(Yes the title is a White Snake reference - in honor of the PATS)

I attended the first of 2 classes at Harvard this week to mark the kickoff of semester #2. Tuesday’s Human Development class looks like it will be extremely interesting - the 2 profs are engaging and extremely knowledgeable. The only down side is that it starts at 7:30 pm! Makes for a loooong day. And the very next evening is the ProSeminar in which I will be refining my thesis topic and diving in deeper to the literature review. I am excited but weary, as I find more and more of my energy and time and money is being poured into my professional life, with little left for the personal. The apartment hunt is put on hold, the spa vacation remains a travelocity bookmark, and my view of the gym seems to be more of my monthly statement these days. I promised myself (and that Guy upstairs) that I’d take better care of myself this year in my “new age” bracket, but there just aren’t enough hours in the day or dollars in the bank! Keep on keepin on. I’m just one of those people (schmucks?!) who believes that hard work, sincerity, and passion will pay off some day.

“Things been a little tight, but I know they’re gonna turn my way.”
- the boss

I’m obviously posting some news way after the fact, but I needed a wee time out from my computer screen every evening after work!

I managed to get my research paper in on time, and I just found out today that I got an A- in the class! Whoopee! I learned how to conduct qualitative research and analysis…and that I have soooo much more data to collect and literature to review before I can even propose my thesis. I was aiming to have it proposed by Feb 1 and done by Nov 1, but I’ve got further refinement of the topic to do and I want to keep my sanity during the study, so it looks like it will be instead a March 1 2009 graduation date. Sigh. The Neverending Story of the Masters continues! I did talk to my advisor at Harvard for over 2 hours last Thursday and left feeling inspired and focused on the journey ahead of me.

In other news, I turned 30. I joined the 20-10 age bracket last Sunday at the Patriots game. And well last Saturday too at Ole in Cambridge over gourmet Mexican food and margaritas! I was so touched by the support and appreciation by my loving friends and family!!

Lastly, I am finishing up Term 2 at TBA, which means it’s September all over again for me next week.  I am super excited about the Media Seminar videos…the kids are taking so much pride in their work and polishing the PSAs up in the edit room with voice-overs and beats (which often results in free-style raps about class and Spice Girls dance routines, both much to my delight). My mantra is “work hard, play hard”, so if students are able to get the work done, they can and should have fun too. My freshman work so well together in web design class - there are at least 3 in each section who walk around and help their classmates out. And the advanced web students were reportedly “sad” and “gonna miss you miss” when they realized they had just 2 classes left before the final launch of their client’s web site. I am so proud of how every student has found a way to contribute, to listen, to trust, to manage, to creatively solve a problem, to help, and to take pride in and have fun with their work.

I snapped this photo through the window at my desk today. I have been glued to the desk lately as my pilot study paper and presentation is due this Thursday! So today’s cancellation of school was indeed a gift. One of the “perks” of the job I guess! I will have next Monday off as well for MLK day, which is also a gift because I will need to recover from witnessing yet another AFC Championship battle in Gillette Stadium. Never fear, Patriot Nation, I have been present at all 4 of the last 6 AFC Championships that the Pats have won (one of which the Pats were not present at either, actually).

Speaking of Gillette, I won a Gillette-sponsored contest on Facebook! My “Get your game face on” video won me a JVC camera, a Brady Quinn autographed football, and a Gillette shave kit. I’m psyched! Its taking a while to redeem the prizes from “fulfillment at facebook” though, so I guess I’ll just have to wait for my shaving cream. ?! (you can view the video here)

On Wednesday evening, I attended a public forum in the Brattle Theatre featuring an impressive discussion panel : Jonathan Fanton (president of the MacArthur Foundation), Howard Gardner (Professor at Harvard Ed School), Henry Jenkins (Professor at MIT), and Katie Salen (Professor at Parsons School of Design & game designer). Unfortunately, there was an overflow so I had to watch it via a webcast in the Ed School (I grabbed a sloppy burger at Charley’s Kitchen first! Doh!), but that actually afforded me time to get to the reception at Upstairs on the Square early. I was able to say hello to Professor Jenkins, but I don’t think he quite remembered me from the C4CFM! I actually spent most of the reception catching up with old acquaintances from Facing History and Ourselves’ Digital Legacies Project. I still and know I will always feel a strong bond with the teachers and students from that summer project! I meant to introduce myself to Howard Gardner, as he knows my headmaster, Mary Skipper, who had approached me last year about integrating morality into the media classes (which was in fact my thesis topic choice last year : moral dilemmas in media). I couldn’t locate Katie Salen either! I am fascinated by the new school she is founding in New York : its curriculum will be based on games and the gaming experience (this was a point she made that I latched onto : gaming is not just about the game itself - its not like kids will be playing games all day in math class! - but about the whole experience the gamer goes through).

