Oldies But Goodies

I got into a bit of reminiscing with Ferdi Serim, a new ISTE Board member, last evening. I'd first got to know Ferdi when he was the outstanding editor of MultiMedia Schools magazine. (He had a few lapses of good judgement like publishing my writing, but nobody's perfect.) Ferdi's continued to be a real leader in the field of educational technology and online learning and I try to keep up with his work.

This visit got me thinking about the first article I wrote for MultiMedia Schools. I believe it was  Captured by the Web: K-12 Schools and the World Wide Web, that appeared in Mar/April 1995 issue of the magazine. I've always been proud of this article since I still think it was one of the first about the web written for a general education magazine.

But when I tried to open my draft of the article, I was stymied since it was written in an older version of ClarisWorks. It took a couple steps to see the document which made me reassess my strategy of moving content to my new website. I'd been moving my latest articles, thinking they would be of most value to readers. But now I think I better try to get my oldest stuff out there - while I can still open the documents!

In the process I also discovered that it was sort of fun to do a little time travel and see what "life was like back then." A whole 13 years have passed since I wrote the thing. For the rest of you geezers, do you remember

• Linkway stacks
• "the World Wide Web is that it is a system over 3000 individuals and organizations"
• Cello, MacWeb, LineMode, Mosaic browsers
• Jpeg View (for graphics), Sound Machine (for basic audio), and Simple Player (for digital video) helper applications
• 9600 baud modem ("I turn off the Auto-Load Images command.")
• Web Crawler, World-Wide Web Worm, The World-Wide Web Virtual Library: Subject Catalogue search tools
• URouLette and Random Link from Yahoo random link generators. (Can you imagine making this recommendation today?

You get the idea. 

But I also like to think I was a bit prescient as well. This is how the article concludes: 

 ... be prepared, Educators! Graphic browsers like Mosaic will do for the Internet what the Macintosh and Windows interfaces did for operating systems: take complex and confusing tasks and make them simple. Even your most reluctant staff and youngest students will be able to access and create valuable Internet resources

As I wrote this article, I discovered almost daily new Web sites, utilities, or search tools. In view of how rapidly the Web is spreading (the number of sites is expected to double in 1995), this fantastic new resource for schools cannot be ignored.

 If interested, I am putting all my articles, old and new, in a blog format with an RSS feed. You can subscribe to <http://www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/> to follow. Remember all my writing has approved by the FDA as a non-addictive sleep aid.

8 ways to guard against the arbitrary in travel

Someone once wrote that "you can't guard against the arbitrary." He or she must have been talking about travel. Stuff just happens over which one has no control.

But knock wood, I’ve been pretty lucky in my travels about getting where I need to go by the time I need to be there. I’ve been doing about 15-20 speaking/workshop/consulting engagements a year for the past ten years, and I’ve always shown up on time. Did I say, knock wood?

Some of this is dumb luck, but I’d like to think a little of it is good planning as well. As many of you head for ALA and NECC, here are a a few hard earned travel tips to get you where you need to be – on time.

1. Never book the last flight out in the day. If a flight is cancelled, you have a fall back position. I always try to get to overseas destinations a full day before I need to be there. Helps with the jet lag too.

2. Book a direct flight whenever possible. As much as I complain about Northworst Airlines, I'm awfully glad to be living near Minneapolis, a major airline hub. Every connection is another chance for something to go wrong. Oh, keep your travel agent or airline customer support number on speed dial. A call is usually faster than standing in a re-booking line.

3. Know a couple airports within driving distance of your destination. I’ve had a flight cancelled to Syracuse, NY, but was able to get into Rochester and then drive to Syracuse. DC is really nice in this regard with Dulles, Regan, Baltimore and even Philadelphia all within a reasonable drive. A late night 4-5 hour drive is better than not getting there at all. And I am more fun to watch when I've had no sleep.

4. Don’t check bags. Yeah, if you’re gone for more than a week or are combining business and recreation – hiking boots and dress shoes – you may need to check a bag, but generally a rolly and a computer bag should do it. Even the LWW has figured out how to pack wisely using a carry-on only. And she always looks lovely and stylish. It is just a whole lot easier to re-book if you don't have a bag that needs to found and re-routed. Oh, your luggage always arrives with you this way as well.

