Welcome to Jeffrey Keefer’s Blog!
Educational Researcher / PhD Student (Lancaster University, UK) in E-Research and Technology Enhanced Learning / Adjunct Instructor (NYU & Pace U) / Project Manager (Clinical Education) in New York City.
Interests in educational research influenced by interdisciplinarity, focused on digital identity, doctorateness and the postgraduate experience, threshold concepts and transformative learning in higher education, Internet research, networked learning, technology enhanced learning, distance education, adult and organizational learning, narrative inquiry, and actor-network theory.
My professional work is at JeffreyKeefer.com
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 A colleague of mine recommended a documentary film that was just released on DVD, Into Great Silence. The filmmaker, Philip Groning, lived for six months with the Carthusian monks at the motherhouse of the order, the Grande Chartreuse, in the French Alps. Unlike most Catholic religious orders of monks, the Carthusians have maintained their strict discipline for almost 1000 years, after being founded by St. Bruno in 1084. The film is very strong, as it invited me into a world I knew existed but which I had never seen. Carthusians do not entertain visitors, and there has never been a documentary about their lives. This is not so much to be secretive, but rather to maintain the quiet needed for the contemplative. The video captures their work, prayers, community, and humanity in a way that has never been captured and shared so openly before. I wonder what effect this may have. Will they have more vocations? Attempted visitors? Donations? Influence among dedicated laity looking for a more reflective religious meaning to life? For me, I felt almost like a voyeur; one so riveted by seeing the heretofore unseen, I was mesmerized. I wonder how this may affect me in the long term?
Technorati Tags: Carthusian, Philip Groning, St. Bruno, Grande Chartreuse
Michael Storrings has a number of new hand-painted Christmas ornaments this year, and he will be signing them again at Saks Fifth Ave. (5th Ave. at 50th St.), on the 8th Floor from 1:00-4:00 each day. The dates for this are 11/23, 11/24, 11/25, 12/8, 12/9, 12/22, & 12/23. A selection of his new mugs, dessert plates, coasters, placemats, and stationary will also be available at Saks.
He will also sign his ornaments and mugs at the Lincoln Center Tree Lighting on 11/26 at 5:00 (located in the Metropolitan Opera Shop at the Metropolitan Opera).
Additionally, he has a new, limited edition book of watercolors depicting various sites of Christmas throughout all 5 Boroughs of NYC. This is available exclusively at the Top of the Rock Shop at Rockefeller Center and Saks Fifth Ave.
I am planning to attend most of these signings to assist and offer support, so perhaps I will see some of you there as well?
These are the postcards he created to promote the events:
Technorati Tags: Michael Storrings
I am so happy to see the folks at Northern Voice will again hold the 2-day blogging and technology conference on February 22-23, at the main UBC campus’s Forestry Science Centre (the same location as last year). I met so many great people at that conference last year: Nancy White (finally!), Lee LeFever (finally!), Robin Yap, Arjun Singh, Kris Krug, Aidan Henry, Chris Lott, Chris Heuer, and on and on. While I am trying to stabilize my finances, I know that this past year’s conference changed the way I approach technology as more of a social and educational experience rather than a me-alone-at-my-computer one. I can’t wait to see the new promo image for this year!
Technorati Tags: NV2008
 After the wonderful success of this past year’s successful PodCamp NYC (now re-branded as PadCamp NYC 1.0), it appears there will be another one in 2008. Listed as PodCamp NYC 2.0, this one promises to be even bigger (i.e., it is now 2 days instead of one) while still being free. This is an amazing feet, in that last year as an unconference (which had formal presentations, somewhat unconferency-like) it attracted 800 people. It is branching into Brooklyn this time, and will be held at Polytechnic University, which is in the process of formally merging (being bought?) into New York University. I know that I learned a lot last year by attending this, and while I am still not a podcaster and do not listen to many regularly, I am looking forward to learning a lot more. Hey, maybe I will podcast at some point after all!
Technorati Tags: PodCampNYC2
So, here goes another conference proposal.
I am working on a research paper on post-modernism and HRD (Human Resource Development) for this conference in Lille, France, in May, 2008. The last paper I presented in the world of HRD was an overview of the literature which I presented in Halifax, Nova Scotia, last year. The theme of the conference this year is Developing Leaders and Managers, where an exploration into HRD and how it has been influenced by post-modern concerns and views cannot be underestimated. I just hope that the reviewers will agree with me!
I usually do not mention papers I am working on until (and if!) they get accepted, but December 14 is closer than it seems, and I can use all the encouragement I can get!
Google announced their Open Social platform yesterday, and this seems to be the next great “thing” out there in the social networking world. For all those who were getting comfortable in the Facebook world, it will once again start to slip away in favor or open API and programming architecture. The days of hiding behind a member’s only wall where nothing can be exported seem to be drawing to a close (remember AOL?).
Google never does anything without a business plan to make a bucket of money, so I wonder what this will do (expect draw people to their sites again rather to to Facebook)?
Yesterday I spoke at the Volunteerism and Technology: New Ways to Expand Capacity and Build Community conference that was organized by the United Hospital Fund in New York City. I presented on Webinars within non-profits. I uploaded the slides into SlideShare.
Working in instructional design and project management of organizational learning initiatives, this fits well with my previous position in knowledge management and technology training.
 I missed seeing Fernando Botero’s Abu Ghraib paintings when they were in New York last year, and just learned about them in the current issue of GQ Magazine (sorry, there is not an article on their own site about this; how odd). Wow, they are strong. Amazing how the pain in the normally playful figures central to his work is depicted, and after reading about the struggles he had early in life in the violent Colombia of his youth, I can see how the depiction of the prisoners in the Iraqi prision moved him to represent this through his art. The juxtaposition of his style and this subject matter is disturbing, just as are the photos of the soldiers humiliating the prisoners themselves. I find it interesting that the painter has chosen not to sell any of the fifty or so works in this set; quite telling of how he views torture and those who profit through it.
Technorati Tags: Botero, Abu Ghraib
I wrote about how much I liked the production of Verdi’s Macbeth I saw Monday night at the Metropolitan Opera, and I am glad that the Times shared in my asessment. The voices, the acting, the costumes, scenery, and interpretation of Verdi were wonderful. Even the scene when the army was being armed, loosely set in Post World War II Scotland amidst poverty and mass fleeing the nation due to its war mongering leader (Macbeth), I could not help but recalling Myanmar, Iraq, Rwanda, and so many other places around the world where the simple citizens would rather flee their homeland than live with the constant threat of terror.
The Times especially loved the conductor, James Levine, as they saluted his work within Verdi’s masterpiece:
It was hard to resist the overall production and variable vocal performances when Mr. Levine was conducting the work so splendidly.
Leave it to Beth Kantor, the innovative web guru of nonprofit social media and low-cost technological wizardry to raise enough money online to send not one, but now almost two students in Cambodia to college. Beth has long been involved with working with the needy in Cambodia, and with her large network of admirers and colleagues and associates, she has raised thousands of dollars in a day or so, all through small donations and via word of mouth (with some Twitter and Facebook support). Keep up the good work, Beth, and glad I could pitch in at least a little bit!
Technorati Tags: Beth Kantor, Cambodia
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