Teachers in Tech

A long time ago (like, what, 3 years? yeah, my life moves quickly) I taught a couple of summer classes for teachers. I taught basic web technologies-- an intro to HTML, the basics of setting up a website. I was shocked to discover that I could happily cram so much content into one week. One teacher even told me that she had learned more in that one week than in an entire month during some crazy course in Nashville (for which she had a huge 3-ring binder full of info).

Over the past 48 hours I saw my folks at Download Squad turn a tangential tech post into something really quite wonderful. If you're a teacher, please read Five ways to improve technology in education. It isn't complete, it isn't the result of years of research. It is a blog post, written by a person who loves tech and lives education. And I consider that alone a fine thing.

The bottom line in the story: teachers aren't keeping pace with technology changes. Many people already know this, don't they? When I got a Microsoft Works document a few weeks ago, I became painfully aware of this.

I've reached out to some guy in the local education scene to offer a big, free seminar to show any and all Knox county educators how, by using free and simple online tools, they could rapidly increase their effectiveness and just be better educators (which also means having more time to do fun things). Unfortunately he never responded.

But I still have the dream of showing people how easy this stuff can be! For example, why lock yourself into some ancient, proprietary format like Works? Not even Word will open those! Although Zamzar will convert darn near anything (and that's what I ultimately used to convert the Works doc into a Word doc) and do it for free. But why bother when you can get a free Gmail account, which gives you a couple of gigabytes of storage, plus gives you access to Google Docs. This would give teachers a way to easily collaborate on projects, ideas, routine tasks, etc. Plus, you can easily export to popular Office formats!

And that's the tip of the iceberg. What really amazes me is when there is so much opportunity out there, but so little is actually used. Much like our brains, conditioned to work in a linear, logical fashion through years of "training," we under-utilize the most powerful tool: our mind. A pity, really.

Is any form of Knoxville solidarity possible?

I had an all-too-brief conversation recently with my virtual cubicle co-woker cafemama recently about time and work ethic. Sounds like a lot to get into with one quick convo, but it basically went something like this:
cafe: "most of the people i know run three or four blogs, have a consulting business, have three startups they're working on..."
me: "haha! all the more reason i get irritated when i see people who could be blogging doing stupid myspace surveys >.<"

So what is it that drains us of this get-up-and-go I find in places like Atlanta, Portland, San Francisco and elsewhere? I'm not trying to paint with a broad brush here, because honestly I've been quite impressed with some of the hardworking folks I've met around here. At ITT the former director, Dave Reynolds, used to mention the "Appalachia effect" and I guess he's talking about this stereotype of the ignorant hillbilly. But I think there's also a sort of circle-the-wagons mentality that has certainly been around since the very first settlers crossed the mountains. We tend to do things in tight circles, and our regional tech backwardness doesn't help-- we could be a lot more connected.

I guess what I'm getting at is that ideas like a blogger meetup, or any tech-based meetup seems to be very scattered or limited. There isn't the focus, the drive, the ambition and publicity that you might find elsewhere. And this is sad, considering our proximity to UT, Oak Ridge, and the brain trusts all over the region.

Certainly we're all pressed for time. At some point we all have to say no to things we'd love to say yes to, potential be damned. But it gets downright depressing when I start prodding people for a hint of camaraderie, only to be met with stony silence. You'd think folks can't wait to get the hell out of Knoxville.

If you're not hellbent on getting out of Knoxville, and if you've decided we can make this a better place, let's start small. Let's start talking about a real, live, actually promoted blogger meetup. Anyone who has been blogging for any length of time in a public way would surely agree that it can be an agent for change, or at the least, an agent for discussion and debate. That is what this whole democracy thing was founded upon-- the marketplace of ideas. As bloggers, I see it as our duty to promote this marketplace, and somehow make it more accessible, more relevant, and more informative than ever.

Surely the brains around here can agree on that? Let's get to it!

Knoxville First Fridays

knoxville first friday
Originally uploaded by superpixel

It was really impressive-- hundreds of Knoxville residents braving the cold on Feb. 1 to explore art and shops and food around downtown. Apparently this was the fourth "First Friday" and from the crowd I saw, it won't be the last.

For some reason the KAT website has this adequate description of what First Fridays are about:
"On the first Friday of each month, shops and art galleries in the downtown Knoxville area (Gay Street and Market Square)
keep their doors open to the public until late in the evening,
offering complimentary food and entertainment,
as well as the chance for those who work until 5 p.m.
to come explore downtown Knoxville."

The next one is (obviously) in March, on the 7th. I won't be able to go (I'll be in Austin for SXSW), but I'm hoping to catch all of the rest this year-- as should everyone else interested in seeing a vibrant, active downtown Knoxville.

The pic is from Unarmed Merchants, a nice store with international goods sitting next to Nama.