5. Get to the airport early. ‘Nuf said.

6. Learn the damn security procedures. Yes, you still have to take off your shoes, remove your computer from its bag and put liquids in quart baggie that also has to be scanned separately. This liquid business I believe is a scam perpetrated by the personal grooming business. Those big bottles of shampoo, hand lotion, and other mysterious substances people seem to need go into the trash by the hundreds each day and of course need to be replaced at the destination. And, never, never, never get in any security queue that has a woman (or man) wearing thigh high, lace up boots ahead of you. And don't argue with security personnel. You'll not win.

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http://www.ericsiegmund.com/fireant/archivesmt/cat_just_plain_silly.html

7. Once you get to the airport, your are only 98% there. Know where you will be staying and speaking. Bring printed maps. Bring MapQuest driving directions. Bring your GPS. I'd never rely only one of these navigational tools, but it's hard to miss with all three working for you.

8. Never rely on a hotel wake-up call. I once worked as the 11PM to 7AM desk clerk in a motel. I know how reliable I was. In fact it was where I learned to sleep sitting upright.  I carry a cheap travel alarm. Cheap because I tend to leave them in the hotel room now and then.

I have nifty set of items that I think every speaker should carry with him/her as well.

•  One's own computer.
• Slides on a flash drive.
• A print out of the slides and handouts.
  
• Cell phone with your sponsor's phone number in it.
• The nifty litte cable that lets you recharge your cell phone from computer's USB port. 
• Small powered speakers.
• A Monster Cable Outlets to Go powerstrip. (This one very small and very cool.)
• A good remote for advancing slides.
  
• A retractable ethernet cable.
• Computer lock.
• Foreign plug adaptor kit if speaking overseas. (I love this one.)
  

It's not that I don't trust event organizers, but messages get crossed about equipment needs sometimes,

Oh, I think I'll need to add one more item to my emergency speaking equipment kit - a RGB cable. In the last couple of schools I've worked, I needed to use a ceiling mounted LCD projector where the RGB cable was so tightly bound to the teacher computer, I couldn't get it to reach my laptop. A separate cable from wall plate to laptop (male to male usually) looks like it will be a necessity in the future. Hey, it beats lugging your own projector which I did for many years.

 Your travel tips for guarding agains the arbitrary?

Oh, my bag didn't come on my flight today. I'm still waiting for the prodigal. 

Odds and Ends - paperspam

The photo above is a single day's worth of paper spam I've received as a registrant for the NECC conference. Where's the paperless society we've all be waiting for?

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If you are blogging or blog reading NECC, my session has its own tag (Tag=n07s582), thanks to Steve Hargadon's good work assigning tags to all the sessions.  The SIGMS Forum is (Tag=n07s877).  The idea for separate session tags came up in a conference call meeting last week  and it was only hours later that Steve has this information up. Amazing. And thank you, Steve.

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The old gas grill was shot, so I picked up a new one at the big box store - an inexpensive one since I've always felt the fancier the grill, the higher the expectation of the cook. Anyway,  I knew putting the thing together would be a pain in the patootie. And it was. But what made it less so, besides the good but short lived help from grandson Paul, was that all the screws, bolts and other small bits came in a nifty package that clearly identified each piece. Picture above. Perhaps the world is becoming a better place.

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I guess my imagination is limited. Just how does one get creative with a storage locker? Have North Mankato business owners been reading Daniel Pink?

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While I was driving into work this morning there was a cute story on NPR about creating the perfect CD mix of love songs for a wedding. (With three family weddings this summer, my ears perk up when I hear "wedding.") But was I hearing correctly when the story's author said he made CDs of the songs for all the members of the wedding party? We teach kids this is illegal. I wonder if NPR will hear about it?

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Off to Virginia Beach and then NECC is a couple hours. Looking forward to seeing everyone. Oh, you will be able to recognize me by my name badge. (Thanks to Marianne Malmstrom, the KnowClue Kid, for making these.)