Chestnut eats 68 hotdogs and the nation breathes a sigh of relief. The heat index is up, with 300 record high temperatures set for the month of June and now we’re at July 5 and it’s in the mid-90s again. I have a very large presentation to deliver in exactly 7 days to an audience of about 35. I should aim for 45 minutes plus Q&A. It’ll be on evaluation of educationally-driven simulation technology, and I’ll use an in-progress project as the main example. I will train today. I need to eat more this morning. My calf is muddy from riding into work, peddling through the puddles left by open fire hydrants, a common summer pastime in my neighborhood.<\/p>\n
That I have to deliver this presentation will be on my mind daily and perhaps hourly between now and next Thursday. That’s how it usually is.<\/p>\n
I’d like to introduce some new angles to evaluating educational projects, but I haven’t solidly identified what those new angles would yet bet. One might be the idea of “having an<\/em> experience” and what that might really mean. We are all experiencing life constantly. But there are moments in the larger experience of life that are distinguishable from the overall experience, and we call those moments “experiences” (despite that same term applying to the state of being alive and conscious). But we say things like “that was an experience”<\/em>\u00a0 when we describe a trip we’ve had or perhaps a conversation that occurred. Why are some things “an experience” and others just “experience”?<\/p>\n Each of us can intuitively answer this question– it has something to do with memory, with impact, with emotion, with consciousness, etc. But it’s doubtful that anyone can explain it simply without first spending time figuring out what all the pieces might be, and how they might all fit together.<\/p>\n The reason it’s appealing for bringing up in my presentation is that, in technology development, and particularly in educational technology, I wonder if it’s important or useful to describe our position as being designers of experiences for people. If we can provide people with an experience<\/em> within our environment, our tool or our courses, are we closer to accomplishing our teaching and learning goals?<\/p>\n I might try to frame that as a question to the room for comment, but it’d be risky. Some people might roll their eyes at its philosophical-bend. \u00a09am staff meetings are not the best time to introduce too much depth to an audience– they’ve only just emerged from unconsciousness themselves (and usually look it).<\/p>\n I never want to give a boring lecture. I just don’t think I have it in me to do it. I’m too aware of the audience and how they seem to be reacting, sentence-by-sentence, pause-to-pause. I don’t know when that began, probably in high school. For me, few feelings are worse than that of wasting people’s time.<\/p>\n Maybe that’s why I’m quick to turn angry when I sense people are not only wasting my time, but also don’t seem to care about it.<\/p>\n Time is the most valuable thing any of us will ever have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chestnut eats 68 hotdogs and the nation breathes a sigh of relief. The heat index is up, with 300 record high temperatures set for the month of June and now we’re at July 5 and it’s in the mid-90s again. … Continue reading