Having spent the past 10 days living in Japan and with five more days of my trip I sit back and think about how this experience has quite significantly differed from my last one a year ago.
Last year I had an opportunity for the first time in my life to spend 8 days in Japan. Like any happy go lucky otaku I went crazy. Japan has been in the heart of my travel goals. Being a well seasoned traveler for my work I knew that Japan would have been an experience like no other, and it did not disappoint. I was in awe of the sprawling metropolis, looking from Tokyo Tower out to see a vast sea of concrete. I went from one location to the next taking advantage of the short time I had to take in as much sites as I could. I tried to experience everything from places, people and particularly my love, food. I wanted to try everything once from authentic Japanese cuisines, to common every day foods. I went even as far as try American foods here such as McDonalds and KFC. I was amazed at their rendition of pizza and how they treat and appreciate food. Lastly I was amazed at how this sprawling metropolis worked so efficiently through their mass transit system. Needless to say, it was an overwhelming experience that I think everyone should have once in their life.
This year I had the opportunity to visit once again. This time it would be for a longer period, approximately twice that of the last time. It will be a very different experience in that my wife procured an apartment in the suburbs of Tokyo.
This time I came not as a starry eyed otaku but with a familiarity of the area. For the first eight days I spent it at the apartment living in Japan. We would go visit the grocery store every day and buy the food we need to make. We would shop for supplies at the 100 yen store instead of eating out. We only went out on occasion to visit places that were necessary instead of going for sites. We used the public transportation system to get to where we needed to go. We lived efficiently and economically not as tourists but as residents. It was an entirely different experience than the last.
Even though our time here is short, it gave me a taste of what city life is like here in Tokyo. It amazed me how so many can live in harmony in such tight quarters. Respect is the key element to keeping this metropolis thriving. It is like a well oiled machine. There is an order to everything and everyone follows the rules because if they didn’t, there would be no way for so many to live in such harmony in such a small space. As an island nation, they had to adapt to this style of life.
I sit back and ponder our own existence back in the United States. In contrast, we live in excess. We have land o plenty and an abundance of food. We have an abundance of luxuries we take for granted that would be so difficult for the average Japanese to attain. And despite all the things we have, we complain, bicker and sneer about what we don’t have, always wanting more, doing more and needing more. I’m not saying that everyone lives in excess but by the standards of the life we live, we are in excess.
Taking a page from the Japanese simple life we should treasure what we have, live in harmony and not focus on what we don’t have. Life continues on and we should be happy for living in such a developed country where we do have those luxuries that the majority of the world does not have.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Day 1 & 2: Oh the Human(d)ity - Eating in Tokyo
Landing in Tokyo I am greeted by heat and humidity, enough so that you don’t want to leave the confines of an air conditioned apartment. If you do happen to find yourself outside you will want to spend all your time in a department store or restaurant. Being a desert dweller, I am accustomed to the heat but not the humidity. The average temperature was 95 with 80% humidity and it was awful! These two days I did practically nothing other than recover from jet lag and enjoy amazing Japanese meals prepared by my loving wife.
The morning I arrive I was starving so Michi made me a quick curry and rice. It was delicious! For lunch we had sashimi with tuna, and octopus. It was a delicious meal and a perfect way to start my time in Tokyo.
Last year being my first time in Japan I wanted to see and experience as much as I can traveling from place to place, eating as much variety I could during my last experience. It was my first and I treated it as if it were my last. This time around, I’m here for an extended time with the goal to enjoy Japan in a different way, as a temporary resident. With an apartment with a “full” kitchen, our goal was to spend as little as possible eating out but instead, going to the local grocery and buying grocery every other day. This way, it is very economical and we get to really immerse ourselves in living rather than visiting.
So with that, we stay indoors, eat at home, make breakfast, lunch and dinner and enjoy really being in Japan rather than running from place to place in Japan.
On the second day I wanted to see if I could find one of the most amazing finds I made last year, a camera accessory. We ventured into the heat and humidity at noon and made a quick trip to Akihabara, Japan’s electronics hub. Here we walked down the street with a mission, to find the small hole in the wall store that I found this rare item (which I still can’t find online) only to not locate the store or the item.
We wandered over to the 8 story Don Quijote where we found out it was the headquarters of the new Japanese pop sensation AKB 48, a teenage pop girl group, but it’s different since it’s not really a singing group but a singing team comprised of members who’ve won audition contests. The group has grown over the years from a few to now 60. It was started by the owner of Don Qui because he wanted to create a pop group where people can easily meet the idol. With that, the 8th floor of his store in Akihabara is devoted to their theater, merchandise and a place you can meet your pop idols. Pretty crazy if you ask me.
Having been thoroughly defeated we went over the a mega department store featuring 8 floors of electronics, home electronics, books, games and restaurants right next to the station. It was fun walking in this giant electronics store and see their premium items and prices. Multistory department stores are a common thing in downtown Tokyo.
Heading back we cool off and I prepare myself for my own journey, to Shinjuku to retrieve a bicycle from Michi’s Father. It was hot, it was humid, and even after dark it’s still miserable. At 7 I head out on the subway to Shinjuku, making it there in 30 minutes. I meet her father, locate the bike and begin my ride back to Itabashi. It was estimated that it would take me 45 minutes. I mounted my camcorder on the bike and head on back home. It was a good ride and had two tough points where I was going up a fairly steep incline. It was made even more difficult with the bike being old and a single speed. It also had a friction powered light which took away some of my riding energy. Making it back, I was soaked and exhausted but happy to be back in air conditioned comfort.
Here is a link to my ride so you can see my path, elevation and heartrate.
My video blog of the day 1 & 2
The morning I arrive I was starving so Michi made me a quick curry and rice. It was delicious! For lunch we had sashimi with tuna, and octopus. It was a delicious meal and a perfect way to start my time in Tokyo. 
Last year being my first time in Japan I wanted to see and experience as much as I can traveling from place to place, eating as much variety I could during my last experience. It was my first and I treated it as if it were my last. This time around, I’m here for an extended time with the goal to enjoy Japan in a different way, as a temporary resident. With an apartment with a “full” kitchen, our goal was to spend as little as possible eating out but instead, going to the local grocery and buying grocery every other day. This way, it is very economical and we get to really immerse ourselves in living rather than visiting. So with that, we stay indoors, eat at home, make breakfast, lunch and dinner and enjoy really being in Japan rather than running from place to place in Japan.
On the second day I wanted to see if I could find one of the most amazing finds I made last year, a camera accessory. We ventured into the heat and humidity at noon and made a quick trip to Akihabara, Japan’s electronics hub. Here we walked down the street with a mission, to find the small hole in the wall store that I found this rare item (which I still can’t find online) only to not locate the store or the item.
We wandered over to the 8 story Don Quijote where we found out it was the headquarters of the new Japanese pop sensation AKB 48, a teenage pop girl group, but it’s different since it’s not really a singing group but a singing team comprised of members who’ve won audition contests. The group has grown over the years from a few to now 60. It was started by the owner of Don Qui because he wanted to create a pop group where people can easily meet the idol. With that, the 8th floor of his store in Akihabara is devoted to their theater, merchandise and a place you can meet your pop idols. Pretty crazy if you ask me.
Having been thoroughly defeated we went over the a mega department store featuring 8 floors of electronics, home electronics, books, games and restaurants right next to the station. It was fun walking in this giant electronics store and see their premium items and prices. Multistory department stores are a common thing in downtown Tokyo.Heading back we cool off and I prepare myself for my own journey, to Shinjuku to retrieve a bicycle from Michi’s Father. It was hot, it was humid, and even after dark it’s still miserable. At 7 I head out on the subway to Shinjuku, making it there in 30 minutes. I meet her father, locate the bike and begin my ride back to Itabashi. It was estimated that it would take me 45 minutes. I mounted my camcorder on the bike and head on back home. It was a good ride and had two tough points where I was going up a fairly steep incline. It was made even more difficult with the bike being old and a single speed. It also had a friction powered light which took away some of my riding energy. Making it back, I was soaked and exhausted but happy to be back in air conditioned comfort.
Here is a link to my ride so you can see my path, elevation and heartrate.
My video blog of the day 1 & 2
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Day 0.5 Traveling Solo in Tokyo
Some would say that traveling in a foreign country by ones self is a daunting task but add a metropolis, language barrier, mass transit, no communications, lack of internet, and two 50 pound pieces of luggage to the mix and we've got ourselves a situation just ready for something disastrous to happen. Fortunately for me I've had the experience of using the transit system in Tokyo the previous year, memorized the maps and stations I would use, plotted the best route to take based on memory and a determination to get to the apartment to see my wife. Yes, I make it and here is the tale of how I did it with some lessons learned and fun thoughts.
Sitting on the plane bound for Tokyo Haneda airport, the passengers are roused from their slumber three hours prior to landing for meal services. As we prepare ourselves for landing I memorize the maps of Tokyo and subway routes one last time. Using my iPad 2, I pre-cached google maps, downloaded Go Tokyo transit app and plotted the best route according to google and what I could see. Unfortunately google in all it's awesome plotting power doesn't take int account some subtle nuances that would have made my journey much easier.
Here is a picture of the Japanese transit system.
As you can see, I had to get from Narita to Motohasunuma. According to google, my best options were to take the JR line to Hamamasucho, transfer to the Yamamoto JR line to Yurakucho and walk over to Hibiya subway station and take the Mita line all the way to Motohasunuma. Sounds easy right?
I you want to see what true crazy is, here's a link to the full transit map of Tokyo.
We landed half an hour early in Narita. It was 4:30 and I was eager to get my bags and get on my way. One thing to note here is that the immigration process going into Japan is such an efficient process, it takes a matter of minutes to go through immigration. All you do is hand the attendant your form, smile at the camera and place your fingers on the fingerprint pads and you are on your merry way.
First important tip when traveling the public transit system. YOU MUST GET A SUICA CARD. A suica card is a god send when it comes to riding the trains and subway system in Japan. It is a charge card where you can load $$$ on it and it automatically calculates your fare based on where you go. Normally you would have to read the map, determine where you are going, put in the correct amount into the machine and buy a ticket. If you guess wrong you lose your extra money, if you guess less, the gates will close and you will have to make an adjustment before the gates will let you out. You will also disrupt the efficient flow of people making a many busy Japanese commuters disgruntled at the Gaijin who has stopped the flow of traffic (thought they would never let you know they were upset (and more than likely one would come up and help you be more efficient.)) If you want to save a few $$$ you will need to calculate transfers but sometimes you mess up and even though you added the transfer fare, the machine will take your ticket away thinking you were just stupid and put extra money in.
The SUICA card is a godsend because it does all those calculations for you. First you go to the machine with a SUICA symbol, select that you want to purchase a card. A new feature they added this year is an ability to personalize the card with your name adding the ability to retrieve lost cards (for a fee) and any remaining funds. 2,000 yen is necessary to activate the card which 500 of is used as a deposit and is refunded with the return of the card. Once you have the card, you can place it in your wallet since it used RFID and can sense your card through the wallet. Just walk up to the gate, place it on the lighted spot and off you go to your train.
Once I got my Suica card I decided to take the Monorail instead based on a recommendation by some Japanese Americans. 5 AM, waiting for the 5:12 monorail to Hamamasucho, a direct run to that destination. Immediately I was hit by the humidity and even though it was such an early time, I could start to feel the change in the weather. Getting to the station was a breeze and changing from the monorail was easy with escalators a definitive path. I just needed to decide to take the Yamamoto line at platform 2 heading towards Tokyo and Ueno. Two stops later I was at Hibiya and this is where the fun begins.
