newly ancient

As I write this, I am traveling at 70 mph along the highway on my return from EduCon 2.0. My thoughts are speeding even faster. For me, EduCon 2.0 has been a great experience on so many levels. Right now, it is hard to even begin to grasp the individual components of the sessions when I am still reeling from the experience in general. I am sure the conversations will continue in the weeks ahead and I look forward to participating in them. For now, I want to keep track of some of my initial reflections.

Giving faces to the voices

One of my primary reasons for wanting to attend an education technology conference was to connect faces to the people. Somehow, the 32 by 32 pixel icons on Twitter just don’t do people justice. Thankfully, I got the opportunity to connect with many people from my Twitter network. Whenever I read those 140 characters, I will now hear people’s voices behind them.

Of the individuals I met, some especially stand out to me. George Mayo seemed to have passion emanating from him throughout. After spending just 5 minutes with him, I could really tell how much he cares about what he is doing. That passion he brings with him really makes him an engaging character to be with. I sincerely look forward to collaborating with him upon more projects.

It really takes meeting or listening to Will Richardson to understand who the man is. Previously, I had thought of him as just another talking head, an intellectual. After meeting him, I can see how much strength he brings to projects: strength of character & intellectual strength. (He also has huge hands.)

Tyrone was a great companion throughout the conference. He brought some strong ideas to the sessions he was in, and was unapologetic in stating them. Others from my twitterverse who I finally had a chance to meet were Konrad Glogowski, Joyce Valenza, Margo, Cathy Nelson, Karen Janowski, David Jakes, Carolyn Foote, Sylvia Martinez, Kristin Hokanson, Liz Davis, Lucie deLaBruere, Patrick Higgins, Christian Long, and many others (I’d better stop before Google tags me as a linkblog).

The value of a conversation

EduCon was really about the conversations—the discussions and occasional debates. This is what real learning looks like; real learning is not a single individual lecturing or presenting upon a subject. Real learning is an individual getting the ball rolling, then sitting back and watching where the conversation goes. As much as I try to think of blogging as a conversation, a 5 minute authentic conversation is truly worth 1,000 posts.

I think this is what we need to capture in schools. I wish my classes looked like the sessions at EduCon, infused with informal conversational learning. Often, this is an issue we run into when implementing technology in the classroom: teachers do not change their pedagogy based upon the technology. Having a blog is marginally better than having a weekly newsletter if you do the same thing with it. In the same way, an authentic conversation can be had without technology. No matter the medium, these asynchronous and synchronous conversations need to be happening in our schools.

Change uses the Socratic Method

I came to EduCon with a lot of questions. I left with even more. If I learned anything this weekend, it is that Socrates was the best teacher and learner in the world. He understood the importance of asking questions, and that is the soul of learning. A good learner, whether they be given the title of student or teacher, is not afraid to question anything and everything.

I do not think that I even know the questions, let alone the answers. Too often, technologists are quick to propose technology is the solution to everything. This makes me think of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe. When asked what the answer to “Life, the Universe, and Everything” was, the most intelligent system in the world answered 42. This is not a flaw in the machine—it is a flaw in the user. Until we understand the question, we cannot know the answer.

I leave you to ponder what EduCon was for you. What was your most interesting conversation? What new questions do you have? Let’s practice the art of conversation.

First of all, I would like to apologize for not continuing this series last week. Unfortunately, my mother needed me and family always takes precedence.

What we read is incredibly influential in how we think. For that reason, I find it very helpful to keep track of exactly what I am reading and be ready to present where I gained knowledge upon any one subject. This is one of the primary reasons I love RSS—it allows me to have a centralized location for everything I read. For instance, I usually read the paper in a hard copy format. However, I still subscribe to the RSS feed so that I can mark items as read. That way, when I look back I can track all of my reading.

Since I have all of my reading in a centralized location, lots of interesting possibilities can be found. Google Reader especially excels in this area, by coupling Google’s extensive search experience with savvy UI design. Trends are easily accessible and display a myriad of information upon the past year. What’s more, I can search everything I have read in RSS. Coupled with last.fm and Google Web History, I can effectively look up every article, song, or comic I have ever read or listened to. It’s like having the fastest detective and best statistician in the world on a commission, but free. Unfortunately, the presentation does have some flaws. As important as what I read is, I think this was the weakest chart in my report—it didn’t convey as much information as I would have liked it to. Still, if you would like to duplicate this imperfect attempt, by all means try and refine it.

1. Sign up for Google Reader and put every RSS feed you can in. Anything you consume, whether it be through Twitter, print media, or elsewhere should be your feed reader to achieve effective results.
2. Categorize your feeds with tags. Tag, tag, and tag some more. This step is crucial to figuring out trends in your reading.
3. Every 30 days, visit the Google Reader Trends page and take a screenshot.
4. At the end of the year, take a look at the data you have: how many items you read, percent of feeds you read, etc. See what information jumps out at you.
5. Compile that information into a spreadsheet, using your monthly screen shots of the trends page as the source.
6. Generate a graph of that information, using your spreadsheet application of choice. Do not have any labels or writing of any kind.
7. Copy the generated graph into your graphic design program of choice.
8. Add relevant labels and apply savvy design principles, particularly regarding color and typography.
9. Embellish as needed with additional trinkets and clarifying information.

Hopefully, you should now be looking at an accurate picture of your consumption habits over the past year. There should be a healthy mix of what you read and how much if it you did. Throughout, you should consider your thesis (objective): what do you want your audience to gain? Chances are it isn’t that you do most of your reading at 6 am. Rather, in most cases you want them to gain an understanding of the perspective you are coming from—communicating your reading habits can be highly effective at this, but only if you do it the right way. When choosing information design, don’t be afraid to experiment, but always keep your objective in mind.

By presenting your reading habits visually, you can also gain a lot of insight for yourself. This can be used to change what you subscribe to, or when you read it. For instance, I tend to do most of my reading in the morning. Since my school start time is getting earlier, I know I will have to be waking up earlier to stay on top of my feeds. I also noticed I am a little top heavy with education and technology. Armed with this information, I am spicing things up with more humor, as well as injection of politics and design. Graphing your reading habits gives others an insight into who you are and gives you an insight into how to modify your consumption habits.

Download an archive of my design file.

This is part 2 of a series upon how I produced my annual report. Stay tuned for parts 3 and 4.