Apace of Change

by Damian Bariexca, Ed.D.

Archive for January, 2008

Decision Made, Suggestions Welcome

Back in October, I asked for advice on how to balance an invitation to present at a conference with the impending birth of my daughter. In the end, I decided to take Chris Lehmann‘s advice and arrange to co-present. In the event that I can’t go, I know the presentation will be in capable hands.

Baby willing, I’ll be co-presenting a short (traditional-style, sorry) workshop on wikis at the New Jersey Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development headquarters in Monroe Twp., NJ on February 12. It will be a 40-minute section of a longer (9am-1pm) workshop entitled Infusing Technology into the Curriculum to Enhance Learning, which will also cover the curricular use of blogs, Skype, Moodle, and social networking. The presenters are teachers from different disciplines (English, Social Studies, Spanish, and Phys. Ed.) who all use these tools in their classrooms. There will also be an introductory piece from our Supervisor of Instructional Tech (I think that’s your title, Don; please correct me if I’m wrong).

It’s not my first conference presentation, but it is my first one involving this technology in which I’ve immersed myself for the past year or so. I’m quite excited about it, and will be putting all the preso notes up at (what else?) the official presentation wiki. The major points I’m considering so far are:

  • Wikis as bare-bones content management systems
  • Cost (free and ad-free for K12 educators via Wikispaces)
  • User-friendliness
  • Functionality & security
  • Opportunity for students to publish to a global audience & contribute a meaningful product for public consumption
  • Examples of student-generated wiki products

I’ll probably also start with Lee LeFever’s Wikis in Plain English, just for good measure. So what am I missing? If you had 35 administrative ears to bend, what about wikis would you want to convey?

The Seven Day Itch

Holy shit cow! I’ve made it seven whole days swear-free! For those of you following along at home, that means I am 50% of the way to reaching my goal of not swearing in front of my wife or son for 2 weeks straight (cue Chris Rock saying, “Whaddya want, a cookie? You ain’t supPOSED to cuss in front of your wife and kids!”).

If you’re not sure what on Earth this has to do with education, technology, or psychology (as stated in the red bar above), go here for the backstory. I swear promise I’m trying to maintain focus and not let this become another e/n blog (this isn’t LiveJournal, after all).

A Rerun Already? (Meme Edition)

My fellow NJ educator Ann (aka NJTechTeacher) tagged me with a “Seven Random Things” meme. Unaccustomed as I am to sharing the minutiae of my personal life, I’ll respond with a re-post of my participation in a similar meme from this past summer.

When I first posted this, I had only been blogging for four days, and it was my fourth post. Since Statcounter and Feedburner tell me I’ve got more readers now than I did in August, consider this “New to You” content for most of you.

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My 8 Random Things:

1. Though I’ve spent most of my life in New Jersey (and I still work there), I went to first grade in Switzerland at the International School of Basel. Goodnight, Ms. Cozens, wherever you are.

2. I have been an ardent fan of Newcastle United FC for the better part of a decade (at least no one can accuse me of being a front-runner!).

3. I first met my wife in a teacher work room at our high school (and you thought prep periods were for grading!).

4. Yeah, so we took our honeymoon in Disney World, so what? It’s not just for kids anymore manchildren like it too.

5. Geek cred – I’ve only been blogging for a week, but I’ve been online since 1992 – how many of you remember connecting at 1200 baud (and when the 14.4 line at your BBS felt lightning-fast!)?

6. My Twitter name is actually a mild malapropism for an album by The Stone Roses called “Garage Flower”. I picked it because I like the contrasting imagery (and garages).

7. My first instrument? Alto sax in fifth grade; only lasted a year. Picked up bass guitar in eighth grade because it looked cool (and only had 4 strings, therefore easier to learn than guitar, right?). Learned guitar and started singing at 16, and have played out here and there ever since, both alone and with bands.

8. I’ve acted, too. Up until family life and grad school sank their claws into me started occupying more of my time, I acted with Shakespeare ‘70 Repertory Company, based in Mercer County, NJ. Favorite role? Sir Walter Blunt in Henry IV, Part I. Not too many lines to memorize, and I got to go out in a blaze of glory after a broadsword battle with a man so bad he precedes his name with a definite article, The Douglas.

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I wish I could blame a writer’s strike, but what can you do? I feel a big post coming on soon on my shifting professional role and what that means for my contribution to education (wasn’t that part of the original plan?), but I really need to sort out some structure first – it may be my first two-parter.