Secret Agent Glass

Today I spent a considerable time in the morning talking with another school district who was visiting.  Much of this conversation involved explanation about our program, the path we chose to follow in getting where we are and advice about collaboration with other districts.  This is great advice and boils down to "don't reinvent the wheel, see what others are doing and model yourself after their success."

With Glass I don't really have this luxury.  There are others using Glass in education but I haven't come across too many that are looking at it specifically as a teaching tool.  Maybe I'm not searching enough and that can be the focus and direction I take when I'm without Glass and my colleagues are experiencing it for themselves.

For now, though, I'd like to reflect on the science fiction side of Glass.  I've been compared to everything from a Cyborg to the Terminator (maybe one and the same) and heard reference to science fiction as well as action adventure/spy novels.  I guess this really speaks to the connection between the two.  Someone dreams up a world where people are using this type of technology for a variety of different things and then someone else creates the technology from that dream.  It makes me think about the importance of visionaries and out-of-the box thinkers.  Without them we'd struggle to innovate.

We need this innovation in schools and I see sparks of it every day.  Children hold in their hands, hearts and minds endless possibilities; ones I haven't and probably never will think of myself.  Items, tools, like Glass are there for us to use and share and dream about.  When I introduce students to this phenomenal tool I see many of them start that dreaming and thinking process.  I love that look!  It inspires me to continue to nurture curiosity and support radical thinking.  I'm not going to get on a soap box about testing and argue one side or the other, all I'm saying is we need to continue to foster it and support it.

I'm going to SOAR charter school again tomorrow.  One of the things I like best about it is seeing students that are immersed in and supported for their unique ideas.  I'm not saying other classes don't offer these opportunities, but it's awesome to see how rampant it runs up there.

I'm not a super spy and to those who are concerned that Google Glass will be inconspicuous and invade all sorts of privacy, open your eyes.  I can't walk into a room without half of the room looking at me and questioning what's on my head.  Maybe if Google made contacts . . .

If you're an interested and avid reader, take the time to read Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter's The Light of Other Days.  In short it looks at the loss of privacy in society and society's reaction to that loss.  Much of it goes much further than what Glass could ever hope to achieve, but Glass opens the door and the discussion about what we should expect as technologies outrun our laws.

I didn't post any pictures specifically because I don't want Glass to become a one trick pony.  It has so many other wonderful possibilities that I don't want to limit my postings to the visual realm.