I am looking forward to attending George Siemens' newest project that he so graciiously opens and supports to the larger world of education, The Future of Education Online Conference.

The site itself describes this as:

The Future of Education is an online conference exploring trends impacting education – K-12, higher education, and corporation training.

An international panel of leading thinkers and visionaries will present on topics such as knowledge and authority, technology and art, and complexity science. Daily live discussions (which will be recorded) will be held June 4 – 8. Keynote presenters are listed below. In addition to daily keynote presentations, a series of excellent 20 – 30 minute presentations will address how various experts perceive tomorrow’s education system and processes. View the Schedule of Presentations for correct times.

To extend the live presentations, we will hold ongoing discussion in Moodle – allowing conference attendees to participate actively in the conference.

For anybody who is interested in this workshop, as well as experiencing the Moodle platform, I can only encourage you to look into this. I know I am already beginning to enjoy it.

I recently saw the first issue of a new magazine, Blogger & Podcaster. Have been wondering why it has taken somebody so long to fill this niche within technology. While I blog and listen to podcasts, I like to read about and from those who know a lot more about them than I do, so printed out the first edition of this magazine (free online subscription). Interesting interviews and ads, especially for those looking to learn more about these technologies. I liked it, and while I think their online reading technology is among the better forms of online reading that I have seen, there is still nothing like having a printed copy. I just subscribed to the printed edition of it, and appreciate the rapid responses I received from my email queries from Larry Genkin, the publisher himself, who answered my email after my question was forwarded to him. Great customer service.

I know it is ironic that I prefer that a magazine about online communication should be in a printed form, but that is how I prefer to read it. Since I read a lot while commuting to work or the classes I teach or while moving about the day, I am not ready to read heavily while connected to a network or while holding a laptop. True, the technology may eventually get there, but as I hold somewhat of an academic perspective, things that can be printed and filed still somehow seem more "real" than those things that exist entirely in an electronic form. I think this is why the paperless society, complete electronic currency, and 100% ebills and statements have not fully taken off yet. They may at some point, especially if those who have anything to do with this magazine have any influence. Many of us like electronic content, but I still print out a lot.  Until then, I am glad I could subscribe to a printed copy AND read it online. Ahh, options.

While I attended Personal Democracy Forum 2007 last week, we were introduced to 6 issues that will face our next President, as articulated by Andrew Rasiej and Micah L. Sifry, the co-founders of PDF and the leaders of the wonderful conference I attended. I think there can and should be a lot of discussion around these issues, and think this may have been a little lost when they were revealed since it was in the middle of a very busy day.

I will quote them completely from the Personal Democracy Forum website, and add my own thoughts and ideas around them via bullets under each one:

The following are very specific technology policy goals that we are asking every candidate to either endorse wholly or to offer alternative positions. It is time to find out who can actually claim to be the country’s first TechPresident.

1. Declare the Internet a public good in the same way we think of water, electricity, highways, or public education. The government has an obligation to enable low cost universal access to this resource. Regardless of market considerations, every American should be able to take advantage of the Internet for use in their lives and businesses. The Internet is the dial tone of the 21st century.

• I agree the Internet is a public good, but I am not sure I really want to government's involvement in it as it will lead to regulation. Regardless of what Eric Schmidt said at PDF2007 about the "Great Firewall of China," I don't want the freedom of the Internet to be compromised. Remember the freedom of speech vs. website blocking issues in public libraries? Scary.

2. Commit to providing affordable high-speed wireless Internet access nationwide, along with protecting and expanding unlicensed spectrum for public use, and make the Internet a reliable part of our infrastructure so that it deliver on its next phase, transforming how we do business, learn, play, participate in our democracy, stay secure, and govern. Do this by creating an Internet Innovation and Investment Fund with a minimal budget of $20 billion (half of what we spend on highways in a single year) to guarantee and spur development of an Internet wireless broadband blanket and make sure the Net reaches every segment of our population. Once everyone is connected, new applications will emerge creating efficiencies in how our government delivers services, how emergency communications are enabled, how education and health resources are available, and how freedom of speech and participatory democracy are made real for every citizen.

• I would love this, but again, I am afraid of government regulation. Isn't this what happened with the regulation of the phones and cable? Little competition now and standards that do not readily play nicely in a global market. I know how important access to the Internet is, and am wondering if offering incentives and tax breaks to spur this development may not be a wiser move that would avoid another level of government bureaucracy?