According to the map the Hibiya station was a short walk away and connected to the station. Boy was I wrong. I exited the station to find myself on the streets of Hamamasucho. With no signs to guide me I whip out my iPad and set it to find the correction direction to walk. Identifying the proper street I head in the direction of the station After navigating three streets I finally find a sign pointing to the station around the corner. As I turn the corner I find that it was just stairs leading into the depths of the earth. Having the need to move two roller bags, I had to find an alternative solution and fortunately there was a elevator 100 feet away. The elevator took me part of the way down into the station and I had to walk quite a distance to get to the subway gates only to find more stairs. By the time I finally make it to the platform I've navigated three stairs taking my bags one at at time up and down and had an old lady pass me during the process. This lengthy excursion could have been avoided now that I know how to read the map. I would have taken an alternative route, one that takes me farther than this direct route but provides me with escalators.
Now on the Mita line I am on a direct route to Motohasunuma, 30 minutes away. It was a smooth ride and at this hour 6 AM, the morning commuters started their day and the subway car started to fill. Sitting there I analyzed the map and decided on a better route for the way back since we will have more luggage with us. At my destination I was greeted with an elevator to the street level and proceeded to make my way to Sakura House.
At Sakura House I was greeted with my arch nemesis, stairs, three flights of them. After moving my bags for the last time up the flight of stairs, it is not 7:15, the sun is up, the air is humid and I'm ready to see my wife and take a shower.
Here's my first Video-Blog post of my adventure, taking video memos as I travel.
Please comment on this post. I appreciate all feedback.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Sitting on the plane bound for Tokyo Haneda airport, the passengers are roused from their slumber three hours prior to landing for meal services. As we prepare ourselves for landing I memorize the maps of Tokyo and subway routes one last time. Using my iPad 2, I pre-cached google maps, downloaded Go Tokyo transit app and plotted the best route according to google and what I could see. Unfortunately google in all it's awesome plotting power doesn't take int account some subtle nuances that would have made my journey much easier.
Here is a picture of the Japanese transit system.
As you can see, I had to get from Narita to Motohasunuma. According to google, my best options were to take the JR line to Hamamasucho, transfer to the Yamamoto JR line to Yurakucho and walk over to Hibiya subway station and take the Mita line all the way to Motohasunuma. Sounds easy right?
I you want to see what true crazy is, here's a link to the full transit map of Tokyo.
We landed half an hour early in Narita. It was 4:30 and I was eager to get my bags and get on my way. One thing to note here is that the immigration process going into Japan is such an efficient process, it takes a matter of minutes to go through immigration. All you do is hand the attendant your form, smile at the camera and place your fingers on the fingerprint pads and you are on your merry way.
First important tip when traveling the public transit system. YOU MUST GET A SUICA CARD. A suica card is a god send when it comes to riding the trains and subway system in Japan. It is a charge card where you can load $$$ on it and it automatically calculates your fare based on where you go. Normally you would have to read the map, determine where you are going, put in the correct amount into the machine and buy a ticket. If you guess wrong you lose your extra money, if you guess less, the gates will close and you will have to make an adjustment before the gates will let you out. You will also disrupt the efficient flow of people making a many busy Japanese commuters disgruntled at the Gaijin who has stopped the flow of traffic (thought they would never let you know they were upset (and more than likely one would come up and help you be more efficient.)) If you want to save a few $$$ you will need to calculate transfers but sometimes you mess up and even though you added the transfer fare, the machine will take your ticket away thinking you were just stupid and put extra money in. The SUICA card is a godsend because it does all those calculations for you. First you go to the machine with a SUICA symbol, select that you want to purchase a card. A new feature they added this year is an ability to personalize the card with your name adding the ability to retrieve lost cards (for a fee) and any remaining funds. 2,000 yen is necessary to activate the card which 500 of is used as a deposit and is refunded with the return of the card. Once you have the card, you can place it in your wallet since it used RFID and can sense your card through the wallet. Just walk up to the gate, place it on the lighted spot and off you go to your train.
Now on the Mita line I am on a direct route to Motohasunuma, 30 minutes away. It was a smooth ride and at this hour 6 AM, the morning commuters started their day and the subway car started to fill. Sitting there I analyzed the map and decided on a better route for the way back since we will have more luggage with us. At my destination I was greeted with an elevator to the street level and proceeded to make my way to Sakura House.
Here's my first Video-Blog post of my adventure, taking video memos as I travel.
Please comment on this post. I appreciate all feedback.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Itabashi,Japan
Monday, August 15, 2011
Nai's crazy 3 week trip to Japan day 0: traveling violations err reflections
My second trip to Japan in my life. Last year, this time I traveled to Tokyo, experienced the people, the places and the culture. For most, it would be quite an eye opening experience, to be immersed in such a different world compared to what they are use to in the united states, but for me, since I am Asian and being so well traveled, it was not such a shock, however I was still impressed as to truly experience the culture here. The kindness of the culture is something the rest of the world should take as a lesson to how one group of people can not only survive on such a small land but thrive and become one of the worlds super power. The ability to work in unison in such a tight space, where other countries couldn't do a tenth of what Japan has done with lands and resources that go far beyond their tiny island is something to be marveled at. That is what impressed me the most, how this bustling metropolis can function so efficiently.
Now I am traveling to Japan for the second time in my life, this time a longer period to experience the world of Japan, the learn, to take cues and to enjoy my time here. Last time I spent 8 full days here, traveling for 10 days. This time I am here for 16 days , traveling for 18 days. It was a rush, and experience, but best of all, with family here, we were able to travel freely, not as tourists but as a immersive experience. We traveled from place to place soaking in the most in the limited time we had there. Besides seeing sites, I wanted to experience the food Japan had to offer from their native cuisine to their takes on American classics like hamburger and pizza.
This year my wife traveled here ahead of me as she did last year and acquired an apartment rented to foreign visitors. This 29 sq meter place ran 70,000 yen a month, which translates to roughly $800, which is not bad for a place in Tokyo. Typically servicing travelers, this is an excellent opportunity to live and study under your visas.
With the extra time, I am anticipating a more relaxing visit to this wonderful country, visiting not only sights but to really have a better chance to immerse myself and really see what Tokyo has to offer. Compared to last year's speed blast, this will be a much more relaxing trip.
Above that, I would like to see how the people here have received from the recent devastation that happened on March 11. It's not something one can ignore and we have seen the country react, come together and start the rebuilding process. It is a testament to the resolution of this country as just today it is reported that they their spiraling decrease in GDP has shown better than analyst predicted and lint to Japan as a stabilizing force in the world economy. It could have been far worse that predicted.
Rocked by constant aftershocks, a looming nuclear disaster, loss of their export prowess technologically and radiation, and loss of tourism, it will be interesting to see how my trip will be like one year later. Already I've seen first hand how the disaster has affected friends I know as their planned trip back this year was canceled by their tour company. I can only anticipate that from what I see, it will be business as usual. The transportation system still runs, the shops still sell goods and the ramen is still consumed.
This year, I'm flying on ANA airlines instead of delta. Already I see the difference in service. Asian carriers definitely outshine international carriers by a longshot. Taking the redeye, flying out of LAX was much better since it gives you a chance to acclimate to the change in time. Seeping for the first six hours helps in combating jet lag. Wine, beer and Chu-Hi (a popular citrus alcoholic drink) helps too. Many wonder how one can sit on a plane for 12 hours, especially for someone with ADHD. The red eye flight helps but most importantly one can not do it so well without an iPad.
Last year, my challenge after I land was to buy a bus ticket to Shinjuku. This year, being familiar with their daunting subway and rail lines (it's not as bad as it looks) I will be taking public transportation, saving nearly $100 on the trip. All it takes it to get on the right train with my suitcase, transfer at the right station to the JR line, get off at the right station, make my way to the proper subway, get on board and ride it to Motohasunumo, get off an walk to Michi's apartment. Transit time 1:05 at a cost of 690 yen. No problem? That will be a fun challenge.
It is with that, My first blog post about day 0 of my trip back to Japan. Many more to come with pictures, cultural anecdotes, and even video! Please leave your comments as the will be very much appreciated.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Now I am traveling to Japan for the second time in my life, this time a longer period to experience the world of Japan, the learn, to take cues and to enjoy my time here. Last time I spent 8 full days here, traveling for 10 days. This time I am here for 16 days , traveling for 18 days. It was a rush, and experience, but best of all, with family here, we were able to travel freely, not as tourists but as a immersive experience. We traveled from place to place soaking in the most in the limited time we had there. Besides seeing sites, I wanted to experience the food Japan had to offer from their native cuisine to their takes on American classics like hamburger and pizza.
This year my wife traveled here ahead of me as she did last year and acquired an apartment rented to foreign visitors. This 29 sq meter place ran 70,000 yen a month, which translates to roughly $800, which is not bad for a place in Tokyo. Typically servicing travelers, this is an excellent opportunity to live and study under your visas.
With the extra time, I am anticipating a more relaxing visit to this wonderful country, visiting not only sights but to really have a better chance to immerse myself and really see what Tokyo has to offer. Compared to last year's speed blast, this will be a much more relaxing trip.
Above that, I would like to see how the people here have received from the recent devastation that happened on March 11. It's not something one can ignore and we have seen the country react, come together and start the rebuilding process. It is a testament to the resolution of this country as just today it is reported that they their spiraling decrease in GDP has shown better than analyst predicted and lint to Japan as a stabilizing force in the world economy. It could have been far worse that predicted.
Rocked by constant aftershocks, a looming nuclear disaster, loss of their export prowess technologically and radiation, and loss of tourism, it will be interesting to see how my trip will be like one year later. Already I've seen first hand how the disaster has affected friends I know as their planned trip back this year was canceled by their tour company. I can only anticipate that from what I see, it will be business as usual. The transportation system still runs, the shops still sell goods and the ramen is still consumed.
This year, I'm flying on ANA airlines instead of delta. Already I see the difference in service. Asian carriers definitely outshine international carriers by a longshot. Taking the redeye, flying out of LAX was much better since it gives you a chance to acclimate to the change in time. Seeping for the first six hours helps in combating jet lag. Wine, beer and Chu-Hi (a popular citrus alcoholic drink) helps too. Many wonder how one can sit on a plane for 12 hours, especially for someone with ADHD. The red eye flight helps but most importantly one can not do it so well without an iPad.
Last year, my challenge after I land was to buy a bus ticket to Shinjuku. This year, being familiar with their daunting subway and rail lines (it's not as bad as it looks) I will be taking public transportation, saving nearly $100 on the trip. All it takes it to get on the right train with my suitcase, transfer at the right station to the JR line, get off at the right station, make my way to the proper subway, get on board and ride it to Motohasunumo, get off an walk to Michi's apartment. Transit time 1:05 at a cost of 690 yen. No problem? That will be a fun challenge.
It is with that, My first blog post about day 0 of my trip back to Japan. Many more to come with pictures, cultural anecdotes, and even video! Please leave your comments as the will be very much appreciated.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Itabashi,Japan
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Adventures in airport sitting for 18 hours: or hell on earth.
This is a tale of how one traveler went against all odds and pursued his final destination through some very unusual circumstances. This is a very long story so the first paragraph will be a summary of the events for those who don't want to read every little detail, twist, and turn that happened during my last 24 hours. So sit back, relax and enjoy this whirlwind ride.
Obstacles started to be hurled at me even before I left. A phone call delayed my departure and a storm shut down an airport, resulting in my connecting flight being canceled. As I waited to figure out what I could do, a family in my same situation suggested that we could fly to Philadelphia and then drive the rest of the way since there were no flights to Atlantic City until 3 pm, which would have made this entire trip pointless. Landing at 9 am gave me a chance to get to my destination because it was only an hour drive. I offered to rent the vehicle since I receive discounts and preferred programs and the father of the family I tagged along with was a truck driver and knew the best routes. We got to Philadelphia in no time but I had bad information and went to the wrong location. Finally finding the correct location, I made two loops because of how confusing the New Jersey Turnpike is, and actually made it to Atlantic City at 11:30 am, wasting my advantage. Fortunately, Job Corps gave me a slot in the afternoon where I had exclusive time to present KP Compass in front of all the teachers for 15 minutes. I knocked it out of the park blowing them away with what KP can do and made it home at midnight.
