By still using Microsoft Outlook, I am able to:

• Use the task manager, which is currently more powerful than Google’s offering
• Have the ability to create a relationship between an appointment in the calendar and Microsoft OneNote, which allows me to more easily organize and retrieve my meeting notes.

Using the GTDInbox Firefox extension allows me to:

• Add a status label, so I can more easily locate the next tasks that I need to attend to
• Add a project label, to better manage the multiple projects that I am working on.
• Add the other labels I need for my organization

Having work in the cloud, well this allows me to access my information in more locations and does not tie me to one specific system.

The process has been working so far. I am excited about the possibilities and look forward to using these tools to hopefully become more productive.

As normal, I usually spend most of my time assisting others and not taking care of my own computing needs. So today, I began my personal migration to fully embrace the cloud and move my data. I am first using Google’s email migrator and Google Calendar Synch to move my contacts, mail, and appointments into the cloud. Once that is complete, I will then be installing and using Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook so that I can still use Outlook (and hopefully continue to use the ability to create OneNote notes from appointments) and the GTDInbox Tool to better manage my inbox and tasks.

Only six more hours to upload my mail and then to clean out contacts, clean out mail, and better learn how to manage the various aspects of my life.

Once again, there will be four strands. They will be

• Getting Started
• Week in the Classroom
• Kicking it Up A Notch
• Leading the Change

Submissions for conference sessions will be kicked off next week to coincide with the NECC conference.

Today, I recieved notice that my ClustrMap was resetting. This is always a sad day, since this means that all of the dots which had represented viewers to this blog, have disappeared. Like I have learned from Tribes, I have to rebuild my tribe and audience.

I anticipate coming and sharing many of the drafts stuck in my head. I am hopeful that I will be able to let them trickle slowly, so I can rebuild my audience and tribe.

This year, eighteen students and I talked about the power of audience. Due to the rapid changes in networked technology,it has become easier now for a story to spread world wide. Because of:

• the power of connections in our social networks, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
• the ease of being able to easily publish information
• the ability to connect to these networks through a wide variety of options, including cell phones, computers,

anything we publish has a potentially larger audience than was ever able to in any point in history.

During the workshop, we watched the TED Talk by Evan Williams on the Growth of Twitter Being Driven by Unexpected Uses, how AP students created a Facebook group phenomenon last year, shown the role of Twitter and Blogs during the Mumbai attacks, and how Twitter users communicated about a potential death threat at a school.

Wanting to then demonstrate the power of our networks, we did a social experiment.  Using our social networks and connections, over a 24 hour period, we asked users to go to a web site and fill out a simple form asking for:

• Who had sent them the message
• What City, State, and Country they were in

We then asked them to pass it to members of their networks. After 24 hours, users from the following locations accessed the web page:

United States (US) - 364
Canada (CA)- 13
Australia (AU) -7
United Kingdom (GB) - 6
Hong Kong (HK) - 4
Japan (JP) - 3
Philippines (PH) - 3
China (CN) - 2
Singapore (SG) - 2
Serbia (RS) - 1
Sweden (SE) - 1
Denmark (DK) - 1
France (FR) - 1
Bermuda (BM) - 1
Thailand (TH) -1
Brazil (BR) - 1
Mexico (MX) - 1
New Zealand (NZ) - 1
Spain (ES) -1
Turkey (TR)- 1

This represents views from every continent with the exception of Africa. Amazing. From these views, individuals from the following countries actually filled out the form and participated in our experiment.

As one can see, this experiment demonstrates, in a very small way, the power of networking and communicating. We are now living in an interconnected world, where news can travel extremely quickly around the globe. The implications blow my mind.

Sorry for any misunderstanding.

I am teaching students about musical intelligence and how it is woven in the world, not teaching musicians.

My wife continues her transformation as a teacher. At breakfast, she shared the above quote with me over a great meal at our favorite breakfast restaurant. She also was excited, sharing other insights that she has gained over the last few days.

She discovered YouTube and the fact she could learn music by watching videos. This after an evening of hearing the chords of Benny and the Jets for a couple hours last night. “I have learned memorized three songs in two days.

She discovered that she can memorize patterns of letters quicker, rather than traditional music notation, more quickly.

This then led her to ask, “If there is so much music that someone can learn by simply watching a video and then playing the piano, how does this shift the role of the teacher?”

Ah, the transformation continues. She is asking the question many of us are asking. This has led us to conversations about implementing individual, passion based projects with her junior high students. Letting them learn the keyboard, but using the song they want rather than being teacher directed.

A wonderful transformation indeed.

Playing Benny and the Jets on Piano