In this episode the EdTech Survivalist tries to help a war buddy unembed himself from the web. But first he has to help him navigate a long, abusive history of being at the mercy of centralized IT, a reality that might just push Johnny Embed over the embedding edge.
While I was trying to record the most recent EdTech Survivalist video, I was hacked by an alter-ego I thought had been laid to rest long ago. So forgive the quality of this recent installation, but I was shanghai’d in to giving a more instructive, albeit confusing, explanation of the syndication oriented framework of UMW Blogs. I’m not responsible for any of the propaganda in the following video, and given Tom “Catfish” Woodward has expressed interest in further involvement, I’m sure there will be a number of new and improved EdTech Survivalist videos coming this way over the next several weeks. In the mean time, all I can do is apologize for the following aberration.
The Common Vision Bus
The practice of making a hole in the skull, known as trepanation, has been around since the dawn of humankind. The procedure, from a technical standpoint, is very simple. An instrument called a trepan is used to make the hole. The trepan goes into your skull and a chunk of bone is taken out. You bandage yourself up and eventually the skin heals over, leaving only a small indentation to show for the hole in your head. The idea is to pump up your brainbloodvolume. With trepanation, you can willfully and deliberately accelerate your brain metabolism. You attain a higher level of consciousness.
But trepanation is insignificant compared to the revolution in my skull that’s been triggered by Survivor Steve. Reading his words, seeing his buddy Tom explaining trout-lining for free knowledge to feed ourselves… I realize that proprietary software and copyrights on content LOVE are the equivalent of putting patents on genetically modified seed, and engineering that seed to be sterile, suppressing nature’s reproductive cycles.
Survivor Steve has opened my third eye to the essential human need for the free flow of ideas… And like the cosmic energy of consciousness, ideas must not be constrained by the containers, but converge into one intertransdimensional whole.
The astrally projected spirit of Survivor Steve has taken to visiting me when I enter my frequent trance states, guiding me along in my ongoing journey of transformation, showing me how free tools and systems can move us all toward Oneness:
A little about me… I’ve spent my entire adult life fleeing from technology. For the last few years I have lived off the grid completely — no electricity, no tele-connection to an insane technolusting world, next to no money. And I like it that way. If you are reading this in some techno-narcotized cocoon (and you almost certainly are) than you have no idea of the enlightenment I have enjoyed here directly connecting with The Real in its most natural state:
Yes, you too could be the proud owner of such a fine place to live, if you are willing to do without luxuries such as central heat, plumbing, and regular trips to the grocery store. I live as part of a communal community of beautiful people who are committed to living in a beautiful world, whether the world is beautiful or not.
But let me tell you about my latest transformational experience. Having communed with the spirit of a completely legal sacred herb… Almost immediately, I have visions. Vast, spewing purple vines, ancient beyond measure, pushing out into infinite space. I see my head split open. Green goo pours out and welds into the cosmos. A big hole opens in the universe, and I fly towards it. I jolt awake, my room flooded with light. It should be dark, but I can clearly see a stone warrior standing in the middle of the room.
I look closer and see the stone warrior is in fact a Wise Man, in glasses, speaking truth about certain doom for the earth and the only means to safety. I sense a path to enlightenment. I haven’t felt this so strongly since the first time I was called to get my first trepanation hole.
In accordance with Survivor Steve’s commands, I have since re-equipped my hovel with a solar powered wireless internet hookup (see above), and have not slept in days as I journey to understand how I can spread my LOVE via the wonders of educational technology. More details tomorrow.
The first, introductory episode in The EdTech Survivalist video series which is designed to show you how to manage teaching and learning in the wilderness of the wide open web.
Given the impending EdTech doom, that no one wants to acknowledge no less talk about, I have been thinking a lot lately about what to include in my personal survival kit of web-based tools. Because I, for one, want to be prepared when the in-house, centrally managed IT systems begin to crumble and the budget cuts eliminate in-house programmers by the thousands leaving the majority of instructional technologist to scavenge for themselves, most of whom will be unprepared and acutely vulnerable.
But not me, I’ve been patiently stockpiling free, web-based services that will allow me to go on despite the dark days that lie ahead. In fact, as I have been going through my survival kit I realized that surviving the EdTech apocalypse is neither expensive nor particularly difficult, rather it requires a new frame of mind when approaching the limited resources we currently have along with the increasing costs and inefficiencies of in-house, proprietary systems for learning and data management. Peak EdTech is nigh, and the answer lies in all those free, “throw away” third party services and open source applications. My arsenal consists of a unique hybrid of these two resources which together make me far more likely to survive the impending doom than all the EdTech cattle who lazily graze upon one course management system or another.
So here is what my survival kit of tools looks like, and if you were smart you’d get on board and start saving your data, your livelihood, and the future of teaching and learning with technology.
I know we all like our toys, no doubt about it. After all having the biggest most expensive plugin on your blog can be sort of a status symbol. Leading to being looked up to by the other bloggers, giving way to pride and boasting, and a feelings of self worth, or something like that. We want the best plugins available but very few of us edtech survivalist types have unlimited funds. Not everyone can afford to put down a large sum of cash for a custom survivalist arsenal of plugins. But being poor or cheap does not mean you must be held to a disadvantage. Below is a list of free plugins that we use here, stock up now before it’s too late!
[plugins list all]