The forum itself was hard to hear from the webcast! But I picked up some “nuggets”.

The panel, facilitated by Ellen Fanton, Director of MIT Press, discussed ways in which young people’s participation in online social communities and gaming affects their learning experience. Across the panel, there was a consensus that learning was indeed taking place online in the following 5 areas :

1. identity : who am I online vs offline?
2. privacy : there is a HUGE learning moment when a child must decide what to make private and what to make public
3. ownership & authorship : if I modify existing media, is it “mine”?
4. trust & credibility : what is credible in an information overload? who can I trust and how do I know I can?
5. the definition of community & what it means to be a member of a community

One challenge is how to assess the learning that is indeed taking place in “new” media, versus “traditional” media (these labels were also put into question by Gardner : what is “new” and what is “traditional”?). What are the performances of understanding ethical behavior in a digital world (a TFU framework approach)?

This was the endeavor that Fanton was announcing : to identify the behaviors of a participatory culture and to find ways of assessing them. From my perspective, a digital media teacher who has had students blogging, posting into forums, and joining social communities like Tapped In since 3 years ago, how do I TEACH the students how to behave? I think this involves a much more explicit teaching of morality and ethics in the classroom than ever before, as there are definitive behaviors that are acceptable and not in most online communities : see the acceptable use policies…But what I am facing in the international Ning is emails from banned members demanding to know WHY they were banned, or why they can not post that picture…There is still a disconnect between what is explained to participants explicitly and how they actually CHOOSE to behave. How do I teach them to make “better” choices online?

The participatory culture is widely “blocked” (quite literally) in schools, and extreme examples of “bad” behavior online is sensationalized in the news. What was “too risky” before with myspace (anyone can join, even predators) is now being solved by social tools like Ning and CrowdVine in which users can create and control their OWN social communities. What would be cool would be a class in which students create and control their own online community, where they do everything from forming their own AUP, electing moderators, banning their own members, and more! Kindof like a digital version of Kid Nation!

Jenkins pointed out, whereas before we had a “digital divide” (a discrepancy over access to computers), we now have a “participation gap”, where not every child has the same experience online. Not every child is in MySpace - a fact I assess when 1/4 of the hands go up in the 9th grade Web Classroom. Why am I surprised? And by asking this survey question, do the kids who choose to not participate feel they should be?

The MacArthur Foundation announced the new International Journal of Learning and Media which examines the effect of digital media on how young people learn, play socialize and participate in civic life. Mr. Fanton announced a call for project proposals and papers.

I think Ill be submitting something, especially as my thesis research on youth-produced civic media evolves…

Last Thursday I was invited into a Flash meeting with teachers and principals in the UK. Here’s a Screenshot :

It was pretty seamless - the live video streamed quickly. When you want to speak, you click on the orange hand to get in line (the “queue”) and then your video appears in the main screen when its your turn. The group had a specific agenda, so I was kindof eavesdropping…just to get a sense of the tool. Thanks Ian! More on the ways in which we are working together soon…

OK I need to vent here…

I have been enrolled in the ALM ET program at the Harvard extension school for going on 2 years now. I have been paying out of my own pocket $850/course to get my masters degree. Why do I need the master’s degree? In order to have the “PERMANENT” stamp of approval on my record. Why do I need to become permanent? In order to (a) increase my salary lane (b) stay at my school if I ever took time off (c) be “allowed” to take on certain responsibilities of which I am already capable and pretty much doing (d) be eligible for tuition reimbursement. Yup, I need to pay up now in order to not pay later. But Ill be done with my coursework by then and wont get any reimbursement for what I took as a provisional teacher in order to become permanent. Sigh.

