Final Projects, Final Class Meeting

Wow! The projects were great; creative and informative. Looking beyond the presentation and design, I enjoyed seeing what everyone was passionate about; what a wide range of interests! Congratulations to everyone for their great work.

After two weeks of overcoming technical problems with platforms and production software, we were ready to present; even though our project was not as far along as we wished (as were many others, we discovered,) we had enough to convey a sense of the project. And then...it didn't work. We'd forgotten that .exe files are not compatible with the MACs in the classroom.

Looking back over the semester and all the various presentations, one comes to mind: Rowena's presentation on Twitter, using illustrations on poster board. It might appear my recall has been affected by my experience last night; I don't believe so. That one gets my vote.

Teamwork Online

Ethan and I have decided to work together on our final project, and other than an initial F2F meeting, we're doing the work online (with some cellphone conversations).

Our course is Basic Computer and Web Literacy, a subject both of our have taught. The course is designed as HyFlex, with the classroom portion highly recommended for students with weaker adaptive skills in the adoption of technology. We narrowed the topics within the course to 6, based on current research and our experiences as instructors. We also decided to build-out a single module.

Although it sounds self-defeating to stage a beginning computing and Web class in HyFlex---how are the novice students going to handle that?---it's not.

Web 2.0 --- More Than a Definition

Our last class of the semester before final projects and a well-deserved break.

We took the time machine back to the first meeting of the class and came F2F with our initial concept of Web 2.0. Initially, it was all about the devices and software tools; but now, after researching and using the tools, it's:

• Not about the tools, but about what the tools afford us


• How social networking on the Internet has made the globe smaller


• About a mix of cultures and a diversity of opinions


• The creative use of everyday 2.0 tools for 21st Century education

Although we differ in our opinions and experiences, we did unanimously agree that our perception of Web 2.0 has changed and become personally meaningful. Web 2.0 has become more than a definition; it's now our experience.

Interface Design Critique

I missed this class and was unable to attend online; occasionally my personal and professional life overtake my life as a student, and this was one of those rare moments. Fortunately, Kim's 830 presence on iLearn and the footprints (Blogs and other posts) of my peers leaves an easily followed trail ... and unlike the one below it doesn't leave my shoes muddy.

Design Critique

Design of Everyday Things

This is a true story; this is what happened when my father got a new color TV as a Wedding Anniversary present.

Online for Group Presentations

This is the first time I've attended and participated in an ITEC class online while some classmates were in the classroom; for the most part, it proved to be both successful and a learning experience. My hat is off to Joshua---cheers! for your able control of Elluminate and leadership as moderator of the evening. We made good use of Elluminate tools prior to the presentations, especially the shared Whiteboard.

From an online perspective... The presentations were awkward compared to a F2F setting. The affordances of F2F contact such as signaling a question became mechanical rather than spontaneous. Viewing Wikis and, especially, videos was cumbersome, until we discovered that it was better for those online to link directly to those sites rather than view them through Elluminate. However, by no means was the experience a disaster; rather, in spite of the limitations of Elluminate we interacted just as we always do.

Having interacted with everyone F2F, I could mostly tell who was chatting without seeing their name. Personalities came through quite clear. Those who usually display a sense of humor did the same online. At the end of the class, I felt as though I had been present for the class. Regardless of the mechanical aspects of communicating via Elluminate, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

The presentations were great. Many presentations this evening and during our "expert" Web 2.0 tools presentations were presented from Wiki pages, mine included. What I find odd about this is that we all utilize a Wiki page as if it were a PPT deck. It's quite awkward, because as you present verbally, the Wiki page is behind you, commanding the audience's attention and urging everyone to read the page rather than focusing attention on what is being said. I wonder if anyone else has noticed this? I think it shows clearly that not all tools are equal: a PPT deck is controllable and as such makes a good background for emphasizing a presenter's verbal address; a Wiki page in form and substance is meant to be read (and viewed or listened to), and thus it does not make a good background against which to speak to a subject---unless the subject is an intro to Wikiis.

Mobile Tools For Education

Paul Kim, CTO of Stanford University School of Education, was a great guest; I wish he'd had more time that evening, but I'm grateful he was willing to step away from his guests as long as he did. As he led us to his Web site, I bookmarked it to return to the project on Mobile Learning Technology. When I returned to site later that evening, two additional projects caught my attention: Visual Mapping and Health Literacy. The truth is, my attention is being grabbed by a number of projects on a variety of topics combining technology and education, and there just isn't enough time in a day, week, month, and year to go into all of them with the depth I'd like to.

