Week 3-Thing #6 Ultimate Nerddom!

Hoo boy, I have to sit back and take a breath. Behold, the epitome of nerdiness! Let me start from the beginning and tell you how this beautiful thing came to be.
Way back in Jr. High School, a remote and distant concept not totally unlike middle school, in the 80's, a remote and distant decade, there was a game called Blood Bowl. Blood Bowl is what you call a table top strategy game, meaning you would move miniatures on a board and roll dice against percentages. The genre of Blood Bowl was fantasy, with Ogres, Elves, Halflings, etc. The game play was like American Football (and I use this term because it was made in GB by Games Workshop).
Many years past and Blood Bowl was a long forgotten relic in our parents basement, until . . . at the dawn of the year 2009, my brother sought to make a Java version of the game, only to find out, that someone already had. A new era of Blood Bowling had arrived. Even more so, it is going to come out on the 360 this summer, so a whole new generation of nerdlings can enjoy themselves.
Why does this represent the epitome of Nerddom? Let's recap: This is a simulation of football, a game most Bloodbowlers don't have the physical gifts to play. It is a game played with painted miniatures, and with dice, so there are two very nerdy elements right there-minatures and math. What's more it has been turned into a Java game, which has a very large following, and is it's very own online community, nerdy and nerdy. On that system, play an English teacher, check, and a Biochemist, check, one of which made a mock trading card for the other's beloved Troll, checkmate!
But I love my brother, and I love being a nerd.

As a classroom application, I would probably have students make their own card. I have them make cards for the year for seat assignments and for (in)volunteers. It could be an early on assignment, and once they have made them we could switch cards for introductions, and then laminate them for durability.

Week 3-Thing #5

I have an interest in home recording so I search Home Studio. The most of the pictures are from photographers, on a photo site, who new? There were quite a few audio studios from the seemingly cluttered-yet organized Estudio Casiero, to the austere Home Studio by ashergrey, from pod-casters, to analog synthesizer fanatics, to acoustic lovers. These are just some notes on ones that I thought were interesting


The ones that are set up by guitarists always have their guitars lined up as if they were the band, each in it’s own pose, like in Home studio by agatzeblues

This guy, Home Studio Pt 2 by anatomyofneed, has synthesizers stack on top of each other

Here’s one, small home studio by zero.the.hero, with just a computer and some monitors—where the home studio is likely to head. He also has a simpsonized avatar.

This one was a photo studio, but it had a guitar in the corner-sort of a hybrid I suppose.

Home Studio III by guirlanda. Has a lot of toys in it which is cool, as it is either a kid or a kid at heart.

This one is just funny, Anatomy of a Home Studio by bigsnit, it has a $8.00 laundry hamper juxtaposed with a $2000 studio mic, and a cat and a ‘casting couch’.

Also humorous, was this one titled “You know your home studio is reaching critical mass when...” and the tagline “These cables have something to do with the studio, but if any one of them is unplugged the television switches off.”

Of course there is a never-ending list (54,000+) many of which don’t have anything to do with home recording, or photography such as Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio by Faby Manzi. It says that this house was the first in America to have a family room and closets. And appearantly there are more than one on flickr, Frank Lloyd Wright Home & Studio by Adam Preble, and this one, Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio, Oak Park, Illinois by MF*****Fotos, so I am beginning to believe this was an assignment for some students. Just as anyone who looked up ‘library’ might begin to think-what’s with all this web 2.0?

Besides, I liked the photos of the Dow studio better.

Week 2-Thing #4

Now, it's official! I've emailed off my address, and I soon will be a fellow blogger as this sleepy guppy squirms quickly to catch up with the rest of the school!

Week 2-Thing #3

Well, the blog is all set up, and I have a brand new avatar. I decided to branch out a little bit. As I am such a fan of the Simpsons, this is me teaching at Springfield Elementary. I've had this blog started for a month now, but I never had enough momentum to get started. Now it seems to be rolling along all right, but I did have a bunch of extra time today, as I stayed home to nurse an ice injury. If only it were from playing hockey! This one came from slipping, and not falling in a parking lot. I stretched my stabilizing ligaments and continued to strain them as I walked around, almost making myself walk entirely peg-legged. It was and still is painful, though less so now that I have given it time to rest.
Now I am going to find out how to link it do the main blog!

