On the Road Again

This is my first airport in almost three weeks.  There have been a couple of jobs here in the North Carolina area, driving trips, but most of the past many days have been spent at home.  I’d love to say that I’ve been on vacation, but that’s just not happening this summer, only a short trips with a few family members.  Brenda will travel with me for a few trips this summer, and that’s a vacation.

The last many days have had me doing some maintenance on some contract programming projects, some work on Class Blogmeister, and enhancing Hitchhikr with a mobile version and a Tag Cloud feature.  I’m also finishing up the 2nd edition of Classroom Blogging: A Teachers Guide to the Blogosphere, new title, Classroom Blogging: A Teachers Guide to the New Shape of Information.  Brenda is doing a final read through and then I do the final page layout, and then upload it with the new cover art to Lulu.  It may be available by NECC, but that would be a near miracle.

I’m looking forward to a hard-working, but very interesting week.  Tomorrow I keynote that Laptop Institute of South Dakota.  They pick Pamela Livingston, Shawn Massey, and me up at the airport around noon today (currently in Chicago), and drive us to our hotels.  I’m also doing a session on Web 2.0, and Pamela delivers the closing keynote.  Pamela Livingston is the author of 1 to 1 Learning: Laptop Programs that Work, which I think was originally her doctoral dissertation.

[Inserted: I ended out getting delayed in Chicago because of a maintenance.  Something about a malfunctioning computer and a bird hitting one of the wings.  I might have misunderstood the part about the bird.  Not such a bad wait.  A very fine guitar player serenaded us.]

The next day, I drive from Souix Falls down to Emporia, Kansas.  I’m actually looking forward to the drive.  There is something about driving in the mid-west — it compels me to dial on to easy-listening stations.  I do not mean this as a sarcasm.  It’s relaxing in a way that I genuinely enjoy.  Then there’s the people — non-better on the planet.  In Kansas I am working with a Summer Institute for School Librarians.  This promises to be fun, sharing ideas about the changing nature of in formation and how that impacts literacy — and how that impacts libraries.  I always learn so much from the perspectives of information professionals.

Finally, I fly up to Toronto for a meeting with representatives of the Ontario Library Association (5,200 Members) and several consultants who have been invited to come in an share, talk, and listen.  I do not fully understand the context, except that the Ontario Ministry of Education has suddenly express a great deal of interest in media and library programs, and is funding the development of a new document to guide school libraries into the increasingly networked, digital, overwhelming, and flat future.  This promises to be not only a fantastically singular opportunity for schools in Ontario, but also a great learning experience for me.

Then I fly from Toronto to Boston on Friday to meet Brenda and Martin for a long weekend of doing history.  Brenda’s been so engrossed in historic novels over the past few years, that I look forward to her being the teacher.  She and Martin will enjoy a concert, performed by the Boston Pops, before I get there. So enough for now!   Much more later!