The earthquake of 22 February 2011 was a tragic event that will forever mark a point in time for Cantabrians and all of New Zealand. The impact upon the families directly affected by the loss of life and the loss of everything else is one, that for those of us unnafected, can not begin to imagine. The immediate and everlasting change that the shaking ground has wrought on the architectural heritage of Christchurch is a social history marker. And while many are suffering, the events of 22 February and its aftermath are also an opportunity in time to record the impact and change to the fabric of an entire city for all to see.
A tool like History Pin should be used by all the people in Christchurch. I am suggesting that every single home owner, tennant, property owner and business owner (when they are allowed into the restricted cordon) photograph their building as it is today, as it will become over the coming weeks and months; as services are replaced, repaired and life returns to normal and finally when the repairs to each building are completed, each stage of this healing process be recorded in photographs. These photographs should be posted to History Pin and placed in the appropriate Google Maps Street view orientation. Doing this, future generations will be able to see what Christchurch was before the quake, what it is currently and what it will become. It will provide a slice through time for every suburb so that we, who were not affected, can see the true scale of this devastating quake on ordinary people.
From this terrible event it is possible for Christchurch to record the total impact on each suburb, each street corner, each home without prejudice and to document the transition back to normality. If everyone does this simple recording task, with their own home or place of work, a complete record in images of the destruction and rebuilding of Christchurch can be recorded. The web2.0 tools such as Google Maps and History Pin offer us the opportunity to record change as never before. From this bleak moment in time there is the opportunity for clarity, one I think that is too important to ignore.
Posted by david on Saturday Oct 10, 2009 Under e-learning, web2.0
My second presentation of Ulearn09 was scheduled for breakout 7. In other words the graveyard shift, the penultimate session of the conference when people are at their most tired after three days of exposure to continual innovation, integration, exhibitors, networking and socialising. Prior to the conference I could see that the session was fully booked with the maximum of 25 delegates, I was very pleased with that as the presentation had been marketed in the following way:
90 minutes? So many tools, so little time!
A tool a minute? David will try to illustrate 90 different tools in 90 minutes. With so much on the web being free and a perpetual beta world of trying the coolest thing, it is easy to forget just what is still there or how to effectively use what is already out there in a classroom. In this session David will run through as many free programs, tools and web based utilities as he can in 90 minutes. He will name, document, share the links to and illustrate how he has used the tools in a class situation (or how they could be if he has not). Even if you know of 89 of the tools already, the 90th tool could just be what you are looking for! Come along for a high energy dash through as set of tools that will make a big impact on all areas of your ICT integration strategy, except your budget!
What I was offering was a list, with only a minute per tool this session was going to be far from hands on! Yet it was booked out. I have to say I expected that not many delegates would come to a session so late in proceedings, with planes to catch, conference fatigue and no time to play during the session being the causal factors. Prior to the start of the session and as people were drifting in, I spoke with several of the delegates and they were all really excited at the prospect of this session. Apparently it had been fully booked within minutes of the bookings section of the Ulearn website opening. It was evident that the session had touched a nerve as people came in their droves despite their fatigue. I stopped counting at 50 attendees and several came in just after I launched into my presentation. I hope that all that attended did indeed walk away with at least one tool that they had forgotten, or was new to them and are inspired to integrate that tool into their classroom from Monday onwards. Certainly from the feedback forms that were completed (20) all rated the session and the content very highly and all gave very positive comments, clearly there is a need for this kind of session to be repeated and to more than 50 teachers.
Of course what needs to happen now is for each of these tools to be unpacked in detail in the form of hands on tutorials, practical workshops and integration sessions, a service I am happy to deliver, please call if you would like to discuss this further.
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