Posteo rápido para contar que esta semana estoy participando como docente del curso virtual "Empoderamiento digital y trabajo con jóvenes" para nicaragüenses organizado por la Fundación Desafíos y apoyado por Relajur y SinergiaNet.

Estoy a cargo del módulo de ciberactivismo.

Pego el primer párrafo de la presentación del curso:

El curso busca aportar elementos para una reflexión crítica acerca de los nuevos espacios que se generan con el desarrollo de las TICs e Internet, así como conocer experiencias en las cuales se trabaja en la perspectiva de propiciar el empoderamiento digital de personas, grupos, organizaciones y redes.


¡Agradezco mucho la invitación de Daniel Espíndola!


pd: No estoy posteando seguido porque estoy en medio de cosas que no se terminan de definir como para contarlas.

I headed off in the morning to the Australian Science and Math School, hosted at Flinders University. The school is only a few years old, and is built with an open concept -- no classrooms, but instead a number of large spaces with desks and chairs that reconfigured in many different ways to foster teamwork and collaboration. We had a large group - about 50 teachers and school leaders, and had a really interesting day -- when I showed the "Are you listening?" video, a whole bunch of students gathered upstairs in the area overlooking where I was speaking to watch - I think they were really curious that so many teachers were learning about their way of using technology!

After a fantastic dinner by the water with a group of curriculum developers, I headed to sleep -- because I had to catch a 6:40am flight to Canberra!

I made it to the nation's capital early in the morning, and it was freezing! 0 degrees but it warmed up as the sun rose... I had a few hours to fit the gym and have lunch before heading to Canberra University -- the group in Canberra decided to have an evening workshop (4-9pm) with dinner. Although everyone had a full day of work before showing up, we still had a lot of active participation, and after wrapping up at 9 and getting back to the hotel around 10, it was time for sleep for another 6:45am flight back to Sydney for the last workshop of the trip!

Arriving in Sydney in the morning, with my 32kg on-the-dot bag faithfully appearing on the carousel, I headed off to Parramatta right on time, and arrived 3 minutes before the workshop was to begin! We had the biggest crowd of any session -- around 60 people, and so a lot of the interactive sections took a lot longer than usual, but they had great ideas and a large group of schools approached me after and wants to deeply engage their entire district with TIGed, which is exciting! After wrapping up and chatting with a bunch of the attendees, I was off to one of my favourite hotels in the world -- the Westin Sydney, to relax, enjoy their great gym, and have dinner with Jenny, who had the whole series of workshops organized, to debrief on the experience (yum, Tasmanian lamb!). After that, I met up with Jarra and Nick, and headed to Micky's for dessert (Banana Pancakes and Ice Cream!) to catch up and for me to celebrate the completion of 10 sessions in 11 days in 5 cities!

I'm writing this now on the flight to Vancouver -- I managed to get right to sleep after lunch on the 10am flight, which will hopefully mean I can work through the North American day and head to sleep at a proper time tonight. Saturday, we head to Quebec City for the World Youth Congress to meet TIG members from all over the world. I've also agreed to head to Brisbane on the 19th to speak at the Queenland Government's e-learning summit, and after that, I'll be ready to just settle down at home and enjoy the rest of the summer in Toronto :)

Seriously folks, I worked from home today, and I:

• Got more done (way more) that I would in the office
• Was more relaxed
• Had time to go for a run
• Managed to run the same presentations and meetings
• Ate way healthier food than I normally do

I also worked longer and took fewer breaks. I know it’s not exactly rocket science, and everyone is telecommuting these days, but seriously, this is the first time i really hit me that I actually not only concentrate better at home, but actually get more done.

And I have time to read more internet-ey things: Gawker, Youtube (great Obama clip), and BlogTO (a little bit of sxsw-style action in Toronto?), just to name a few.

Now that I've been away a full week, I forced myself to carve out some time to reflect on the intensity of the time so far before kicking off the second stretch.

As always, our summers at TakingITGlobal are quite busy -- generally for the education "industry", most conferences are held during the summer when teachers have school holidays. This summer, as a follow-up to my keynote at last October's ACEL (Australian Counsel of Educational Leaders) conference (which was apparently quite good even though I was quite sick at the time), I was invited to be a "Traveling Scholar" for ACEL, presenting 5 full-day workshops on TakingITGlobal to school leaders and teachers across Australia. In addition, I started off the trip by keynoting a leadership conference at Melbourne Grammar School, and today keynoted the International Middle Years conference in Adelaide... so I've made quite good use of two weeks!

Sunday - Wednesday: Melbourne

After the trek from Toronto to Vancouver to Sydney to Melbourne, I knew the first thing I needed to do to keep my sanity was to spend a good amount of time at the fitness center at the Westin. What a great idea - it helped me refresh, have a fantastic swim in the beautiful infinity pool, and after a brief stroll that was quickly canceled when the rain started, I got to sleep at a reasonable hour.

