions highlighting some of the great things that are happening in schools from Windsor to Waterloo; St. Thomas to Owen Sound.

Keynote addresses this year will focus on our students.  Ian Jukes (@ijukes) will explain why today’s students are not the children that our current schools are designed for and will offer suggestions about how to address this.  And, Angela Maeirs (@angelamaiers) will help us understand the “Habitudes” of a 21st Century Learner so that the table can be set for success for them.

Breakout sessions will provide ideas for motivation and leadership for schools showing actual practice in Ontario.

• Literacy is not Enough; 21 Century Fluency for the Digital Age
• iPad in the Classroom
• Tapping into Your Curiosity, Imagination, and Expertise
• Facebook in Waterloo Classrooms
• A Personal Learning Network for Principals
• Knowledge Ontario Update
• Live Scribe Pens in the Classroom TPAC Project
• Getting it Right: Aligning Technology Initiatives for Measurable Student Results
• Young Minds, Digital Times
• Getting Along Digitally – WECDSB Peer–Led Electronics Awareness Program
• The Writing Process and Assessment with Turn-It-In.com
• Read Alouds and the Interactive Whiteboard
• Have you seen the OERB lately?

We are excited by the program this year and know that the audience for the day will leave inspired and motivated.  Registration is now open and complete details about the day are available on the Western Regional Computer Advisory Committee website.

I spoke on the phone this morning with  Louis Oliverio who is running for the Republican State Committee from PA37 Senate District.

Louis is from Upper St Clair and he works as a commercial real estate attorney.  He has been active in local politics and has served on the development committee of the Republican Committee of Allegheny County (RCAC).

State Committee members are elected by Senatorial district, and we will be electing two women and two men.  Louis informs me that there are four men running this year, so the top two vote-getters will be selected to represent us.

This position is an unpaid position, with the requirement to attend three meetings a year, at which the committee endorses candidates and decides where to spend contributions.

From Louis:

My name is Louis Oliverio, and I am running for Republican State Committee in the 37th Senatorial District.  The reason for my campaign is because 2010 is a critical year in our nation’s history.  This is the year when we, as Republicans, must come together to work for Republican victories.  This is the year when we must end one-party rule in Washington, DC, and bring sensible change to Harrisburg.  For these reasons, I am seeking to serve the Republican Party and the Republican voters of this district on State Committee.

My campaign centers on the Three I’s:  INFORM, INVOLVE, IMPLEMENT!  If we do these three things, we will prevail in close elections.  For more information about my campaign, please visit www.votelouis.com or email me at oliverio-louis@msn.com

Republicans must take a stand in 2010, and I am asking you to make this stand with me by voting for Louis Oliverio from Upper St. Clair, for State Committee.  Thank you.

Louis M. Oliverio
www.votelouis.com

I must admit that I’m taken aback by the tone of some of the comments,  There are comments like “I doubt that things will change” and “Here are reasons why it won’t work” and “I’m concerned about equity” and “It’s all the Technical Department’s” fault and probably more than what I know about.

I think of this powerful quote.  A good friend of mine uses it as the default tagline on all of her messages.

“Our task is to provide an education for the kind of kids we have… Not the kind of kids we used to have… Or want to have… Or the kids that exist in our dreams.”  Mary Kay Utecht

It’s not a big leap to translate “kids” to “technology” and “connectivity” and “access”.

As educators, we face challenges every single day.  Many of these challenges are imposed from the outside and there’s not always things that we can do about it.  But, we need to embrace and take charge of those things that we can’t challenge.  I truly hope that the discussion was meant to be sensational and spark some conversation.  I hope that folks aren’t going to roll over and say “We can’t do it because things aren’t right…”

Things will never be right.  Things will never be perfect for all people.

There are challenges all over the place.  Yes, I get frustrated that I can’t just hop onto Google Images when I need an image for a presentation or a document.  But, you know what…there are plenty of other sources for images that are available to me.

