Running with Scissors

It is amazing how blogging can turn on the brain – once you have time to do it again that is. I’ve been back to Bloglines for the first time in weeks, and I just forgot how much great stuff is out there. Some of the blogs I read are very deep thinking about education, technology and how to put them together. Other blogs are great at just making me think. Then there are the ones that on the surface provide little benefit, but eventually allow me to align my thoughts. One of these in the latter category is actually not a blog at all, but it has RSS feeds, so I read it through Bloglines – The Onion. For those of you not familiar with this site – it is a parody news site.

Today I saw this article from the Onion: Beaver Overthinking Dam. Here is an excerpt:

HUNTSVILLE, ONTARIO—Local beaver Dennis Messner is spending an inordinate amount of time and effort in the planning and construction phases of building his dam, according to neighbors close to the project.

In the past four months, Messner, 4, has visited hundreds of other dams and drawn up detailed and extensive blueprints. He has researched topics ranging from advanced dome acoustics to the near-extinction of the North American beaver in the early 20th century, and plans to incorporate much of his research into his design.

“There are two primary schools of thought on dam building: the instinctive school and the adaptive school,” Messner said, studying the river’s current. “I’m more of an integration-minded postmodernist. I don’t believe that form should follow function, like most of my colleagues do. On the other hand, a dam is a celebration of beaver culture, and that is what it should reflect.”

“It’s a lot to think about,” Messner continued.

Despite time constraints dictated by the changing seasons, Messner has spent nearly 400 beaver-hours stripping logs of their bark and foliage, and more than two weeks scouting locations up and down the Muskoka River. “I just want everything to be perfect,” he said.

Why so funny to me? Maybe because I can relate to the beaver – big time.

As I work on lots of different projects, at work and at home, often I’m hesitant at the final “pulling the trigger.” I like to research, analyze, mull. Sometimes this serves me well – other times I end up like the beaver, buried in a hole because time ran out to build the dam.

A while back I posted about an audio piece I heard on NPR’s All Things Considered. In the piece, commentator Kevin Kling talked about his father’s sayings – and how he often didn’t understand them as a kid, but remembered them well as an adult. While not as creative as Kevin Kling’s dad, I’ve come to realize I have a few sayings of my own that I’m collecting that make little sense out of context, like “It’s not all or nothing,” or “Touch the box once.” Now I have a new one to try out- “Don’t Overthink the Dam.”

I remember a commercial from about 6 or 7 years ago where a person is having their morning coffee while a customized version of the morning newspaper was coming out of their printer. The point of this was that you could get the information you wanted, where and when you wanted it. You got to choose what would be included in your paper by making some choices about the topics that interest you. I liked this idea – me as editor. I can see what I want to see. (But what about the implications of this as far as missing stories that might be important to me but don’t reach me because of the filter choices I make? That is a different blog post…)

This morning I was thinking about this as I was driving to work, listening to the radio. NPR’s Morning Edition was on, and there was a National Geographic Radio Expedition story about an insect in the Amazon called the treehopper. (They communicate via sound waves by vibrating their bodies – too cool!) At the end of the story, they mentioned that these stories were available via podcast.

That’s when I got to thinking – we need a new kind of radio for the car: a podcast receiving radio. Since I have wireless access at my house – in theory this is no problem. My car could download my podcasts while it sits in the driveway every night, then have them ready for me to listen to each morning. This is the audio version of the newspaper from that commercial I mentioned earlier – I’m the editor. I get the audio where I want it, and can listen when I drive – one of the best times for me to listen to podcasts. Plus I eliminate the need for that iPod with its cables, batteries, FM modulator, synchronization, etc. Get in and listen – this could change everything.

Life is returning to normal now that the 2006 Faculty Academy on Instructional Technology is in the books. I think it is safe to say our little conference has outgrown the word “little.” We had over 30 UMW faculty presentations, over 130 participants, and 5 special presentations including our keynote speaker, Jon Udell, and our guest presenters Rachel Smith and Cyprien Lomas. My fellow ITSs and I even got into the act by presenting on our use of the Bluehost hosting service and the Fantastico script manager to enable blogs, wikis and other services for teaching and learning.

We tried some new things this time around, including the conference blog and wiki. These seemed to work well as a way to extend conversations and provide resources during and after the conference. We also plan to make podcasts of presentations available on the blog very soon.

In the end, I must say I’m blown away by the level of expertise demonstrated by our faculty and my fellow ITSs in what they have been able to accomplish this year. In particular, it is my great privilege and honor to work with, and learn from my colleagues Martha Burtis, Patrick Gossetti-Murrayjohn, Jim Groom, and Andy Rush – they exemplify “Turn it up to 11!”

Also, the leadership, prodding, suggestions and encouragement of Gardner Campbell has created an environment where good things happen. As my supervisor, he is unequalled in my professional career, and as a friend – there are few better.

So I enjoy a bit of time to rest on our accomplishments. OK, time is up! :)