The Job Corps trip was planned to be (what we call in the business) a quick turn and burn. We fly in, do a presentation, and then leave for home within 24 hours. This is very different compared to most trips where we stay for 2-5 days exhibiting at a conference. My plan was to get there the night before, exhibit for three hours the next morning and then leave for home that afternoon/evening. Given that it was in Atlantic City, the small airport didn't offer many options, so I took the flight from Phoenix at 1:30 pm through Atlanta to land at 11:30 pm in Atlantic City with a return flight the next day at 6:30pm to land in Phoenix at 12:05 am.
That was the plan...
Leaving Phoenix was fairly routine, but I had already started with a delay. I got a phone call moments before I was to leave from someone important who I had been waiting to hear from. Over 15 minutes later I was off to the airport. I parked my car, waited for the shuttle, went through the secure gate in minutes. Smooth sailing. The flight was very good since I somehow got to sit in the exit row without paying the usual $20 upgrade fee and I was super productive because of the wifi on the plane. I even got a beer for free!
With half an hour until we were supposed to land, the woman next to me said she received an email from her husband that the storm will delay some flights. Sure enough on approach we were put into a holding pattern. The captain had hoped to get us in before they called in the storm so we had to sit on hold for 40 minutes...
Landing was rough but we deplaned with plenty of time to connect, except the flight which was scheduled was already delayed to depart at 11pm, then 11:30pm, then 12am, 1am, 2:30am. It turns out that the plane coming in was en route and eventually turned away. The storm that rolled through that night was a pretty bad one with heavy hail and shut down the airport shortly after we landed. We had that small window to land or else we would have been diverted.
The terminal was buzzing with stranded travelers. It was 9pm so I decided to call in, claim this delay, and have dinner. At 10:30pm, while sipping on a Bloody Mary in the Delta Sky Lounge, I got the notice on my flight tracker that my flight was canceled. Immediately, I hurried out to the Air Tran customer service counter to find out what options I had. By the time I reached the area there was a line 45 minutes long and it got even longer.
While on the way to the counter I met a few people who were on the Atlantic City flight. They were desperate to get home too so we joked about renting a car and driving overnight to New Jersey. I was serious; I wanted to get to my destination but was resigned with the very high possibility of having to return home. Once I got to the counter I found out that the next available flight to Atlantic City was at 3pm. That would have totally ruined my trip to the point where I should have just taken the first flight back home and call it quits, but fortune smiles on me. After talking it over with a family in my same predicament, I soon found out that there were flights available to Philadelphia at 7am to land at 9am. That opened up the possibility for me to make it there, late but better than never. After teaming up with the family, I offered to rent the car and split the cost because I was a Hertz Gold Member and didn't have to pay for insurance since I was covered by American Express. They said yes and I set my flight for Philadelphia.
By now it was 11:30pm. The family of five opted to stay at the terminal overnight but I decided to brave the outside world and try to get a hotel. It is times like this that I appreciate American Express platinum concierge and travel services. I called American Express and an agent spent an hour calling hotels in the area to no avail. He called every hotel trying to find me a space but all were booked solid due to the storm. On a whim I decided to use the distressed travelers’ site offered by Air Tran and they had one place open at a Comfort Inn. I left for the where hotel shuttles where located but not before I was approached by a driver from Super 8.
This was very creepy and my creep senses were tingling. He told me that they had five rooms available, to which I told him that was impossible since all rooms were booked. During the hour I spent at the shuttle staging grounds, I noticed the Super 8 shuttle always there. I said no thank you and he went to ask another traveler. I feared what I would have found if I took that offer. My last experience, errr Jonathan's last experience, with them was a very unpleasant one. So with that I ran away to get a cab.
Getting to the motel should have been easy. It was 5 miles down the road, a direct route from the airport to the destination. Well, the cab driver had a different route in mind. After traveling an extra 10 minutes and after I showed him on the G.P.S. how he was taking me in the wrong direction, I finally made it there alive. 2 am, I get to my room, set my alarm for 4:15am and pass out.
4:45am I wake up with an “oh shit” start. I grab my stuff and run out only to miss the shuttle by a few minutes. Fortune smiled on me once again as there was a lone cab driver outside. It turned out that he wasn't supposed to be there but was waiting for someone else. He mistakenly took me since I strolled out there with purpose. I made it to the airport at 5:15am, got through security, and ran into the family that stayed overnight.
Dazed and confused, the terminal was full of suffering passengers. With nothing open they laid about benches and floors. My two hours spent at the motel was hardly worth it but at least I got some shut eye. The worst part of being at the airport was not knowing if the flight was still going to happen since all flights were diverted, the plane could have not been there or the crew had to be reassigned. So many factors were weighing against the flight taking off on time.
As 6:30am rolled around, they called for general boarding and we’re off! I sat down, closed my eyes and found myself in Philadelphia. I can't believe I was there, on time and ready to go.
It was times like this that I am glad I have American Express platinum concierge services and Hertz Gold. I boarded the shuttle, got taken to the car rental area, and walked to the board where it told me my car was 234. I walk up to a gold minivan, get in, start the car and drive out to pick up the family of five.
The family was traveling back from Puerto Rico after spending 10 days there attending a funeral for a relative. They were tired and wanted to be home just as badly as I wanted to be in Atlantic City. Fortune smiles on me again as it turns out that the father, Ed, is a truck driver with 20 years of experience. During the entire trip he directed me on the best and fastest route to Atlantic City. The drive was swift and we made it there in less time than the G.P.S. predicted with better routes. I dropped them off at the airport so they can retrieve their car and then I said farewell.
Now, the original plan with the Job Corps meeting was to exhibit at the Clarion Hotel from 9am to 11am. By now it was 10:30am and I was going to catch the tail end of the time. I drove to the hotel only to find out that it wasn't where they were meeting and they were at the community college in the opposite direction! OMFG! All that rushing to get there with some time to spare and I was at the wrong location. I get in my car and set my G.P.S. to go there, 20 minutes with an eta of 11:05am.
Heading out, I drove down the turnpike spotting four patrol cars. I had to make sure I wasn't speeding. That was the last thing I needed. Heading down the turnpike I got to a point where it wanted me to do a u-turn. Unsure of where to do it, I missed it and had to travel an extra two miles to get my next opportunity. Heading back, the G.P.S. said to turn at a different u-turn location. Confused I turned down the u-turn only lane and checked the G.P.S. but it was too late and I was committed. First, you have to understand u-turns o the New Jersey turnpike. It's unlike anything you've ever encountered. See the below illustration, it’s confusing as hell.
So I make the u-turn and back-tracked two miles to the next u-turn spot and headed back again. It turns out that a quarter mile down the road was the community college hidden by trees. I wasn't the only one lost as others reported missing it and hitting the u-turn. Even Michael Ty, president of ACF, missed it on the first pass but he caught it just in time to not have to do the loop like I did.
Here is an illustration of my drive.
It is 11:30am; I locate the culinary arts building and head in. Relief washed over me as I met Dr. Francis Cole, tired, haggard, smelly, and wearing the same clothes I left Phoenix in made all of my struggles worth it. They were in the middle of starting lunch and decided to squeeze me in this afternoon during their instructor sessions after the judging.
At 12:30pm the chefs assembled in the classroom and began tasting the final round of dishes from the final six teams. After the judging concluded, the students and instructors separated. I was the fourth presentation for the teachers.
My presentation couldn't have been better set up. As I waited the window narrowed so I had to say everything in only 15 minutes. The presentation just before me mentioned how they are now required to incorporate technology in all curriculum and by 2012, all books will be replaced by digital versions. When I got up there and presented KP Compass for Culinary Arts, jaws dropped as I showed them the solution we devised to address online, out of classroom, learning.
The presentation was a stellar success as it was made at the perfect time in the perfect manner. The past 24 hours was hell but it was totally worth it. I never gave up despite all the obstacles placed in front of me. I made it home with no incident, even when I traveled through Atlanta again, which felt weird since I was just there 10 hours earlier. My head hit the pillow at 12:30am and I passed out, tired, smelly and excited for what this presentation will bring for USDOJ and Job Corps Centers.
Obstacles started to be hurled at me even before I left. A phone call delayed my departure and a storm shut down an airport, resulting in my connecting flight being canceled. As I waited to figure out what I could do, a family in my same situation suggested that we could fly to Philadelphia and then drive the rest of the way since there were no flights to Atlantic City until 3 pm, which would have made this entire trip pointless. Landing at 9 am gave me a chance to get to my destination because it was only an hour drive. I offered to rent the vehicle since I receive discounts and preferred programs and the father of the family I tagged along with was a truck driver and knew the best routes. We got to Philadelphia in no time but I had bad information and went to the wrong location. Finally finding the correct location, I made two loops because of how confusing the New Jersey Turnpike is, and actually made it to Atlantic City at 11:30 am, wasting my advantage. Fortunately, Job Corps gave me a slot in the afternoon where I had exclusive time to present KP Compass in front of all the teachers for 15 minutes. I knocked it out of the park blowing them away with what KP can do and made it home at midnight.
The Job Corps trip was planned to be (what we call in the business) a quick turn and burn. We fly in, do a presentation, and then leave for home within 24 hours. This is very different compared to most trips where we stay for 2-5 days exhibiting at a conference. My plan was to get there the night before, exhibit for three hours the next morning and then leave for home that afternoon/evening. Given that it was in Atlantic City, the small airport didn't offer many options, so I took the flight from Phoenix at 1:30 pm through Atlanta to land at 11:30 pm in Atlantic City with a return flight the next day at 6:30pm to land in Phoenix at 12:05 am.
That was the plan...
Leaving Phoenix was fairly routine, but I had already started with a delay. I got a phone call moments before I was to leave from someone important who I had been waiting to hear from. Over 15 minutes later I was off to the airport. I parked my car, waited for the shuttle, went through the secure gate in minutes. Smooth sailing. The flight was very good since I somehow got to sit in the exit row without paying the usual $20 upgrade fee and I was super productive because of the wifi on the plane. I even got a beer for free!
With half an hour until we were supposed to land, the woman next to me said she received an email from her husband that the storm will delay some flights. Sure enough on approach we were put into a holding pattern. The captain had hoped to get us in before they called in the storm so we had to sit on hold for 40 minutes...
Landing was rough but we deplaned with plenty of time to connect, except the flight which was scheduled was already delayed to depart at 11pm, then 11:30pm, then 12am, 1am, 2:30am. It turns out that the plane coming in was en route and eventually turned away. The storm that rolled through that night was a pretty bad one with heavy hail and shut down the airport shortly after we landed. We had that small window to land or else we would have been diverted.
The terminal was buzzing with stranded travelers. It was 9pm so I decided to call in, claim this delay, and have dinner. At 10:30pm, while sipping on a Bloody Mary in the Delta Sky Lounge, I got the notice on my flight tracker that my flight was canceled. Immediately, I hurried out to the Air Tran customer service counter to find out what options I had. By the time I reached the area there was a line 45 minutes long and it got even longer.
While on the way to the counter I met a few people who were on the Atlantic City flight. They were desperate to get home too so we joked about renting a car and driving overnight to New Jersey. I was serious; I wanted to get to my destination but was resigned with the very high possibility of having to return home. Once I got to the counter I found out that the next available flight to Atlantic City was at 3pm. That would have totally ruined my trip to the point where I should have just taken the first flight back home and call it quits, but fortune smiles on me. After talking it over with a family in my same predicament, I soon found out that there were flights available to Philadelphia at 7am to land at 9am. That opened up the possibility for me to make it there, late but better than never. After teaming up with the family, I offered to rent the car and split the cost because I was a Hertz Gold Member and didn't have to pay for insurance since I was covered by American Express. They said yes and I set my flight for Philadelphia.
