Let us in education dream of an aristocracy of achievement rising out of a democracy of opportunity. Thomas Jefferson

This is a quote of some beauty  which I want to perserve so I’m blogging it. I had a short conversation today with someone about Justin Smith Morrill, author of the Morrill Land-Grant Acts , and the seeming prescience or forethought these men had and of the somewhat depressing fact that statements like the one above are still dreams as yet fufilled.

Morrill, Jonathan Baldwin Turner, Liberty Hyde Bailey, Jane Addams, Eduard Lindeman, Mary Parker Follett - and the list goes on. So many who have thought seriously, spoken eloquently, about educating adults and yet here we are in 2008….

Things have wrapped up, kids are getting ready to travel home to the 4 corners of New York state and I’m a bit exhausted. Unlike previous years I flew solo and there were moments when another brain and set of hands would have been welcome, but we survived. 4 videos produced, some new skills learned and a long weekend coming up. My immediate, after event, thoughts/questions are:

What happened to iMovie? - It’s been a while since I used iMovie. As a matter of fact last years CE may have been the last time. In the interim it went and changed on me and all I can ask is - What was Apple thinking? The interface is gnarlier, much more confusing to work with and some effects …basic effects like slow motion …have been stripped away. I used to love iMovie for work with teens who have never done video before but now I may have to take a look again at MovieMaker, as painful as that is to contemplate.

Did we accomlish our goals? - A qualified yes, I believe. Given the groups size (20 participants), the time frame and my lonely self we covered some contextual material before unleashing the technology but I just didn’t have enough time to work with each of the three teams they divided into to reinforce some of the fundamentals about structuring stories and so on. Next year I may limit the size down even further and have been wondering whether some sort of pre-screening is possible or desireable.

Given a few days more willl filter in but for now….it’s over, we did some things, no one got hurt and I’m thinking about next years programs, so it must have been good.

Off to the races, so to speak. Today began at 8:30 - an ungodly hour to have to be functionally interacting with others, in my opinion, but the schedule abides. After a brisk discussion, everyone was anxious to get out there, start doing things and so out into the world they headed. It always amazes me - the energy, the creativity that can happen - and I really shouldn’t be suprised. I am hopeful that this experince provides a space to encourage some exploration that is otherwise unavailable on a day to day basis. After 7 years of doing this event I like to think I’ve found a balance between providing the right amount of structure and support without narrowing the field of potential action.

Things move in parallel, that goes without saying, and so perhaps some of the increase in flow and succesful completion of projects during these sessions is the inevitable result of pre-existing exposure to technology but I would like to think that some small spark happnes here. Yes, I still want to be the cool instructor guy that kids want to hang out with and learn from - ego, as well as schedules, abides - but I hope some of it is the program, the space and freedom to express.

This year I have 5 or 6 returning participants who were in last years session and at least one who is marking the third year of participation in my/our session - something must be clicking.

Pictures from yesterday afternoon and earlier this morning are up at the digital storytelling blog.

This year’s Career Explorations program begins in a few short hours and I am quite hopeful that I’ll drop in at least 2 or 3 blog posts during our session, but I had the same hope last year and never quite made it, so we’ll see. We have about 12 hours total during the next 3 days to explore some existing, and create some new, digital stories. And, new this year, I’ve set out some goals and done some focused pre-planning - we’ll see how that goes, too.

Once we begin to produce new content it will be posted to the our Youtube channel and linked from the Digital Storytelling blog. By tonight I should have some images to post, but for now here is our sechedule. More to come, I hope.

Startling realizations thus far:

• I wildly overestimated any interest in things political ( ie Lincoln, Obama, narrative and counter narritve as illustrated in current political events).
• Popular music can be quite depressing….and also quite meta/self referential in it’s thematic content
• The more things change the more they stay the same

more to come….