Over the weekend, my friend Zoe Branigan-Pipe (@zbpipe on Twitter) kind of stirred the pot with these Twitter messages.
Zoe includes a link to her blog that features an inspiration from Megan Palevich and a blog post that she had written – https://middleschool101.edublogs.org/2010/03/21/a-walk-down-memory-lane-with-google-street-view/
It was interesting to see the people respond to Zoe’s provocation.
Heidi Siwak hasn’t jumped in yet but her content always is grounded in a sense of reality and research.
Colin Jagoe jumped in with memories about his blog and domains that he’s registered and continues to make payment on.
Rodd Lucier shared some of his enduring wisdom “We are smarter than me”. Rodd was so supportive of eLearning and getting connected to learn at the time.
Danika Barker reminded us of her TED talk.
The comments that ensued really rang true. We were inventing the future as we were experimenting with it. It wasn’t widely accepted; I remember bringing it up at a meeting and a person from IT poo-pooed it saying that she didn’t want to see a picture of what I had for lunch.
But we endured and here we are today. I suspect that all of us, regardless of where we are now, admit openly to continue to be learners. And, to that end, Rodd absolutely nailed it.
In the post, Zoe actually made a reference to a post on this blog that I visit periodically – My Childhood Community. It was essentially a wander around my home town, snapping images from Google Streetview and putting them together into a blog post. Again, as Rodd says, “we succeeded with storytelling”.
As I do so often in this blog, I’ll write a post about software or an idea and then demonstrate how I used it. CIESC friends will know that these ideas often turned into workshops.
I was inspired to do this thanks to another member of my learning network, ZeFrank.
I think Zoe’s inspiration has a place today as people look to meaningful activities that can be accomplished online. Why not have students create a report of their own community, either now or then? Speaking of now or then, Google Streetview has evolved so much since 2010. Multiple pictures of the same location are available just by rolling back the Streetview clock.
Just went did it become Kim’s Convenience anyway?
Or maybe take a tip from Megan’s activity and ask grandma and grandpa a question when you’re doing an online video conference with them?
Sure, you can just go online and ask for an image of the CN Tower or Kim’s Convenience but that’s a pretty straight forward idea. Why not head to Streetview and see what else is around any location and build that complete story?
Thanks, Zoe, for stirring things up.
doug -- off the record 
Please share your thoughts here. I’d enjoy reading them.