By now it was 11:30pm. The family of five opted to stay at the terminal overnight but I decided to brave the outside world and try to get a hotel. It is times like this that I appreciate American Express platinum concierge and travel services. I called American Express and an agent spent an hour calling hotels in the area to no avail. He called every hotel trying to find me a space but all were booked solid due to the storm. On a whim I decided to use the distressed travelers’ site offered by Air Tran and they had one place open at a Comfort Inn. I left for the where hotel shuttles where located but not before I was approached by a driver from Super 8.
This was very creepy and my creep senses were tingling. He told me that they had five rooms available, to which I told him that was impossible since all rooms were booked. During the hour I spent at the shuttle staging grounds, I noticed the Super 8 shuttle always there. I said no thank you and he went to ask another traveler. I feared what I would have found if I took that offer. My last experience, errr Jonathan's last experience, with them was a very unpleasant one. So with that I ran away to get a cab.
Getting to the motel should have been easy. It was 5 miles down the road, a direct route from the airport to the destination. Well, the cab driver had a different route in mind. After traveling an extra 10 minutes and after I showed him on the G.P.S. how he was taking me in the wrong direction, I finally made it there alive. 2 am, I get to my room, set my alarm for 4:15am and pass out.
4:45am I wake up with an “oh shit” start. I grab my stuff and run out only to miss the shuttle by a few minutes. Fortune smiled on me once again as there was a lone cab driver outside. It turned out that he wasn't supposed to be there but was waiting for someone else. He mistakenly took me since I strolled out there with purpose. I made it to the airport at 5:15am, got through security, and ran into the family that stayed overnight.
Dazed and confused, the terminal was full of suffering passengers. With nothing open they laid about benches and floors. My two hours spent at the motel was hardly worth it but at least I got some shut eye. The worst part of being at the airport was not knowing if the flight was still going to happen since all flights were diverted, the plane could have not been there or the crew had to be reassigned. So many factors were weighing against the flight taking off on time.
As 6:30am rolled around, they called for general boarding and we’re off! I sat down, closed my eyes and found myself in Philadelphia. I can't believe I was there, on time and ready to go.
It was times like this that I am glad I have American Express platinum concierge services and Hertz Gold. I boarded the shuttle, got taken to the car rental area, and walked to the board where it told me my car was 234. I walk up to a gold minivan, get in, start the car and drive out to pick up the family of five.
The family was traveling back from Puerto Rico after spending 10 days there attending a funeral for a relative. They were tired and wanted to be home just as badly as I wanted to be in Atlantic City. Fortune smiles on me again as it turns out that the father, Ed, is a truck driver with 20 years of experience. During the entire trip he directed me on the best and fastest route to Atlantic City. The drive was swift and we made it there in less time than the G.P.S. predicted with better routes. I dropped them off at the airport so they can retrieve their car and then I said farewell.
Now, the original plan with the Job Corps meeting was to exhibit at the Clarion Hotel from 9am to 11am. By now it was 10:30am and I was going to catch the tail end of the time. I drove to the hotel only to find out that it wasn't where they were meeting and they were at the community college in the opposite direction! OMFG! All that rushing to get there with some time to spare and I was at the wrong location. I get in my car and set my G.P.S. to go there, 20 minutes with an eta of 11:05am.
Heading out, I drove down the turnpike spotting four patrol cars. I had to make sure I wasn't speeding. That was the last thing I needed. Heading down the turnpike I got to a point where it wanted me to do a u-turn. Unsure of where to do it, I missed it and had to travel an extra two miles to get my next opportunity. Heading back, the G.P.S. said to turn at a different u-turn location. Confused I turned down the u-turn only lane and checked the G.P.S. but it was too late and I was committed. First, you have to understand u-turns o the New Jersey turnpike. It's unlike anything you've ever encountered. See the below illustration, it’s confusing as hell.
So I make the u-turn and back-tracked two miles to the next u-turn spot and headed back again. It turns out that a quarter mile down the road was the community college hidden by trees. I wasn't the only one lost as others reported missing it and hitting the u-turn. Even Michael Ty, president of ACF, missed it on the first pass but he caught it just in time to not have to do the loop like I did.
Here is an illustration of my drive.
It is 11:30am; I locate the culinary arts building and head in. Relief washed over me as I met Dr. Francis Cole, tired, haggard, smelly, and wearing the same clothes I left Phoenix in made all of my struggles worth it. They were in the middle of starting lunch and decided to squeeze me in this afternoon during their instructor sessions after the judging.
At 12:30pm the chefs assembled in the classroom and began tasting the final round of dishes from the final six teams. After the judging concluded, the students and instructors separated. I was the fourth presentation for the teachers.
My presentation couldn't have been better set up. As I waited the window narrowed so I had to say everything in only 15 minutes. The presentation just before me mentioned how they are now required to incorporate technology in all curriculum and by 2012, all books will be replaced by digital versions. When I got up there and presented KP Compass for Culinary Arts, jaws dropped as I showed them the solution we devised to address online, out of classroom, learning.
The presentation was a stellar success as it was made at the perfect time in the perfect manner. The past 24 hours was hell but it was totally worth it. I never gave up despite all the obstacles placed in front of me. I made it home with no incident, even when I traveled through Atlanta again, which felt weird since I was just there 10 hours earlier. My head hit the pillow at 12:30am and I passed out, tired, smelly and excited for what this presentation will bring for USDOJ and Job Corps Centers.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Thoughts on volunteerism and nonprofits from an outgoing president
As my final days draw to a close for my three-year term as president of the Phoenix Conservatory of Music, I’ve been thinking a lot about volunteerism and the people who are involved with nonprofits. What motivates people who are working professionals to give up their time and energy to a nonprofit organization?
Over the course of 5 years serving on the board of directors of PCM, I’ve encountered many people from all different walks of life: from stay-at-home moms to lawyers, from artists to engineers, from employees to entrepreneurs. The people involved come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, and that diversity is necessary for a nonprofit to thrive because it might not have the resources to hire individuals to perform the duties necessary for a normally operating business.
I look at the people I know outside of PCM and many of them have never sat on a board of directors, nor have they volunteered their time to a cause. What makes me different than my social peers?
Thinking back to my life, I reflect on how I was not one who had the greatest opportunity. I got firsthand experience in seeing the results of giving because I grew up on food stamps and free and reduced lunches. I took opportunities in clubs and organizations to do community service and that carried into adulthood. I became involved with my local blockwatch group, eventually becoming president. I served on committees for my local school district and I was later recruited to be on the board of directors for arts and music organizations. Although I had very little to give in experience and knowledge of music, I was motivated to try.
Everyone has individual motivations for giving. Some give as part of a higher calling, others may give according to a club they participate in. Some give according to hobbies or interests and others are active to follow a cause. People give according to what they are passionate about. My motivations are simpler than all of that.
Personally, I give because I can. Even though I sometimes feel like I don’t have the time, I really do when I look for it. Even though I sometimes do not believe that I have the talents an organization needs, I find out that I do when I volunteer. I see a great need and I do what I can do to help. It just means taking a deeper look at myself.
Looking back, my time spent on the receiving end of nonprofit groups highly influenced me to be active in the art of giving. As board president, I feel that it is important to understand the motivations of each board member to help further the mission of the organization. Giving is never a one way street and it requires some personal satisfaction as a return on the time the volunteers give.
Why do I give? What I love in life is to see things grow. When I see a challenge of growing an organization to its potential, that is what motivates me to give. When that potential is met, I feel my job is done so I look for new challenges. Every organization I’ve been an active part of I’ve always taken the angle of “How can we make this bigger?” For example, the block watch started with 23 homes and I expanded it to 108 homes in the neighborhood over the course of three years. I love seeing the potential and growing it and that is why I give: to grow that potential.
The final daunting question remains, “Why don’t more people volunteer?” Sure, many do not have time. I’m the last person who can say that I have time for any pursuits other than my business, but I find the time. Nonprofit organizations help fill a need, and those who have the opportunity should volunteer whether or not they’ve been the recipient of such programs. Everyone should experience being a volunteer of their time and talents.
Soon I will reflect on my past 5 years with PCM; what an amazing 5 years it was!
Sincerely,
Nai Wang
Board President of The Phoenix Conservatory of Music
Over the course of 5 years serving on the board of directors of PCM, I’ve encountered many people from all different walks of life: from stay-at-home moms to lawyers, from artists to engineers, from employees to entrepreneurs. The people involved come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, and that diversity is necessary for a nonprofit to thrive because it might not have the resources to hire individuals to perform the duties necessary for a normally operating business.
I look at the people I know outside of PCM and many of them have never sat on a board of directors, nor have they volunteered their time to a cause. What makes me different than my social peers?
Thinking back to my life, I reflect on how I was not one who had the greatest opportunity. I got firsthand experience in seeing the results of giving because I grew up on food stamps and free and reduced lunches. I took opportunities in clubs and organizations to do community service and that carried into adulthood. I became involved with my local blockwatch group, eventually becoming president. I served on committees for my local school district and I was later recruited to be on the board of directors for arts and music organizations. Although I had very little to give in experience and knowledge of music, I was motivated to try.
Everyone has individual motivations for giving. Some give as part of a higher calling, others may give according to a club they participate in. Some give according to hobbies or interests and others are active to follow a cause. People give according to what they are passionate about. My motivations are simpler than all of that.
Personally, I give because I can. Even though I sometimes feel like I don’t have the time, I really do when I look for it. Even though I sometimes do not believe that I have the talents an organization needs, I find out that I do when I volunteer. I see a great need and I do what I can do to help. It just means taking a deeper look at myself.
Looking back, my time spent on the receiving end of nonprofit groups highly influenced me to be active in the art of giving. As board president, I feel that it is important to understand the motivations of each board member to help further the mission of the organization. Giving is never a one way street and it requires some personal satisfaction as a return on the time the volunteers give.
Why do I give? What I love in life is to see things grow. When I see a challenge of growing an organization to its potential, that is what motivates me to give. When that potential is met, I feel my job is done so I look for new challenges. Every organization I’ve been an active part of I’ve always taken the angle of “How can we make this bigger?” For example, the block watch started with 23 homes and I expanded it to 108 homes in the neighborhood over the course of three years. I love seeing the potential and growing it and that is why I give: to grow that potential.
The final daunting question remains, “Why don’t more people volunteer?” Sure, many do not have time. I’m the last person who can say that I have time for any pursuits other than my business, but I find the time. Nonprofit organizations help fill a need, and those who have the opportunity should volunteer whether or not they’ve been the recipient of such programs. Everyone should experience being a volunteer of their time and talents.
Soon I will reflect on my past 5 years with PCM; what an amazing 5 years it was!
Sincerely,
Nai Wang
Board President of The Phoenix Conservatory of Music
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
The Irrelevancy of In-class Lectures
When I go to class, I don’t want to sit through yet another boring lecture by a teacher droning on about a subject I already know or can easily find out on my own. Lectures in class are a thing of the past. I have so many other ways to get information on my own time that all I want is to spend class time discussing what I’ve learned and doing something about it.
In the past, educators were the gatekeepers of knowledge. By being the gatekeepers, they had ultimate control over when and how the information was delivered. Students in the same class were all taught at the same level, and if they accelerated or lagged behind, because one teacher can only perform one lecture at a time. Everyone attempts to gain some objective from the same presentation. Rarely do the students have a chance to learn at their own pace and according to their individual learning style.
Keeping the classes at the same pace made it easier for educators to teach and to grade, but not for the students to achieve. In the past, teachers didn’t have the aide of computers and other forms of technology that can serve to differentiate instruction and to address multiple learning styles in one class. They really didn’t have much of a choice but to use what was in their head, the experience they had in life, and the textbook that was given them to teach from.
Today, technology has removed the need for in-class lectures. With the invention of the computer, the internet, and digital media, students now have multiple ways to gain information. Does this mean that they no longer need teachers? They can find information, read it , and absorb it independently. The question is, do they comprehend it? Does the students’ effort actually transform the information into knowledge? This is the role of the teacher today- to guide the students through their search and their intellectual growth.
