Resonance in the Echo Chamber my Final thoughts on NECC '09

On of the very legitimate and accurate criticisms of developing online communities is that rather than being global and diverse they actually become rather homogenous. NECC emphasized that for me. This phenomenon is know as the Echo Chamber effect. We tend to connect with people online who echo our own perceptions and beliefs, we tend to seek validation. I prefer the term resonance and you will see why in a bit.

Resonance occurs when any object is vibrated at a frequency that matches the properties of that object. It is this trait that allows us to resonate water molecules with microwaves and to break wine glasses with sound. A dramatic example of resonance occurs when you put salt, rice, sugar or sand over a speaker:


Resonance allows for natural grouping. NECC is a conference full of other teachers who also are adopters of technology. Very validating! And very valuable!!! We need the validation and to find better ways of doing what we are doing!

The reason I prefer the term resonance is because I also am a firm proponent of dissonance. Cognitive dissonance must happen for people to feel compelled to understand. We want so badly to make learning comfortable, relaxed and warm that we fail to realize that unless we are confronted with the very real possibility that we are wrong we don't bother to consider new information. If you notice in the video the rice goes through stages. Periods where the whole is thrown into chaos. We need this. The pattterns can't emerge if the pattern is left undisturbed.

I loved this conference because it resonated with me. I also need some dissonance. Something to shake me up to make me reconsider. Something that will allow new patterns to develop.

Thanks NECC 09

Final Day of NECC 2009

This was an eventful final day at NECC for me. I attended some good sessions, including one by Dr. Lynell Burmark, author of Visual Literacy: Learn to See, See to Learn. Some of her work is included in UEN's course Effective Teaching with Visual Media. She talked about the importance of engaging our students' senses to make learning more powerful.

The highlight of the final day of the conference for me, though, was meeting some of my technology heroes: Jeff Vance, Jason Darby, and DT Holder of Clickteam. Clickteam is the company that developed and sells Multimedia Fusion and The Games Factory, which are two of the most revolutionary multimedia software products that (almost) no one has heard of. Jeff is the CEO of Clickteam USA. Multimedia Fusion and The Games Factory are programs that simplify the process of creating computer games (or other software applications) from the ground up. They make it possible to build your own complete computer game in as little as a couple of hours.

NECC 2009 has been a great conference and a wonderful experience.

Place Puzzles

At the TTIX conference a few weeks ago I learned about http://www.wherigo.com/ which allows you to go beyond simple Geo-Caching to creating tours with questions, quizzes and interactions. The comparison was made to the old Zork Games. I didn't really learn anything after the Zork reference because I spent the rest of the session googling for Zork so I could play it. My favorite Infocom game was actually WishBringer

Well, I did glean one fantastic element from both the session at TTIX and this session at NECC. Information has a place. All events occur both in place and time. We can use the connection between those three things to heighten learning. If learning is connected either to a real or a virtualized (ie: GoogleMaps, or Bing Maps) location it is more likely to be retained.

Bernie Dodge's session was worthwhile and valuable.

http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2009/program/search_results_details.php?sessionid=43728863&selection_id=48078760&rownumber=5&max=22&gopage=

Connecting Globally

One of the biggest ideas Ive encountered at NECC this year is the need to connect our students to the global community. Whether it was Malcolm Gladwell discussing the work ethic of the average Asian student, a debate about the need to close building and open open web 2.0 sites, or Alan November's thoughts on the decline of the American school system due to closing our minds and our borders - we need to think about ways in which we can learn about education around the world and follow others' lead in strengthening our curriculum.

So, what does this mean? Will all teachers Skype with colleagues from across the ocean? Will we share research with one another using Google Docs? Will we be sharing all student projects on YouTube? I know that these things are all possible, but how practical are they? Can I reasonably expect a teacher from Utah making connections with a teacher in Japan? Not sure.

I think the larger issue for Utah teachers is just opening themselves up to the idea of living in a Global Community. Whether we are in Kanab or Provo, we all exist as part of the WWW. How can we at UEN help facilitate understanding the global stage and the Utah teacher's place on that stage? I may not have the answer yet, but I know this is one of the questions I'll be working on when I get back to Utah.