A long walk around DC

My Sunday morning and afternoon here at NECC in DC were free of obligations, so I took a good long walk. Washington is one of my favorite cities, especially for people watching. Summer dresses on young women are better than flowers. Of course there are plenty of weeds as well - beer-gutted tourists wearing t-shirts, shorts and sandals with athletic socks.

Anyway, from my hotel near Logan Circle, i wandered down 15th Street to Lafayette Park, past the White House, and to the Vietnam War Memorial. After climbing the step to the great Lincoln Monument, I swung by the Korean War Memorial, and then through the FDR site, to the Jefferson Monument, and back up to the Mall, stopping at the new United States History Museum and back to the hotel. The ramble took about four hours, with stops. It was a cloudy day with a nice breeze and before about noon the crowds weren't bad.

I have three favorite places I try to visit each time I come to DC. The first is the statue dedicated to the women who served in Vietnam. Easy to miss, hidden in a small grove of trees some 50 yards from the stark wall of the big memorial for that conflict, the grouping of four figures - three nurses and a wounded solider are a study in support and compassion. I visit this place and think of the service my aunt gave as an Air Force nurse during Vietnam, flying Air Evac missions from Vietnam to the Philippines to Hawaii.

I am always haunted by the haunted, fearful faces of the war giants striding up some unnamed mountain in Korea. I always look for my dad's face in the photo engraved portraits along the black wall.

And finally, I am always taken by the statue of FDR that has his Scottie dog Fala displayed prominently beside him. Sure, the words chisled on the walls are his; but the dog says more.

We should always be reminded that history is constructed of real people - grieving nurses, straining soldiers, and presidents who love dogs.

Head for the Edge columns online

My 08-09 Head for the Edge columns that appear in Library Media Connection are now online. These include:

Continuing Education, August/September 2008
From Cop to Counselor on Copyright, October 2008
The Other Shoe Redux, November 2008
Building Capacity for Empathy, January/February 2009
Constructive Criticism, March/April 2009
Starting Off on the Right Foot, May/June 2009

Remember, the FDA has approved all my writings as a non-addictive sleep aid.

A day of conversations

On China's policy to filter the Internet:
Once you start censoring the Web, you restrict the ability to imagine and innovate. You are telling young Chinese that if they really want to explore, they need to go abroad. - Tom Friedman

Edubloggercon, the preconference un-event, has been so tweeted and blogged about that I feel redundant posting here. Like others have commented, an entire day set aside to discuss, reflect, argue and learn is a gift. It's a stimulating mix of big Kahunas in the field like Dave Warlick and Joyce Valenza and Vicki Davis, rising stars like Jeff Utecht and Scott McLeod and Kirstin Hokanson, and lots of fresh faces who had the courage to wear little blue buttons that read "Help Me, I'm a Newbie."

I have to say the day started a little slow for me. After sitting on the now annual "Web 2.0 Smackdown," a hour or so of two minute intros to new online tools, I finally had to admit that new online tools are starting to bore me senseless. Judging from the group reaction, I am in the distinct minority here, but just how many ways can you graphically represent a image search or analyze your Twitter posts or shorten a URL? (For those who like such things, Scott McLeod posted a list of the tools shared here.)

What made my day were the policy-oriented discussions in the afternoon. Jon Becker's session asked if schools can fundamentally reinvent themselves. And Scott McLeod and guest Ann Flynn from the National School Boards Association led a discussion on school social web policies, asking the questions, "What do you want school boards to do for you and know about your work?"

The best such sessions can do is bring something simmering in the back one's brain to the front. For me it was vocabulary. Much of the talk centered around "social networking" and policies surrounding it. I've come to the conclusion that we should stop using the term. It connotes recreational/frivolous use of Internet resources.

Instead I propose we talk about "educational networking" and "social learning." When we describe our activities and tools with these terms, they not only sound more substantial, but I believe more accurately reflect what we're trying to do.

OK, so that was kind of a nice take-away for me. Oh, the other thing I learned that I will use was watching over Kathy Schrock's shoulder as she drug a web address out of her browser on to her Mac OSX's desktop, creating a little shortcut icon for the site there. I am probably the last person in the world to know that one can do this, but man, for those sites you only need to bookmark for a short time period, what nice little trick.

Along with the blue "help me" buttons Edubloggers could wear were orange ones that read "I'm an Expert. Ask me for help." I couldn't decide which to wear. It all depends on the topic at hand, I guess.

Oh, as always the topic of Internet filtering was front and center, so Tom Friedman's observation above from his recent column about the need for innovation in tough economic times caught my eye. Ought those of us in the West also take his words to heart? The quote needs to be changed a only little:

Once you start censoring the Web, you restrict the ability to imagine and innovate. You are telling young Chinese students that if they really want to explore, they need to go abroad get away from school. - Tom Friedman The Blue Skunk

Where's Waldo? (Edubloggercon '09). Picture from event's wiki.