On Monday, I woke up nice and early and arrived at the charming greened campus of Melbourne Grammar, one of Melbourne's oldest and most respected private schools. To their enormous credit, they had invited students from a broad cross-section of Melbourne to attend the conference, in addition to a grade of their students. I was brilliantly introduced by one of their capable students, and my keynote was well-received - with more questions from students than we had time for. Following the keynote, a panel including a futurist, scientist, and Aboriginal leader Patrick Dodson, who cited my presentation several times as they discussed issues of leadership in the 21st century and challenged students to act on the issues they felt challenged by. In the afternoon, I ran several hours of hands-on workshops guiding a small group of students through the TIG site and beginning the Guide to Action as a tool for action planning.

Tuesday morning, I visited Kilsyth, a suburb of Melbourne, and ran a 3 hour workshop with a group of teachers across that region looking at TIG and especially with an interest in Health education... it was a good challenge because we didn't have Internet except for a very slow 2G connection, so I was able to get well prepared and experiment with some activities for the following days' sessions!

That evening, I traveled to Mooney Valley Racecourse (home of Australia's best race - the Cox plate, worth $3 million!) and presented our work at TIG to about 150 principals, who also had some great questions, and I enjoyed meeting a teacher who grew up in Mississauga and had spent his recent years enjoying and exploring Australia's wilderness.

On Wednesday, I spent from 9 AM to 3:30 PM with an enthusiastic group of teachers and principals learning about TIG, exploring global issues, and understanding how to fit our programs and ideas at TIG into the curriculum and everyday use in their classrooms. I also shared our Best Practices on Global Education resource with them... and then I was off to the airport, heading to my next destination: Tasmania!

Thursday - Saturday: Hobart, Tasmania

On Thursday, I woke up and did it all over again, in a beautiful setting amongst Lemon trees at Lateare Gardens in Hobart with a fire burning to keep us all warm and cozy from the cold outside! I think the goals of what we do at TakingITGlobal really connected closely with some people - one teacher was literally in tears sharing how wonderful she thought what we did was... it's really a special opportunity (as exhausting as it is) to be able to share our work with people that are also dedicating their lives to helping young people develop. I think sometimes we all forget the power and opportunity we have to impact the lives of others - and I feel like a few people really felt reconnected to that opportunity, which is really an amazing opportunity to be able to stimulate.

After a short 2 hour break to refresh and do some e-mail, I headed off to the Hobart Yacht club, where I addressed about 50 high school principals, who weren't able to attend the day's workshop because they were having a leadership retreat. I had to pack 90 minutes into a 30 minute before dinner speech, so I think it was overwhelming, but many of them were quite excited by what we do... and I had delicious local Salmon which was a bonus!

The next day was my main day off. I decided not to head off to my next destination right away, but to stick around in Hobart and see some of the beautiful wildlife Tasmania has to offer. So I signed up for a Tasman Island Eco Cruise - having no idea how much of an adventure it would be! After a scenic bus ride to Port Arthur, one of the main convict colonies from the 1800s, we boarded a powerful boat (675 HP) that they describe as a 4x4 of the sea. Initially the ride was quite smooth - and we discovered some caves and amazing rock formations on the coast. The "swells" were only about 1 meter, and so it was just like jumping waves on a boat at home.

However, once we got out to the Tasman Sea, things got a lot more interesting. The waves and the winds were coming strongly from an unusual direction, and 2-3 meter waves and swells gave us quite a ride! I had chosen to sit in the 4th row (moved from the 2nd) and for close to an hour, we jumped waves and it felt like we were on a roller coaster as we plunged down after riding a wave.... but I stuck with my seat - a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

We arrived at two areas with Australian and New Zealand seals, and at a cove where dolphins chased our boat around until we had to leave - amazing to lean over and watch them at the water and bow of the boat jumping up playfully! A number of albatross with their huge wingspans also provided us with an amazing show - watching them fish and gracefully glide across the sky with nothing around us but huge rock and menacing water... or what looked menacing in my book. In 1998, however, the water was so rough that in the annual Sydney-Hobart race, five boats sank and six sailors were killed.

On Saturday morning, before heading to the airport, I spent a few hours enjoying the Salamanca Market, with hundreds of stalls offering delicious local treats and art and coffee and everything needed to pass a few hours and take in the culture of a place!

Sunday - Monday: Adelaide, South Australia

Now I'm here in Adelaide, where this morning I keynoted the International Middle Years of Schooling conference, and was again introduced by a fantastic student duo! I gave out dozens of bookmarks afterwards, with many many people promising to check out the site and connect their students into TIG. I was also followed by an excellent presentation by Professor Erica, who gave a talk on creativity that linked really perfectly and built on top of many of the themes I covered.

Tomorrow I'm off to the Australian Science and Mathematics School to do another day-long workshop, and then heading to Canberra the next morning... I'll be sure to check in soon with more! And I'll be editing this entry in about 2 hours with photos once they upload.

