Any creative, out-of-the-box ideas out there?

I posted a blog about wanting to connect with apps developers, particularly -Google. I work for a children's museum in Baltimore MD. This past school year I created a project that connected a classroom of 4th graders in Howard County MD with a group of students who live in the Central Arava region of Israel. Think "Dune", deep desert region that is also a major agricultural hub in Israel. For the past school these students collaborated in descriptive and narrative writing activities, illustration, story-crafting and storytelling as a means to improve literacy skills. These students worked towards a culminating project that centered on an ancient storytelling art form from Japan, Kamishibai (paper drama. See www.kamishibai.com. Below are two recently posted videos regarding the project. This will offer a solid idea as to the scope of the project.

www.youtube.com/watch
www.youtube.com/watch

What I am looking for specifically are applications that can allow a teacher or project manager in MD, for example, to plan activities or team teach a lesson with a classroom in Israel or Australia or any other site that has internet access.

There are some important limitations that need to taken into account. For example, Skype is not allowed in Howard County schools, neither are most social network sites. The vast majority of teachers have very limited time to spend learning how complicated e-learning systems work. For applications to be useful in a classroom, the apps need to be literally downloadable and ready work. They need to be intuitive in their workings and in-expensive.

Pie-in-the-sky? Perhaps, but if no one asks then nothing will ever get done.

Any creative, out-of-the-box ideas out there?

Needing help connecting with Google

I need help connecting with someone at Google. I've heard they sometimes collaborate with organizations to develop apps. What I am looking for is a suite of apps for school teachers or Museum project managers to collaborating w/ teachers/partners in other counties, w/o having to have a tech in the room at all times. It has to be a seamless set-up that requires very little training or teachers won't use it. Ideas or suggestions? Thanks!

Daveed is featured in interview

Yesterday in Columbia MD was the culminating event for a project that I have been working on for the past year. This project has taken up the lion's share of my working life since last May. I am very proud of this effort and wanted to share it with others. Please check out the video that is linked below. It can offer a glimpse into my creative passions for the past 13 months. Enjoy...Daveed

Kamishibai International Project
Kids from Phelps Luck Elementary School in Columbia, MD and the Matnas Community Arts Center in Sapir, Israel participated in a year long literacy and cultural arts program, created by Port Discovery and the Matnas. They wrote stories, illustrated them, and performed through an ancient Japanese storytelling technique called Kamishibai. On June 10, 2009 the two groups of kids shared and performed their stories over a live web chat.

www.hocomojo.com/video/int...kamishibai

IT'S OFFICIAL!!!

I am going to Israel in May for two-weeks. Since last fall I have been working with two classes of fourth graders: one is located in Columbia MD and the other is in the Central Arava region of south-central Israel. They have been collaborating together as part of a story-creating, storyboarding and storytelling project that builds on descriptive & narrative writing exercises that targets their visual interpretation skills. Just another way of integrating the arts to teach core classroom curriculum.

No trip would be complete without a heavy dose of drumming. I'm taking one drum: a 20" Cooperman bodhran. So as not to miss out on an opportunity I am planning on taking a hand held Digital Recorder. The one that I am looking at is the M-Audio Micro Track II Portable Digital Recorder.

The possibilities are boundless. This is fun!!!

Thoughts for today...

I am deeply moved today by the images that have soared around my head. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. envisioned a land where his children “would be judged not by the color of their skin, but rather the content of their character.” It is appropriate that we are celebrating the life and sacrifice of Dr. King today and inaugurating our first African-American President, Barack Obama, tomorrow. As a capstone to this year of change, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is celebrating their Centennial.

Dr King believed…
"When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative."

He also held that…
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

Just felt that it was important to say. Words can inspire change. One life can make a difference. Thank you, Dr. King.

Religion and Violence

Once again, fanatics reign terror upon the innocent in the name of religion. I refuse to believe in a God or higher power that requires terrorism as a tool to reach out to the masses. A vengeful God...not in my way of thinking. Check out "Letters from Earth" by Mark Twain. I really respect his point of view.

What's it Worth to you?

JFK set the US on a path that took us to the Moon and back all within the 1960's. He set the goal and America delivered. It was a difficult, arduous path. With costs in the tens of billions and human lives also being lost, we were still able to dig down deep to into our creative centers. And, through some extreme "out-of-the-box" thinking, meet JFK's brave and global-changing challenge.

Today, we have a far greater challenge before us that requires as extensive a commitment upon the part of our leaders, government and centers of industry and creativity. The reinventing of our entire energy producing culture and infrastructure. This is no simple task. This is so huge a task that it may require the joint efforts of every industrialized country on the planet.

As naive as this might sound, for once we need to look beyond who will financially profit from such changes. Why must everything that is created for the benefit of humanity have to come at the expense of others? Why can it not be created and available simply because it is the right thing to do?

The creativity is available to meet this challenge, but it first requires a commitment on the part of those who have not only the political will, but the financial resources to make it happen. Then it requires a sacrifice from those same people who might want to take advantage of others just for the sake of money. We are not Ferenghi.