I hope desperately that the comments are borne in the desire to do the very best that we can and that there is optimistic hope that we’re moving in the right direction.  Things in education can be slow to move but they are moving.  I found out recently that the Ontario Mathematics teachers will soon have professional development surrounding Web 2.0 technologies in the Intermediate Years’ mathematics classrooms.  This isn’t something that would be easy to predict a few years ago but we have contemporary educators like Ross Isenegger of Mathfest who know what’s right and are behind this initiative.

There are givens.  There will never be enough computers, enough bandwidth, enough access, enough refreshing of hardware and technology, …

But, we are professionals and will do the best that we can.  We can always do more with more and we need to constantly communicate this to those who allocate monies to education.  We need to always be moving along.  To paraphrase Mr. Warlick, we cheat the kids when we don’t.

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In the past, this was an opportunity to embrace new technologies such as the Ministry of Education’s license of Macromedia Studio MX.  Over the years, it has morphed to take upon a more self-directed, high level activities that allow members to delve more deeply into issues of the day.  Last year, WIll Richardson spent the entire day introducing us, hands-on, to blogging and podcasting and other interesting Web 2.0 technologies.

This year, Leslie Fisher spent the day with us and the Ministry of Education licensed Adobe Photoshop Elements.  Now, she’s got her hands full since the currently licensed version if 4 for the Macintosh and 5 for Windows.  More on that in a moment.

It’s always a treat dealing with airlines.  My first correspondence with Leslie and her travel plans had her arriving in London at 9:30ish.  Somehow, through the magic of airline scheduling, she was going to make her way from Dayton, Ohio and an afternoon gig to us in London.  These really aren’t major stops on any airline’s schedule and there sure aren’t any direct flights from Dayton to London!  However, with a little patience and layover, you get to see either Detroit or Toronto.

Then, I get a message from her that she would be arriving in London at 11:50pm.  Gulp.  If you read this blog, you’ll already know that I’m exhausted and expect to be horizontal at that time.  No problem, though, I’ll just grab a little cat nap and be good to go.  After all, we’re the hosts and our guests shouldn’t have to cab around a new city in the dark.

Then, I’m with my friend Bob moving things around the hotel and the phone rings.  I quickly put my box down but the phone had already gone to voice mail.  Argh.  I look at the missed call and see the Southern California telephone number and now the voice mail.  I dial it up and hear “Hi, Doug, got on an earlier flight.  See you shortly, we’re about to take off.”

From where?

Thankfully, the London International Airport has a great web resource that provides flight times to the public.  So, Bob and I whip into the room and fire it up.  The first available flight is just after 8pm coming from Toronto.  If I leave now, I can just make it and so I do!  As I rush into the terminal, I realize that I don’t have any money to get out of the carpark since I’d helped David Warlick with cab fare earlier!  But, plans come together.  Leslie is indeed on that flight and the ATM in the airport works!  Leslie gets to see what $17 worth of change in one and two dollar coins looks like!

Back to the hotel.  Life’s challenges are over, right?  Well, not quite.  Leslie is far closer to the cutting edge than any of us mere mortals are.  She’s got Photoshop Elements 7 on her computer.  We’re still working with 4 and 5 as noted above.  Ever the geek, I go to these things with both my PC and my Mac.  We decide that she’ll take the PC and I’ll work on my Mac for the event.  Life’s current problem solved.

Leslie Fisher at the RCAC Workshop

My life for a digital camera this date.  Here’s an image screen captured from my RCA Small Wonder.

After actually reading instructions, we did get my computer and the impressive video setup at the London District Catholic School Board working with each other.  We debate whether to leave my Twhirl client active for the day or not and decide upon the least annoying route.

Then, Leslie does her workshop.  And, what a workshop it was.  I thought that I knew Photoshop Elements and maybe I did know enough to get by.  But, that doesn’t cut it in this class.  Throughout the day, Leslie takes us to areas and shows us features both in the software and in digital photography that we never knew existed.  The important thing is that we you now know they exist, what can you do with them?  Even the most Level 4 folks are totally engaged for the entire day.  It was absolutely amazing.  The challenge is obviously to remember things and to apply them as appropriate.  Fortunately, the entire day was capture on video so that we can enjoy the day over and over.

I’ve been to a lot of PD events of varying qualities.  You really know it when you’re in the hands of a genius and nothing short of that descriptor would describe this event and Leslie skills as a professional development leader.  Wow.

