Wow! Moveon.Org Must Think We're Really Stupid!

As Bluto (Senator McCain) runs lying ads attacking Senator Obama for dissing "the troops," the left is running a middle-school-quality stoner video for "young people."

Way to go Net Roots. So funny, a voter will be insulted! You guys rock!

Won't it be ironic when the Democrats lose the presidential election? LOL! ROTFL!

Ah gah gah ga gah gah gah gah gahhh! Hey, Olive!

Fungo and Me

Go Fishercats!

About to begin

After months and months of preparation, Constructing Modern Knowledge is about to begin!

Over the next few days, be sure to keep an eye on this blog site for updates and media files related to my event.

Participants will be tagging photos and blogs with CMK08.

I'm not worthy!

That's enough!

Two planes, flew all night, drove an hour from New Hampshire to Boston
to take the spousal equivalent for the pizza of a lifetime at the 1926
original Pizzeria Regina in the North End.

We waited outside as we were told while carefully observing various
weirdos and then it was our turn, but not before being yelled at for
using our "Blackberrys." As loyal iPhone owners since day one, we
resent the slur.

We sat in our booth and adjusted the table before the waitress came
and moved it back.

When it came time to order, I began listing what I wanted on my pizza.
When I hit three items that I'm paying for, the waitress interrupted
me to exclaim, "That's enough," before she walked away.

I so miss the East Coast!

Capitalism 2.0

Snapped at Staples in Manchester, NH

Thinking Out Loud

Some of my best writing is in response to other people's blogs. I must get in the habit of turning my comments on other people's blogs into articles of my own. Here is an attempt at doing so...

A recent Will Richardson blog hipped me to a teacher named Dan Meyer who videoblogs.

Does this guy have a crew? I can't find the time or bandwidth to point a tripod at my keynotes. If I do, I can't find the time to edit the video and put it online. People ask me if every one of my sessions will be uStreamed. I use my computer for presentations and unless I want to publish a surveillance video, I can't control the camera while I'm presenting either.

Keeping my content current, amusing and maintaining a sense of narrative is difficult enough. I'm not Al Franken reporting for Weekend Update from his One Man Mobile Uplink.



I marvel at the output of people like Meyer, but am not sure that I find the content particularly compelling. Questions such as the following pop into mind:

• Who is HIS audience?
• Why should we care about his day?
• Is the content interesting or the production values enviable? etc...

I'm grappling with another problem that may be related, but is causing me mental paralysis. I have too much I want to say, write and blog. This leaves me obsessing about what to do first and I don't get around to doing any of it.

I also face the questions of:

• Who is MY audience?

• Why should people care what I think?

• Shouldn't I spend my time writing my book or magazine articles?
Isn't writing a book a lousy return on investment?

• Why won't magazine editors leave my jokes and personal "voice" in my articles?

• Will I be "the mean guy" because I don't follow the herd?

• Why don't people understand that just because I debunk the shoulder-deep BS in edtech that I am an unapologetic advocate for its (largely unrealized) potential and that I get up every day to make the world a better place for kids?

The Wisdom of Crowds or Chaos Theory?

David Warlick is a swell guy and one heck of a programmer. I read his blog regularly. Tw recent blog posts caught my eye.

David Warlick recently wrote the following in his blog:

Mostly, I’m catching up on e-mail and preparing for a keynote I’ll be delivering at the Pennsylvania Music Educators Conference in State College on Monday. Don’t ask me to explain — by I’m really struggling over what to talk about.

In June, David Warlick blogged about his forthcoming featured presentation at NECC.

The session description reads:

Description: The world is flattening, and not just economically. Learn about three converging conditions that are redefining education?and providing windows to the future. In this presentation, I will seek to examine and factor together three foundational disruptive conditions that are converging on our schools, each serving to disrupt schooling as we know it, yet also providing direction as we work toward new models for teaching and learning — Learning 2.0.

Warlick then goes on to ask the blogosphere to tell him what those "fundamental disruptive conditions" happen to be.

Am I missing something? Is David being humble or are conferences booking major speakers lacking the preparation or expertise required to educate and inspire the audience?

Taking Podcasting to the Next Level?

According to today's Appleinsider...

A recently published filing discovered by AppleInsider reveals work by Apple's chief software architect to advance the Podcast beyond its static form and into a live interactive presentation medium suitable for use by educational institutes and businesses for their daily presentations. (

Edubloggers start your engines!

It's Only a Matter of Time...

...until some bone-headed school district tries applying this to teachers.

Watch John McCain Squirm!

Ladies, be sure to vote early and often for John McCain. He's on your side. Really!

John McCain Swiftboats Himself!

Is liar too strong a word?

When you pass a sign like this...

You must stop for a snack!

Crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge

Selma, AL

They insist on three sides...

At Martin's in Montgomery, Alabama!

My new motto

Roadtrip!

Houston GEORGE BUSH INTERCONTINENTAL AIRPORT...

Leg one of my roadtrip is now complete. Despite my son and I having tickets for separate flights to Houston two hours apart, he made it onto my plane. A bit of SMS-prodding from his Mom and finagling on my part and I managed to get the kid upgraded to first class.

We are on our way to Birmingham, Alabama for a civil rights history tour of Birmingham, Montgomery, Selma, Memphis, Little Rock and anywhere we can stop for good BBQ. I've been deeply moved by the courage and sacrifice of the young Americans who changed this country through their heroic principled actions in the South during the 1930s-1970s. This is my way of paying respect to their efforts and learning more about my country.

