Crowdsourcing

This past April the City of Jacksonville hosted a five day event called One Spark.  It was one of the most exciting things Jacksonville has ever done.  There were hundreds of exhibitors--artists, scientists, musicians, and innovators—set up over four or five blocks of downtown Jacksonville.     One Spark organizers asked everyone to register online, and anyone who attended the event became an investor.  As we walked from one exhibit to the next, we were each given the power to vote for promising ideas.  $100,000 was awarded according to the number of votes an exhibitor received from members of the crowd.  Like Kickstarter, investors had the opportunity to donate their own money to promising projects.  I continued to pinch myself asking, “Is this really Jacksonville?”  One Spark was successful, and plans for next year have already begun.  I can’t wait.

 

 

 

Today wa a good day.

Today, the last day of my first semester at FSU, I drove to Tallahassee to see my son, ride my bike at Tom Brown Park, and meet Mary Kate McKee.  I didn’t get to see my son—long story there—my bike ride was great, and I had an uplifting conversation with Mary Kate about the Instructional Systems Master’s program.  I’m technically a non-degree student, but I hope to convert soon to graduate student.  I’m apprehensive about acceptance.  My GRE scores are 21 years old but acceptable (I still have the original score report). My undergrad transcript is, well, mediocre.  I’m banking on three good recommendations, writing a convincing Statement of Purpose, and the generosity of the Instructional Systems admissions team.  The highlight of the day was making it to the FSU Card office just in time to get my $10 FSU student ID.  My husband says he can tell I was happy because I have a great big smile!  I’m really looking forward to the future.

An Old Dog Who's Just an Old Dog

My sister is the Head of Technology at a small private school in Jacksonville Beach.  After thirteen years, the principal of her school retired.  The new principal, who had come from another local private school, asked my sister to meet with the Head of Technology at her former school to discuss the possibility of using some of the same software she had used at her former school.  I was invited to attend the meeting since I had expressed an interest in learning more about Edmodo, Dropbox, and Google Apps.  My sister has been successful in implementing an excellent program at her school, teaching herself everything she knows about the machines and software.  Her colleagues at her school believe she has hung the technology moon.  Despite her competence and everyone’s confidence in her, she is worried that the new principal wants to hire her former technology teacher to take my sister’s place.  I’m sure the principal is happy to leave behind the old technology teacher.  The first thing the other teacher said to us was that she wasn’t interested in learning anything new, an odd statement for someone in her position.  She was kind-of grumpy and ridged. 

I just need to convince my sister that she’s great at her job and nobody will want to replace her!

An ending and a new beginning

I have had a lot to learn in a short period of time. 

Some new experiences

• participating in a webinar. --  By the last webinar, I had finally figured out how to hear the conference from my computer instead of watching and calling in on my cell phone.
• watching a voice thread. --  After the 3^rd one, I figured out why random photos and avatars appeared on the right side of the screen.
• creating and maintaining a blog
• creating tags (who knew?)
• making a screen shot
• a gazillion Web 2.0 tools 

I learned

 

• the more people looking at a problem, the easier it is to solve the problem especially on the Web.
• the significance of the blog for giving voice to those too shy to speak up in the classroom.
• the heart of the volunteer and the value of the pro-am collaboration.
• a new metaphor for super glue and WD-40, bonding and bridging capital.
• the democracy of the Web in building communities of practice.
• participation in on-line surveys; rating restaurants and hotels at TripAdvisor; and  liking, commenting, or reposting a Facebook post is all produsage (which is a weird new word.)
• not finishing something or even imagining how something will end is sometimes the goal.

 

 

The learning curve has been steep the last six weeks, but it goes forward from here to my high school classroom.  I’m so energized and anxious to share what I’ve learned.

Thank you for being a great introduction into graduate school, Dr. Dennen.  It’s going to be a worthwhile adventure!