Keynote speakers:  David Warlick and Amber MacArthur

For the night before the event, we hope to have the keynote speakers “in the house” so that we don’t have to worry about travel plans, etc.  This worked out nicely and we enjoyed the company of David Warlick and Amber MacArthur with fiance Chris at supper.  For me, that’s always a highlight as we get a chance to talk about topics of the day without worrying about timelines and audience.  Over supper, David was curious about our vision for schools in a Web 2.0 world and seemed very interested in Amber’s stories about life and production of regular web content in a contemporary environment.  For me, I was interested in Amber and Chris’ perspective on editorial content and just how things are chosen to air and how assignments are given to reporters.  I was surprised to find out that “The Boy’s” current employer had been a member of the CHUM / CITY group.

Then, after what seems like a quick nap, it’s time for a shower and it’s showtime.

David Warlick went first with his presentation “Our Students – Our Worlds“.  Eyes were opened for many as David took us inside the minds and lives of today’s youth.  His famous tentacles diagram affirmed that students aren’t “human” by a traditional view!  It does drive home the message that they are indeed connected at levels that we suspect but don’t totally know.  (at least until the texting bill comes in…)  Rather than ask folks to turn off electronic devices, David let me know before the event that he would welcome a back channel through his presentation.  Gulp!  What to do?  Fortunately, I knew that TheCleversheep, Rob DeLorenzo, Quentin D’Souza, and Michael Redfearn would be in the audience.  I snagged a quick conversation before David started and we got some access codes so that they could provide some of the chatter.  However, they knew people who knew people, and a back channel was borne.  At the end, David moved it to his wiki and interjected his own comments.  What a way to get feedback from your audience than to monitor their play by play while you’re talking.  I’m also sneaking some side glances at the tables where the Greater Essex folks are sitting and see some principals frantically taking notes.  This is a good sign.  To top things off, Linworth Publishing had donated some of David’s new book, Redefining Literacy 2.0 as door prizes to some lucky attendees.  David spoke with his famous passion and sense of a need for immediate action which so motivated the group.  We could have left then and had our fill but certainly didn’t.

David’s Knitter wasn’t the only place where chat was ongoing.  There was a great deal on Twitter itself.

As happens when you don’t have guards on the door, a keynote speaker will take more than his share of the audience with him.  This was the case and it was SRO in David’s breakout.  But, that didn’t stop participants from attending the other eight great hand picked sessions.

I stuck my head into each of them and there was professional engagement happening in all locations.  I did linger at the session given by Greater Essex educators Lisa, Charlotte, Debbie, Lise, and Margo.  As part of our ELTIP initiative, they wanted to show a model for administrators in the Western Region.  Their fast paced presentation had the audience riveted and wanting to know of the possibilities.  In advance, they had decided that it was going to be a session of ideas and excitement and not one of “click here and this happens”.  As I predicted, there were numerous requests for the Notebook that they had created.  They did post their information here to show what online resources they incorporated into their classrooms.

After lunch, it was Amber’s turn on the stage.  This was her first presentation to educators and so we had been conversing back and forth about the issues of the day.  What was most powerful was her modelling of how to effectively use the new media in a presentation.  It’s only a short trip to the classroom.  Let’s face it, we live in a YouTube world.  There is so much that is appropriate and useful.  In her presentation, Amber showed us an early Peter Mansbridge report, which is a keeper.  You’re going to want to book mark that.  Also, this for those hard texting days.  Beyond the humour, Amber noted and identified the various skills that a teacher needs to go forward and reach students. Even a Greater Essex principal came up on the stage and very quickly created a video podcast.

Ruthven Principal creates a video podcast in front of 400

After her address, Amber participated in a podcast with Rodd Lucier (thecleversheep) where she recapped some of the salient points from her presentation.

The last part of the day is a final breakout session.  Would you think that people would leave early?  Not this group.  The learning continued.

