Can We Walk Softly

Wilderness travel has the maxim "Take only photos. Leave only footprints."

I wonder how many kilometers of path I laid down before I had any inkling that I was leaving a trail. Hmmm. Probably plenty.

I like to walk pretty quietly, observing the landscape and countryside - and when something of interest grabs my eye, I will stop, explore and engage. When a connection is made (sometimes we can't tell why), it is very common for me to return or to engage fostering the new connection. This is metaphorically true - and true of how I engage those around me.

It probably is no surprise for me to say that I am an introvert, and that plays out not only in my real life, but also in my digital life.

That being the case, I would assume my digital footprint would resemble a print left by a moccasin worn by a soft stepping walker. My assumption was not verified, however. Using the Digital Footprint tool from E=MC2, I calculated my current footprint is approximately 27 GB. More like stomping in hiking boots?

In the Calculate Your "Digital Footprint" with New Tool post from EMC (March 24, 2008) Sarah Perez tells of how John Gantz of IDC explains that our digital shadow is "simply 'information about you,' but what's surprising about this shadow, he explains, is that 'for the first time your digital shadow is larger than the digital information you actively create about yourself.' " Even when we are stepping lightly, we could be treading deeply in casting this digital shadow.

Could be.

How truly meaningful is the data we leave in our wake? Of course, practically some of it could be quite valuable (identity information and the like) and we need to be prudent. Some of it will also just be and take up space on a hard drive. (Smile for that security camera . . . . ). Should this change how we view how to live our lives?

Where we stand depends on where we sit.

My seat allows me to see towards the end of my active educational career, and the beginning of my grandfather career. I will continue to reach out to connect to (meaningfully) connect to others - in old ways and in new ways (like this). As the sun has moved past its zenith in my life, I have come to cherish my connections more. I have reflected some on what impression I want to have left when all is said and done . . . and while I want to have made some systematic differences in the learning communities I have been part of, what really matters is the individual connections and moments.

My digital life and its footprint is part of that. My digital life flows from my real life. If that has any veracity, the footprints I leave will be a decent path.

A Reflection ~ Setting the Stones to Force Kids to Be Free

My memory of things that never happened is getting much better, thank you. Some memory loop me that Muhammad Ali once said "Force people to be free." Even if he didn't, he could have . . . and it rings as true today as when he (might have) said it.

If you have been following my posts, you will know that our work in this first course of the Certificate of Educational Technology and Information Literacy, Information Literacy and Ourselves as Learners, while pushing me to glimpse into the educational future, has caused me to look into my educational past - to re-identify the foundation of what education and learning really are.

Perhaps Ali's statement is the point.

With instantaneous communication (0n so many levels) afforded by the technologies that are now part of our lives, our pondering needs to focus how we can, at least, better do what we say we should have been doing (Old Things in New Ways) and truly explore how we can do New Things in New Ways.

As my educational foundation was constructed, one of the cornerstones laid was that of student empowerment . . . empowerment to believe in their themselves, to think, to ask for and accept responsibility, to realize that their learning comes not from "us", but from them. It is not what you are given, but what you make.

When I was a young(er) man, this empowerment was felt by some as a threat to the (elite) establishment . . . and perhaps it still is in many ways.

While the explosion of access to information and communication has been a bit daunting to me, it has been my belief in efficacy of student empowerment that has helped me attempt to understand and embrace it.

It (is having) and will have an impact in my Science class. And that is important.

However, my dream is for our new abilities to have an impact on the Middle School Student body by affording them true student voice. For a variety of reasons,

• many of our Middle School students seen content to be told what to do, to have things done for them, and are not eager to initiate or risk.
  
• the Student Council structure (especially the accountable representative part) in our Middle School has been rendered anachronistic.
  
• our Middle School community does not have true core from which its spirit comes.

Force young people to be free.

Through the provocation of this course, we will be attempting to open up and access student voice and engagement through a medium that is part of their lives. To help force kids to be free, a Facebook Page/Group is being established that will serve as a center-point for information giving and gathering, student dialogue, sharing and celebration, and whatever else they might choose.

Our role? That of advisers and an (in the) background guides. As stone setters. Giving the youngsters the assistance and guidance and support to impact their own (school) lives and community .

Does it matter if this is an Old Thing in a Better Way, or a New Thing in a New Way?

It's about them. Not us.

Interesting how moving forward has sprung from reflecting back.

Now it's time to go out and gather some stones.

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