What do you guys think? Would you be interested in making a movie? Let me know by leaving a comment below.

Anyway, without further adieu… here is my first production. Once I figure out how, it will go onto the Chungdahm Master’s Network.

Xtranormal

Well Xtranormal is a web based program that gives anyone the ability to create flash movies complete with 3D characters and dialogue… simply and painlessly – all you need to do is click and type. No programming required.

Now this won’t dramatically change your life, but I see classroom potential in Xtranormal. It can make teaching and learning a hell of a lot more fun. Want to make your student’s watch the Presidential debate? Why not have them create their own mock movie of it, rather than having them write a report.

I have not yet had a chance to use this for my classes yet, but you can be sure that I will. This would make a great project for my writing class… script writing plus animation. I wish something like this had been around when I was going through school. I just have to get permission first… sigh…

I haven’t published any of my movies yet, but when I do, I will let you know how it works out.

I came upon this contest and I thought that this might be an interesting exercise for you guys to get involved in.  It is a contest to create the best mind-map combating world poverty.  The grand prize is $5000.

In order to create a mind-map you have to go to Mindmeister.com.  It is the only mind-mapping program that I know about, although I am sure there are a few others.

Once you have created an account, you can share you mind-map with the others who want to collaborate on this and when the time comes we can submit it to the contest.

If you are interested in working together to create a mind-map please let me know.

The Beginning

I was lost.  That much I knew but how?  I don’t remember being born.  I don’t remember a mother or a father.  I don’t remember a family.  It is only later that I would come to find out that I had never had any – at least not in its true sense.

One moment I wasn’t.  And the next I was.  That is how I remember it.  It’s as if someone who had been blind their entire life had one day woken up and been able to see; a deaf person who could hear; a dumb person who could speak.  Except that it was more than that.  I was a person who had never dreamt… dreaming.  Where was I?

It was warm.  I felt my body quiver as streams of light struck.  I took a deep breath and pulled in the surrounding… whatever it was.  It filled me, met the streams of light, and energy surged through me.  My body trembled with power gathering and changing… when it was too much to bear I let it out… let it escape from me.  Released it back into the ether surrounding me.  But no longer the same… transformed into something different… something that I no longer needed.

And as I let it out I realized that I was not alone.  Next to me was another doing the same thing.  I struggled to touch him to say something to him.  Who are you?  I wanted to ask.  Or maybe what I really meant was who am I?

I tried to create words to reach out and touch him, but I couldn’t.  I didn’t know where to start.  Words escaped me.  I tried to speak.  I needed to give my thoughts a voice.  Over here, I wanted to shout.  Hey you over there… here I am.

Nothing.

I returned to the energy; I followed the energy as it coursed through my body.  I felt it infuse, dwindle, and die.  And again I would breathe and it would start all over again.  Every time I followed it I felt it disappear as it reached the edge of me… my body.  Not vanish instantly, but slowly drain out – parts of me opening to release that energy and closing again.

I wondered if I could do it voluntarily.  I focused on the opening.  What was happening?  Part of me would curl back, let the energy escape, and unfurl to cover that exit.  Could I control it?

My next breath, I followed the energy again and as it neared that diffusion point, I told that wall not to open.  I willed it to remain shut.  And it did.  I could feel the pressure building, struggling to escape.  Like a caged prisoner it paced its cage, methodically prodding at the walls, looking for a weak point.  Time passed, I don’t know how long.  But the thing next to me… the thing that was like me had breathed once… twice… three times…

I contained it for as long as I could, but as the pressure built, it become painful to contain.  So I let it go.  Inadvertently I only allowed one part of my wall part.  And as I opened it, that which had been building up inside of me rushed out – much more explosively than I had imagined.  As it streamed out, I a sense of exhilaration rushed over me.  I tingled in pleasure, my body finally able to relax and my consciousness content with the knowledge that I had learned how to do something new.  Something that I had not known I could do.

But something else happened.  Something that I had not planned, nor did I understand it at that time.  When I released what I had been contained inside me, I catapulted forward – rapidly and without control.  Quickly I tried to assess my situation.

What had I done wrong?  What was happening to me?  I had no control.  That sense of exhilaration I had felt earlier was replaced with fear; the kind of fear that one has of the dark… the unknown; the fear that you feel when you peer into a black bottomless abyss and imagine falling; the vertigo, the sensation of falling, arms and legs flailing, reaching for something to break your fall but failing to connect with anything; your struggles accounting for nothing.  But with time comes the realization that you will fall no matter what you do.  And with that realization comes acceptance.

At the time this happened, I did not understand any of it.  But looking back now, that is the way it was.  As I was propelled forward I found my fear fading and resignation to my situation setting in.  And with that pristine calm, I realized to where I was heading.

Our walls met.  At first there was resistance, she (he, it?) fought my intrusion as I fought hers.  But the force of our collision was to great and our walls gave way.  Like the energy that we allowed to escape, our walls opened to accept the other in.  After what seemed like an eternity, our walls stopped shuddering and we settled into a delicate harmony.  A pair of dancers in the last throes of a sensual dance, now engaged only in a simple rotation which slowly came to an end.

“What happened?” I wondered.  And then it happened.

“Hello.”

I have been working a lot on my main blog.  The purpose of that blog is to look at ways of integrating new technology into the learning environment and even creating virtual collaboration and learning spaces.  Check it out if you have the chance.

Also I have launched a social network for the Chungdahm Learning Master’s level classes.  The hope is to turn this into a resource for students to use outside of class to continue discussions started in class, to ask for and receive help when needed, and to just share ideas in general about learning and the classroom environment.  If you are a Master’s student, then sign up and become part of the community.

Overall I think it is off to a good start.  Not all the students are as enthusiastic as I am, but I think with persistance it will become what I envision it to be… and more.