CogBlogged from ‘October, 2011’

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog My visit here in Camilla Georgia was exciting enoiugh with yesterday’s tour of the alligator farm, but today topped that easily. Vicki Davis invited me to where much of her magic happens, at Westwood High School. The first hour was spent with the entire school (elementary through high school) taking in a performance of “The Little Mermaid” that the theater group is going to be doing in a state competition. It was energetic and had everyone engrossed (well I felt that way). But the highlight for me was getting a chance to do a demo of the StoryBox for 2 different classes of Vicki, in her computer classroom. I tried this one differently, by only telling them the basics of what it was, not doing a demo. The point was to get them to join the network and explore. And [...]

The animated GIF still motivates me. I made two more today from photos that just cried out “GIF me! GIF me!). This first represents the loneliness of the road, it just goes on and on and on and on… I’d notice a large number of these log trucks heading north on US 19, and spotted one coming my way when I was stopped for a photo of a decrepit hotel. I snapped 3 photos, mainly hoping one might work to be interesting. Looking at them in aperture, the repetition cried “GIF” to me. The method I used was more or less same as I did for the window water reflection project I fund something was missing, that I really needed the last shot of the truck way down the road… or not at all! I took the first and last ones and mode copies of both layers. I then started [...]

During my drive into Florida today I caught the last bit of Michael Branson Smith’s great Horror Cast for ds106 and I really enjoyed hearing the voices of his students. I get the sense they have bit off fully on the ds06 experience. The theme was horror stories from the classroom, bad things teacher and students have done that may cause a shriek in the night breeze. Jim Groom came on and shared his true life story of (?) grade school, where his teacher Mrs Lizardus apparently show her true form and mass attacked the students as the lizard she is. The body count was high, but Jim said he survived by quick thing and busted out a window. While stopped by the roadside, I noticed the grass in the media was moving more than just from the breeze, and managed to catch the brigade of gators heading north to [...]

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog For about the 90th time on my road trip, I am overwhelmed at the gracious openness that people give me, even when I drop in almost last minute. Two days ago, while I was visiting Cindy Jennings in Spartanburg, South Carolina, I looked ahead to me route map, and noticed I would be going through south central Georgia, and likely not far from Camilla, where Vicki Davis calls home. I’ve “Known” Vicki for year through onlien channels, her early blogging as Cool Cat Teacher, and her Flat Classroom work, being part of the K-12 Horizon reports etc. Were it not for a chance meetup in Seattle early on this trip instigated by Steve Dembo, today would have been my first meeting with Vicki. Dspite her being crazy busy with school, family, writing books, running online projects, and likely 600 other [...]

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Number of days on the road: 126 Miles Driven: 11,476 Most Recent 1000 mile marker: 11,000 miles, east of Nashville, TN on October 21 Number of States/Provinces driven in: 22 Number of US/Canadian Border Crossings: 4 Money spent on gas: $3048 Cheapest gas price: $3.08/gallon (Fountain Inn, SC). Highest gas price: $5.64/gallon (CA$1.39/liter) (Wawa, ON). Photos posted: 2485 (that is an average of 19.7 per day) cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Most scenic foliage drive: Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina. Second was highway 58 in southwest Virginnia Number of books read: 12 (Most recent: Things the Grandchildren Should Know) cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Number of iPhones dropped into canyons: 1 Number of nights in hotels/B&B: 13 Number of nights camping: 20 Best Campground and Experience (likely never to be [...]

Here’s my idea for a new ds106 assignment- Sync up a song with an annotated google map, and mix as a video. It is a sideways step from using maps as stories. It’s easy to go literal, find a song that references geographic locations. To create an example, I went for Route 66, especially relevant since it passes about 80 miles north of my home in Arizona. There are tons of versions; I went for the Depeche Mode one. I created a new google map, and put in locations for the places mentioned – Chicago, LA, Saint Louis, Joplin missouri, Oklahoma city, Amarillo, Gallup, Flagstaff, Winona (AZ), Kingman, Barstow, San Bernandino. For each, I added a map pin with an embedded image (I found the motherload in the Route 66 flickr group) which is keyword searchable (example = search for Winona). I used another published Google Map of Route 66 [...]

From Tokyo we are seeing a nice ds106 activity surge in the Haiku It Up writing assignment created by Shinichiro- what is most lovely is how the author has elaborated on the meaning and structure of haiku beyond just the syllable forumala we learn in grade school here in the US. Haiku, known as the shortest form of the poetry in the world, originally started in the 17th century in Japan. It became international in the late 20th century and now people all over the world make haiku of their own. There are several rules in Japanese traditional haiku and many of them are also adopted into the international haiku. The common rules are: ・Use three lines of up to 17 syllables. ・Use a season word (kigo). ・Use a cut or kire (sometimes indicated by a punctuation mark) to compare two images implicitly. (From Wikipedia) People often think that to [...]

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog Yes, it is so- this LG Thrive is my (temporary) replacement for my iPhone that lept over a cliff this week. It is a Droid. Frankly the fervent fetishing of this phone over that phone tires me (though I really want the one that starts with “i”). Here’s the reasoning… The nearest AT&T stores, even the ones within 30 miles, do not have the 4S in stock. I need a phone now. It seemed hardly worth it to contract in with an old model. I am more than 30 days out from being eligible for an upgrade. I could have gone to a Verizon store, but with future plans for international travel, a CDMA phone makes zero sense, even if the US network is better. Shane at the local AT&T outlet store was helpful .I asked about replacement smart phones, [...]

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog There are too many reasons to list for me to say why I enjoy hanging out with Gardner Campbell one of them being the regular education he gives me in things like how vinyl records are mastered and the real meaning of revolutions. We did all of that the first night I stayed with him at his new home near Blacksburg, Virginia, and I wrm twisted him to have this conversation on ds106 radio. Here’s the full archive, below some highlights. Gardner Campbell on ds106 radio The first bit of new activity I am now aware is scanning what is in the “dead wax” of LPs. This is where codes are engraved that have meaning to audiophiles, and where the producers often add their own signature in terms of a name or initials. The disc Gardner was eager to play [...]

cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo shared by giulia.forsythe As one of the converted, its hard not to be electrified after Jim’s keynote at Open Ed 2011– I can only guess what the energy was like in Park City. I was fortunate to be listening in with Gardner Campbell from his office here at Virginia Tech And he was sure smiling a lot given Jim’s (well deserved) mentions Gardner’s way for his “No Digital Facelifts” talk, or as we ds106ers know it, the Bag of Gold talk (which was ironically or not so, at Open Ed 2009 in Vancouver). Check out the animated GIF representation ;-) As we walked to lunch in Blacksburg (that was at Chipotle’s, Jim!) I recorded a quick audio recap with Gardner reflecting on the talk. Recap of Jim Groom’s Talk with Gardner Campbell We love ya, Groom. We all do. We are [...]