G'day for now, Mike

Brace yourself for something completely different! I couldn’t think of anything serious or meaningful to write about, and I was bored and hungry. So here’s what you get:

Not long ago, it seemed like McMuffins were the only (chain) breakfast sandwich going. In part, this was because of my long-time ban on sober Burger King–while their breakfast stylings look like a better-than-abysmal option, I’m not ‘usually’ drunk at breakfast time, and even today (note: not the day of the actual posting of this blog. Just the day I started this project.), when I was prepared to break the ban temporarily, at 10:20, the BK near my office had already switched to their lunch menu. It may be because off the odd hours I keep, or it may be because all these sandwiches are just a bit disgusting, but it’s a frosty day in hell that I can handle one of these puppies before 10am. And never, ever could I handle a burger or poutine at 10:20am, so Burger King, you’re off the list…

Anyway, back to the story. So a while back now, Tim Hortons introduced breakfast sandwiches, and you know what? They’re pretty great. OH BUT WAIT! Then Starbucks came along. Before all this, Subway stepped into the then barely-existant fray, and back in my Acadia days, I enjoyed many a Subway breakfast sandwich. But now that everyone else is in… Subway is all but out (I’ll explain in a minute).

Now that all these options are available, I think it’s important that we have a good guide to the world of sandwich-type breakfast options in the <$4 arena. They’re all the same, you say? NOT HARDLY! So read along, and comment away with your perspectives, particularly if you’re not on a BK ban and have any opinions about that particular set of offerings.

My favourite:
Breakfast tacos in Austin, from the trailer by the school for the deaf. Joking. Well, not about them being my favourite, but about them qualifying for this particular round of tasty competition. They’re not readily available as part of my downtown Toronto lifestyle. Particularly not the ones from that trailer by the school for the deaf. And as many times as I’ve ranted about this particular issue while walking past Toronto’s various Texan, Tex-Mex or otherwise kind of Mexican-like establishments, no one has taken me up on my challenge.

My favourite IN TORONTO:
Starbucks! Who knew. I’m not usually the first to admit that I like Starbucks. Mostly because other than my usual venti soy chai tea misto with a shot of sugar-free cinnamon dolce syrup (that’s right, I’m one of those douches–but it’s Pemma who got me onto it), Starbucks doesn’t have a whole lot going for it in my mind. I really, really dislike their coffee, particularly their drip coffee, but we’ll talk about that later. Actually, let’s talk about it now: it tastes like burnt garbage. But right now, the point is their new breakfast sandwiches, and let me just say, they are delicious. Specifically the eggs florentine. Eggs, spinach and havarti on an english muffin, grilled to godly perfection? Yes please. The price, however, is a bit higher than I’d like, but it’s Starbucks. The other big plus is that they grill them with the cheese in, so unlike most of the other contenders, it actually melts properly and is nice and gooey. Yum. I want one now… I’ll be back… (Image courtesy iirraa.)

Most fatty in a delicious way:
Surprise, surprise, Tim Horton’s takes the cake on this one. Not because of any proof that their sandwiches are any fattier than anyone else’s (note: said proof is available here (vs. Starbucks and McD’s (note: I only looked at the breakfast burritos and the sausage and egg McMuffins. The McGriddles scare me too much to even look.))). No, it’s not the ‘facts’, nutritionally speaking, though they do support my case. No, the only ‘fact’ I need is the fact they they but their delicious, factory-made and truck-shipped rounds of eggs and sausage and squares of cheese into a delicious, once frozen, baked, and toasted buttery hexagonal ‘homestyle’ biscuit. Which they then apply more butter to before adding the aforementioned toppings. I don’t know about you, but nothing says homestyle to me like a perfectly six-sided biscuit. And of course nothing says homestyle to me like 18 grams of saturated fat. Good times, good times. But seriously, all that butter (fat) makes them pretty darn tasty. (Image courtesy Ceci un Matt).

Most traditionally delicious:
Not being one to mistake homestyle for traditional, I’ve got to step back into the long (?) history of breakfast sandwiches, to what I consider to be, with absolutely no fact-checking or external verification, the home of the original breakfast sandwich. And by that, I mean that growing up, all we had in my town was McD’s and BK, and we all know where on stand on the Burger King issue. So therefore, the most traditionally delicious breakfast sandwich comes from McDonald’s, and is, specifically the egg & sausage McMuffin. I also appreciate the breakfast burritos, though they don’t hold a candle to a good breakfast taco, and I’ve tried McGriddles… All I remember is the sickness that ensued. So let’s stick to McMuffins, and let’s face it: they’re readily available, they’re cheap, they’re fast, and they can be paired with McDonald’s delicious iced coffee (a significant advantage of Tim Hortons, whose coffee I neither enjoy, nor can procure iced at most locations not in the Maritimes (I’m confused by that one too, the sentence and the fact). (Image courtesy Ja-ae).