The future of education isn’t in information delivery by the teacher, but in the educator’s ability to help students to navigate through and comprehend the vast amount of knowledge they have at their fingertips. Class time should be spent discussing what they’ve learned, applying the knowledge in practical exercises, and performing tasks in labs. The information delivery can be easily made online through various avenues. Teachers can direct students to current data, deliver videos, podcasts, and news articles that are relevant to their subject as well as their everyday lives. Students can set the pace of their own learning; they can come to class prepared to ask questions when they need to and to apply their strengths to productive problem solving.
Differentiated instruction is possible now as teachers move away from being the gatekeepers of knowledge to knowledge guides, moving students toward the best path possible in achieving academic success. The challenge is for teachers to think creatively and leverage the technology available to them for the benefit of their students.
In the past, educators were the gatekeepers of knowledge. By being the gatekeepers, they had ultimate control over when and how the information was delivered. Students in the same class were all taught at the same level, and if they accelerated or lagged behind, because one teacher can only perform one lecture at a time. Everyone attempts to gain some objective from the same presentation. Rarely do the students have a chance to learn at their own pace and according to their individual learning style.
Keeping the classes at the same pace made it easier for educators to teach and to grade, but not for the students to achieve. In the past, teachers didn’t have the aide of computers and other forms of technology that can serve to differentiate instruction and to address multiple learning styles in one class. They really didn’t have much of a choice but to use what was in their head, the experience they had in life, and the textbook that was given them to teach from.
Today, technology has removed the need for in-class lectures. With the invention of the computer, the internet, and digital media, students now have multiple ways to gain information. Does this mean that they no longer need teachers? They can find information, read it , and absorb it independently. The question is, do they comprehend it? Does the students’ effort actually transform the information into knowledge? This is the role of the teacher today- to guide the students through their search and their intellectual growth.
The future of education isn’t in information delivery by the teacher, but in the educator’s ability to help students to navigate through and comprehend the vast amount of knowledge they have at their fingertips. Class time should be spent discussing what they’ve learned, applying the knowledge in practical exercises, and performing tasks in labs. The information delivery can be easily made online through various avenues. Teachers can direct students to current data, deliver videos, podcasts, and news articles that are relevant to their subject as well as their everyday lives. Students can set the pace of their own learning; they can come to class prepared to ask questions when they need to and to apply their strengths to productive problem solving.
Differentiated instruction is possible now as teachers move away from being the gatekeepers of knowledge to knowledge guides, moving students toward the best path possible in achieving academic success. The challenge is for teachers to think creatively and leverage the technology available to them for the benefit of their students.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Rest, refresh and revitalize: ACTA is my time to be inspired.
(please note, I wrote this a week ago. In light of the recent disaster occurring in Alabama, my thoughts and prayers go to those affected by the tornadoes. I have many friends and I hope and pray they are all safe.)
I have to admit, I don’t go to conferences to just show off my curriculum. Since I am not an educator, my only real chance to be with educators is at conferences. Sure I have my wares, exhibit, and my booth where I show off my hard work and hope that people will appreciate it; but for as much time I spend selling, I spend more time in academic sessions. This is where I learn, where I refuel and become inspired. This is where I get a much needed perspective.
Often while working in an office, I am engulfed in day to day operations, in running the business and building the company. I don’t get out and I don’t have the proper perspective of being in the trenches. Leaving the office gets me out of that rut.
Last year I was inspired to write a paper on describing technology as an acquired language (which I hope to publish one day). At conferences I learn about the needs of the populace I serve and try to find the best solution. I attend workshops to see what they are learning and figure out ways to improve upon the methods. I am also inspired to share my expert knowledge about technology.
This year I gave a presentation at ACTA: Technology in the Classroom: Integrating Social Media and Lifting the Cell Phone Ban in Schools. Both social media and cell phones are highly controversial topics for the classroom, but they are necessary to be addressed in education. I had no idea how 100 administrators would react to such a speech.
Needless to say, I left the conference intact and the responses I got were inspirational. I really felt that I opened the eyes of many who attended to the possibility of integrating the social network and accepting cell phones in schools. I know it is an uphill battle, but change must start somewhere. I felt this was my best presentation yet and I look forward to many more to come!
This year is the best year yet. I was inspired by what I learned, revitalized by the presentations and meetings I attended and revived by the beautiful Alabama beach. I made new friends and got to know old friends in a whole new way! It was an amazing trip and I left looking forward to what next year will bring.
I have to admit, I don’t go to conferences to just show off my curriculum. Since I am not an educator, my only real chance to be with educators is at conferences. Sure I have my wares, exhibit, and my booth where I show off my hard work and hope that people will appreciate it; but for as much time I spend selling, I spend more time in academic sessions. This is where I learn, where I refuel and become inspired. This is where I get a much needed perspective.
Often while working in an office, I am engulfed in day to day operations, in running the business and building the company. I don’t get out and I don’t have the proper perspective of being in the trenches. Leaving the office gets me out of that rut.
Last year I was inspired to write a paper on describing technology as an acquired language (which I hope to publish one day). At conferences I learn about the needs of the populace I serve and try to find the best solution. I attend workshops to see what they are learning and figure out ways to improve upon the methods. I am also inspired to share my expert knowledge about technology.
This year I gave a presentation at ACTA: Technology in the Classroom: Integrating Social Media and Lifting the Cell Phone Ban in Schools. Both social media and cell phones are highly controversial topics for the classroom, but they are necessary to be addressed in education. I had no idea how 100 administrators would react to such a speech.
Needless to say, I left the conference intact and the responses I got were inspirational. I really felt that I opened the eyes of many who attended to the possibility of integrating the social network and accepting cell phones in schools. I know it is an uphill battle, but change must start somewhere. I felt this was my best presentation yet and I look forward to many more to come!
This year is the best year yet. I was inspired by what I learned, revitalized by the presentations and meetings I attended and revived by the beautiful Alabama beach. I made new friends and got to know old friends in a whole new way! It was an amazing trip and I left looking forward to what next year will bring.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Building a better e-book: moving away from cheap cop-outs
E-books are heralded as the new way for students to learn! Save trees, fix shoulder problems, reduce eye strain! I find e-books to be cheap cop-outs by publishers just repackaging the same outdated technology called textbooks into a shiny new shell. PDF versions of textbooks do not help 21st century learners any more than if they carried a 50 pound book. Sure, it’s lighter, portable, accessible anywhere, can be searched and bookmarked, but the format, layout, and linear nature of the content remains the same. Students today require more than just a textbook to thrive; they need an interactive, dynamic environment to further develop their multi-media enabled brains.
Books cater to an old method of teaching. Read, digest, regurgitate. Teaching to the test often is the result of such a practice. Teachers who create rich dynamic classrooms do not rely on the textbooks. They mix it up with other resources to help their students grasp concepts the books fail to explain. No successful teacher just uses the book, so why should publishers keep producing textbooks that happen to have an “e” in front of it.
The need for content experts to take published works to the next level is critical in our evolution of education. No longer can authors be content with words on a page with a few graphics and illustrations; they need to enhance the learning experience by keeping up with the current technology (and that doesn’t mean e-books). 20 years ago, books were the norm because that was really the only way to produce the information and have it transported to eager minds.
Rich, immersive, interactive, relevant experiences can now be produced because the technology is out there to produce them. Today the minds of the students are much more complex, even more complex than the MTV generation. The video game generation has opened their eyes to whole new worlds they can control and education needs to mimic that mindset. Our students are self initiated learners. They want to control their own education, much like controlling their characters in a video game. They understand the objective and will work their way to the goal. Books do not give them a semblance of control since their path is already chosen for them.
So why are publishers ignoring this aspect in our social development?
I feel that the fourth point really hits home. It’s more expensive to create these immersive learning environments than to just crank out a product that has been established for over a thousand years. So I leave it up to you to decide. Do we continually perpetuate this 1000 year old tradition and settle or do we demand an investment in innovation in education? We can’t afford not to innovate.
Books cater to an old method of teaching. Read, digest, regurgitate. Teaching to the test often is the result of such a practice. Teachers who create rich dynamic classrooms do not rely on the textbooks. They mix it up with other resources to help their students grasp concepts the books fail to explain. No successful teacher just uses the book, so why should publishers keep producing textbooks that happen to have an “e” in front of it.
The need for content experts to take published works to the next level is critical in our evolution of education. No longer can authors be content with words on a page with a few graphics and illustrations; they need to enhance the learning experience by keeping up with the current technology (and that doesn’t mean e-books). 20 years ago, books were the norm because that was really the only way to produce the information and have it transported to eager minds.
Rich, immersive, interactive, relevant experiences can now be produced because the technology is out there to produce them. Today the minds of the students are much more complex, even more complex than the MTV generation. The video game generation has opened their eyes to whole new worlds they can control and education needs to mimic that mindset. Our students are self initiated learners. They want to control their own education, much like controlling their characters in a video game. They understand the objective and will work their way to the goal. Books do not give them a semblance of control since their path is already chosen for them.
So why are publishers ignoring this aspect in our social development?
- The powers that be still believe in the old way of teaching because that was the way they were taught.
- Creating a learning environment that can be intelligently remixed for the learner. (Imagine a book publisher building a World of Warcraft)
- They’re lazy.
- It’s expensive.
I feel that the fourth point really hits home. It’s more expensive to create these immersive learning environments than to just crank out a product that has been established for over a thousand years. So I leave it up to you to decide. Do we continually perpetuate this 1000 year old tradition and settle or do we demand an investment in innovation in education? We can’t afford not to innovate.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
KP’s Super Random Raffle Draw Happy Fun Time: how KP created a better raffle system.
Ever participated in a raffle where all you get is a lowly ticket and wait for someone to stick their hand in a box to draw your number. The suspense is killing me as they call out each number slowly. Once the winner jumps up happy they won the prize, the moment is over. Could this age old raffle system be improved? Here at KP we did just that.
How to build a better raffle system. Normal raffles are quite boring. You get a number and you wait for a chance to get that number drawn. In some cases, you get multiple numbers, thus increasing your chances of winning but it still comes down to that one time drawing. To improve on that process, we introduce a three step process that gets more exciting at each step.
After you gather all the entries, which can consist of names, numbers or any other representation of the persons in attendance, it is entered into a database and KP’s random raffle system generator assigns them into a matrix. In the matrix, entries are randomly assigned a letter and a number and then displayed on the screen with two prompts. When a letter is drawn and keyed into the system, the list shrinks down to either 40, 24, 20, or 12 entries. An appropriate die (D6, D10, D12, D20) is tossed and the number is entered which will give us two names. The two finalists are brought up on to stage and each given a chance to call heads or tails. After whatever antics that may arise as to who calls the coin flip, the winner is determined. That’s it! Simple, fun, and exciting! Takes the normal boring raffle of just drawing a lucky name to something exciting.
But…
It wasn’t that easy, for me that is…
With the power outage and disrupting the afternoon classes, my master class I was teaching ran over time. What was suppose to conclude at 5 rand to 5:45. The teachers really wanted to know more about social media and I had to teach. The contest officially concluded at 4:00 but entries still kept coming in. I had less than 45 minutes to:
I had already lost half an hour and the awards reception had started without me. Here’s a detailed account of what I did for those who cared to know how I scrambled to build this in less than an hour.
The first step was to capture all impressions. I went online and cached all the twitter posts, saved into a text file. That took little time since I had high speed internet. I then wrote a little script that captured the usernames from each post and transferred it into a comma delimited append file. I had to monitor the script as it ran through the names for posting anomalies and error codes. I repeated the steps for facebook and had to tweak the script to account for the different posting styles and accommodate comments. Lastly, wiki was much easier since I can generate a report of who made edits and just parsed out my entries.
Some of you might ask, “why didn’t you write the code and test it out at home?” Well my answer is simple. I’m too cocky and thought I could whip it up on the spot. I had the process already keyed out in my head and it was just a matter taking what’s in my head and putting it in practice. I was overconfident and had my timetables set (except for the power failure) in my mind.
