"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair."
-- A Tale of Two Cities

Was Chuckie Dickens at "Technology for the Turnaround" on Saturday at UGA? (Read more about the event below) Because he could have been talking about mobile media on our WWW (wild/weird/wonderful) weekend here in Athens. Over 150 of us gathered in one of the big auditorium at the Miller Learning Center. We were stoked and primed to see the future of digital media technology. Experts were poised to provide bursts of prophesy. Students were twitching to debut the projects they slaved over all semester long. And it was clear that mobile media was a key cog in the future media machine. The iPhone projects the students touted, the statistics the experts spouted, and the views everyone shouted all pointed to mobile media as a crucial technology for the turnaround. Yeah, I was pretty excited. It felt like I was tingling all over, then I realized it was less a tingle than a buzz and it wasn't all over -- the vibration was located in my pocket. My phone. I can't answer calls when I am in front of a group, right? Probably my Mom and I would return her call later. She understands. But then I noticed a wave of people in the audience reaching for their phones -- mainly the students. Kind of weird and not a good sign. I called a quick break. That is when Dean Clark showed me the text message from the UGA Alert system.
Whenever we have an emergency in Athens, UGA texts me and calls me on my office, home, and cell phones. But the message this time wasn't like the tornado warnings or the notices of burst water mains. Three people had been shot and killed about a mile from campus. And the name they gave as a suspect was a fellow UGA professor I know. A mistake? A joke? Yeah professors can be irratic and eccentric, but was this smart guy capable of this? I was stunned. Then someone asked me, "What should we do?"
That is a teacher's nightmare. We accept the responsibility of educating our students, but being responsible for their safety is a lot harder. Watching the video of the tragedy at Virginia Tech I had asked myself what I would do. I had even tried to rehearse in my head the exact steps I would take should something dangerous enter my classroom. But this situation with tons of out of town guests and students spread all over the building didn't fit any of the scenarios I imagined. And my mind took the human turn of trying to remember where my sons and wife were right then. What should we do? We decided to do exactly what we were told -- nothing. UGA police were not evacuating buildings. There was no indication that the gunman was on campus. We should carry on. We were safer all together in this room than if we dismissed and spread out all over campus. I have to admit that I was glad for that. Everyone here had worked too hard and people had traavelled too far for us to over-react and lose a tremendous learning opportunity. I asked a Grady staff member to watch the door for anything amiss. Then I reconvened the meeting. I didn't say anything about the shooting to the group.
For the next hour as we discussed technology, I wondered if I had done the right thing not telling everyone about the situation. I didn't really know what was happening outside that room. We were in a secure location. And any comment without accurate information could make people anxious or even panic. But as I watched people looking at their phones for text messages and passing notes to the person sitting next to them, I was troubled by the decision I had made and the unwelcome responsibility I had for making it. It was an hour I had been looking forward to for months, now it turned into 60 minutes of torture. For those of you in attendance who noticed that I wasn't my usual brilliant self, now you know why (I always have a good reason for my persistent lack of brilliance).
Clearly you know that nothing bad happened. We got to the next break and I told the participants what I knew. Everybody was distressed, but no one was overly concerned about their own safety. Even though there wasn't a radio, television or newspaper anywhere, most of the people in the room already knew about it.
This experience really has had me thinking the last couple of days. All semester in the NMI we have been working on ways to use crazy powerful mobile technology to push people information they want -- about the Georgia Aquarium, the Athens Twilight, the towns they are visiting, the local bands that are playing tonight, the US Fish and Wildlife Refuges. People have a need for this information and they want to use it. But what happens when this mobile technology pushes you information that you don't know how to use or really can't even use? Don't get me wrong, I truly understand and appreciate the value of the UGA Alert system -- it can get people out of harm's way. But on Saturday, knowing what I knew because of my phone didn't help me. The only payoff from that information was the hopelessness that comes with knowledge of a horrendous situation you are powerless to change.
A few weeks ago, I was on a panel talking about social media and we considered the extended hypothetical example of Twitter coverage of a possible airplane crash. One of the panelists laid out a strategy where she would first use her phone to post information about the smoke from a field next to the airport. Then she would tweet about the ambulances racing to the runway. Finally, she would use her camera to take a picture of the broken fuselage with a hash tag of #planeCrash to let the world know the same little she did. She thought this was a tremendous example of citizen journalism informing the populace about important events. All I could think of is how I would have felt if I read her Twitter stuck in traffic on the way to pick up my son up at the airport.
Are we always better off when we are constantly informed? Was news even meant to up-to-the minute? Where does reflection, context, and analysis fit in? Hey, I am as enamored with the technology as anyone, but I am coming around to the opinion that the always-on buzz is taking a toll on our society's collective nervous system.
So on Saturday, we saw the best of times in the student projects utilizing mobile media. But that same mobile media opened a window to the worst of times in the world at large.

Tech4Turn -- see the Capstone projects -- and more!

Saturday's "Technology for the Turnaround: A Crisis Is A Terrible Thing to Waste" (http://www.mynmi.net/Tech4Turn/)was awesome. Over 150 people participated in panel discussions on the future of digital media education and the most important technologies for the future. Tons of students showed off dozens of projects. We networked. We debated. We had fun. I am still recovering -- it was a very, very long day. Soon I will push you a full report of the day. But right now I can make available a first in the history of the NMI. All of the capstone projects for this semester had a smartphone component. So if you have an iPhone, Storm, or G1, you can see the projects that students developed this semester -- and a couple from last semester.
If you text "T4T" (get it, Technology for the Turnaround) to 59925, you will receive a text message with a link to all the student projects. This capability was made possible through Vert Mobile (http://www.vertmob.com/) -- this new company was started by three NMI grads: Kevin Planovsky, Michael Lentz, and Matti Griffin. Vert Mobile worked with the NMI Capstone class to produce the mobile hub for the Georgia Aquarium this semester. Pretty cool!
More to come soon.