The Stanford Education Mobile Learning project has some similarities with the OU Africa Digital Education Enhancement Project (DEEP), which I'll link here for anyone who is interested. In Africa, Mobile Computing Devices are being used to teach literacy, numeracy, and professional development in disadvantaged areas, using content provided through the OU---the Open University which is based in the UK (chartered in 1969). Like the OU, DEEP provides education and training to teachers as well as students.

Mobile devices are in use by other educational programs in Africa too numerous to list here or speak about in detail. The knowledge disseminated by these programs is varied, including traditional primary and secondary education, agricultural information of benefit to farmers, information for herders raising livestock, and health and AIDS prevention information.
The point I'd like to make about all the programs using mobile technology is that these programs have eschewed the traditional computer-based classroom in favor of hand-held computing devices, which should be understood to include mobile phones. Did anyone foresee a time when cell phones would be a delivery mechanism for educational content?

The Web 2.0 CEO

I was hoping to do this blog as a podcast; maybe next week... I have been looking at a lot of blogs recently, and I find another type of blog has emerged, one in which comic strips convey the content in place of the written monologue. I'd like to do one blog using comics before the semester ends...

The reading was in two parts; first, another article about Web 2.0 technology and, second, an article dissecting collaborative online learning. Although my initial reaction to the first reading was, "yet another Web 2.0 technology article," the continuing exposure to this grouping of technology is helping to fix it in mind. Usually, a single brief exposure to something new is forgotten if not used or repeated---at least for me---and I find I'm more conversant with the technology as a result of repeated exposure, whether that exposure be reading about, writing about, or using the technology.

The reading about online collaboration was a delightful experience because I completely identified with the experiences of the three learners which conclude the article. I identified with the disappointment and frustration of poorly designed learning content and with the enjoyment of collaborating and sharing knowledge with people I have never met in person. Like those three learners, I do believe online learning has limits---I prefer the classroom when available.

Personally, I found Eugene Lee amazing; I've worked with a lot of CEO's but never with one who is tuned in to communication/collaboration technology as thoroughly as Lee is. What I took away from his presentation was the degree to which he uses technology in his professional and personal life---and how seamlessly that technology fits into his life. Lee has leveraged the technology, rather than allowing it to dictate to him. He has employed it to a positional advantage that allows him every possible avenue to success. The stories he told based on his use of the tools are gems. His surprise and delight in the unexpected effects of using Web 2.0 tools are refreshing.

Walter's Five Picture Story

Okay, it seems I'm the only one not using a slideshow to display my story, so here we are; initially I dismissed using this format because it automates the process without regard for the viewer---kind of like riding a tram past exhibits in a museum. (No, I don't equate my pictures to museum objects---just making a point.)

The 5 Picture Story - 23rd October

Clouds + GPS + Context = ?

This is Cloud Computing, through which your can create your own PLS---which of course you are free to share with anyone you choose. According to the IEEE, Cloud Computing "is a paradigm in which information is stored on servers on the Internet and cached temporarily on clients that include desktops, notebooks, handhelds, etc." That definition should include every device capable of Internet connectivity.

Using a small, handheld and wireless device, it is possible to obtain your geographic location (latitude, longitude, altitude) anywhere in the world. GPS, the Global Positioning System, was originally the exclusive domain of the U.S. Department of Defense; however, in the 1980s, the system was made available to the public. As of 1994, a full constellation of 24 satellites was available, and the more of those your GPS unit can "see" the more accurately it can calculate your position.

Here's a beginner's guide to GPS---it's a .pdf of 9 pages.

Learning everywhere,

especially outside the classroom

Learning for the 21st Century

CLICK THE C-MAP---IT BECOMES BIGGER

This is the first article on the subject of 21st Century education I've read which attempts to be comprehensive; it certainly covers a lot of ground, as I discovered when I tried to conceptually map its core elements (results on left).

My favorite part of the article is this quote, which is part of the 21st Century Assessment:

"Measure what we value

or it won't be taught."

I'm a believer in the reverse design process detailed in, "Understanding by Design," so I don't view the quote in the same light as "teaching to the test."