3. Declare a “Net Neutrality” standard forbidding Internet service providers from discriminating among content based on origin, application or type. Companies that provide access to the Internet should not be allowed to provide content and services where they will be tempted to prefer their own over what is available from others. If we want the Internet to remain an open market for innovation and to lead us to a new leading competitive global economic position, we need an infrastructure that is not based on old models of telephone and TV networks.

• Isn't this what broadcasters and cable companies do now; they show whatever they want? The highest money-maker gets face time? They did invest in teh infrastructure. Having attended one of the Unconference sessions on this issue that presented this as a civil rights issue, it is one I think I need to educate myself more about. I am not sure about it in fact being a civil rights issue vs. corporate profits, and I think the jury (or my own thoughts about it) is still out. I need more info.

4. Instead of “No Child Left Behind,” our goal should be “Every Child Connected.” The digital divide in our country is worse than it was 10 years ago before our schools were wired. Most public schools still have students visiting computers only for a few hours a week in computer labs. With every major corporation in the world connecting its customers, employees, and suppliers, to 24-hour networks regardless of whether they are using computers, cell phones, PDA’s, etc. providing them access to massive data resources, there is no reason we can’t build a similar networked ability for our students, teachers, and parents 24 hours a day to access the greatest libraries of the world. This will accelerate the professional development of teachers to use the new technology as well as transform education from being something that happens primarily only in school buildings into an ongoing process that facilitates learning moments happening wherever and whenever possible.

• I remember when I taught high school and middle school for 10 years–many teachers had no idea what to do with the computers and Internet access. How do I use these tools to better instruct my students? Then again, how much time gets wasted in workplaces from surfing, eBay, and the like now? I know some colleges are exploring laptop policies in class since students get distracted by IMing, Tweeting, downloading music, and the like rather than paying attention in class. I know I do all this when I have my own laptop in classes I take. Wasn't it somebody who was downloading Grey's Anatomy during one of the sessions at PDF2007 that influenced the entire wireless network's slowdown? That wa an adult–how about kids who have less self-control (if that is true)? Yes, they can be used to check references and look up facts, and if teachers were creative and engaging, people's minds may not roam, but we do multitask well, don't we? Perhaps this is an even larger issue, such as when students began using pens instead of pencils, and school becamse required of all, rather than a benefit of being rich.

5. Commit to building a Connected Democracy where it becomes commonplace for local as well as national government proceedings to be heard by anyone any time and over time. People should be able read proposed bills before they are voted on, analyze them together, and contact their legislators and participate in the legislative process while it is happening. The culture of the Internet encourages transparency and citizens should have the ability to hold their elected leaders accountable not only so they can be “watchdogged” but so that the legislators themselves become more effective in providing information to their constituents.

• Good idea, but I am not sure if this point is specific enough for a policy goal.  

6. Create a National Tech Corps, because as our country becomes more reliant on 21st century communications to maintain and build our economy we need to protect our communications infrastructure and be able to have an emergency response capability to establish emergency communications, rebuild networks and databases, and provide tech support for all relief and recovery efforts. It's time to create a "National NetGuard" of technically skilled Americans who can volunteer to be trained and deployed to respond to any terrorist attack or natural disaster. Part of this program should be the creation of a tech equivalent of the federal oil reserve, but for computer and communications equipment, that would be maintained by our country's computer equipment manufacturers in a revolving inventory and would be available to be used in an emergency.

• I think this is an excellent idea. Absolutely excellent.

I am a proponent of technology and education and the democratic process, so hope my thoughts here will not be taken as dismissive criticisms of these suggestions, but rather an example of part of the discussion that will be needed for any of these ideas to be moved forward. Considering this call to action at the beginning of this issue, now that I have learned more about the influences of technology on democracy, I have more questions than two weeks ago when I knew less. Ahh, the conference was valuable for me.

I think that is what education is all about–learning how little we really know.

Thanks to Eric Eggertson for his post Zeitgeist Humour: Scoble on Twitter for finding this poster on Flickr. There are so many ways we can play with this image, and I think that the postmodern idea of our using technology to show us using technology is an interesting sign of the times.

Where are Jean Baudrillard and Michel Foucault when we need them the most?

I am not sure which I find more interesting; the concerns over the cultural (in)tolerance that Ernie raised in his post about the Mister Wong social bookmark site (with the subtitle complete in English), or the fact that the limited English pages begin with "Welcome, Dude!" It is certainly more engaging (i.e., memorable) than del.icio.us.

