Cairo bound...
Wednesday, April 1, 2009 at 05:30AM My flight for Egypt leaves tonight about 9. After a layover in Amsterdam, I'll be arriving in Cairo on Friday at 1AM local time. I am excited.
I'll be doing a keynote and a couple workshops for the NESA Spring Educators Conference and then the LWW and I head to Luxor (via sleeper train) for a four day Nile cruise to Aswan.
A public note of appreciation: NESA, under the able leadership of David Chojnacki, is one of my favorite organizations with which to work - well organized, great communicators, and sympathetic to the needs of its member schools. The NESA staff call themselves a family and actually live up to the description. OK, so their taste in conference speakers is sometimes questionable, but you can't have everything...
I am just a little anxious about the final 4-hour "institute" I will be giving on Monday. Plunging into the Stream of Social Networking is a hands-on workshop where the participants will be completing 4-6 actual individualized projects designed to improve their personal learning networks and/or academic activities. I expect it to be chaotic. I am worried we won't be able to get everyone connected to the Internet. I am convinced that attendees will discover that I am a technology sham. But here is my real goal: I hope that 5 years from now, every attendee will be saying something like this to her/himself:
Gee, I don't remember the name of the workshop or presenter at that NESA conference in Cairo, but I do remember it is where I met the people who now form my online "learning and support group." How I ever got along without them before, I'll never know...."
It's been 20 years since I've been to Egypt. I hope the pyramids are still there. As I remember, they were pretty old even in the '80s so somebody may have torn them down.
From People are the Hard Part; Machines are the Easy Part ...
the true miracle of the pyramids
I once visited the Great Pyramids of Giza and have always remembered an observation made by the Gaddafi look-alike tour guide:
“Most people marvel at the engineering and building when looking at these ancient wonders. But the true miracle was the sophistication of human management 4,000 years ago. How did this early civilization feed, house, train, organize and motivate the workers in order to complete these giant undertakings?”
See you in the desert...
Reader Comments (3)
Well, in terms of the management, I do believe I read many of the builders were slaves, therefore the usual methods of motivation were used - whips, truncheons, etc. sort of like when you work in state government.
Hearing about your hands-on session I am even more envious of those going to the conference. I could really use that session! Have a great time and post a picture of two of the pyramids & the cruise.
Hi Mary,
Yes, I believe the pyramids were all state projects on low bid contracts. Or maybe they were early Halliburton jobs?
Doug
Hi Gwen,
Wish you were attending as well. Looks like it will be a fun conference. And yes, pictures will be coming.
Doug