What I took from the article(s) sums up topically as a trifold plan for creating a 21st Century educational experience:

1. Incorporate 21st Century ICT tools into the educational process; teach both the use of the tools to receive content and use of tools to create content
2. Increase the breadth of core subjects to reflect the 21st Century world, which is equal parts local, national and global
3. Foster cognitive skills development in students, so they can think creatively, think critically, become proficient at problem-solving, and develop a life-long learning model for themselves.

Web 2.0 Scholarship - Curt Bonk

Cheers! to Dr. Bonk for his synchronous video lecture and Q&A on Scholarship and Web 2.0. Part way through Bonk's lecture, I realized the topic was not as new to me as I had thought it was. I've been using academically produced, online publications and learning objects for a few years; moreover, I've been modifying them and combining them with other material to suit my own purpose or that of my students. The new element in the topic for me is the ramification of Web 2.0 Scholarship---authority and control are changing hands in the academic world just as they have in the day-to-day world. Control over publishing, multi-media, interactive learning objects, video, audio---control over it all passed into the collective world population a few years ago, or more. And now control over "the news" is changing, as various forms of reportage generated by day-to-day citizens appear throughout the structure of the Web.

My previous education is largely grounded in an older model of authority. For example, if Nature, Scientific American, or Popular Mechanics chose to publish an article, the content was to be trusted. The publication was the authority (and in fact still is in many cases). Now I find a considerable portion of my academic reading online, freely available; in this class we're reading non-traditionally published articles. So where does "authority" fit in? Perhaps it rests in the expertise of the instructor who selectes them. Perhaps it rests in part within the community which links to the publications. Just maybe, it rests also within the consumer---after all, judging by blogs and posts in several ITEC classes, we've generally agreed that students (that's us) need to know how to find, evaluate, and store information for subsequent retrieval.

I believe there's a lot of cheerleading and overestimation associated with Web 2.0. The scholarship aspect of 2.0 reminds me very much of the beginnings of the Open Source Software movement, which has empowered thousands of programmers whose combined efforts have benefitted millions of people---even if the computing world is still largely running proprietary operating systems and software. Control and authority are forever redefined---that won't change. Web 2.0 continues to grow as new tools are created and the initial use of those tools morphs into multiple purposes, including education.

Emerging Technologies for Learning

"It is dangerous to assume that we understand students simply because we were once in the same shoes."

Were we in the same shoes? Perhaps we were with respect to impatience ("I want it now!"), immaturity of thought, and a preference for socializing over "studying." Unless you were born into the Internet Age, however, you were never in those same shoes---your shoes are hand-me-downs from an earlier age of technology. (This is literally true; if you doubt that, Google "shoe + technology".) Yet, if you are able to Google, to Wiki, to Blog, to Text, or to IM, you may share those new shoes.

The emergent technologies mentioned by the author are a wide-ranging mixture of old concepts bundled into new forms---and thus it's not surprising that some of the skills deemed critical decades ago are still so today. While remote instrumentation may be new to some, Nikola Tesla created the first wirelessly operated (remote controlled) model boat in the 1920s; conceptually they share a lot in common. The same may be said of virtual worlds; in the dark ages of education I remember our class dressing up like the Pilgrims and Native Americans to act out the first Thanksgiving. Data visualization began (perhaps) with the creation of the Cartesian Plane by Descartes in the 17th Century. Augmented reality might just be considered another version of a tourist's handbook; the author's description of visiting the Empire State Building (pg. 17) replicates my experience circa 1958, albeit my "augmented reality" was in paper form. So what then has changed?

These older concepts have been repackaged---streamlined into digital format, made available 24/7 and accessible from a variety of ubiquitous digital devices. Information or interaction---lots of it---is available everywhere, anytime. Overload can be the result. What do I do with all this information? Who needs or wants 1,243,576 "hits" on a search, especially when the first few pages are filled with paid advertisements and searches in general have a less than 50% success rate. What do we do with all those Blogs and Wikis and Forums? Aggregate them? We did that with our Blogs, and now with our Wikis---it does not summarize them for us or in any way sort them for relevance. Sometimes we can rely on friends---friends on a social network perhaps---to recommend a Blog, Forum, or Wiki for its relevance. Technology has yet to replace the human experience. As the author emphasizes, critical thinking skills are vital skills to survive this technological age.

Appropriately, the author emphasizes: judgement, synthesis, research, practice, and negotiation. The author asks about programs to teach these skills; it seems to me self-evident that learning these skills comes from practice with guidance from someone who possesses the skills. Technology is not smart enough to "think." Most people are. That being said...