The “Thanks for Coming Out” Award goes to…
Timothy’s! This is perhaps the latest entry into the breakfast sandwich game of the chains. And, well… it’s the exact same as a McMuffin, but maybe a bit less greasy, and made, literally, with the same eggs as Tim Hortons (those lovely perfectly round factory-made wonders). Maybe they’re a bit less greasy. They’re DEFINITELY more microwaved. They’re interesting in that “why do I ever even come to this place?” kind of sense that you get from most Timothy’s products, between the total confusion you create when you ask for something other than a large coffee, the complete inconsistency across the chain, and the six years you often have to wait for your sandwich ingredients to come out of the microwave. But good for you for trying, Timothy’s. Your continued existence continues to amaze me.

Fastest downward spiral:
Let me tell you a story. One time, specifically mid-summer 2002, the Subway franchise in Wolfville was taken over by new management from New Minas. Yes, let the terrifying name scare you. Because that is exactly what it did me. My friends and I at work used to take a mid-morning break for breakfast (because again, who can really stomach breakfast before 10?) and head en masse to Subway. And for most of the summer, it was an enjoyable experience. Until we met the crazy manager from hell… I mean, New Minas. First, my friend asked for her usual: a ham & egg sandwich, but instead of ham could she have turkey, because dietary restrictions did not allow her to eat pork. Note: this is not uncommon. The manager told her that this was simply impossible and when my friend said she got it almost every day, the answer was something along the lines of “well this Subway has been operating in a substandard way for years, and if you asked for that at any other Subway, they’d look at you like you had two heads.” The two heads part is verbatim. So anyway, after that flawed transaction, I was told that there was no ketchup, and had never been any ketchup available at any subway ever (a lie), and harsh words were exchanged. Also, this crazy lady took away the pineapple. What is a sub without pineapple, I ask? Needless to say, I made my own breakfast for a while following this incident.

And in my mind, Subway’s reputation never really recovered from this awkward and off-putting hit. Then, to top it all off, they did away with round bread. And let me ask you this: who wants a breakfast sandwiches on a 6″ sub? Those eggs come out of the factory round for a reason (oh yeah, they also switched from undercooking the eggs in-store to using the same egg rounds that Tim Hortons and Timothy’s use). Enough is enough! I just can’t take it anymore! That said, after BK declined my offer to sell me breakfast, I did end up taking one more stab at subway, on a six inch bun, and it was not good. In fact, it was the whole inspiration for this entry. My goal: to save my non-vegan readers from the treachery of subway and their sub-par breakfast offerings. Just don’t do it. It’s not worth it.

And with that, we’re pretty much at the end of things. From its humble days at my local McDonald’s, where a scary group of old men used to hang out and make plaques for themselves above the table where they always drank their morning coffee, to the vast cornucopia of greatness that is the current breakfast sandwich market, the answer to the question no one has asked is: avoid Subway like the plague. Note: views expressed here are no one’s other than my own. In fact, they’re barely even mine. Also: it is amazing how many people put pics of breakfast food online. Actually, it’s just a little bit gross.

As you may or may not know, I’m moving on from my position at TakingITGlobal at the end of August, and we’re currently looking for someone to fill my shoes. I can say pretty confidently that it’s an excellent opportunity for the right kind of person - the kind of person who is passionate about both global education and social media, a self-starter who is not afraid to innovate. Details of the position and qualifications can be found here:

http://www.tigurl.org/edpm

Please share this posting with your network and any qualified candidates you may know! And feel free to leave a comment here if you have any question

So we just got this lovely abuse e-mail from Rogers, based on an e-mail from the Entertainment Software Association. The funny thing is that he was only maybe 10-20% of the way through the three potentially offensive game downloads (I checked his computer right after the e-mail came in). Funny in part because the accusation is that he’s distributing or selling the software, when… sure, he probably is dishing out little bits here and there, but he doesn’t actually have the whole thing to give away. Also they seem to associate the tracker URL with us, which is just completely wrong.

Notice E-mail:

Dear Luke Walker

Rogers Cable (Rogers) has received a notice stating that activities associated with your IP address are infringing copyright in material(s) owned or exclusively licensed by others.

The full notice is appended to this e-mail below.

Under section 4(d) of the Rogers Yahoo! Hi-Speed Internet End User Agreement (EUA) and Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), you are prohibited from using the Rogers Yahoo! Hi-Speed Internet service to engage in illegal activities, including activities that infringe copyright.  Copies of our EUA and AUP are available at:

http://na.edit.client.yahoo.com/rogers/show_static?.form=terms&.intl=ca

Where there has been a violation of our EUA and/or AUP, including the unauthorized distribution of copyright-protected material, Rogers has the right to take appropriate action against you.

If you have any questions about the attached copyright notice, please contact the sender of the notice using the contact information provided in the notice.  Please do not reply to this e-mail.

We trust you will comply with our policies and all applicable laws in using the Rogers Yahoo! Hi-Speed Internet service.