I have three books on touring historic civil rights sites and have been studying up.

I'll try and keep you up-to-date on our learning adventures.

On to Birmingham...

That's All I Can Stands, I Can't Stands No More...

I just wrote the following in response to David Warlick's blog, Turning the Tables.

The Wikipedia outrage is great theatre, but even unfettered encyclopedic knowledge represents the most superficial aspect of learning.

I've said it a million times, but if the dominant metaphor for using a computer is looking stuff up, then kids will look up in appropriate stuff and adults will behave badly.

Did they distribute crystal balls in Vermont? Why are you engaged in predicting the future when there are things every educator can do today, that have been understood for a century or more, that will make schools better places for children immediately.

Any conference speaker arrogant enough to discuss the future of education should be required to publish their plan for reforming ONE school, complete with supporting arguments and references.

I am indebted to David Warlick for calling my attention to (soon to be?) web sensation, Epic 2015. I could not help but think that the Epic 2015 video is what an L. Ron Hubbard book report would look like if he was a 4th grader with a Macbook.

I suppose that the web video's ominous music and voice of god narration is supposed to scare me about the future in which I will be old and useless. It makes this case by reminding me that Amazon.com sells stuff. Sheesh! I'm unimpressed and pissed that I just wasted several minutes watching this schlock.

OK, let's say that the video's shocking future predictions come true and newspapers disappear. So???

Newspapers disappeared long ago from too many schools. A few years ago, my sensational 7th grade social studies teacher tried desperately to convince 9 of more than 100 colleagues to subscribe to the NY Times in his school 25 miles from NYC. If 10 teachers subscribed, the daily paper would almost free. If more educators read a major newspaper each day they might be less inclined to look for inspiration from speakers who fill their presentations with crappy videos.

These conference presentations are reminiscent of the Andy Kaufman Saturday Night Live routine in which he played a record of the Mighty Mouse Theme and made hand gestures as a form of lazy mime.

Where is the original thought, preparation or practical ideas worthy of an audience's attention?

I'm not a moron and I don't make educational decisions based on random business data. Recommending that school leaders take this nonsense seriously, based on nothing more than production values, will only make schools worse.

Are educators anywhere near reaching their tolerance for hooey? I've just about had it.

Background for Closing NECC 2008 Keynote

I thought it might be useful to share resources related to my old friend Dr. Idit Harel-Caperton's closing keynote address at NECC 2008.

In April 1992, Harel-Caperton's book "Children Designers: Interdisciplinary Constructions for Learning and Knowing Mathematics in a Computer-Rich School," received the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Outstanding Book Award.

Dr. Harel-Caperton also co-edited Constructionism with Seymour Papert. Unfortunately, it is currently out-of-print. Used copies are available and libraries may have a copy as well.

Situating Constructionism by Harel & Papert from their groundbreaking book, Constructionism.

Learning Through Design: Observations from a Constructionist Perspective on a (Possible) Paradigm Shift in the Field - a 1991 paper by Idit Harel.

Related articles by Seymour Papert

Constructionism vs. Instructionism

Computer Criticism Versus Technocentric Thinking

A Critique of Technocentrism in Thinking About the School of the Future

Epistemological Pluralism and the Revaluation of the Concrete (with Sherry Turkle)

Papert on Piaget (Time Magazine)

What's the big idea? Toward a pedagogy of idea power

Papert Misses Big Ideas from the Good Old Days in AI (2002 interview)

Perestroika and Epistemological Pluralism (1990 Conference Keynote)

Professor Papert Discuses the $100 Laptop Project (US State Department - November 2006)

2004 Transcript of Australian radio interview with Seymour Papert

Papert.org - Seymour Papert articles and papers
Planet Papert

Paper by Edith Ackerman

Piaget’s Constructivism, Papert’s Constructionism: What’s the Difference? - A fantastic paper by Dr. Edith Ackerman to help you understand constructivism vs. constructinism.

Other books of interest

Frank Rich on Wall-E -- Well worth reading

The New York Time's op-ed columnist and former theatre critic, Frank Rich, wrote a terrific review of the new Pixar hit film, Wall-E.

Indeed, sitting among rapt children mostly under 12, I felt as if I’d stepped through a looking glass. This movie seemed more realistically in touch with what troubles America this year than either the substance or the players of the political food fight beyond the multiplex’s walls.

While the real-life grown-ups on TV were again rebooting Vietnam, the kids at “Wall-E” were in deep contemplation of a world in peril — and of the future that is theirs to make what they will of it. Compare any 10 minutes of the movie with 10 minutes of any cable-news channel, and you’ll soon be asking: Exactly who are the adults in our country and who are the cartoon characters?

Rich makes connections between Wall-e and the current presidential campaign as well.

For me, Mr. Obama showed signs of jumping the shark two weeks back, when he appeared at a podium affixed with his own pompous faux-presidential seal. It could have been a Pixar sight gag. In fact, it is a gag in “Wall-E,” where, in a flashback, we see that the original do-nothing chief executive of Buy N Large (prone to pronouncements like “stay the course”) boasted his own ersatz presidential podium.

I've not yet seen the film, but Rich's column, Wall-E for President, is worth reading.

Happy Independence Day!

An Australian friend just emailed the following question.

4th of July
If you asked, no matter HOW politely, do think that Britain would let the US back in?

Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/arindam_soma/2636433025/