Again, I stuck my head into all of the rooms to make sure that all was running well.  I did spend some time in Amber’s breakout Q&A session.  While I was there, we discussed student safety while using the tools of Web 2.0.  Warlick’s Class Blogmeister is an example of the very best to create a walled garden for students.  There was a good discussion about how to teach students to be participants in such a world when we’re blocking these resources in the first place.

I also spent some time in Greater Essex’s Johanna’s session.  She had partnered with other folks to talk about innovative ways to reach all students with technology.  As a Teacher-Librarian, she explained how she incorporates the best of Partners in Action with technology.  Rather than using traditional software tools in a less than motivating environment, she uses the SMART Board to engage students in literacy discussions.  It’s a technique that’s enjoying huge successes.

At the day’s end, Amber interviewed David Warlick and we hope to see the interview on commandN really soon.

Then, we were done.  Has it been a full day yet?  Yes, my fatigue is starting to take over but there’s still a few things left to do…like drive to the airport to pick up Leslie Fisher for the Professional Development session tomorrow.  But, that’s for another day and another blog entry…

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Thanks to David Warlick for the pictures.  You can see all of his photostream here.

Yesterday was our annual Symposium.  Held in London, 416 educators from the Western Ontario Region (and beyond) made the pilgrimage to London Ontario for a little shared learning.

Keynote addresses were delivered by David Warlick and Amber MacArthur.  I’m just determining a bit of the audience feedback.  I’ve just listened to Rodd Lucier’s podcast interview with Amber and read his blog, and Rob De Lorenzo’s blog.  Presentations at this event are always difficult to gauge when you’re working the event rather than enjoying it.  The day is chock full of things that have to hit the timeline marks so that we’re not wasting time.  With all of the principals, superintendents, consultants in the audience, there’s a lot of professional time that they’ve given for the day to the event.  You don’t want people to think that it was sloppily run with loose timelines.

From a presenter’s position, it’s difficult.  You need to have a presentation that appeals to an audience of starters to folks that live and breathe this stuff.  It’s a tough gig to pull off.

This weekend, I’ll do some formal reflections on what I thought happened during the day.

Last night, I had the honour of picking up today’s presenter Leslie Fisher from the airport and delivering her to the hotel safely.  I’m already pumped for today.  I received so much PD in just that simple task.  First, I found a way to determine flight arrivals from a scratching cell phone message with no indication where she was coming from or when!  Gotta love London’s website and the way that they’ve kept the public informed with arrival times!  More importantly, we talked about the content for the PD for today.  Holy smokes.  Given the audience, we’ve given her the OK to push the envelope and I’m excited about some of the things that she says we’re going to do.

I may sleep all weekend but it’s going to be a good sleep.

More to follow but I know that Ron wants to see if I’m posting in the early hours today…

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Overall, I felt that the conference was a positive experience.  I know that I grumbled when I reflected on my experience at this year’s ECOO conference in an earlier post, but I can honestly say that I feel rejuvenated after hearing the speakers at RCAC.  The two keynotes of the day were David Warlick and Amber MacArthur.  Let me discuss each keynote speaker separately.

David Warlick

I was very impressed by the quality of David’s presentation and the quality of his delivery.  Here are some of the ideas David presented that resonated with me:

• Teachers need to be master learners
• Teachers need to focus on learners: teaching the learners they are and not the learners we want them to be
• Just because using technology may not suit a teacher’s learning style, that shouldn’t automatically exclude students from using it as technology may suit a student’s learning style
• When we buy a new TV, we are shopping for the creative experiences presented by visual artists – kids are doing the same thing when they are shopping for video games
• In the past, information was a product to be bought and sold.  In the 21st century, information is a raw material to be exploited and used in the creative process.
• Countries that we in North America may see as less developed as we are have better technology infrastructure than us – Mexico to bring broadband to every house by 2012, Macedonia is a completely wireless country, etc.
• Video games are changing the nature of learning but this industry will also drive an increased need in story writers, artists, musicians, etc – we should not shortchange the arts in our funding and in our instructional focus
• Considerations for Future Learning: (1) Networked Learners (2) New Information Landscape (3) Unpredictable Future
• It’s not Lifelong Learning, It’s a Learning Lifestyle