Critique of Flat World Project

Instructional Objectives

The objectives were fairly straightforward: The production of a digital story on an assigned topic using one of Daniel Pink's "six senses" as a guide for the substance and tone of the completed work; collaboration with another student in another location for the creation of a portion of the video content is mandatory.

Technology Utilized by Students to Create/How Technology was Used

At one point or another during the course of their work, the students used two general types of technologies, Web-based and Digital. Web-based included: Wiki, Ning, a search engine, a browser, and a video hosting service (uTube). Non-Web, digital tools included a video camera with synch sound, video editing software, music recording/transfer and editing software, graphic design software, and presumably word-processing software.

All the technology employed was creation-oriented. Wikis gave access to instructions and allowed collaboration. Ning allowed social-networking for the purposes of trading information and asking questions. Search engines collect and display information on the topic---and on the use of the technology. The video hosting service provides samples of digital stories as well as a place to upload the completed project. Digital tools allowed the creation of the completed video.

Put Yourself in the Student's Place...

As one of the students, I would have learned to create and to inform. I would have learned to research, analyze, reflect, collaborate and evaluate---not necessarily in that order, as the creative process is a loop not a straight line.

Emerging Technologies

The e-book we are reading (1st chapter) is valuable to me in a number of ways. As a survey of emergent Web technologies it's informative and helps me organize my daily experience of the Web. As a contrast between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, it's thought provoking; both culturally and educationally. I've taught a number of younger Web users (teens and young adults) and their experience of the Web is decidedly active---they are creators of content not merely downloaders of content. Their culture is an active one; moreover, the students come from around the world, and their experience of the Web is the same (barring bandwidth concerns) in their countries of origin. Perhaps it's obvious, but they are bored by non-interactive and traditionally directed learning presentations, be it text or lecture. They light up, however, when they interact with learning objects or one another.

We've been asked by Kim to summarize the key points of the assigned reading and critique those points. I find 2 key points within the chapter we read:

1. A variety of communication tools have become available; many of those tools are in use by potential learners who are accustomed to creating content with those tools---their experience with technology is as active participants in a process enabled by those tools. The authors do an excellent job of surveying those emergent tools.
2. Instruction, however you define it, can benefit from using the same tools to engender knowledge within learners; especially so as today's learner is more likely to respond to an active learning environment than a passive one. The authors rightfully stress the need to rethink the instructional process---to redesign the process to allow for active learning using tools which allow for creativity as well as knowledge building.

Learning in a Digital Age

I thoroughly enjoy this topic, and I am unabashedly a fan of multimedia and in situ learning, as well as all social/societal-based learning.

A very large part of my background and experience is film and television, and I well know how deep an impact multimedia presentations have on an audience. An audience can remember the details of a movie or a TV episode, but that same audience cannot necessarily recall the lecture they heard or the text they read with the same detail. "Didactic" is the label once applied to stories which teach; now, as a consequence of social learning and blogging I know the contemporary label is, "edutainment." (Thanky you, Ty, who's a fellow ITEC student.)

In situ learning is a godsend. It's a powerful tool for creating knowledge in the medical field, wherein paramedics are placed in real-life scenarios to develop, test, and hone their skills before they are sent into the real world. (Thank you Dee, an ITEC grad.) This type of learning is how I acquired the skills to function as a Story Editor and Production Executive in film and TV. It was once called, "on the job training." The same can be said of my technology background. It's also the same type of learning I am enjoying during an internship with KQED and the Digital Storytelling Initiative, run by Leslie Rule, an ITEC grad.

I learn in these ways, and I teach with these methodologies. Within a traditional classroom setting with a range of students whose understanding of networking technology runs the gamut from nil to considerable, I asked myself the following:

1. How do I keep those with existing knowledge interested?
2. How do I teach those without any knowledge?
3. What do the students need to learn about networking that will be useful to them?

The answer is that I do not "teach" anything. I ask the students to "do." Build a network. Those with more experience share their knowledge with those who have little or none. Use a multimedia presentation to show how a network is built. Use Flash animations to show how the devices on a network function. Then pose questions which are open for discussion within a live forum. What I do is guide the process by providing the tools needed by the students to explore the subject.

