Portland Airport & Transliteracy

I’m sitting in the delightful Portland Airport with a Starbucks in sight, but nothing else that strikes of a chain.  Right now I’m sitting in an area that is labeled only by the sign for Classic Pianos: Portland’s Lowest Prices for Highest Quality.  The resting area is ringed by two concentric circles of seating pods, each with two cushioned seats on either side, a table between, and a power outlet hidden beneath.  In behind the seats are tall bamboo gardens.  Free WiFi invites me to browse a bit, double check my schedule for tomorrow, and wait for my 9:20 flight to Anchorage.

It was an exhausting two days in Denver, presenting two three-hour workshops on Thursday with more than two-hundred attendees each.  Today, my job was to push the thinking for Jeffco’s Technology Convocation 2.0, a meeting of the team who is developing their technology plan.  It was an interesting morning with a lot of talk about the information experience of our students’ generation — video games and social networking.  The afternoon was a repeat of yesterday’s talk with a much smaller audience, including Bud Hunt.  Great to meet you Bud.

I continue to be encouraged by the momentum that seems to be building toward modernizing classrooms with technology, but focusing on the why, and fueling with information and information skills.  I opened up my chat program for the workshops yesterday, and someone who signed in as ASaylor started with a comment, “transliteracy is the topic.”  I’m still rolling this one around in my mind, but, according to the Production and Research in Transliteracy group blog,

Transliteracy is the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks.

My aggregator just got a little bit larger.