Graham Glass, etc.

Ice Hotel, Quebec

I recently got back from a great trip to Quebec city, Canada. It was a 9 hour journey from San Francisco, but well worth it because it's home to an ice hotel. There are only 2 ice hotels in the world; the other is in Sweden.

The itinerary was packed with fun. We spent the first night at the Loews Concorde with a panoramic view of the city from its revolving restaurant.

The next day was spent at the ice hotel; much of the evening was at the spectacular ice bar, bathed in light from a fibre optic system and serving up drinks in glasses made of ice.

Next, a sports day with dog-sledding and snow-mobiling.

The last day was spent living large at the Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac, a beautiful old hotel looking over the St. Lawrence river. The streets were picturesque, and the hotel even had a speedy ice toboggan run.

If you want a few days of adventure that ranges from sleeping on a bed of ice to eating a luxuriant seven-course meal, I highly recommend a jaunt to Quebec City.

Click on the image below to see the ice bar.

Inspiring Speech by Ron Paul

If you believe in the original American values as embodied in the Constitution by the founding fathers, then you'll enjoy this speech by Republican/Libertarian Ron Paul. My hat is off to this guy; he's an inspiration and a beacon of hope.

Destiny: Movie PitchBook

The final artwork for my Destiny movie pitchbook was completed yesterday. Next week I will start the process of getting it front of movie producers for some early feedback. Should be interesting!

Click on the image below to see the Destiny scene selector.

2008: My Ideal Candidates

My hope for the 2008 presidential candidates are Barack Obama (Democrat) versus Ron Paul (Republican). I'm an admirer of both: Ron Paul is a Libertarian (like myself), and Barack Obama is a smart, charistmatic pragmatist. I would be happy if either of these candidates won.

Microloan repayments and a Challenge

In a previous post about charity and microloans, I mentioned that I used Kiva to loan Peter Okalang $100 for his Encourage Beauty barber shop in Uganda.

Every so often I get an email that alerts me about a repayment; so far Peter has paid back $34 and is on track to pay back the entire loan amount. When the loan is repaid, I can loan it back to another applicant. According to Mike-Cannon Brookes, a fellow Kiva enthusiast, they have a repayment rate of around 96%.

I'd like to join Mike in offering a loan challenge; if you read this blog and decide to loan a little money via Kiva, email me the loan details and I'll join you in the loan.

Microloans: "Loans that change lives"

Project-Based Learning

I mentioned in a previous posting and in my interview with Jon Udell that I'm a big fan of project-based learning.

The basic idea of project-based learning is that each student (or group of students) chooses a project that interests them and that covers areas of the state curriculum that they must satisfy. The project is approved by a teacher/board and then assisted during its execution by one or more advisors. Since students are working on something that engages them, they find it much easier to stay motivated and focused. It's also much more real-world; students are expected to seek information and assistance when necessary, rather than being spoon-fed knowledge for subsequent regurgitation.

We're going to add support for project-based learning into edu 2.0 during Q1, and I thought it would be fun to blog about the design process.

First of all, there are several basic requirements for a straightforward implementation:

• a way to input/edit/display the project definition
• a way to assign one or more students to a project
• a way to assign one or more advisors to the project
• some kind of forum/daily journal for the project
• workflow to support the project approval process
• a task list that students can maintain for the project
• a way for the advisors (and maybe parents) to monitor the project
• a way to link a project to the curriculum requirements it meets
• a way to grade the project and display the results

After some thought, we realized that our site already almost supports many of these features. For example, with a little tweaking, our moderation process for material approval could be used to approve project proposals. Similarly, we could add a project as a kind of assignment and then immediately leverage our classroom management and grading features. Likewise, our discussion forum code could be tweaked a little to support the concept of a project journal. The main remaining things seem to be a task list and group assignments, which shouldn't be hard to implement.

However, the really cool stuff happens when you start to share projects in a community. Not only does this create a rich repository of projects, but it also allows teachers and students to interact with other teachers and students who have done the same project. Imagine being a teacher who's new to project-based learning and being able to tap into the experience of other teachers who have already advised the same project. Or see the journals of the students who have already completed the project. The list goes on.

I'm really looking forward to adding these features to our site. And like the rest of the core features on the site, support for project-based learning will be absolutely free for teachers and students.

Podcast with Jon Udell

I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Jon Udell about edu 2.0 and the future of education. The podcast is here. Jon is a well-respected techno-journalist who used to work for InfoWorld and recently joined Microsoft.

5 Things About Me

I was tagged recently by Mike Cannon Brookes, so I feel compelled to share 5 things you might not know about me:

1. I lived in Israel and Iran between the ages of 4 and 6.
2. I used to teach Computer Science at the University of Texas at Dallas.
3. I can bend my thumbs back to a 90 degree angle.
4. I have been accused of being an android.
5. I love music, and used to sing Opera at Covent Garden, as well as write my own songs.

I now hereby tag Heida, Chris, Peter, Simon and Mark.

Geocaching: Florence the Cow

When I used to live in Washington, D.C, my friend Pilar and I hid a travel bug in a geocache. The bug was a Cow called Florence, and her tag explained that "her udders were aching to explore the city".

Geocachers found her and have steadily moved her from cache to cache in a series of adventures. I received an email today with pictures that show Florence enjoying the Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

Here she is standing next to the stone of Roy Rogers and Trigger:

ACLU: Card Carrying Member

I was very proud to officially become a card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union this week. In a nutshell, the ACLU stands for the values that America was initially founded upon and that have unfortunately eroded over the years. Thank goodness that there's still an independent organization that protects citizens against violations of the constitution.