thank you
Dear All
This is a brief message to say ‘thank you very much’ for such an enjoyable and productive few days in Seattle.
I am still learning to use the blog. I have tried to add a few papers. One that may explain a bit of what I think about the nature of cit ed and the difficulties in drawing a distinction between it and global education. Other papers that I’ve tried to post emerged from a project that I did with teachers and others a few years ago (funded by the central govt UK dept for education) in which we tried to use the 3 stage approach that I mentioned in Seattle (discuss what we want to do – produce something that might help achieve that – evaluate it to improve the product and to highlight some issues about cit ed and ways to develop it). This material (one document in the form of lesson material for history teachers who might be interested in promoting cit ed and the teachers’ guide is written with by and for teachers). The focus would be different from the education project that we began to discuss but perhaps some of the features included in the material I’ve uploaded might be relevant. I would also like to highlight the citizED web site (we could meet at the citizED conference in future). That network has had a bit of an impact in various places. Some of the resources on the citizED site might be of interest including the journal – and we certainly need much more on the citizED site to do with web 2.0.
Finally something (see below) that caught my eye and made me think of those students that Stephen showed could not live without their mobiles phones.
As reported in the Australian Personal Computer Magazine 17 December 2008 (and reprinted in Private Eye)
“Everybody under 40 nowadays wants to take their cell phone with them”, Noelle Potvin of the Hollywood Forever funeral home told reporters in Los Angeles, “and it’s a trend with BlackBerrys too”. Families find it comforting to know that Dad’s still got the cellphone that was permanently attached to his ear when he was alive. I’ve even seen people switch the cellphone on before placing it in the coffin and tell me that they’re going to call their loved one later. When attorney John Jacobs died in 2005 his wife Marion buried him with his phone and a fully charged battery. She had his cellphone number carved onto his headstone so other people could call him and she continues to pay the monthly bill. She calls him on occasion although because the battery is now dead the calls go to his voicemail. Ed Defort of American Funeral Director magazine added that “some people call the deceased just as they’re lowering the coffin into the ground. You’ll hear the faint sound of their ringtone as the body descends. It’s a sort of 21st century funeral tribute”.
Thank you again and best wishes, Ian