With these said, I wonder what target audience they have in mind? Better yet, since almost any depiction of anybody else can be perceived by somebody or another as being insensitive, where does that leave us? Perhaps this is why so many new car models have numbers and letters as their names instead of words? Does using a depiction of an Asian (or Hispanic, African-American, Gay, Republican, Woman, Handicapped individual, etc.) automatically mean something is intolerant? Can only members from that group talk about that group?

It seems the Worldwide Anglican Communion (Episcopal in the US) is becoming more intolerant and traditional by the day. When the invitations from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, went out for their every-ten-year Lambeth Conference, he neglected to invite the two openly gay American bishops, according to the BBC. I suppose Gene Robinson and Martyn Minns are excluded because they are different from the very tradition that the conservative bishops want to "protect." It is a good thing for them that this did not stop Henry VIII from starting the denomination itself, simply because he did not want to hold to the old traditions imposed by formerly Catholic England. Strange, that such power struggles sometimes seems so far away, especially when those who are religious decide who God likes more than others and therefore who has more of a right to having and using his or her voice. Nothing like being silenced by not being invited to participate.

Perhaps what comes around, goes around? More accurately, how soon we forget our history.

Still considering some of the things I heard and experienced at Personal Democracy Forum 2007 this past weekend, I am reminded of Thomas Friedman's summary of the three new chapters that will be in his upcoming 3rd Edition of his book, The World Is Flat.

One of the things that stuck me in one of his new chapters was what he discussed around Global Warming, and how the crisis is beyond what we have ever faced before while also being on a greater scale than we can imagine. We have to be the stewards of the earth, he said. What struck me was his reason for why there are not many large protests or civil actions to force rapid change–we will all be dead before the significant changes occurs. This is why we have to be stewards–those who global warming will most affect have not yet been born.

For us Americans, to the best that I can tell from my experience, this is the troubling thing about global warming. We often forget our past and are not the best for planning for the future. How can we be expected to do something that will most benefit those two generations away? After all, we are not too good with setting time tables of any sort; we just go with the flow and hope for the best.

I visited the Cloisters Museum yesterday afternoon. The Medieval collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of my favorite places to visit, not only here in New York City, but anywhere. It is one of the memberships I have that I feel proud to be a part of and actually use. I
feel like I am going back to visit old friends, and here at my Spring visit I took a few pictures now that the flowers are in bloom and the leaves are on the trees. I sat in the internal cloister and listened to a recording of chants. I considered some of what I learned from PDF2007, my growing interests in philosophy, how Posey has recovered from her tumor, how I really want to visit France again, and how nice it is for a perpetually
working/researching/teaching edu-geek such as me to finally have a place of peace and contemplation. I wonder if those Benedictines and Carthusians and such got it right all those years ago . . .

Technorati Tags: cloisters museum, metmuseum, metropolitan museum of art

Seth Godin spoke at Personal Democracy Forum on Friday, and I have been considering his message since then. I have read a number of his books, and this is the first time I heard / saw him.

Two of the things he said struck me:

1. "Ideas that spread, win."

Wow, he really got it right. I wonder how all the well-intentioned political folks who attended can best harness that message? While I agreed with a number of those who spoke in the "Is Cyberspace Color-Blind" panel, which focused on the issue of privilege and positionality, I wonder how best to use Seth's message to guide next steps? Any time I hear people refer to issues of race or sex or ethnicity, it seems a bit, well, old. I agree with those who feel they need to speak about it, and I as a white male have (in the last year) become very aware of this issue and how it manifests itself, I wonder how this message or question or issue can be spread in a new way for a new audience. I know I need to explore this more as well. If Seth is right, then how can the issue of privilege and all that comes with it be made alive so that it challenges without closing down the conversation as an "oh, that again." From my business communication work, which is one of my roles as an adjunct instructor, I return yet again to the WIIFM. "What's In It For Me? " How can we use Seth's advice to spread an idea when people need to hear it in a different way? How can issues of privilege and those around race and sex be communicated in a way that hits me in a way that I can hear–in the wallet? No, I am not thinking about lawsuits and such, but rather about how more just business practices can positively affect the bottom line.

2. [back in the days when there was] "no email, no voicemail, no web." I "do not know what we did all day."

I also thought technology was supposed to make us more efficient in less time. Why then do I always have technology issues and more to do within that less time. Somebody surely sold us a bill of goods, I am afraid.

More tomorrow about PDF2007.