Rogers EUA Management Team
Sincerely,

EUA Management Team
Rogers Yahoo Hi-Speed Internet

http://na.edit.client.yahoo.com/rogers/show_static?.form=terms
00798035

—–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–
Hash: SHA1

Entertainment Software Association
575 7th Street, NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20004 USA

Attention:  Intellectual Property Enforcement
Telephone:  202-223-2400
E-mail:  mailto:esa@copyright-compliance.com?subject=RE%3ANoticeID%3A182%2D48817084ESACanadaNotice

28 Jul 2008 04:01:48 GMT

ISP: Rogers Cable Communications Inc.
ESA Reference Number: 182-48817084

Dear Rogers Cable Communications Inc.:

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is a trade association that represents the intellectual property interests of numerous companies that publish interactive games for video game consoles, personal computers, handheld devices and the Internet in the United States of America, in Canada, and in other countries (collectively referred to as ESA members).  ESA is authorized to act on behalf of ESA members whose copyright and other intellectual property rights it believes to be infringed as described herein.

ESA is providing this letter of notification to make Rogers Cable Communications Inc. aware of material on its network or system that infringes the exclusive copyright rights of and is unlawful towards one or more ESA members.

ESA members are entitled to the full protection of Canadian intellectual property laws, including the Copyright Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-42, as amended, in such entertainment software products.

Based on the information at its disposal on 28 Jul 2008 03:13:23 GMT, ESA has a good faith belief that 99.233.14.223 infringes the rights of one or more ESA members by offering for sale or download unauthorized copies of game products protected by copyright, or offering for sale or download material that is the subject of infringing activities.  The copyrighted works that have been infringed include but are not limited to:

Title: SimCity Societies
Infringement Source: BitTorrent
Infringement Timestamp: 28 Jul 2008 03:13:23 GMT
Infringement Last Documented: 28 Jul 2008 03:13:23 GMT
Infringer Username:
Infringing Filename: Simcity.Societies.Deluxe-RELOADED
Infringing Filesize: 2823979146
Infringer IP Address: xx.xxx.xx.xxx
Infringer DNS Name: cpe000fb5785e0f-cm001692f4f318.cpe.net.cable.rogers.com
Infringing URL: http://tracker.mightynova.com/announce

The unauthorized copies of such game product(s) or the material that is the subject of infringing activities appears on or is made available through xx.xxx.xx.xxx.  Those items are listed and/or identified thereon by their titles or variations thereof, game-related listings/references/descriptions, or depictions of game-related artwork.  Such copies, titles, game-related listings/references/descriptions, depictions, and material that is the subject of infringing activities, are hereinafter referred to as “Infringing Material.”

Accordingly, ESA hereby requests Rogers Cable Communications Inc. to immediately do the following:

1.    Notify the account holder of the Infringing Material.
2.     Remove, or disable access to, the Infringing Material detailed above.
3.     Take appropriate action against the account holder under your Abuse Policy/Terms
of Service Agreement, including termination of a repeat offender.

Please inform us whether you will remove or disable access to the Infringing Material as requested.  Rogers Cable Communications Inc. or the account holder may contact ESA at the above-listed contact details, with email preferred.  Please include the above-noted Reference Number in the subject line of all email correspondence.

Thank you for your cooperation and prompt response in this matter.

Sincerely,

Intellectual Property Enforcement
Entertainment Software Association

A bit of departure from my normal blog posts… I spent a lot of today reading/listening to the news, or my version of ‘the news’ (not all of it new, not all of it newsy). I do this most days, but today, for some reason, a lot of what I read really struck me. Mostly in a bad way. Mostly because there’s been so much coverage of the war on terror lately, and that never makes me a very happy camper.

The terror stuff
Three links for you. First, Omar Khadr. The Current (CBC Radio One) played tapes of his CSIS interrogations at Guantanamo today (Video on The Star’s site. Not easy to watch/listen to). I won’t lie… Canada’s (and by that, I mean that government of Canada’s) treatment of the Omar Khadr file absolutely disgusts me. The fact that it’s often referred to as ‘a file’ disgusts me. He’s a human being. A very young one, who was even younger when he was arrested on allegations of being an enemy combatant. Our governments’ (both Liberal and Conservative, though the Liberals have now changed their stance) inability to do what’s right an bring this child soldier home to Canada is completely infuriating and embarrassing. I’m not particularly proud to be Canadian at the moment.

While PM Harper argues that he’s being treated humanely, Christopher Hitchens’ article “Believe Me, It’s Torture” (in the August issue of Vanity Fair, and recently interviewed on CBC Radio One’s As It Happens) makes me doubt that my definition of humane is quite the same as that of the government of the United States. A ‘favourite’ quote, after Mr. Hitchens first-hand experience with water-boarding: “You are being drowned, but very slowly and under controlled conditions. It’s not simulating the effects of drowning…”

And last but not least, the US’s terrorism watch list has grown to include a million names (courtesy BoingBoing). Not a million people, but a million names. Because if your name is on there, regardless of whether or not you’re the one to have done anything wrong, good luck with the whole hassle-free travel thing. Oh wait, no, it’s not about ACTUAL wrongdoing. The list is all about the suspected potential for wrongdoing, proof (or even public knowledge of the criteria that gets you on the list) be damned.