When inquiring today via phone to HR about tuition reimbursement, I was told that all I need to know is “on the website” and nearly hung up on. I was logged into myBPS, and on the HR home page but the doc was not there. In an ever so patronizing way “Uh-yeeeah-aaah”, I was led through the Superintendent’s page (cuz that’s HR?!) and a series of illogical clicks to finally get the tuition reimbursement word doc open - off of the bps web site, NOT in the portal after all. “Uh-yeeeah-aaah” its actually not “on the web site” at all! Exasperation. Sigh. Blech. Done.

So I really WAS paying attention at the Boston Media Makers meeting on Sunday at Sweet Finnish, and not just posting from my camera phone…In fact, I was supercharged up afterwards with ideas and new contacts and just plain happiness to be around people who “speak my language.” Aaaaaw. I aimed to get ideas about how to logistically get the students mobile blogging while in Germany and Paris, and the crew of about 15 or so (including a babbling baby) gave me some leads and solid tips. Thanks!! I gotta run out the door now, but Steve Garfield posted links and a summary on the group’s blog that sums it up…Ill post later about the “gems” I got.

Thanks again to Steve for inviting me!

I successfully uploaded my podcamp day 1 video to my Blip.tv space AND tagged it correctly in order to get it included in the Podcamp Boston aggregate, which is cool. Baby steps, folks, baby steps. BUT I am now emailing with “Justin” from Wordpress to help me cross-post onto THIS blog. There are some “problems”…ARGH.

In other news, as I nail down the HOW TO in the next few days, I am recruiting students for the podcast class here. I hate to use the term “class” cuz it really won’t be run in that traditional sense. I simply want students who want to broadcast their stories through media in an effort to connect our own classrooms, with the greater community of the neighborhood, the school system, the city, and even the world.

My students will also join a global discussion forum which will include our school, a school from Japan, and a third school from Yorkshire. I think we can get some cool trans-atlantic projects going! That’s what new media is all about - sharing in and building a collective and collaborative knowledge base with and through multiple forms of communication. And my goal is to get teen voices heard among all the twitter!

Oh here’s my extreme close-up (DORK!) on Steve Garfield’s excellent video blog.

Turns out that the 5 easy steps to video podcasting are not so “easy” after all!

I reflected on my first day at Podcamp by video taping a session from my camera. I figured I already have a Google Video account and a blog, so I can edit it a bit in MovieMaker, and upload it before I go out to watch the Sox game. Um. Google Video does not have the option to post directly to your blog after you upload it to your account…MovieMaker is compressing the thing SO small that the result is the above file…I tried 4 different formats so far…the wordpress plugin for video play also is changing the quality of the video…and I thought Blip.tv would answer this all but no, I need my wordpress api url or whatever and yet that doesn’t solve the cross-blogging posting (according to wordpress support forums). SO I just spent the last hour on this when I should now be on my way into the city. And all you get is the above poor quality video!! The sound is awful! I am so disappointed.

Help? Plus, this isn’t even actually syndicate-able, is it, since I uploaded it from my computer? (I just made that word up)

You KNOW I will repost this tomorrow once I figure it all out, but, I gotta go get a life right now!

Oh, and that special appearance of a Sox fan at the end is Teddy. Depending on the sports team, he can be Teddy Bruschi, Teddy Hesburgh, or Teddy Williams. “High Five! Go Sox!”

The group at Henrietta’s Table
Originally uploaded by AlleyesonJenny

In the midst of Octoberfest in Harvard Square on Sunday, 6 bloggers, including yours truly, met up for brunch at Henrietta’s Table in the Charles Hotel. Many thanks to John Wall of the M Show for arranging it! In my quest for new endeavors and new ideas in education and technology, it was the perfect launching pad. I indeed did pass out my new business cards, and while doing so made the humble “I’m in the process of updating my sites…(grumble, grumble)” comment, and promptly went home with lists of links to check out (LinkedIn, Twitter), new blogs to read (Jeremiah, C.C., Len), events to attend (Blogtoberfest, PodCamp), and old friends to reconnect with (Big Red Blog, All Eyes on Jenny, Ronin Marketeer). There’s a great group picture on Jenny’s blog!

Great conversation over eggs benedict and fresh fruit beats text messagin any day, I say!