2009/365/125 Yeah That Lion by cogdogblog
posted 5 May ’09, 7.36pm MDT PST on flickr
After today’s presentations at Penn State, I walked around the corner, and stood face to face with Mr Nittany.
Ironic as I borrowed him for the example story prompt in today’s talk on 50+ Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story.
If I can remember the audience’s contributions, the story here involved Joe Paterno feeding the Lion some buckeyes (or Buckeyes), when Sue shows up with some orange spray paint, finally with an appearance of the police.
(Hey, it was the audience that made this up, not me!).
Their homework is to devise an ending to the story.
If I stay any more days at Penn State University, I will end up gushing every day about the innovation and quest for excellence in teaching I have sense here.
Like the big powerful mascot it has, Penn State goes about this with full energy and big strides.
So the last bits on the Wiki Full of Stuff was a chance for me to speak to a large group of faculty and staff, first a lightening fast overview of the NMC, then an even faster version of 50 Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story, and then a surprise version of Five Card Flickr Stories.
And that was the warm up. Cole Camplese had assembled a panel for open discussion on some questions provided by moderator Vice Provost of IT Kevin Morooney, plus ones that came in via the Live Question tool. Also on the panel with myself and Cole were three of the ETS Faculty Fellows– Chris Long, Carla Zembal-Saul, and Ellysa Cahoy,
I would try to recap the quick hour of conversation, but it hit so many points I am blurred. We did talk on issues of media literacy, assessment, dealing with fear of change, the limits of the “Academy” in encouraging experimentation, the power of open-ness and sharing, the challenge of “dis-aggregated” content….
I continue to enjoy the “50 Ways” shtick, but am also rummaging with some questions about how to take it to a different level. Sometimes I think, “so what?” it’s a little clever and sometimes funny” but what do people walk away with besides a long list of “tools”. I want to do more to emphasize that it’s not about the tools. I got some good ideas from the post game recap with Cole, and hope for some new angles the next time the lights go on.
But all in all, it’s been an amazing few days here on so many levels. I’d like to thank everyone and am worried I will forget too many if I try to list. I gotta do a shout out to robin2go who I’ve crossed on twitter, Shannon whom I’d only know in Second Life, Steve Thorne who is just an amazing bundle of energy, Elizabeth who has been a consistent participant at NMC conferences, Brad who does amazing stuff underneath the blogs, Allan who is doing great community stuff (although he spells his name wrong), Larry Ragan who gave a hearty hello after a few years since the Educause Institute, Chris who is running the Amazing Digital Commons project, Mike (?? memory right) who reminded me to check the facts since PSU was an original 12 NMC member, and… and… everyone.
I cannot throw enough thanks the way of Cole Camplese, who rolled out the red carpet and set up the visit here. He is the Quiet Big Cat making things happen here, and is a force for amazing accomplishments in a really short time. I’m excited that next week he’s going to have a University of Mary Washington Faculty Academy experience. Beyond setting up the visit, he welcomed me in his home (let me read “Room on the Broom” to his son), shared some “growlers” and just was fun to be with.
And yet.. one more big shout out goes to the guy I really came to see here at PSU, my high school buddy, Kevin, who put aside an insanely busy schedule to spend time with me… and besides, he was right there for the Dominoe story.. he was the friend that called me about the run away dog!
I cannot tell you how incredibly stoked I was to hear you today, both in demonstrating the 50 million ways to tell a story as well as participating in the panel discussion that generated so much thought and even more questions. I think Cole knew how pathetically excited I was to meet you and, now that I got a shout out on CogDogBlog, I can die happy. You are inspirational. It was a joy. Please come again!
PS. The end to the story? Of course, the police came and helped paint the Nittany Lion with Sue’s orange paint! I’m thinking, Orange Bowl…
Sounds like a great experience.
btw…
You’ve got an open “a” tag:
University of Mary Washington Faculty Academy…
Also your “50 ways” link (http://cogdogblog/stuff/50ways) isn’t working in IE. Works great in Firefox though.
Thanks @AngerManagementCourses- the busted tag is fixed.
and what is “IE” 😉 That is a joke. It is the Cursed Bane of Web Designers. It is …. oh heck. I will take a look sometime when I have nothing to do, but it would help to know more than “isnt working”- it does require the CoolIris Plugin, not sure how that places with Internet Exploder
Thanks for the presentation yesterday, Alan. I have written a blog post that tries to respond to something of your concern about the “so what?” question.
Check it out here: http://www.personal.psu.edu/cpl2/blogs/TheLongRoad/2009/05/narrative-on-the-social-web.html
It was great meeting to finally meet you! And I’m glad I had the opportunity to share with you a bit of what we’re doing with Digital Commons. The Tuesday afternoon session(s) were very enlightening as well, and my team and I were definitely jotting down some notes some new things we can do with our own digital storytelling workshops.
Give me a holler when you want to do a webinar.
Hi Alan! Wonderful trip and a very inspiring session. We had a blast hosting you and twisting your arm into staying up late to talk about stuff, err, educational technologies! I spent quite a bit of time recounting our post session conversation and have to say I think I’ve come away with an even greater appreciation for what you pulled off — the thing that is jumping out at me as I replay the conversation is that the tools are a part of the outcome. That it isn’t about the tools, but at the end of the day the tools lend a voice to the resulting story. I know that sounds strange, but it is how I am seeing it now in my rear view mirror.
Know Happy Valley will never be the same! I’m glad you got to hang out with so many of my colleagues and got a chance to experience the local life a bit — from hanging with a high school friend, to eating and drinking local, to impacting our community it was a killer time. I can’t thank you enough! You are welcome back anytime!