I’m back.
Actually, the blog is back. I’ve moved it to my new hosted server. It was running on a linux box in my basement for the past 5 years. Time to retire that thing and move to a hosted option. It’s on the same site as my main domain name that I haven’t touched in years (hence the strange URL to some). Sorry about the funky characters in the old posts — the mysqldump must have done it. I’ll also have to go back and fix many of my picture links. I plan to re-activate this especially as I’m going to be at Frye in June. Seems like a good time to blog about my experience to help me remember it — much like Ireland!
The virtual world crossing over to the real world … in music
I was listening to Weekend Edition today and was spellbound by this story on Video Games Live. This is a traveling concert experience where a full orchestra plays video game songs with a multimedia show behind. For one thing it brings young people into concert halls which is great. But I’ve been thinking about how its another way the virtual life more of us are experiencing is brought into our real life. There’s of course the World of Warcraft gold farmers that make the news that shows how commerce can crossover between worlds. That should not be surprising. If there’s money to be made people will find it.
But I find it interesting that people are seeking traditional (real) expressions of the experiences they have in virtual worlds. I know hearing certain video game themes trigger memories of completing a difficult objective and the sense of accomplishment that followed. This is so interestingly similar to how different pop songs make us think of times of our lives and what we were experiencing then. This is also a strange generational connection. Parents of today’s kids played video games, although visually simpler, just like the kids are. Both can come to this concert and share in a strangely modern experience of virtual meets real.
Presenting in May on Learning Spaces
I’m going to present with my colleague David Warch at this year’s Classrooms of the Future symposium. We’ll be presenting on how our campus raised awareness of the best thinking about learning spaces very quickly to respond to some new building projects. Of course I’m on the steering the committee for the symposium so….
I’m a podcast now
The 2006 Educause sessions are now showing up as podcasts on the Educause blog site. If you dare, you can listen to my session here. I don’t know if you have the same reaction as I do to hearing a recording of yourself– but I had to stop listening after my first few sentences. It was painful. Next time I do an Educause it will be better.
Educause 2006 – day 3
The final day started out with another speaker’s breakfast since I was actually speaking. Breakfast is always tricky at Educause. Things start so early and there isn’t a breakfast provided but there is usually snack break mid-morning. The snack break on the last day tends to just be a coffee break which can leave people hungry.
I skipped the first session to review my material for my session, From Pencils to Pixels: Course Evaluations Go from Online Pilot to Production. I was a bit nervous of course! The session came (it was the last session of the conference before the final large general session) and I was surprised by the turnout. The room was about as far away from the main conference area (it was in section D of the center and most things were in A or B). But I had many people there, probably around 50 judging by how many handouts were left. I think I was a bit boring sounding and not as dynamic as I felt about the material. I was overly-concerned with people be able to understand me with the microphone (lapel clip-on). I’m not used to microphones so it was awkward. I was also tethered to the PA system so I didn’t feel that I could roam so well — I didn’t want to trip! But my slides went fast – 30 minutes – leaving much time for questions. There were A LOT of questions which was great and some people asked questions of other audience members. There was talk of a support group for people building their course eval systems instead of buying a package.
After that I did my podcast interview — still waiting for that to come online. I loved the podcasts last year. With that Educause 2006 was over and we headed to the airport to fly back to 30-40 degree weather from this sunny 70-80 degree weather!