When I completed my task, rushed down to the reception with laptop in hand and set up with five minutes to spare.
The raffle went amazingly well. Everyone had fun, enjoyed the process. A newcomer to twitter with only a few posts actually made it on the final 20 board. When the list was brought down to the final two, Laura and Cameron were two perfect candidates. Laura had never tweeted before this conference and Cameron had only used it on occasion but when presented with this contest, they became twitter fanatics! They posted their experience throughout the conference, what they were doing, what classes they were taking, and expressed themselves through the digital web. It was an amazing experience to see these two and the 80 other participants use the online medium this way.
New connections were made, friendships formed and a history of their experience is forever captured online. Unfortunately, there had to be a winner. Cameron called heads and Laura agreed. Brooke, my lovely assistant from Talcott flipped the coin and it landed tails. The happy winner gets up and speaks about how she never used Twitter and that weekend she had contacted her students and asked if they would be willing to use this tool to communicate and collaborate. She got an overwhelming response.
That concludes our super raffle session. To see the video in action, see the below video link. It’s rather dark and I should have adjusted the exposure setting before heading up on stage. Oh well. The acceptance speech is amazing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE1kgdMYUlg
How to build a better raffle system. Normal raffles are quite boring. You get a number and you wait for a chance to get that number drawn. In some cases, you get multiple numbers, thus increasing your chances of winning but it still comes down to that one time drawing. To improve on that process, we introduce a three step process that gets more exciting at each step.
After you gather all the entries, which can consist of names, numbers or any other representation of the persons in attendance, it is entered into a database and KP’s random raffle system generator assigns them into a matrix. In the matrix, entries are randomly assigned a letter and a number and then displayed on the screen with two prompts. When a letter is drawn and keyed into the system, the list shrinks down to either 40, 24, 20, or 12 entries. An appropriate die (D6, D10, D12, D20) is tossed and the number is entered which will give us two names. The two finalists are brought up on to stage and each given a chance to call heads or tails. After whatever antics that may arise as to who calls the coin flip, the winner is determined. That’s it! Simple, fun, and exciting! Takes the normal boring raffle of just drawing a lucky name to something exciting.
But…
It wasn’t that easy, for me that is…
With the power outage and disrupting the afternoon classes, my master class I was teaching ran over time. What was suppose to conclude at 5 rand to 5:45. The teachers really wanted to know more about social media and I had to teach. The contest officially concluded at 4:00 but entries still kept coming in. I had less than 45 minutes to:
- Collect all Twitter, Facebook, and Wiki impressions.
- Build an algorithm to extract names automatically.
- Compile into a database.
- Test the interface.
- Setup during the awards reception and execute.
I had already lost half an hour and the awards reception had started without me. Here’s a detailed account of what I did for those who cared to know how I scrambled to build this in less than an hour.
The first step was to capture all impressions. I went online and cached all the twitter posts, saved into a text file. That took little time since I had high speed internet. I then wrote a little script that captured the usernames from each post and transferred it into a comma delimited append file. I had to monitor the script as it ran through the names for posting anomalies and error codes. I repeated the steps for facebook and had to tweak the script to account for the different posting styles and accommodate comments. Lastly, wiki was much easier since I can generate a report of who made edits and just parsed out my entries.
Some of you might ask, “why didn’t you write the code and test it out at home?” Well my answer is simple. I’m too cocky and thought I could whip it up on the spot. I had the process already keyed out in my head and it was just a matter taking what’s in my head and putting it in practice. I was overconfident and had my timetables set (except for the power failure) in my mind.
When I completed my task, rushed down to the reception with laptop in hand and set up with five minutes to spare.
The raffle went amazingly well. Everyone had fun, enjoyed the process. A newcomer to twitter with only a few posts actually made it on the final 20 board. When the list was brought down to the final two, Laura and Cameron were two perfect candidates. Laura had never tweeted before this conference and Cameron had only used it on occasion but when presented with this contest, they became twitter fanatics! They posted their experience throughout the conference, what they were doing, what classes they were taking, and expressed themselves through the digital web. It was an amazing experience to see these two and the 80 other participants use the online medium this way.
New connections were made, friendships formed and a history of their experience is forever captured online. Unfortunately, there had to be a winner. Cameron called heads and Laura agreed. Brooke, my lovely assistant from Talcott flipped the coin and it landed tails. The happy winner gets up and speaks about how she never used Twitter and that weekend she had contacted her students and asked if they would be willing to use this tool to communicate and collaborate. She got an overwhelming response.
That concludes our super raffle session. To see the video in action, see the below video link. It’s rather dark and I should have adjusted the exposure setting before heading up on stage. Oh well. The acceptance speech is amazing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE1kgdMYUlg
Monday, March 28, 2011
Tsunami videos uploaded 3/24-3/28
Here are a few new videos uploaded to you tube vetted by me. Some really crazy footage!
Crazy video of port being washed away.
This one is very interesting. You'll see a camera man in this shot. Next one you'll see him walking up slowly. This shows perspective of the famous video of town of Kesennuma being washed away from ground level. Related video here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijuwl1Zw7s0
More clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ_5JbVnevc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFlN_jhS-KU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD2e5KPFJ20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD_xgox67QI
More videos.
Crazy video of port being washed away.
This one is very interesting. You'll see a camera man in this shot. Next one you'll see him walking up slowly. This shows perspective of the famous video of town of Kesennuma being washed away from ground level. Related video here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijuwl1Zw7s0
More clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ_5JbVnevc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFlN_jhS-KU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD2e5KPFJ20
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD_xgox67QI
More videos.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
3/23/11 Original Tsunami Videos from the past 48 hours: mostly original uploads.
It's been two weeks since the 9.0 earthquake and tsunami devistated northern Japan and now that people who lived in the affected regions are now getting to areas with restored power and more importantly internet (besides the bare necessities such as food shelter and water) they have gone ahead and stated uploaded the videos they captures on their cell phones.
I'm not one who is a disaster hunter but this one hits rather close to home. Makes me really appreciate the time I spent there just this past year.
I decided to put together a compilation of videos uploaded in the past 48 hours, not that you can't find them yourselvs but because I had to sift through 90% crap. What constitutes as crap uploads are
1. people filming new programs and uploading them.
2. poeople putting the word tsunami or 津波 and exploiting popular search terms.
3. people who put up fake crap to promote their business or organization.
What I was looking for was original sources uploaded from the people who shot the videos (or in some cases, friends they knew). I actually searched Japanese videos for the true source and found 95% of the videos in Japanese. I spent nearly three hours scouring YouTube so I thought that I would not let all that work go for naught. So here you are, original footage shot and uploaded by the ones who survived.
This first one was is the only one that was a capture from a news broadcast. You might have seen this one already but this is the first instance since the original broadcast where I've seen the video in it's entirety unedited. Other news sites cut out the end where you see the people standing on the rubble of a destroyed house.
This eye opening sequence was filmed at the shore where the guy realized the tsunami was coming and ran for higher ground just in time, all the while still filming.
This is a series of 9 videos taken from a sports promotion support store. The people sat by as their town gets flooded on the second floor. Be sure to watch all 9 videos showing the waters coming in and then finally receding. Here's their blog and story with pictures. http://blog.canpan.info/suport2007/
Video taken at top of mouth of river apartment. After realizing the it will hit his house, he runs in to save his dogs.
Part 1 of girl filming her town being flooded. She cries at the shock of seeing this.
Extremely dramatic crappy video of waves rushing in to town. Not original source but I couldn't' find it anywhere so this is the best I could do.
Video taken at a factory tour. Begins as water comes in, then with force causes trees to tobble against building. Later you see the entire industrial area underwater. This person has uploaded only one video.
These next three videos show waves coming in and washing a fishing port.
This one is only here because it shows how after the tsunami destroyed the port, ships out at sea came back safe and sound despite the debris and damage.
Waves crashing through tsunami wall from high up.
Another port town flooded. Very good long footage.
This last video was just of an area flooded and cars being washed away. If you look at the user, he's actually a stock car driver and has some very exciting in car videos from the past year of racing.
I hope you enjoyed these sorted out videos. I thought that my time wasted will be your time saved!
EDIT***
This is really cool. Follow this link. This person took it upon himself to go to a shelter and record video letters so that their friends and family can know they are safe!
http://www.youtube.com/user/yyokoyama504
I'm not one who is a disaster hunter but this one hits rather close to home. Makes me really appreciate the time I spent there just this past year.
I decided to put together a compilation of videos uploaded in the past 48 hours, not that you can't find them yourselvs but because I had to sift through 90% crap. What constitutes as crap uploads are
1. people filming new programs and uploading them.
2. poeople putting the word tsunami or 津波 and exploiting popular search terms.
3. people who put up fake crap to promote their business or organization.
What I was looking for was original sources uploaded from the people who shot the videos (or in some cases, friends they knew). I actually searched Japanese videos for the true source and found 95% of the videos in Japanese. I spent nearly three hours scouring YouTube so I thought that I would not let all that work go for naught. So here you are, original footage shot and uploaded by the ones who survived.
This first one was is the only one that was a capture from a news broadcast. You might have seen this one already but this is the first instance since the original broadcast where I've seen the video in it's entirety unedited. Other news sites cut out the end where you see the people standing on the rubble of a destroyed house.
This eye opening sequence was filmed at the shore where the guy realized the tsunami was coming and ran for higher ground just in time, all the while still filming.
This is a series of 9 videos taken from a sports promotion support store. The people sat by as their town gets flooded on the second floor. Be sure to watch all 9 videos showing the waters coming in and then finally receding. Here's their blog and story with pictures. http://blog.canpan.info/suport2007/
Video taken at top of mouth of river apartment. After realizing the it will hit his house, he runs in to save his dogs.
Part 1 of girl filming her town being flooded. She cries at the shock of seeing this.
Extremely dramatic crappy video of waves rushing in to town. Not original source but I couldn't' find it anywhere so this is the best I could do.
Video taken at a factory tour. Begins as water comes in, then with force causes trees to tobble against building. Later you see the entire industrial area underwater. This person has uploaded only one video.
These next three videos show waves coming in and washing a fishing port.
This one is only here because it shows how after the tsunami destroyed the port, ships out at sea came back safe and sound despite the debris and damage.
Waves crashing through tsunami wall from high up.
Another port town flooded. Very good long footage.
This last video was just of an area flooded and cars being washed away. If you look at the user, he's actually a stock car driver and has some very exciting in car videos from the past year of racing.
I hope you enjoyed these sorted out videos. I thought that my time wasted will be your time saved!
EDIT***
This is really cool. Follow this link. This person took it upon himself to go to a shelter and record video letters so that their friends and family can know they are safe!
http://www.youtube.com/user/yyokoyama504
Monday, March 14, 2011
My dumb luck working overtime to leave San Francisco before the storm: Serendipity strikes again
My dumb luck strikes again, serendipity is a good thing to me. Yesterday we avoided being stuck at the airport overnight because of my dumb luck. Normally I know my flight schedule backwards and forwards but for some reason I had thought we were flying out at 7 instead of 9:50. I have two apps on my phone reminding me of departure times and e-mail reminders but for some reason I never bothered looking at it that day. That is very strange behavior for Nai. So we hop a cab at 4:15 and head to the airport. Jon noted that it felt strange to be going when we are suppose to land after ten and Michi txt me wondering why we were going to the airport so early. I just shrugged it off and halfway to the airport I finally checked my flight app. I felt stupid for leaving so early. We could have had lunch at the brewery next door and enjoyed some craft beers for three hours before leaving San Francisco!
We could have stopped and grab lunch on the way or turned back but on the cab ride there, I looked up to see if there was a US Air lounge to hang out in for the next four hours. It would be fine to be stuck at an airport with lounge access with free food, wine and beer. I found a list where it had indicated there was one, only to later find out I had inadvertently found false information. With false information in hand, we happily get to the airport resigned to sitting for four hours in the airport lounge.
