Fuzzy Thinking

INTRO

What was lost, found, I looked up and there it was in the distance, about 30 meters away. Not my missing phone case, it was in my car the whole time. This..

WHEN SETTLING ISN'T MAKING DO

I was out flying out flying my Parrot Bebop 2 drone yesterday. I used to think it was one hot drone. Then I flew a DJI Phantom 4. Then I saw a demo of the new DJI Mavic Pro drone and took the Phantom back and pre-ordered a Mavic. Which is why I was out flying. I fly drones, not for the flying so much. That's scary. Drones are expensive. I've lost one and crashed several. I fly drones for the photos. The DJI camera gimbal and cameras are much better than what my Bebop 2 has.

But the Mavic Pro isn't likely to arrive for a while. So Bebop and me were out in the Arizona desert west of Phoenix flying and taking pictures. At the very end, packed up and about to drive off, I looked to the right and there it was: a frowning cactus. A few days from Halloween sighting it was timely. It made me think of a Jack-o-Lantern, this Jack-o-Cactus.

Photos other drone pilots post on social media show wondrous things: cathedrals and estates, lush green or craggy snow covered mountains, cruise ships and barges on the sea or rivers, basically a whole lot of amazing places. Around these parts, in the slice of Arizona I call home, all there is is scrub and cactus.

But finding and photographing Jack-o-Cactus made me think that since I got it I should use it.

OUTRO

I wish my Mavic Pro would get here already. It's 4K camera would have taken a much sharper Jack photo. Oh well. Soon. Soon.

 

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Play Time PD

INTRO

EdCamp Tucson is tomorrow, Saturday September 12, 2015. Unlike many unconferences that I participate in this one’s practically in my backyard, only 90 minutes away. Usually I travel hundreds of miles to EdCamps. I reflect on what I might learn on the way there. On the trip home I reflect on how I might apply learnings to my instructional design practice.

PLAY TIME PD: A LEARNING ACTIVITY BEST EXPERIENCED WITH OTHERS

A few PD (Professional Development) conferences ago, it might have been CUEROCKSTAR, I heard someone describe PD as play time. I’ve been thinking a lot about viewing PD as a fun enjoyable thing to do.

When I was a child I loved when Papa would take me to the park. His experience and mine while at the park were, I believe, a lot different. Sometimes he’d bring the newspaper to read. Other times he’d watch me for a while then kind of zone out and relax. He worked in a Kaiser steel mill feeding coke into a blast furnace. I can imagine what relaxing in the shade of a tree in a quiet place meant to him.

How I experienced park play time depended on who was there, too. Sometimes there were friends I would run around with. Other times, probably more often than not, there were kids I didn’t know that I could get to know, play with, and learn from. Once in a while Papa and I would have the park to ourselves. I think he liked the quiet: me, not so much.

Fast forward to the present day: EdCamp Tucson. There will be lots of people there. It’s going to be held at CITY Center for Collaborative Learning. It’s someplace I haven’t been to before. Their website says it’s an “umbrella organization” but what does that mean? As it kicks-off we’ll post what we’d like to learn there. We’ll post topics we can facilitate conversations on. All this is standard stuff at an EdCamp; they have no preset agenda. Anticipating what will happen reminds me of my park experience. The best times, the ones that come back most vividly, are filled with memories of lots of kids interacting with each other in varied ways.

I was in Little Rock, Arkansas last week meeting with a development team. On my drive there and back, 2600 miles round trip, I stopped often to take pictures of interesting stuff. One of these times was near the village of Honobia, Oklahoma. It seems that every October there’s this Bigfoot Conference hosted by Christ’s 40 Acres.

Anyway, a little before Honobia was this big Bigfoot T-Shirt sign. I thought: “Kodak Moment”, so I stopped to take a selfie. Being alone it took a few minutes to balance my iPhone on the hood of my Pilot, set the timer so I’d have enough time to press the shutter release then run back up to the sign. I was huffing-n-puffing running back and forth trying to get the timing and my positioning right. Honobia is up in the mountains, high up. I was sweaty and breathing hard by the time I finally got it. Admiring the photo I took while I caught my breath reminded me of going to the park again: good times.

OUTRO

Why do I go to so many EdCamps and PD conferences? Is it for the keynotes? Is it for the pre-conference workshops? Is it for the concurrent sessions? Not really. EdCamps don’t have any of those things. The ATD conferences I’ve been to, the eLearning Guild’s DevLearn and mLearnCon have them and they’re informative and valuable PD resources. But where I really learn is when I interact with others. Talking about what their experience was like and then contrasting it with mine has the most value. How about you? Why do you participate in PD conferences?