Back to the internet…
In good news… the Top Friends app on Facebook looks like it’s a goner! But not because people are mature enough to recognize that the kind of friendship gymnastics required by Top Friends are best left back in 2nd grade… it’s because Facebook has launched a simplified version of the app’s features (link: valleywag). That said, I understand the rationale–kind of. If I were spending as much time on Facebook as I used to (my use is largely limited to Scrabulous these days), I might spend a second or two caring about which friends show up on my profile when people view it, and that is something quite a bit different than labelling people my Top Friends… but that said, if I’ve added someone to my Facebook, why should I be worried about him/her showing up on my profile? Hmmm… could be grounds for a friends list cull.

I am honoured to share a reflection on my experience at the 2008 Silver Bay Leadership Forum in Silver Bay, New York where they are celebrating their 90th Anniversary of a conference that explores the current and emerging state of leadership.

Last night I was one of three recipients of the Inaugural Leadership Forum Awards. As stated in the program “each of this year’s honoured recipients has been selected for his/her demonstrated ability to take bold action, provide solutions to complex leadership dilemmas, and generate tremendous followership. These leaders have also exhibited the rare ability to cross streams and address issues through commercial, governmental, social and economic channels”. We were recognized for our work in solving ‘wicked’ problems and as you might imagine, it was a very humbling and uplifting experience for me.

In accepting the award, we were each asked to make a few remarks and share our perspectives on leadership. I kicked off my comments on how leadership emerges based on your state of mind. I asked the room two questions. The first – ‘how many of you believe that every problem has a solution’? A collection of people put up their hands. I then asked ‘how many of you believe that NOT every problem has a solution’. An even larger group of people raised their hands. I then went on to share a visual diagram that came to mind while travelling to Silver Bay and reflecting on my perspective of leadership.

In the past, my perspective on leadership was somewhat simplistic and singular. Today, I see leadership in the context of trying to solve some of the world’s most complex and interconnected challenges. It is a moving and evolving target that requires constant re-alignment and mobility. In response to my questions that I posed to the room, I shared my realization that problems are interconnected – and YES – there are solutions, though we often need to invent and co-create them.

While preparing for my remarks on leadership on the plane, in addition to my diagram, I also prepared a series of reflections on what I have learned about leadership over the years:


For me, leadership has been about...

- Being aware of problems and taking an active role in being part of creating solutions
- Being called upon to reflect and represent collective and shared experiences
- Asking critical questions in order to better understand realties
- Energizing processes through taking interest, showing appreciation and participating
- Making connections between diverging ideas and different people with diverse backgrounds
- Reflecting on lessons of the past and making decisions that move towards a brighter future
- Having perspective with the ability to both focus in on a situation as well as see a bigger picture
- Taking responsibility for my actions and intentions
- Believing in ideas and possibilities
- Convening conversations across differences and differences
- Resolving conflict through deep listening, understanding and building trust
- Transforming ideas into actions and new realities
- Dancing with life and celebrating beauty in the midst of it all




While at Silver Bay, in addition to connecting with official conference delegates from various corporations and non-profit organizations, I also enjoyed spending time with the children of the delegates. They were truly delightful and took great interest in TakingITGlobal and my experiences with leadership. I enjoyed responding to their questions and learning from their own experiences. A highlight was also being able to go Kayaking & make a necklace at the Craft Shop!

Artículo de mi autoría publicado en el medio en el que estoy participando...
-----------------------------------------------

Redes sociales en Internet

Facebook dificulta las relaciones duraderas

Según un experto, quienes utilizan sitios como Facebook.com y MySpace.com tienen dificultades para entablar amistades perdurables y son propensos a comportamientos compulsivos.

"Las personas acostumbradas a la velocidad de las relaciones sociales en Internet pueden encontrar aburrido el mundo actual, lo que podría llevarlos a comportamientos más extremos en busca de excitaciones", afirmó el psiquiatra Himanshu Tyagi en la reunión anual del Real Colegio de Psiquiatras del Reino Unido.

Asimismo, consideró que esos sitios "promueven la idea de que la amistad puede crearse y destruirse fácilmente: basta hacer clic con el mouse para poner fin a una relación".

Tyagi se refirió a una reciente ola de suicidios de adolescentes en la localidad británica de Bridgend y explicó que los suicidas tenían en común el hecho de utilizar Internet para comunicarse, publicó el diario inglés The Daily Telegraph.

Consultado al respecto, el especialista en culturas juveniles, Sergio Balardini, restó dramatismo a la cuestión y opinó que "las tecnologías transforman los canales en que se manifiestan los vínculos sociales. Ya no nos reencontramos en la gran mesa familiar, ni disponemos de extensos tiempos libres para un ocio no planificado". Para Balardini, esos cambios en las relaciones interpersonales ofrecen "nuevas posibilidades en un mundo que es diferente en cada época, para cada generación".