ITEC 830 - Second Class Meeting "Connectivism" (Siemens)

After reading through the George Siemens material, my first thought is that Siemens is pursuing his own "Theory of Everything" (TOE) in the educational field. The ironic connotation of TOE seems appropriate to a theory which lacks a definition. Perhaps, though, I am missing the point; it would not be the first time I couldn't see the forest for the trees...

I take no exception to most of what Siemens describes. For example, the statement, "How people work and function is altered when new tools are utilized," is apparent---if not obvious---from the ubiquitous e-mail account which had its origins in 1993 through the efforts of AOL and Delphi (and earlier through CompuServe). His statement is true, but it has been since early man learned to communicate with his peers eons ago. If anything, Connectivism seems to be a melange of obvious statements.

I do disagree with Siemens when he states: "The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe." A better philosophy might be: "The existence of a pipe and access to it is---perhaps---more important than the content within the pipe at any given time."

I'm curious about how others reacted to the material.

It's now a week after I started this post, and I've had the benefit of reading some of my classmates' blogs on the subject of "connectivism." Additionally, out of frustration I read/skimmed Siemens' book, "Knowing Knowledge," seeking a definition (operational or otherwise cogent) of "connectivism." I still have no definition of what I consider a muddled concept. Honestly, I cannot find anything new---let alone groundbreakinhg---in Siemens' work. I do find a lot of existing concepts which have been reworded; e.g., "the new oppressed" as a restatement of the "digital divide." I also find incomplete or erroneous positings such as his statements about the development of video from a recording device to a tool for communication. (It was not until the technology of video became less expensive, digitized and subsequently became available to "everyone," that it became the ubiquitous tool it is today. One last thought... Siemens says, "Hierarchy imposes structure while networks reflect structure." Well, networks contain hierarchies. The "cloud" network envisioned by Tim Berners-Lee (see the post below on ITEC 800 Chapter 4) in the creation of hyper-text (HTML) exists but only to the degree that hyper-text links between and among sites are permitted by those who control the sites. In a practical sense, that means I can link this blog to NEC, but NEC is not going to link their site to my Blog---not in my lifetime, I'm sure. Therein lies the hierarchy within the network---every place is not necessarily accessible from every other place. "Six degrees of separation" does not hold true for the Web, either. Siemens suggests the "network" must be a "flat" or democratic playing space for knowledge to flourish in this age; it is not, but it does provide knowledge nevertheless---a lot of knowledge.

ITEC 830 - First Class Meeting Web 2.0

I was ill and missed the first day of class for 830; however, from the postings done by Kim of the group diagrams/charts and the Blogs written by classmates, I've learned what the discussion subject of the meeting was and what activities everyone participated in. The posted illustrations and Blogs are not the same as being there and partricipating firsthand; but, they answered my question: What did you do the first class meeting?

Web 2.0 in action? In a rudimentary sense, yes; although it would be more Web 2.0 if I'd had the time to interact with one of more of my classmates via a Blog, Wiki, Forum, or Chat.

Digital Storytelling

Well, it took a couple of attempts, but my digital story is now part of the blog. I thoroughly enjoyed creating it, even though the process required me to learn iMovie---something I did not want to do at this time. The tutorials on Lynda.com were a great help; iMovie has a lot of features not mentioned in its Help menu and lots more features---like the use of the "Option" key---which make the software very versatile.


I have seen everyone's stories, and I am really impressed. This project reminds me of UCLA Film School (decades ago) when a Super-8mm short film was a graduation requirement. The digital stories done by my classmates in ITEC 800 rival those I saw at UCLA---for a group of non-film majors, they created some impressive work.


I add that last thought because it speaks to a major shift in our history and society: multimedia tools are accessible and usable by everyone; just as the Web and HTML made it possible for anyone to publish their writing, these media tools have made it possible for anyone to create a film (okay, video) and "release" it. What had been the exclusive domain of book publishers, film studios, and, starting in the 1950s, television broadcasters, is now a flat playing field---or at least a "flatter" playing field. Just as a decade ago anyone could be a publisher, today anyone can be a film studio or TV station.

Leslie's Digital Storytelling Workshop

What an enjoyable evening! Two reasons: Leslie's presence; also, hearing from peers on topics not usually discussed in a seminar setting.

