Dangerously Irrelevant

It was about 95 degrees as we strolled into the Ames Middle School band concert Tuesday night. Although the outside air was stifling, the air conditioning inside was blissfully cool. We settled into our seats and perused the program: ‘A Salute to Veterans,’ featuring classic band fare like Fanfare Americana and Home on the Range and Highlights from The Music Man. Excellent. The band is ready. The audience is eager, anticipatory, and silent. And then two projectors turn on, beaming their rays of light across the dark auditorium. The images resolve themselves and …

There on the sides of the auditorium, bigger than life, is Capt. Sean Taylor, Iowa National Guard member, father of a 7th grade trombone player, and uncle to a 7th grade percussionist. Unable to attend in person because he’s on medical evacuation from Afghanistan, Capt. Taylor is attending his family’s concert virtually instead. The band begins to play, and the grin on Capt. Taylor’s face is as wide as the horizon.

In between sets, Capt. Taylor is kind enough to share some news about the Iowa National Guard and its role in World War II, Iraq, and Afghanistan. His wife and children are in the crowd. His son and niece are recognized by the band teachers. Everyone does their community and country proud.

The concert closes with another surprise appearance, this time by the Ames High drum line. They’re joined by the entire middle school band in a rousing, roof-shaking rendition of 76 Trombones. As the crowd gathers their children and shuffles out the door into the parking lot, the buzz and excitement are palpable.

Why don’t we do more stuff like this in our schools? The videoconferencing worked flawlessly. We have the ability to pull in distant family members, luminaries, scientists, poets, artists, and authors at any time, from anywhere, into our auditoriums and theaters and classrooms. This shouldn’t be a special event. It should be an everyday occurrence. The technology is there. Where’s our will to use it? Where’s our creativity?

A hearty pat on the back to the Ames school music programs, the Ames school district technology staff, and Capt. Taylor. It was a joyful, tearful, amazing evening for everyone. Thank you for reminding us that, rather than isolating us, the true powers of our new technologies are their ability to bring us closer together in ways that were formerly unimaginable.

This week is Children’s Book Week. In honor of the event, I thought that I’d highlight 21 interesting e-books for kids. Collectively, these give us a glimpse into what the future of children’s publishing is going to look like. As I compiled this list, I was struck by how quickly the field of interactive e-books is moving. The iPad has been around just over a year…

Some folks are mourning the transition of children’s books from paper to digital. Despite having thousands of traditional kids’ books in my house, I’m not one of those people. The lines between electronic books, videos, animation, interactive games, and learning software are blurring and it’s going to be fascinating to see what gets created as authors, artists, animators, game designers, photographers, videographers, educators, and publishers work together over the next few years.

What do you think? After seeing the videos below and/or trying some of these e-books, how do you feel about the upcoming transition of kids’ books from paper to digital?

If you know of any cool e-books for kids that I missed, please share them. Also, for those who are interested, here’s my burgeoning collection of videos that envision the future of print. If this post is a success, I’ll do this again next year during Children’s Book Week!

The Penelope Rose

Cozmo’s Day Off

Grimm’s Rapunzel

The Elements

Alice for the iPad

The Three Pandas

PopOut! The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Violet and the Mystery Next Door

The Going to Bed Book

Marvel Comics

Snow Globes 3D!

Wild About Books

Heart and the Bottle

Aesop’s Wheel of Fables

Poe’s Christmas

A Present for Milo

Am I From A Belly Button?

Magic School Bus: Oceans

Gamebook Adventures

Toy Story

I SPY Spooky Mansion

Here’s the trailer for The Bully Project, a new documentary on school bullying. This and Race to Nowhere are the two films for which I wish my school district would host a public screening and conversation. My heart breaks for these kids and other victims; adolescent cruelty knows few bounds…

I love this quote: “The power of hearing one voice in solidarity with you can be transformative for people.” So true on so many fronts.

Here are some bullying and cyberbullying resources that may be helpful to you.

Florida Virtual School’s second online course / video game, Conspiracy Code Intensive Reading, appears to be ready.

I blogged about Conspiracy Code American History a year and a half ago. Check out that video too.

Happy viewing. What do you think of this model of teaching / learning?

‘We may need to seriously rethink the university and its future.’ [feel free to substitute ‘school’ for ‘university’]

Another thought-provoking video by Dr. Michael Wesch. Happy viewing!

A video for those of you who get frustrated with others who are less technology proficient. I confess that people who still type URLs into search boxes drive me nuts too!

Happy viewing!

Below is a nifty video, Mobile Year in Review 2010, that highlights some of the changes we saw last year related to mobile phones and computing. My favorite statistic is this one:

Mobile phone apps downloaded
  2009: 300 million
  2010: 5 billion!

Happy viewing!

Two more videos about The School of One in New York City. If you haven’t already seen it, be sure to also watch the program overview video.

Happy viewing!

Here is Youngme Moon’s awesome anti-creativity checklist. How many boxes can you check for your school leaders?

Moon is the author of Different: Escaping the Competitive Herd, which is nearing the top of my reading stack!

Dangerously Irrelevant has been loading slowly lately because it’s so video-heavy. I’ve temporarily removed some other elements in order to speed up loading of the home page. I also vowed to lay off the videos for a while…

But then I found John Spencer’s humorous take on recent research showing that electric shocks might enhance math skills.

I couldn’t resist – had to share this one, particularly since it evokes other ‘brute force’ arguments and fallacies related to educational reform. Happy viewing!