Artículo de mi autoría publicado en el medio en el que estoy participando...
---------------------------

Expuestos a los hackers

Alertan sobre los riesgos de no actualizar el navegador

Según un estudio, casi la mitad de los usuarios de Internet corren riesgos porque no han instalado las actualizaciones de seguridad de sus navegadores.

El Swiss Institute of Technology, Google e IBM determinaron que 600 millones de usuarios de Internet no han actualizado sus navegadores. "No aplicar los parches de seguridad a tiempo o hacer caso omiso a las actualizaciones es una receta para el desastre", alertaron en un reporte difundido hoy por la BBC.

"Los hackers suelen dañar o secuestrar computadoras aprovechando vulnerabilidades de los navegadores mediante código dañino", advierte la investigación.

El reporte recomienda a los programadores incluir la "fecha de caducidad de los navegadores para ayudar a los usuarios a comprender la necesidad de actualizarlos.

Además, el estudio indica que los usuarios de Firefox son más propensos a navegar con versiones actualizadas que quienes lo hacen con Internet Explorer.

Nota de mi autoría publicada en el medio online que integro...
------------------------------------------------

Competencia para Second Life

Google se mete en los mundos virtuales

El gigante de las búsquedas lanzó una herramienta que permite crear salas de chat con avatares en 3D.

Google acaba de presentar Lively, un software de creación de salas de chat tridimensionales en las que los usuarios pueden elegir su apariencia y diseñar el cuarto virtual. Pueden, por ejemplo, elegir su vestimenta, “colgar” videos de YouTube o fotos de Picasa -ambos productos de Google- en las paredes y hasta poner música ambiental.

Además, las salas pueden incrustarse en blogs y redes sociales y de esa manera, atraer participantes.

Lively se presenta como una competencia directa del popular entorno de realidad virtual Second Life, de la empresa Linden Labs, lanzado en 2003 y que ya cuenta con más de 13 millones de usuarios registrados.

Según publicó The New York Times, Mark Kingdon, director ejecutivo de Linden Labs, defendió su producto destacando que “en Second Life, los usuarios se motivan mucho con la posibilidad de realizar transacciones por un valor cercano al millón de dólares diarios en negocios de usuario a usuario”. Por el momento, Lively –que está en fase “beta” o de pruebas- no contempla ese tipo de interacción.

Lively fue concebido como un “proyecto del 20 por ciento”, en referencia a la política de personal de Google que permite a sus empleados destinar un día a la semana a iniciativas no relacionadas con sus responsabilidades diarias.

El desembarco de Google en el campo de los entornos virtuales no hace más que validar el concepto de interacción tridimensional en la web y es de esperarse que en el futuro cercano surjan nuevos desarrollos en ese sentido.

It was so exciting for the TakingITGlobal team to be part of our sixth year at the National Education Computing Conference (NECC) these past few days here in San Antonio, Texas! TakingITGlobal had a great presence across the conference, and I am proud to share the ways in which we were able to reach out and connect with so many educators. To start with, I’ve personally just renewed my commitment to serve on the NECC conference committee for the next two years. I see my role as helping to think about the ways in which we can best engage the next generation of educators.

Before the NECC conference kicks off on opening day (Sunday, June 29th this year), an International Reception is held at the Global Connections Lounge, to welcome attendees from around the world (over 30 countries this year!) and to provide a space to share and discuss opportunities for global connections.

This year, TakingITGlobal was an organizing sponsor of the International Reception, and my co-founder Michael Furdyk along with our US Education Program Manager Emily Kornblut, presented an overview of TakingITGlobal’s recent work and invited the attendees to collaborate with us for greater global awareness. Following the International Reception, the conference’s Opening Reception was held, and provided about a dozen poster sessions for presenters to share their work. TakingITGlobal was one of the organizations provided with this opportunity. We spoke with hundreds of attendees and were able to share our programs with many enthusiastic educators.

On the following afternoon, we had a Spotlight Session, Social Networking for Social Good, held in the Lila Cochrell Auditorium, where we discussed the opportunity for educators to incorporate TakingITGlobal programs into the classroom, and shared many stories of how young people’s use of social web tools have provided them with life-changing opportunities to engage with the issues facing our planet. For the rest of the afternoon, our booth was abuzz with discussions of classroom collaboration and opportunities for partnership with dozens of school districts and organizations.

TakingITGlobal was also featured as an example of positive youth engagement by Education Technology consultant Sara Armstrong in her session Educating Students about Online Safety. The following morning was an exciting one – two educators who have been using our TIGed tools, Mali Bickley and Jim Carleton, were invited by ISTE to give a keynote speech about the collaborations they developed with schools around the world. During their talk, they highlighted TakingITGlobal.org as a social network for social good, and also showed screenshots of the TIG homepage and their TIGed classroom space.

