Stayed inside all day, as the air smelled of smoke and everyone was encouraged to stay off the roads. The sky was clear overhead but the gray-pink pall continued to the north and south. [see map]. Spent time cleaning up the random files accumulating on my desktop and listening to the scanner. SDSU classes are cancelled for the rest of the week, so I’ve got time to catch up on things and noodle around on stuff I never have time for. I’ve discovered a load of interesting sites for those interested in listening to what the fire and police are doing, like ScanDiego and ScanSanDiego.Net. That last one leads to live scanners that you can listen to in iTunes. Click here to hear a sample of what’s happening.
So far, students, friends and colleagues all report still having a home to go back to, even if they’re not able to be there now. There’s an estimate that one out of three county residents have been evacuated.
But we San Diegans evacuate in style. There was an interview with someone in Qualcomm Stadium describing how some of the evacuees (or volunteers) have set up yoga and meditation classes there to help alleviate anxiety. This is the same stadium that pioneered an outdoor smoking ban and added sushi to the menu.
Looks as though we might be past the worst of it.
It’s deja vu. Just like 4 years ago, the air is smoky, classes are cancelled, and we’re glued to the TV all day. Unlike the last time, though, we’re not feeling it here at home. There are two major fires, one a twenty minute drive north of here, the other a half-hour south and east. The wind is blowing the ash straight out to sea and avoiding us. Up on the UCSD campus, Alex reports seeing the air impacted more than here.
Still, though, our throats are irritated and we’re feeling groggy and tired. I watched Larry Himmel, a well liked local TV personality and comic reporting the fire while watching his own home burn to the ground. At least one of my faculty colleagues and two of my game design class students have been evacuated, probably more.
A lot depends on the winds. If they pick up again tonight it will be very bad. Pictures are here.
As a serendipitous followup to Alex’s observation that using a computer in a lecture hall is more distracting than helpful, even for a card-carrying digital native, here’s news of a new technology that could make the lecture halls of American universities a lot more effective. LiveScribe is a smart pen combined with special (but inexpensive) paper that allows non-linear access to the sounds recorded when the notes were taken. Check out the sneak peek.
I want one. How long do we have to wait? First quarter, 2008. How much? Less than $200. I’ll believe it when the UPS guy hands it to me… but I want to believe!
This morning a colleague forwarded an article with yet another unquestioning quote on the theme that “today’s students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors”. I’ve always wondered to what extent that statement was supported by research. Conference speakers quote it as Holy Writ to support their own workshops and books about turning education into one gigantic game.
So I sent my doubts about this into the aether via Twitter and within seconds Miguel Guhlin pointed me to a new article by Jamie McKenzie: Digital Nativism. As usual, Jamie absolutely nails it.
And also hot off the press is a blog entry by a digital native of whom I am profoundly proud. It tickles me to see such metacognitive awareness.
The take-home lesson for me is this: I’m not going to promote the digital native meme at all any more in presentations, not even with the grain of salt I usually add. Today’s kids have a different history than we do, and on average are a lot more comfortable with technology. But brains are brains and the principles of teaching and learning that used to work still work the same. Variety, sensory richness, relevance, control, competition, cooperation… shouldn’t all learning environments have these?
[photo by eyelash_divided]
Click the picture. It’s amazing.
And by chance, just earlier today I was reading about how useful pigeons are, and how smart and evolved birds in general are.
If this one were slightly smarter, it would have better taste in music.
Notice how I’m not wasting your time apologizing because I haven’t blogged in 3 months. Let’s just forge ahead.