On check in, we find that we couldn’t check our bags in because we exceeded the 4 hour check-in limit. Crap, but this is where serendipity strikes. Staring blankly at the terminal saying no bags prior to four hours the Southwest attendant looks at us and says, “your flight is delayed by an hour due to the storm” (later it was delayed by almost three), then she proceeds to ask us “you’re here so early, how would you like to get on an earlier flight going through LAX, you will lose your A position but you will get in a couple hours ahead of your normally scheduled flight.” We looked at each other and said YES! So there we were, only an hour till our next flight, avoiding the coming storm and ended up getting home at 9 instead of 1 AM or even a delay overnight.
Sometimes luck has the weirdest ways of manifesting. Thank goodness for dumb luck!
Friday, March 4, 2011
FENI Day 3: My first and worst teaching experience ever!
Eager
Hopeful
Trepidatious
Nervous
Excited
These were just a few of the words that described my feelings on the third day of FENI. That afternoon I was to teach a 3 hour master class to 13 culinary arts educators how to get socially connected to the world through social networking tools. For the prior two days I’ve had teachers who signed up for my class come up to me expressing how excited they are to see what they will learn. Half of them were in my 2 hour workshop the first night and after getting a taste of what social media can do for them in their classroom, they were eager for more. I had some high expectations to fill. Am I ready?
At FENI, master classes are serious business. These teachers travel from all over the country and some from as far as South Africa to come and attend three classes during a two day period. They pay good money to be here but beyond that, they pay in time devoted to this conference. This isn’t like a local conference where you get up that morning, put on your chef’s coat and go to class for three hours and then go home. Here you spend many days in conference and many more hours traveling to get here. These teachers are committed to excellence!
The idea for me to teach a master class came shortly after I experienced a class gone wrong. In 2009 I took a class at FENI titled “Developing Online Lesson Plans & Curricula” taught by a computer teacher at the Le Cordon Bleu school of Las Vegas. It was one of the worst classes I ever took and I said to myself I could do far better with what I know even though I wasn’t a teacher by trade. All the participants took no value from this class. In 2010 I approached FENI about bringing technology into education and teaching a master class. They accepted my proposal.
In preparation, I wanted to create a workshop that has immense value. I want it to be hands on and not just me lecturing about what they should be doing. That is ineffective, and lends no value to the subject. As a computer guru, the biggest challenge I had was to take all the technical knowledge and information in my brain and translate it into something non digital natives can comprehend. I’ve always been able to bridge the gap from nerd to real world Las Vegas so I had confidence in pulling this one off.
I had so much prepared. In the computer lab I was going to take them through the social network, learn about why it will be important to their lives and why it’s relevant to students. I had planned to get each person to sign up to twitter and setup a group to start communicating to each other during the class. I was to have each person set up their own wiki and start collaborating on a class project. We were to use facebook to setup communication groups, set up events, and make announcements. I had so much planned.
On the day of the class, Chicago was experiencing one of their regular rainy days. It was pouring rain with no end in sight. I pull together all my equipment; laptop, netbook, projector, iPad, mobile internet device, camcorder, camera, pocket flip camera, and headed over to Washburn Culinary Institute’s computer lab.
I get there at 12:30, setup and ate lunch. At 1:45, 15 minutes prior to the start of class, I had two educators enter the room. After a few minutes of priming them for the class, the power suddenly goes off for the entire building. “Oh no, this can’t be happening,” ran through my head. I had planned for every possible problem from lack of computers to lack of internet but no power? How was I suppose to teach a computer class with no power? We sat there hoping it was a temporary power failure.
The fire department arrives 10 minutes later, it turns out that a woman was stuck in the elevator. They had to pull her out from the second floor and it actually turns out to be someone heading up to my class! We all got corralled into the dining room and tried to conduct class in a crowded noisy environment.
Make the best of any given situation… The class must go on. With that I plodded ahead and started discussing the concepts of social networking. I had a laptop with an hour of battery life so I was able to demonstrate Twitter, Wikis and Facebook. We all sat there, 13 of us, huddled around the table making the best of the moment. Despite the problems, they were all very eager to learn and we did make the best of a bad situation.
The busses came early to rescue us, so the class migrated back to the hotel. On the way there, I taught someone how to twitter using my iPad. This 50 year old chef had never done anything like that before and was excited to finally enter the digital age. We relocated to a conference room at the hotel where I set up my projector, screen and continued the class. Unfortunately I had lost a number of participants during this non digital transition to the new location, but six remained so we spent the next hour teaching social media tools. They all stayed past our scheduled class time by half an hour.
We could have stayed there for two more hours but there was the awards ceremony to attend and I had to prepare my super KP raffle engine for tonight’s drawing! That is another story I’m reserving for another blog post. Boy was that a fun hour of compiling 400 entries!
Was that the worst teaching experience ever? I would have to say no. Despite losing power and having my entire plans go to waste, I was still able to salvage the time and make it beneficial to the participants. I could only wish that things would have went better but now I know, under fire, the class can still go on. I only hope that I get another chance to do this again. I really wanted to teach. Really wanted to...
Hopeful
Trepidatious
Nervous
Excited
These were just a few of the words that described my feelings on the third day of FENI. That afternoon I was to teach a 3 hour master class to 13 culinary arts educators how to get socially connected to the world through social networking tools. For the prior two days I’ve had teachers who signed up for my class come up to me expressing how excited they are to see what they will learn. Half of them were in my 2 hour workshop the first night and after getting a taste of what social media can do for them in their classroom, they were eager for more. I had some high expectations to fill. Am I ready?
The idea for me to teach a master class came shortly after I experienced a class gone wrong. In 2009 I took a class at FENI titled “Developing Online Lesson Plans & Curricula” taught by a computer teacher at the Le Cordon Bleu school of Las Vegas. It was one of the worst classes I ever took and I said to myself I could do far better with what I know even though I wasn’t a teacher by trade. All the participants took no value from this class. In 2010 I approached FENI about bringing technology into education and teaching a master class. They accepted my proposal.
In preparation, I wanted to create a workshop that has immense value. I want it to be hands on and not just me lecturing about what they should be doing. That is ineffective, and lends no value to the subject. As a computer guru, the biggest challenge I had was to take all the technical knowledge and information in my brain and translate it into something non digital natives can comprehend. I’ve always been able to bridge the gap from nerd to real world Las Vegas so I had confidence in pulling this one off.
I had so much prepared. In the computer lab I was going to take them through the social network, learn about why it will be important to their lives and why it’s relevant to students. I had planned to get each person to sign up to twitter and setup a group to start communicating to each other during the class. I was to have each person set up their own wiki and start collaborating on a class project. We were to use facebook to setup communication groups, set up events, and make announcements. I had so much planned. On the day of the class, Chicago was experiencing one of their regular rainy days. It was pouring rain with no end in sight. I pull together all my equipment; laptop, netbook, projector, iPad, mobile internet device, camcorder, camera, pocket flip camera, and headed over to Washburn Culinary Institute’s computer lab.
I get there at 12:30, setup and ate lunch. At 1:45, 15 minutes prior to the start of class, I had two educators enter the room. After a few minutes of priming them for the class, the power suddenly goes off for the entire building. “Oh no, this can’t be happening,” ran through my head. I had planned for every possible problem from lack of computers to lack of internet but no power? How was I suppose to teach a computer class with no power? We sat there hoping it was a temporary power failure.
The fire department arrives 10 minutes later, it turns out that a woman was stuck in the elevator. They had to pull her out from the second floor and it actually turns out to be someone heading up to my class! We all got corralled into the dining room and tried to conduct class in a crowded noisy environment.
Make the best of any given situation… The class must go on. With that I plodded ahead and started discussing the concepts of social networking. I had a laptop with an hour of battery life so I was able to demonstrate Twitter, Wikis and Facebook. We all sat there, 13 of us, huddled around the table making the best of the moment. Despite the problems, they were all very eager to learn and we did make the best of a bad situation.
The busses came early to rescue us, so the class migrated back to the hotel. On the way there, I taught someone how to twitter using my iPad. This 50 year old chef had never done anything like that before and was excited to finally enter the digital age. We relocated to a conference room at the hotel where I set up my projector, screen and continued the class. Unfortunately I had lost a number of participants during this non digital transition to the new location, but six remained so we spent the next hour teaching social media tools. They all stayed past our scheduled class time by half an hour.
Was that the worst teaching experience ever? I would have to say no. Despite losing power and having my entire plans go to waste, I was still able to salvage the time and make it beneficial to the participants. I could only wish that things would have went better but now I know, under fire, the class can still go on. I only hope that I get another chance to do this again. I really wanted to teach. Really wanted to...
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
How the iPad 2 is geared for education not Android tablets
With the announcement of the iPad 2 today, I can clearly see why education has embraced this piece of technology and I fear that Android may be missing the boat. Apple has added one key component that will help education embrace this product today.
I’ve been traveling with the iPad since day one, and I’m no Apple fanboy being a hard core PC programmer, but since the first moment of using this “magical” device, it has changed the way I think of data. I swear I’ve sold 500 over the year just from using it during education conferences. But Apple didn’t need my help at all, because the product speaks for itself.
Fine, people are going to argue that Apple has a closed ecosystem and too tight of controls and data should be free to flow, blabla bla. I still think that way but what they created was their own ecosystem that works and is universally accepted. 15 million sold in the first 9 months says it all.
What the first iPad has done for me is changed the way I interface with content. Before we sat in front of a keyboard and mouse and worked with data, clicking, typing, viewing from a distance. It was cold and impersonal. What the iPad has done is make it a more organic experience. No other device has done that. I’ve owned palms, windows mobiles, tablet PC’s, everything that I thought would create that truly organic experience but fell short because I was still a slave to the interface. It’s transformative and opens your eyes in a whole new way, even for a data junkie like me.
One key part that Apple added to this device is the ability to display the screen to an output device such as a projector or HD TV. That was one critical piece that makes it a great presentation tool. Now teachers can open up any app and show what they are seeing on the screen to the class. There are thousands of apps that are excellent for education and this new tool opens up the audience that can effectively use it. The details are still sketchy on if this display option works with existing iPads, so I’m keeping my eyes and ears out for that confirmation!
I’ve already seen wonderful applications in education with this amazing device, but what will Android do? So far I’ve seen no evidence of upward mobility for the current batch of popular Android devices. It’s not because Honeycomb is not a superior tablet OS, or the devices don’t perform, it is because they are slaves to the carrier. Take for example the Motorola Xoom and the Samsung Galaxy Tab. These are great tablet devices but they require you to sign up with their carrier to gain a discount and in the case of the Xoom, you have to activate at lease one month of service. They do not offer the option to get a WiFi only model and only say it will come in the future. I can never see public education institutions picking these devices up with this necessary feature and expense they will never use. I think Android tablets makers are shooting themselves in the foot by not opening their devices up to non carrier use.
The current crop of Android devices are not ready for the main stream. With little app support and the promise of future upgrades, they are devices for the anti-Appleites or the super geeks. Apple has once again bested Android makers. I truly hope that someone will wise up and produce the next gen tablet I can drool over.
Apple with help transform education, it’s up to the others to play catch-up now.
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| Photo Courtesy of Engadget |
Fine, people are going to argue that Apple has a closed ecosystem and too tight of controls and data should be free to flow, blabla bla. I still think that way but what they created was their own ecosystem that works and is universally accepted. 15 million sold in the first 9 months says it all.
What the first iPad has done for me is changed the way I interface with content. Before we sat in front of a keyboard and mouse and worked with data, clicking, typing, viewing from a distance. It was cold and impersonal. What the iPad has done is make it a more organic experience. No other device has done that. I’ve owned palms, windows mobiles, tablet PC’s, everything that I thought would create that truly organic experience but fell short because I was still a slave to the interface. It’s transformative and opens your eyes in a whole new way, even for a data junkie like me.
