Virt Camp Blog

July 22, 2005 Friday. End Summation

Happy Campers on Friday. Top: Becky, Isabel and me. Bottom: Jason and Eric

 The rest of the day for us all was head down and burrow. All of us are working hard to get the various parts of finishing up done but we will be here late, late, late tonight. But, you know, it is more than ok. Because I would much rather be paddling this leaky boat with the people I am with right now because it is a blessing to be with people I respect, appreciate the talents of and have a darn good bit of fun with. Thank you Bill and Debby for all your hard work,food and encouragement…this is an experience that goes down into my Best Ever list; a kissy to my three roommates: Julie, Sue and Meredith-the evenings with you were just what I needed and of course to Team 3.

July 21, 2005 Thursday. How was today?

 Today was a morning of being in my comfort zone and an afternoon of bolting- sort of. This morning, in the run through of: Moodle, Fireworks and Dream Weaver, I found that I actually knew a great deal of what was being presented and it was more an aspect of finding out where some of the small design quirks of lurked. I guess having done the work with Derrel and with the web pages for so long really added up. Too, DreamWeaver turned out to be pretty easy with the themes…the grasp far easier than chunking through those step- by- step books. I appreciated the fact that Debby started with the navigation. It was just like I taught the process in FrontPage. However, for the folks who hadn’t done much web page design, it seems daunting. To have to bring all that together in a short period of time would be highly frustrating. After a quick lunch, we came back to work through some items. The Leggo deal on programming was just…..whooo! way, way, over my head. After some yada about link this to that and gears spin like so, I just clocked out. I knew that I would be MORE than worthless to try to figure that out. So, I offered to work on the small group video, which had to be done and I could do pretty well. It was a bolt but also one that had to happen, says she hoping to put a good spin on things. Jason worked on the programming and Erik on the model. I was amazed and appreciative of all the hard work that they did. Emily started on the larger cadre video that was to be turned in and Isabel worked on her web page while documenting what the guys were doing so that I could import it later. 

July 20, 2005 Reflection: How did leadership emerge today? How did today go?  

Today became very long towards the end. There are several things that I am grateful for.  I appreciate my subgroup very much. As Jason said, we are very different individuals but we have gelled well because of it. I think that all of us have very different strengths in different areas…but we all contribute where we can. Too, there is a certain ease in how we go about the process of what we do. If someone has a good idea or strength we go with it, if there is a subgroup that can do a small thing while another works on a bigger picture, then that is what happens. The also is positive reinforcing language that happens in the process of working out how we want to do things. I appreciate this in that there doesn’t seem to be tension in a day that could be long if we had to do thing MY WAY! On a larger level, the cadre was interesting. In figuring out the way the Leggos were going to go, after swirling, there turned out to be a slow coalescence. Plan makers made plans, facilitator/checkers back tracked amongst the smaller groups to make sure that the ideas flowed and then in the end we came up with an agreed upon workable plan. My role in the larger group was that of checker as others had a better idea of how to organize a working project plan. Mirrored the organizational role that I took in the band and other arenas. I did not like that chick from the other group that, I think she thought she was helping but she really wasn’t picking up on the body clues, came over from the other sub-group and was pushing the gripper/hooks. It felt intrusive to me. Too, she was doing some pushing when the larger group met about the mesh between our group and hers. Her anxiousness was apparent. Technology wise…the Windows Movie Maker looks like something easy-peasy to do with kids. Maybe do it in 5^th grade and see what we can make with it. DreamWeaver looks more doable once I constructed the base web page. Still like Frontpage better but hey…! A long day but one in which I still came away with thinking that things will work out fine.        

July 19, 2005 Reflection: Where am I now? Where will I be a year from now? What do I think I will be doing? 

One of the major things that I was struck by when I read the biographies of the people who are attending this class is the broad range of expertise and knowledge that so many people seem to have─ far beyond what I am doing in terms of the “geek” portion that I am so deficient in. It is a bit daunting but seemingly not insurmountable. Too, I was struck by the whole idea of the background of the first Windows interface actually being based on a Piagetian model…the mouse being the kinesthetic element, the pictogram when it comes up being the visual/sensory and the words underneath being the abstract. It would be wonderful if I could see the whole behavioral side in the tools that I have yet to learn. Another aspect was listening to Paul Sparks. There is something in what he said…whether it be in the social/contextual learning stance or some other themes of what he said that felt like “home” to me. That perhaps I have found a group that thinks along the same lines I do and can push me even farther. Perhaps, I don’t have to feel so on the fringe. As for what will come up the pike…what, I dare not guess. Like all major life changes, it is hard to predict the outcome of the journey when one has not event taken the first step…but it is to have faith in what I am doing and be like the Fool, stepping off the cliff and trusting that the air will support me.