Leslie's insight into storytelling is remarkable; I spent 24 years editing stories for film and television, and I cannot say I ever met anyone like her. Her ability to categorize the content, extract its theme, and provide feedback on the execution---from one reading to the next---amazed me. Her talents rival those of my old friend, Chris Vogler, whose expertise contributed to the simple but elegant design of "The Lion King" some 12 years ago. If you never viewed the animated film, do so; the storytelling is masterful, not to mention enjoyable. (Yes, it is for adults, too.)

Life as teacher... A father's advice, the loss of a friend, the loss of a parent, leaving home, the tragedy of illness, flight from persecution---just a few of the topics I heard during the workshop.
I see everyone in the classroom in a different light, in a personal way. The evening was a rare occasion in an academic setting; moreover, the result is profoundly different from the typical, if not mandatory,"introduce yourself" session.

Gagne's Theory of Instruction (Ch. 10)

A breath of fresh air! While I don't relish coming up with a mnemonic to memorize the 9 Events, I enjoyed reading this chapter. ...more later...

Well, now it's later... Gagne's 5 categories of Learning Outcomes and 9 Events of Instruction provide a framework within which I can take an objective look at what I want to teach and how I am planning to teach it. It's usefull---immediately so, as a thorough knowledge of Gagne's research and writings is not needed to utilize his frameworks. Refreshing.

ITEC: Meaningful Learning (Ausubel) and Schema Theory (Ch. 4)

I agree with several blogged opinions that this chapter lacked organization. Examples were fuzzy at critical moments, and although the cites of studies work well in other chapters, they seem to get in the way of the "meat and potatoes" in this chapter. I believe, in part, that my unfavorable reaction to this chapter results from reading it right after reading Chapter 10 on Gagne. Chapter 10 was heavy on theory, but the theory segued into practical application. That element was sorely deficient in "Meaningful Learning and Schema Theory."


Regardless, the chapter led me to a single conclusion which, while sounding obvious, is at the root of a lot of unsuccessful teaching: The instructor/designer must evaluate both the potential learner and the knowledge to be transferred if the transfer of knowledge to the learner is to be successful. Prior knowledge is a critical element of successful instruction. Advance Organizers are a useful tool.

Ausubel's model of cognitive organization which breaks LTM information into a hierarchy sounds great, but I think it's a limited view of the human mind. Hierarchies are by their nature cumbersome and strict, whereas the human mind is a nimble organ with remarkable powers of organization, association, and recall. When Tim Berners-Lee created the hypertext markup language which led to the World Wide Web on the Internet, his preliminary drawings were of a hierarchy and a cloud in which every particle had the potential to connect to every other particle. Berners-Lee found hierarchical organization, which was the original organization of the Internet (and all other computer-based information systems) to be limited, and less useful and functional as the hierarchy grows larger. Additionally, while the concept of a cloud may seem vague, hazy (no pun intended), or disorganized, cloud-like systems such as the Web are actually self-organizing, highly structured, and flexible---they self-organize into communities of common interest. (Want a reference? Try the work of G. W. Flake while he was at NEC.)

The hierarchical storage model employed by the operating systems for computing machines makes retrieving documents cumbersome. Have you ever looked for a folder or document on your PC or MAC? Whether you look by navigating by hand through your documents or use the search function, you are forced to go through the entire storage partitions' hierarchy to locate the contents... The latest trend in search-related computing is embodied in Microsoft's Vista operating system, in the form of virtual folders. Virtual folders allow linking to documents and other folders from a different folder---much as if you were to place copies of the same document in multiple folders or copies of a folder into one or more different folders. If you draw that arrangement it's not a hierarchy but a cloud-like organization.

Trip to East Africa

My wife and I recently took a trip to East Africa, to Kenya and Tanzania, which is when the photos at the left were taken. Our guides---John in Kenya and Willie in Tanzania---were extraordinary in their knowledge of tracking, animal behavior, plant life, astronomy...the list goes on. Both are highly educated and terrific people. They made our weeks in their respective countries thoroughly enjoyable. If I have time, I'll rotate the pictures or try out the slide-show gizmo.

Decades ago I studied "Olduvai Gorge" in Anthropology; I enjoyed seeing it in person. The Gorge, known as "The Cradle of Mankind," rests in the Great Rift Valley, on the Eastern Serengeti Plains in Northern Tanzania. Ironically, "Olduvai" turned out to be a misspelling by the German scientist who named the spot for the sisal plant that populates the area. The Maasai people called the plant, "Oldupaai," meaning "many uses." (E.g., rope, clothing , antiseptic, baskets, and more.)