Week One-Thing #2

Well, I am not as scared now, after poking around the blog, and checking out some of the resources from previous learners. One thing I really liked was the 7 and 1/2 habits of lifelong learners. MOTORVATION as a concept, (and as a practice) has a lot to do with life long learning. I like Stephen Covey's book Seven Habits of Highly Effective people. These two only share one habit directly, and others indirectly.

Habit #1 Begin with the end in mind.

This is a fundamental part of teaching. I can remember early in my career when I would get halfway through a unit and think, where was I going with this? Where am I going now? To be successful, I need clear objectives. I have to see what I want to have happen in the end. I have to be able to envision it.
The envisioning process is very powerful. I am not a tech coward; I simply didn't prioritize the class, until today. I actually have some pretty lofty goals for technology and me. We will get to those later.

Habit two-take responsibility for your own learning. More and more, the authority is being reduced in learning. Before you did what you were told, and you were rewarded or punished with grades. Now, as the world becomes more learner-centered, the need for an external authority is diminishing. More and more teachers are guides, not simply sources of information. Now, what I learn is for me, and should have some purpose for me, not simply an external hoop or benchmark. I am responsible for my own learning.

Habit three-view problems as challenges. Technology can be frustrating if we let it, as can anything. When I was young, working on cars could often be very frustrating. You get under there and you've got grease and dirt coming down on you and you can't quite reach it, and it won't come loose, so you start thrashing around and you end up with bloody knuckles, no closer to your goal. Now, I look forward to it. It is a practice in patience. And when I run out, I just take a step back and take a little break. If I am lucky enough, there is someone there to take over for a bit. That's the synergy the seven habits of highly effective people talks about.

Habit four-Have confidence with yourself as a learner-The difficulty here is expressed in my first post. I am successful in many realms, all of which took a degree of patience and priority. I think I have that for the variety of skills that I will learn through this course and beyond.

Habit five-create your own learning toolbox. It seems it used to be that we did one thing and hopefully we did that thing well. In fact, many last names are simply expressions of the one thing that we did well, Baker, Fleischer, Wasserzieher-I take it the BlackSmiths were rather prolific. Now we are expected to do so much more. Even if you are a baker, you are expected to have a website and a membership, that emails them a newsletter monthly. Right there a number sof skills are required. Even if you get some technical help, you are still expected to type, not to mention be a salesperson and social networker. And to think, you only wanted to be a baker. In teaching, it is very critical to have a number of technological skills. Can you make movies, podcasts, manipulate learning modules, fix your own tech, etc. This class will help me expand my learning toolbox.

Habit 6-use technology to your advantage. Thankfully, there is a place in our schools for the technology illiterate. Still, they are becoming more and more rare. I had high school teachers that used to count grades by hand. Next year the district will move over to a platform that will require the use of an online grade book. It isn't adapt or die, it's adapt or spend-long-hours-in-training-sessions. Personally, I couldn't imagine what it would be like to use a paper grade book. Soon, people will say similar things about whiteboards.

Habit 7-teach/mentor others. You have got to pass it on, pay it forward. There are people who have helped me along the way. It is my obligation to do the same. I have been able to help people with technology, but only minor tricks, like helping with grade books, or setting up airports. Now I can become a greater resource.

Habit 7 1/2-Play! this is a real important one. Technology opens up a vast new world of creativity and it must be tapped if we are to see the full benefits. My brother seems to take to technology more easily. I believe it is because he is playing with it in his head. It is all a puzzle or a riddle to be solved, a neat function to learn, something cool to make. And it is! On that note, I'm off to see what is taking so long for my simpsonized avatar!

Weak One-Thing # 1

The title is not a typo. I public flog myself for my sloth and stupidity.

I am getting started today, and there are less days then there are things to do. While it looks bad, I will just simply be spending more time with this course than others, others who are already finished, others who are internet rough rangers, ready to boldly gallop into the wild web 2.0.

Me? Oh, I'm a coward when it comes to tech. It just mystifies me sometimes, and I stand there staring into the abyss, totally frozen.