It's tough keeping the future from getting old
Monday, January 18, 2010 at 03:56PM A mini-vacation with the LWW followed FETC this past week. We spent the MLK weekend soaking up a little Florida sun in the Orlando area. A little cool, but 60s-70s were a major improvement over the sub-zero temps we've had in Minnesota all month.
I really like the Orlando area and especially Disney World. But I discovered some time ago, that I like the parks better in small doses with visits at about five year intervals. So I knew going back to Epcot after having just been there in 2007 was not a real good idea. But the LWW had not been there since 2001 so we decided to add it our travel plans.*
My first visit to DisneyWorld was in 1984 with my 11-year-old daughter. Epcot (or at that time, EPCOT) had been open for less than 2 years, but I loved it. EPCOT felt educational. The people movers on the attractions were better than at the Magic Kingdom. The rides actually lasted more than 30 seconds. The whole second act of the World Showcase and its ersatz countries was meant for lazy afternoon strolling. But best of all, this place was a giant Tomorrowland of special effects, 3-D movies and computer simulations. It DID feel like the future.
Sadly, Epcot seemed a little shabby and embarrassingly dated this visit.
- Wonders of Life is closed and looks abandoned.
- Honey I Shrunk the Audience's 3D is sad compared to Avatar. Good thing it has a cute story.
- The interactive exhibits all look like stuff kids already do on home computers.
- Bil Nye and Ellen DeGeneres need to retire from the Universe of Energy and stop shilling for the oil companies. And splashing a little paint on the animotronic dinosaurs does not keep them from looking like very old fashioned dinosaurs. (Can a dinosaur become a dinosaur?)
- The movies at France, Mexico and China all seem a little tired. (France looks like it was filmed in the 60s!)
- Lots o' mainframe and beige box computers in the exhibits. Sad, really. (I did see the kids playing some sort of scavanger hunt using cell phones that looked pretty cool.)
- The "American Adventure" seemed straight out of Fox News - all mushy whitebread full-ahead, no mistake about it patriotic swelling music with golden eagle wings. And Woody Harrelson did a better imitation of Hal Holbrook doing an imitation of Mark Twain. This needs more than just a picture of heroic 9-11 fire-fighters and Bill Clinton's mug tacked to the end of the movie to keep it updated.**
I don't envy Disney trying to keep this giant, expensive enterprise feeling current, let alone futuristic given how fast the future is coming at us. This conglomerate also has to satisfy the sort of middle of the road, middle class, semi-conservative audience that come to this American Mecca in droves.*** (I am not sure the mildly conservative middle class will handle the real future very well at all.)
I've remarked before how one Internet year equals 10 human years. How the faster change seems to occur, the wider the gap between those in the front and those in the back of the race. I certainly feel this in my own work - it needs constant updating, tweaking and replacing. Or it looks shabby real fast. That my Internet workshop attendees need differentiated instructional techniques as much as their own students do.
Sleeping Beauty's Castle and the Tower of Terror, based as they are on archetypal images and fears, have and will serve Disney well with little change for decades. Is this the secret to good professional writing too? Stop writing about the latest gee-whiz gizmos and do-dads and look of the eternal verities of good practice?
It would probably be less work in the long run - and better for education.
* We also went to:
- Circque de Soleil which far surpassed my expectations. Just blew me away.
- GatorLand was terrific especially since we were given the senior's discount ($10!). Very nice little zoo, despite the intentionally bad grammar on the signage - "It doan pay ta bee to cute, do it?"
- Kennedy Space Center "Mission control, the geezers are on the bus. I repeat, the geezers are on the bus." One small step for man; one giant hobble for the visitors." Wish NASA hadn't decided to compete with Disney with rides and IMAX, etc.
**There is an interesting timeline of openings, closings and updates on the Wikipedia entry for Epcot.
*** Most tourists to Orlando come on the same day I am there to deliberately stand in front of me in line. Why do they call it tourist season if we can't hunt them, as the t-shirt says...
Reader Comments (7)
It's also tough to keep the old from determining the future...
"the eternal verities of good practice"
Definitely!
Was planning our March Florida trip last night so your insights are most useful. Thanks.
But please help someone from downunder with some translations: LWW, FETC, MLK - who or what are they?
What is
Luckiest woman in the world..
Florida ed Tech conference
Martin Luther King?
It seems to me that Disney should not try to compete in the world of tomorrow. It was fine as a novelty when they were the only amusement company who could afford to do such "High Tech" stuff. But now, perhaps they should be content to be "A Small World". After all, Disney's for kids and the young at heart. And heck, the rides are still fun in the Magic Kingdom. Glad you got a break. Sounds like it's been a busy few months. BTW how is the transition to Gmail going? Our admin is considering a school based trial with Google.
Hi Scott,
Sooner than you think you will understand the wisdom of letting the old determine the future ;-)
Have you considered that you are "old" by anyone about 10 years younger?
Looking forward to Mumbai!
Doug
Janice,
You got 100%. Don't you love TLAs (three letter acronyms)! Well, I guess FETC is FLA.
Hi Todd,
I suspect I should have been more emphatic about the fact that I still enjoyed Epcot a great deal. (Personally, I still like Magic Kingdom best, but I love the Everest roller coaster in Animal Kingdom!)
It has been a busy year. GoogleApps is going really well. Now working to get people excited about GoogleDocs. Big training sessions in a week or so. I'll keep the Blue Skunk readers posted.
All the best,
Doug
Doug, I guess I was thinking in terms of paradigms and belief systems, not people. Believe me, every time I walk into a school or stroll around campus, I feel myself getting older!