On the final afternoon, Steve Dembo from Discovery Education featured TakingITGlobal as a resource in his session Policies, Safety and Socialm, where he provided our website as an example of well moderated, classroom friendly, safe social networking website. The conference was closed by TakingITGlobal US Advisor Idit Caperton, who provided the conference’s closing keynote, and highlighted TakingITGlobal as a resource for positive student engagement.

We have been so pleased to work with ISTE and engage with the NECC conference on so many fronts! Our partnership with ISTE has also lead to a recent presentation in Dubai and a future event in Singapore, and we were honoured to be mentioned in ISTE’s 2008 Annual Report as one of their key institutional partners!

Special Thanks to our TakingITGlobal staff at NECC !

(below photo: from left to right)

Michael Furdyk
Jennifer Corriero
Emily Kornblut
Kirsten Jordan
Luke Walker

i really appreciate the point made at the NECC leadership session on Sunday that you don’t share computers in the workplace, but… does that really mean that every kid needs their own laptop in kindergarten? if so… why? i’m not sold. more thoughts on the NECC closing keynote later… need to process and not just jerk my knee.

My first blog post from NECC! I’m checking out a much more intimate session with Jim & Mali (friends & this morning’s keynotes), as well as Julie Lindsay and a few others, on transforming education with global perspective.

Julie Lindsay/Qatar Academy: Co-founder of the Flat Classroom project, totally worth checking out. Giving some great background on IB and the education system in Qatar, a country that has always fascinated with me. Love getting a chance to get a glimpse of a country that knows its traditional resource base/source of wealth won’t last forever and is actually trying to do something about it. And the massive wealth makes the process quite an interesting exercise–not every day you get the chance to reinvent yourself and have the resources to actually make it happen. (Wifi in the park… love it).

Education City is interesting… the connection between Julie’s comments about moving from colonialism to a knowledge society while building a city that seems to be filled with American universities and a focus on getting “an American education” is… well, I need to find out more. The point about giving girls the option of an American education (since going abroad is not an option in most cases) is a good one. No time for a whole lot of depth, but there should be some good info posted at her pbwiki

Next speaker, didn’t catch name: works in Algeria, Lebanon, Jordan, and UAE, for Michigan State… this should be interesting. First American U to open a full campus in Dubai… he runs a great program in Ed Tech (oh, maybe I should check that out :P). Interesting that his initial outreach internationally wasn’t met with happy smiles. Despite that, it seems to have grown into a pretty big program pretty quickly… who knows how this will transition to Jim & Mali’s work.

Sounds a lot like the challenges he’s presenting as challenges of ed tech in the ‘developing’ world are actually universal. Especially if you’re somehow lumping UAE into the ‘developing’ category. And… he’s out of time.

Trudy Sweeney: emerging technology in Australia. New PM is ramping up computers in students’ hands. Ooooh, flash-based learning objects. Not loving any of this so far… Oh but now she’s moving on to talking about blogs, and making some good points about teacher understanding. She’s talking about points very similar, if somewhat less eloquent, to those of Peter Levine in Civic Life Online (PDF of his chapter, and [shameless plug] check out mine[/shameless plug] in the same book :P) about ‘the audience problem’ for user-generated content in the classroom setting, giving the long-tail, etc etc etc.

Talk about ethics (which usually refers to IP/copyright) around here is always interesting/troubling because it’s so often set in the ‘this is the law (or my understanding of it), and this is what we have to follow to be ethical’, rather than questioning whether the various laws around IP around the world actually reflect our shared sense of ethics when it comes to using/sharing/remixing our own and other peoples’ work. Random sidebar in my head, not really the focus of this session, but I would like to see a more active discussion in fora like this about copyright in the 21st century, especially since countries (like Canada) are in the middle of setting the tone for the topic for at least the next couple of decades… oh, she just compared Ning to Moodle. Seems like apples and oranges to me, but I guess I’m biased/way-too-focused/way-too-involved in this space

Jim & Mali, iEARN Canada, SCSDB: Really good points that the technology is a mean, not an end. I’d like to say it’s nothing revolutionary, but so many people just don’t get it. Interesting point (that even fewer people get) is that standards are more of a mean than an end as well… I’d love to see some kind of research from their point this morning about whether or not the projects they do drive student interest in current issues, and whether that’s limited to the topics they’re covering, or whether they’re developing really well-rounded global citizens. Great to see that they have been able to offer the kind of data administrators like to see (test scores (no comment about the merits of that), engagement).

Questions from the audience: Great TIG plug Mali ‘Go talk to the guy in the red shirt, booth 4053!’… I love it. Next question is a bit more interesting, about the network lockdown issue, about the balance between security and collaboration. Julie makes the excellent point that digital citizenship/media literacy is the key, not solely filtering. “Web 2.0″ access is vital for creating engaging learning experiences online today–back to Jim’s point this morning about “Lord of the e-Flies”… if we block and don’t educate, where are kids getting the info/learning about some of the issues surrounding ip/safety/etc/etc of the social web? (plus: kids know how to beat filters)

Battery dying–time to post!