November 22, 2004
Kia ora rawa atu
I am trusting the English-Maori translator to say "Thank you" to everybody who made my visit to New Zealand a memorable experience. Having arrived safely home in Arizona, the time seems to have passed all too quickly, and I recorded some not-too-serious observations over in my main blog home, under New Zealand Believe It or Not.
This will bring to a close the entries on this CogDog(kiwi)Blof. Keep on explorng the new technologies we shared in November 2004 and all the others that continue to evolve- keep the Kiwi Wiki going strong! Please do not hesitate to contact me.
Adios, mi amigos!
November 17, 2004
" Rip. Mix. Learn." -- The Closing Presentation, Everything But the Kitchen Sink
My last big show here was a closing of the day keynote for the Unitec Teaching and Learning Symposium. I decided to be overly ambitious, and try and cram in way too much, for an over the top, techo-whiplash extravaganza called "Rip. Mix. Learn." .
I aimed to cover everything from audio blogs to wikis, digital photography, moblogs, RSS, Ad Hoc Pesonal Wireless networks, del.icio.us, furl, bloglines, podcasting, digital natives and immigrants, free form tagging, video blogs, recommending technologies, digital storytelling, eportfolios... in 45 minutes.
Unfortunately the network slowed to a painful halt, and I was unable to show the main part of the mataphor based on Apple's "Rip. Mix. Burn" ad campaign - the TV commercial "The Concert" with the kid in Carnegie Hall organizing music from his favorite pop starts on the stage- it took 15 minutes to preload about 800k, so they were left with me trying to describe the content.
No problem. As I told them at the outset:
My disclaimer is that the technology will likely fail on me. If it does, then my presentation has lived up to my expectations; if not, than I have exceeded them.
And at the end the applauded politely. I am hopeful a few of them got something to chew on, though most hands went up in the end when I asked, "Was this too much technology?"
Oh well, out like a spinning fireworks I go!
New Word of The Day
During a session on Learning Communities at today's Unitec Teaching and Learning Symposium there was frequent mention of whakawhanaungatanga which form what I could gather was a Maori word used here for a "sense of community" that has an element of relationship or kinship (I am hoping someone knowledgeable will comment in here).
My closes guest at pronunciation is "Faka Fana Ung A Tanga" ??
Unitec Symposium: Conversations in Teaching and Learning
Today was the first of a two days series devoted to Unitec faculty sharing best practices and developing startegies for teaching and learning, and they have a great turnout given it is almost the last week of the semester.
The morning keynote was "Graduates for a Changing World" by Simon Barrie from the University of Sydney Institute for Teaching and Learning. Following are some rough notes...
- Universities have not changed much but the world has
- "The world our graduates need to thrive in is one that is classified by change and uncertainty"
- The gaps of understanding are not due to an "Information Explosion" as much as an "Ignorance Explosion"
Digital Storytelling Workshop
workshop on ePortfolios and the afternoon was this one on Digital Storytelling -- there was a great turn out for both sessions, lots of enthusiasm, and almost not enough time to meet everyone.
In the middle was a nice lunch over at the newly opened Fox Centre, sort of a warehouse type trying to be trendy mall in an industrial sort of understated sense. I liked it better than a plastic mall.
I very much enjoyed my visits at AUT and regret they were jam packed with workshops.
Ironically, following the afternoon session on Digital Storytelling, Mark Northover was coordinating registration for AUT faculty in a D-story workshop provided through TUANZ (Telecommunications Association of New Zealand):
Stories are filled with history, visual imagery and meaning. They define who we are, where we have come from, where we are going and what we care about. In our digital storytelling workshops the emphasis is on discovering the story essence - the truth and feeling behind a story. Computer software is then used as a tool to transform the story into a powerful and effective medium for expressing this message.Digital stories are 'mini movies' created and edited by people like you - using cameras, computers, scanners and their photo albums. Everyone has a story to tell and new technology means that anyone can create a story that can show on TV or a website. Digital stories derive their power through weaving images, music, narrative and voice together, thereby giving deep dimension and vivid color to characters, situations, and insights. It's you who decide what those stories are.
Hopefully participants in my session have a little head start in thinking about their projects. I am curious to hear back how the workshops went-- my caveat is to be wary of ones that end up focussing more on the technology part than the storytelling part, which is a common slippery slope. I am not suggesting it is the case here, but something workshop participants should keep in the back of their mind going in.
November 16, 2004
Tuesday - a day of break
Whew! The last few days were a continuous string of either full on workshops or scenic driving across the countryside. How much more can I stand?
Luckily, today is a day for some catch up, some back blogging, and to do prep for a big presentation tomorrow.
November 15, 2004
WebTools / Free Stuff Workshop at AUT
The first part was the overview of ways of using the wesb, Web as a Learning Tool -- by this workshop I had accumulated a number of new sites.
For example, I had added the reference site RedLightGreen, a bibliographic research tool that allows you to keyword search 120 million published books, and collect citations in your favorite bibliographic format. In the web as a social communication tool, it was worthwhile to add PodCasting, the audio RSS technology that is but 6 weeks old. Folks got a kick out of the Treasure Chest item Incredibly Stupid Movie Physics.
Among the "Web as a Play place", there were interesting reactions to Thinking Machine 4 the application that maps out computer moves in an online chess match, and Art For the Rest of Us, Mr Picasso Head.
And the odd balls, which are entertaining but also illustrate the range and seemingly infinte reach of the far corners of the web via The Bureau of Missing Socks and the inexplicable Urinal.net.
After this we shifted into Finding and Using Free Stuffactivity at too fast a clip, but some folks managed to post some found stuff to the wiki.
Auckland Skytop View
The weather was clear, and there was no one up there- this spot is a gem.
If I did not have to do more workshops, I would have spent quite a bit longer up here!
As an added bonus, I snapped a QuickTime movie panorama [450k] from this spot- enjoy the view!
Weblog Workshop at AUT
Like all the workshops, there were some amazing reactions to the collection of odd blogs such as the Daily Photo Project.
Again, a good number of folks got right into it and created their own blogs (see the roll call). Some like Sharyn even got to making a flickr account and blogging pictures from there. Niiiiice job!
And talk about timing! Just this weekend following, the New Zealand herald reported Gorgeous, but this blogger's fiction. In this story we learn how the bizgirl blog created by "Natalie" (which just won the Best Personal Blog award at the Netguide Web Awards) is actually authored by man (and is totally fabricated).
Always question what you read on the internet!
November 14, 2004
A Tane Mahuta Weekend
This blogger is way behind, and look for some back blogging soon to include 2 workshops at AUT Friday, a spring up the North Island with my host Mark for an overnight at Mangonui. We had hope to fish in Saturday, but the weather ruled against us.
Instead, we did a marvelous circuit west and south, through the velvet green country side, the Hokianga Ferry to Rawena, the Kauri forests, lovely Dargaville.
And that was just Saturday. Sunday was a trip to Hamilton and out to funky Raglan and back to Auckland.
Hoping for some Arizona solar effect to come through Monday! Lots more photos to come.
November 11, 2004
Eportfolio Workshop at Wintec
There is a not so subtle difference between the two, and it was a clever suggestion made by Stephan Harlow. (see Helen Barrett's recent presentation on the relationship between digital storytelling and eportfolios).
Anyhow, again we had a motivated group that got right into the process of using the Maricopa ePortfolio software we have set up on a UNITEC server for all of my workshops here.
Keep your web eyes on the group of waikato eports as they emege and develop. You gotta love the message and image Jacquie Kidd has started off her eportfolio with!
Digital Storytelling Workshop
available on my flickr