New Photos of Andei in Sicily

As I get photos from my daughter Andei in Sicily and Adam in Argentina I’ll be posting them to the blog – here I am in Morehead City, NC while I have one child in Sicily, Italy and another in college at the University of Argentina in Buenos Aeros. I will link of the photos Adam has starting taking in the next day or so. He is hiking through the Andies as this is posted. I am really looking forward to visting Sicily next month and spending some time with my daughter in addition to doing some painting and photographing of the landscape.

Click here for the Andei Photo Page.

Andei on the very left with her friends

Digital Camera Worshop #2

We had a great digital photography workshop at the Arts Council in Jacksonville. Seems like evryone who attended learned something about their digital cameras and digital theory. I am attaching the Powerpoint presentation to this post for anyone who wants to refer to it. I’ll be back in Jacksonville in the Fall for an advanced digital photography workshop. Until then just keep making photographs and remember what Ansel Adams said…“Get Close!”.

Click here for Powerpoint!

Back to Reality

OK…it’s time to quit wining and being overly introspective about life and things I can’t control and get back to what I do best….

There is so much cool stuff going on in the world of education I can’t keep up with it all. It’s hard staying abreast of all the new technological innovations, software and tools being developed for educators. The incredible power of instructional delivery management systems like Blackboard, Moodle (and ITunes) to deliver sophisticated rich media content is making online teaching more and more viable and helping teachers (who can harness this technology) replicate (and even surpass) the traditional classroom environment. With that said, I firmly believe its still ALL about the content and the proactive methodology behind teaching course material online to students.

The challenge for educators and administrators (in the next decade) is to continue developing a heightened awareness (sensitivity) to the awesome and endless possibilities of online teaching and finally be willing to let go of the industrial revolution instructional model. Let’s put that archaic beast behind us once and for all. Sure..there is a place for it, but it is no longer the only act in town and it is fast becoming a side stage act at best. I mean Socrates has been dead a long time and he’s the one who started the “Sage on the Stage” model of educating people.

There’s a quite revolution going on in higher education and if educators don’t seriously start to learn, implement and embrace web based teaching and do it in a creative, sophisticated and seamless way our students will be looking elsewhere for their education.

After all…the knowledge, information and content is already out there for anyone to access and research. I see educators in 2007 and beyond evolving into facilitators, moderators, mentors and guides to course content – we should be helping our students make sense out of the vast array of information being generated exponentially around the world and assist them in deciphering it.

Anybody with an internet connection and a computer can access high quality “free” interactive programs, podcasts and instructional videos about a variety of educational subjects. Our roles as educators in this new millennium is to incorporate (sift through, evaluate and edit) this free instructional content and incorporate it into the fiber of our online courses, in addition to helping our students understand it and put it into appropriate context as it relates to our course material.

Sure..this is scary stuff IF we are afraid of change. I’m not saying this isn’t going to take some serious effort to upgrade our teaching skills and our courses, BUT if educators choose to put their heads in the sand and think this technological snowball is going to stop going down the hill they are sorely mistaken. I see the first step as accepting the reality of this situation and then incrementally begin retooling our teaching methods and courses in order to reach this diverse (and web savvy) student population on a variety of levels and connecting with a variety of learning styles. That’s the beautiful thing about teaching online – we can design your online courses to meet the needs of a variety of learning styles. Our online courses can have a text based component, audio, video and real time interaction through virtual chat and the collaborative tools in Blackboard and other educational managment systems.

OK….so…those are my thoughts for now – I’m sitting at the Royal James Cafe and my burgers are done – time to eat and sign off.

More later. It feels good to be back on track.

To Begin AgAin…………

To begin again. What would you do if you could start all over again? Think about it….to be able to erase the slate completely. Would you go into the same career? Marry the same person? Make the same decisions and choices you made before. What if everything from this moment on could be different and the past was erased and no longer mattered.

My pastor at mass announced this morning that he was leaving our church, and at 50 years old has decided to live a life of poverty as a Franciscan priest. In many ways I envy him. He ended his homily with something to the effect that “everything in our lives up until this moment doesn’t really matter – it’s what we do from this point on that truly counts”. My past has been a mixture of ups and downs, hills and valley’s, good times and bad, stupid choices, some good outcomes, painful mistakes, euphoric moments, joys and sorrows, and lots of mediocrity in between.

I’m feeling called (pulled) to make some drastic changes, to take some real risks with the final stages of my life’s journey. I’ve been playing it safe for way to long. Sure, I have a viable and challenging career, nice home, two great kids, membership at the local country club and a low maintenance parakeet, BUT I’m still feeling absolutely EMPTY inside and the sermon today hit a nerve with me – tapped into something I have been wanting to do for the past few years. Making money doesn’t matter to me at all – the only reason I work so hard and put in so many hours freelance online teaching is to provide for my two children. I don’t have many material needs, don’t require a lot – just a simple abode, some food and a quite place to think, pray, write and occasionally make some art.

There is no doubt I’m at a crossroads – a transitional point in my life – I’m not one to accept status quo. So…with all this said, what’s the next step?

God is calling, but I still don’t have clarity – I have a son (Adam) in Argentina and a daughter (Andei) in Sicily, YET…. – I can’t quit work,, BUT I can retire and still be able to provide for my family if my financial needs are minimal. That is where I am now…I’m beginning to accept (and look forward to) living a life of solitude, poverty and isolation mixed in with travel, writing, prayer, art and God knows what else.

To begin again… sounds like a plan.

Empty House – Back to Work!

The house feels really empty with Adam gone. I still have not heard from him, hopefully I’ll get an e-mail this weekend. Things have kept my busy at school between teaching my classes and working with (training) faculty. I am enjoying learning new technology, especially podcasting and enhanced podcasting. This technology is going to add a whole new dimension to my online courses – as I learn how to produce and incorporate podcasts into my classes I’ve been teaching other faculty members how to do it as well. I believe innovative and creative approaches to distance learning are the keys for colleges to remain viable and competitive in this new global marketplace.

Carteret Community College is now an ITunes U College – Click Here and I can see this not only adding an exciting new component for delivering rich instructional media content to our students across curriculums. Click on the ITunes link and check out some of the Podcasts our instructors are producing for their classes. We are just at the beginning stages with this initiative, but I can envision all our faculty members eventually posting podcasts and instructional video to ITunes. I’m already getting positive feedback from my students about the podcasts I’m adding to my various course blackboards. Students can read the lectures and hear them as well – soon I’ll be adding images and video (enhanced podcasts) to all my lectures. You gotta love technology!