Capitalism, at the expense of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" is the same thing as rape and murder of the innocent and thus presents a "clear and present danger" to the security and peace of the whole planet.

Remember the scenario of "RoboCop"? In order to save money, Detroit allows a private corporation to take over City's Police Department. As a result, the corporation, that has no political oversight to protect the citizens from corruption and mismanagement, goes unchecked and ordinary people are catastrophically
harmed.

Think back to Gov Arnold's movie, "Total Recall", where the head guy on Mars is actually a very evil dude, who thinks nothing of exposing innocent people to radiation and cutting their oxygen supply just to get what he wants.

Some of you might think that I am totally out in left field some where, but I truly believe that if someone can fantasize such a storyline for a movie, then a corporate exec, who has the power and the will to use it, can equally be just as spiteful and as criminal.

Has anyone watched Ted Koppel's latest, "The People's Republic of Capitalism" series? It is an eye opening series. With what is happening in China and how fast their electric and gas needs are growing, if something isn't done soon our children and grandchildren will end up living in a world that tragically polluted, power starved and hungry.

Just a thought to add some light to the day...

Baggage

There's a theme that keeps popping up, when I'm reading other ladies profiles. It's not alway overt, but most often lies just under the surface. It's called baggage.

After a very intense conversation with my brother this morning on the baggage he carries and chooses to do nothing about, it once again has hit home to me that a true test of a person's character is how they handle their own baggage. We all have baggage and unfortunately some baggage is heavier than others. We can either allow that baggage to define who we are or we can use that baggage to help us redefine and shape ourselves into who we choose to be. Unfortunately, his choices are very limiting and he continues to wallow in his own muck. I choose a different way.

I get up every morning and choose to create. I choose to take an active role in the world around me. Some days I am better at it than others, but I don't let anything stop me from trying. It's the journey that counts and not where I might end up. I am an invested stakeholder in my future. I will not allow "shoulds" and "coulds" to define who I am. Rather, I am responsible for what I choose to do. The key word here is DO. The "shoulds" and "coulds" can keep their own company, for I have not place for them. If it is not about creating and actively participating in life, then I am not interested.

Time to go start my day. I've got drums to play and children to teach.

God--Yes or No?

Today I have some questions about God, being that from Fri through Sunday is suppose to be his time according to Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

When reading the Ten Commandments, it begins with:

"And God spoke all these words, saying: 'I am the LORD your God… "

and continues with...

ONE: 'You shall have no other gods before Me.'

TWO: 'You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.'

THREE: 'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.'

Now, I am confused, if these are actually the words of God, how does one square such words that could be interpreted as being jealous, arrogant, and envious? According to 1 Cornthians 13:

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

The line about not having carved images... what about the statues of saints and the crosses with Jesus, are they not carved images? Do people not pray to thdem as fervently as they do to God?

I think Mark Twain got it right, when he write "Letters from Earth". If you are not familiar with amazing work, I highly recommend it as a powerful testament to the possibilities of spirituality, without having to be dragged into organized religions that are not always loving and that often times appears jealous, arrogant and envious.

I believe is goodness and joy, love and respect, I believe that all people have a right to dignity, family and peace, without be forced to conform to other's belief systems. That does not mean that those who do believe in God are completely wrong, but that they are also not completely right.

Follow the Money

Some rambling thoughts today...
In Zimbabwe yesterday, an independent agency stated that the opposition candidate actually won the election. So today, the ruling party had this agency's office raided and people arrested. The pictures show soldiers enforcing the raid. Do they not know that once Mugabe is dead, those who survive are going to remember who enforced the illegal raids and who made the false arrests?

Follow the money...

With gas prices skyrocketing, I wonder if we are going to see the big oil companies posting more huge profits for their management teams and claim that they are not doing anything wrong, nor that they hold no responsibility for escalating food costs or so-called food shortages.

Follow the money...

It is now costing approximately 700 million dollars a day to run the war. Who is getting all of that money? Surely not our soldiers, who are doing all of the fighting and dying.

Follow the money...

Good, ole' King George sits on his throne in Washington DC and now says that, yes the economy is not doing as well as he'd hoped. No more is he saying things are alright. Weeks ago he proclaimed that the rebate checks, that are suppose to going out from the IRS soon, will provide a needed boost to our economy. Today he is quoted as saying that he now hopes that the rebates will help, but that he is not sure that it will be enough to make that big of a difference. Now< I know he didn't say exactly that, but between the lines that is what he means.

Follow the money...

Are therse various people so blinded by money and power not to see that if things do not change for the better soon, change will be forced upon them by powers that they will have little control of stopping unless the world de-evolves into a police state. When that happens, those who have will rule and those who don't will suffer. It's happened time and again throughout history. Ultimately though, when that happens, a time will come when the people will rise up and take back what has been stolen from them and they will follow the money and punish those who took advantage of difficult times or who were actually responsible for opening chaos' door and allowing the weak to suffer just so that they can get fat and rich off of the efforts of others.

Follow the money...