Amber MacArthur

To be honest, I was a little disappointed with Amber’s keynote.  It’s not that the keynote itself wasn’t up to par.  In fact, it was a very informative presentation and well delivered.  I was disappointed mainly because she tailored her presentation for a crowd of educators.  I think that she would have done well to focus the presentation on where her forte lies – in presenting how technology is changing culture (outside of education) and how online culture is changing the world.  Educators really need to hear that message too because, ultimately, this is the world students live in and will live in.  I think that educators sometimes isolate themselves from the world and forget the relevancy that learning has for real life focusing too much on learning and disseminate information for it’s own sake.  That having been said, I really appreciated Amber’s statement that students learn using the 3 C’s – communication, collaboration, and community.

I do want to share two things that occurred during Amber’s keynote that highlight the power of online networks and both took place in Twitter.  Firstly, David Warlick was sharing in Twitter his frustration with an ATM and not being able to get money for a cab.  He joked in Twitter that he was going to have to panhandle for money to get back home.  When he was approached by a number of individuals in the audience offering to help, he stated how surprised he was that people in the audiences were actually following his tweets at that moment in Twitter.  The other occurrence took place when Amber was talking about Twitter.  Amber was discussing educators whom she found on the web who use Twitter as part of an online community and specifically mentioned @suewaters as an example.  I follow @suewaters so I decided to mention the reference to her in Twitter.  @suewaters, living in Australia (it was approximately 3 or 4 am there and around 2 pm in London, Ontario), got my tweet and was surprised at how quickly she was able to connect to the reference made to her Twitter account in such an indirect way. None of us three really know each other yet through Twitter, we able to connect to each other half way across the world instantaneously!  Two perfect examples of the power of online networks!

I also attended two breakout session that had teachers discussing what they were doing in their classrooms in integrating technology to help kids learn.  Overall, my attendance at the Western RCAC was a very worthwhile experience.

Despite all of the great plans, things really heat up in the last month before the event.  This year’s is next Thursday on December 11.  Full details can be found here.  As I scroll up and down the workshops which are hand selected, as I tell my superintendent, this is the type of conference that I would go to and attend every one of the sessions.  Unfortunately, attendees have to whittle their choices down to a single morning session and a single afternoon session.

There are a number of things about this event that make it very unique.  First of all, there are no vendor areas.  This is on purpose.  The day isn’t about the latest gadget or software.  It’s all about ideas.  If people leave the event with their head spinning about ways to use technology and techniques, then we’ve achieved our goal.

We do it with the very best of speakers and the very best of initiatives that are happening in Southwestern Ontario.  This year’s event features keynote addresses from David Warlick and Amber MacArthur.  Similar, and yet different, the two of them will bring experienced leadership in a connected world as they both live it and use the tools daily.  Amber’s commandN is a favourite video podcast for me and David’s Class Blogmeister is a favourite resource of mine to recommend to teachers wishing to do safe blogging with students.

David Warlick is unique to us in that he’s only the fourth keynote speaker to come back for a return engagement.  Previous returnees were David Thornburg, Alan November, and David Pogue.

So, it’s the Saturday before the event and I’m scrambling to make sure that we have all of our bases covered.  As a committee, we try our best to use the technology effectively.  Because of our diverse geography, it’s difficult to schedule face to face meetings so we’ve given up trying.  Instead, we use the services of Google Docs to organize the event.  We really have three documents; a planning document, a “minute by minute” timeline, and a tracking of door prizes donated by vendors.  And, what door prizes!  We have awesome support and are so appreciative.

In the middle of my morning planning comes another indication that we’ve chosen our speakers wisely.  I get an email from David indicating that he’s set up a hitchhikr account for the event at:  http://hitchhikr.com/?id=407 with the tag wrcac08.

I’ve already been in contact with Amber and there may be an opportunity for some commandN footage.

So, the clock is ticking towards Thursday.  I have a stack of boxes that I need to remember to take with me.  Thank you gifts for presenters are on their way from Wiarton, registration bags from Ottawa, and programs from Hamilton.

Registrants will be headed in from all over the place.  It’s terrific to renew acquaintances at this annual event.

Have I forgotten anything?

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Details are online at: http://www.westernrcac.org