I’ve already seen wonderful applications in education with this amazing device, but what will Android do? So far I’ve seen no evidence of upward mobility for the current batch of popular Android devices. It’s not because Honeycomb is not a superior tablet OS, or the devices don’t perform, it is because they are slaves to the carrier. Take for example the Motorola Xoom and the Samsung Galaxy Tab. These are great tablet devices but they require you to sign up with their carrier to gain a discount and in the case of the Xoom, you have to activate at lease one month of service. They do not offer the option to get a WiFi only model and only say it will come in the future. I can never see public education institutions picking these devices up with this necessary feature and expense they will never use. I think Android tablets makers are shooting themselves in the foot by not opening their devices up to non carrier use.
The current crop of Android devices are not ready for the main stream. With little app support and the promise of future upgrades, they are devices for the anti-Appleites or the super geeks. Apple has once again bested Android makers. I truly hope that someone will wise up and produce the next gen tablet I can drool over.
Apple with help transform education, it’s up to the others to play catch-up now.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
The social media revolution in education: we can do it!
There needs to be a social media revolution in school.
In the past month we’ve all been hearing how social media had played an integral role in the revolutions in the Middle East, how Twitter and Facebook spurred a movement and toppled a government not ready to face such a brush fire. We all saw the power of the people played out on our television sets, over the internet and on the Twitter feed and how the people’s voice can be spread and heard through the social network. There’s no denying the power of voice.
I recently read an article by Chris Tayler on CNN called “Why not call it a Facebook revolution” where he expounded on how traditional media are purposefully downplaying and even dismissing the role of social media in these revolutions. Head stuck in the sand comes to mind on the absurdity of such statements.
It wasn’t until I got to his observation of an interview in Tahir Square that gave me an idea.
That started me thinking of how these kids were not unlike the kids we have here in the classroom. The kids in Tahir were plugged in, posting their activities and contributing to the collective voice. They were participants, observers, reporters and revolutionaries. They were active, alive and communicating.
How does this translate to kids here and in the classroom. Kids are naturally social and they find any means to communicate. Prior to mobile devices and Twittering there was Instant Messaging. Prior to that there was texting. Prior to that there was passing notes in class or in lockers. Messaging has been in our lives across generations, it’s just the means to and the reach of that has changed.
Kids are plugged in. At home they tweet about what they are doing, what game they are playing, what homework assignment they hate to do. They are growing up in a world of a collective voice where their identity is not just made up of the people immediately surrounding them but the world.
They want to post what they are doing, tell about what they are learning, express themselves on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube but we won’t let them. We as adults want ultimate control over our environments, to limit means of expression we don’t understand or may prove to be disruptive to the learning environment. True, we are charged with making the most of the little time we have with them, get them through the materials, make the grade, graduate and all the while getting paid little except for the personal reward of affecting lives. Teaching is a profession of passion, no doubt about that but could we do more if we have better tools?
School is a social place of interaction but when a student enters school, they are entering a foreign country where rules dictate behavior to achieve an outcome. They walk through the doors, they are separated from the real world. Cell phones off, linear thinking caps on, and the plod on through the day.
Egypt president Hosni Murbarak tried to quell the rebellion by controlling his country and shut down the internet. This exercise of control didn’t stop the revolution which eventually ousted him from office 18 days after the revolution started. Schools exercise control because of the fear of the unknown, because of fear or litigation, an embarrassing story leaked out about something a teacher did and was posted on YouTube. But should schools be run in such a way to disconnect our students from the real world because we fear?
Kids want to remain connected, engaged with their social sphere and the world around them. Have them post about what they learned in class, take pictures of their work and have the world rate it, put their writings up for the world to see and critique, express their art and creative talents online. More importantly, have them talk about how they feel through the day, what inspires them and what bores them. Creative solutions are out there.
Thankfully there are a few public schools and districts out there who are embracing social media. Birdville ISD comes to mind. It’s a start.
Sheltering them from such a relevant piece of their lives is doing them a disservice. We don’t need to truly understand social media to begin to embrace it. What we do need to understand is that disconnecting these kids from the social world is doing more harm than good.
These kids in Tahir Square are connected because they have a means of expression. We live in a social world and there needs to be a social media revolution in our education system. Bring the world back into the classroom and not keep the classroom out of the world.
What a great article, I’d encourage you to read it. I’m fascinated and inspired by what’s going on in the world of social media. This is only the tip of the iceberg.
I recently read an article by Chris Tayler on CNN called “Why not call it a Facebook revolution” where he expounded on how traditional media are purposefully downplaying and even dismissing the role of social media in these revolutions. Head stuck in the sand comes to mind on the absurdity of such statements.
"People protested and brought down governments before Facebook was invented," the New Yorker's Malcolm Gladwell opined on February 2. A few weeks later, The Financial Times' Gideon Rachman reminded us that "the French managed to storm the Bastille without the help of Twitter -- and the Bolsheviks took the Winter Palace without pausing to post photos of each other on Facebook." - CNN
It wasn’t until I got to his observation of an interview in Tahir Square that gave me an idea.
“Remember the kids interviewed in Tahir Square the night Mubarak resigned? What struck me most was what they were doing while waiting for the reporter to finish his introduction: thumbing on their smartphones. Want to hazard a guess at the website they were checking?” - CNN
That started me thinking of how these kids were not unlike the kids we have here in the classroom. The kids in Tahir were plugged in, posting their activities and contributing to the collective voice. They were participants, observers, reporters and revolutionaries. They were active, alive and communicating.
How does this translate to kids here and in the classroom. Kids are naturally social and they find any means to communicate. Prior to mobile devices and Twittering there was Instant Messaging. Prior to that there was texting. Prior to that there was passing notes in class or in lockers. Messaging has been in our lives across generations, it’s just the means to and the reach of that has changed.
Kids are plugged in. At home they tweet about what they are doing, what game they are playing, what homework assignment they hate to do. They are growing up in a world of a collective voice where their identity is not just made up of the people immediately surrounding them but the world.
They want to post what they are doing, tell about what they are learning, express themselves on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube but we won’t let them. We as adults want ultimate control over our environments, to limit means of expression we don’t understand or may prove to be disruptive to the learning environment. True, we are charged with making the most of the little time we have with them, get them through the materials, make the grade, graduate and all the while getting paid little except for the personal reward of affecting lives. Teaching is a profession of passion, no doubt about that but could we do more if we have better tools?
School is a social place of interaction but when a student enters school, they are entering a foreign country where rules dictate behavior to achieve an outcome. They walk through the doors, they are separated from the real world. Cell phones off, linear thinking caps on, and the plod on through the day.
Egypt president Hosni Murbarak tried to quell the rebellion by controlling his country and shut down the internet. This exercise of control didn’t stop the revolution which eventually ousted him from office 18 days after the revolution started. Schools exercise control because of the fear of the unknown, because of fear or litigation, an embarrassing story leaked out about something a teacher did and was posted on YouTube. But should schools be run in such a way to disconnect our students from the real world because we fear?
Kids want to remain connected, engaged with their social sphere and the world around them. Have them post about what they learned in class, take pictures of their work and have the world rate it, put their writings up for the world to see and critique, express their art and creative talents online. More importantly, have them talk about how they feel through the day, what inspires them and what bores them. Creative solutions are out there.
Thankfully there are a few public schools and districts out there who are embracing social media. Birdville ISD comes to mind. It’s a start.
Sheltering them from such a relevant piece of their lives is doing them a disservice. We don’t need to truly understand social media to begin to embrace it. What we do need to understand is that disconnecting these kids from the social world is doing more harm than good.
These kids in Tahir Square are connected because they have a means of expression. We live in a social world and there needs to be a social media revolution in our education system. Bring the world back into the classroom and not keep the classroom out of the world.
What a great article, I’d encourage you to read it. I’m fascinated and inspired by what’s going on in the world of social media. This is only the tip of the iceberg.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Day 1 & 2 in Japan: A video tour from last year.
Today I want to take a quick break from education and go back six month to give you a short video tour of our trip to Japan. Now that YouTube has upgraded my account to allow for longer videos, I find myself uploading all those videos I wanted to put up but couldn't due to time and space limitations. I want the videos up in their full HD quality and settled for nothing less.
Short Recap
August 6 I travel to Japan to meet up with my wife who has been there for a week with her father. I’ve always wanted to go to Japan but had no real means or time to. If you want to see a day by day account of the trip, you can start with Day 1.
Day 1. The following day after I land we meet up with our friends who happen to be visiting Japan on a tour. It was their free day and they leave tomorrow for Ito and the hot springs. Since it was an opportune time for us to meet halfway across the world, we took it and spent the day touring Japan with them.
One of the most memorable stops we made was at the Cat Café. After paying a $10 admission, we were allowed 90 minutes to hang out with cats. We can order food and drink and spend the time with them. Go over the 90 minutes, pay extra. Detailed account here:
Here is the video of our experience.
VIDEO
After that we took a walk around the streets of Shinjuku. Lori and Ross were amazed at how different theses streets were when they saw sex shops and adverts for adult entertainment.
VIDEO
Later we met up with the rest of their tour group and had dinner one last time with English speakers. The restaurant called Waru Waru had a variety of goodies but the food was pretty lame. The only good thing about their restaurant was their ordering system. Just tap on the screen and later they bring out the food and eventually the bill.
VIDEO
Day 2. With Lori and Ross on their way to ITO we head out with Michi's father to see the sites of Tokyo. First stop, a conveyor belt sushi restaurant. Detailed account of the day can be found here.
VIDEO
Next we ride to the Tokyo Capital building and got an overview of Tokyo from their innovative tour system.
VIDEO to Come
Then we ride to the Maji Shrine and spend a good amount of time looking at some Japanese history.
VIDEO
Lastly we ride to Harajuku to check out the youth culture.
VIDEO
After visiting Harajuku we biked over to Shibuya and got a chance to experience the world famous Shibuya square.
VIDEO
More fascinating was our experience in the market beneath the major transportation hub. The marketplace was teeming with people buying groceries for the day.
VIDEO
We even got a chance to see someone making gyozas fresh and fast!
VIDEO
What a day! I swear we biked over 50 miles that day!
whew!
Friday, February 25, 2011
FENI Day 2: The social network in motion
The second day of FENI I encouraged the conference attendees to make use of the tools I presented at the workshop to put Knowledge into Practice (tm), the KP motto. Condensing 2 hours worth of material down to 15 minutes was a challenge. Checking the tweets that morning, there were already a number of people using twitter the way it should have been at the conference, creating a dialogue about their experience online. I could follow those individuals as they post about how excited they were about the day, their reactions to the breakfast and then later about what they thought of the keynote speaker. It was amazing to be able to have that dialogue online and to see how people collectively thought about a given event and subject. Checking Facebook, I saw some comments there but it started showing its own after people attended classes and started posting pictures there.I was really encouraged by the reactions I got the night before and that morning. I felt that this is an excellent start to an already amazing conference.
Some quotes I got and heard about the workshop “The World is Connected”
- “You have broken down my social network barriers.”
- “I love how you explain things in plain English.”
- “Thank you! I got so much out of this.”
- “I wish it was longer than 2 hours.”
- “This workshop alone has paid for the entire weekend. “
- “If this is what we are to expect for the rest of the conference... I can’t wait.”
- “During the workshop I txt my students about using twitter and they responded in 45 seconds, all YES!”
- “I can’t wait to take what I learned and try it out with my students.”
- “Too much to learn! I need more time! Do it again!”
- “I learned so many different ways to communicate with my students.”
The rest of the day at FENI proved to be a very fun day as I put into practice what I taught the attendees. I Tweeted, took pictures and posted on Facebook and wrote about my class on the wiki. I saw others doing the same and got to experience their classes throughout the day. It was such a fun experience. I couldn’t wait for to see how well the next day would go as I’m teaching one of the master classes, a three hour hands on class on using these social tools in their classroom. I am so excited that I could never predict what would happen the next day. Never in my wildest dreams would the day turn out the way it did. What a disaster!
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