Wednesday, April 19, 2006

The Veronica's.....


The Veronicas April 2006
Originally uploaded by Steven Parker.


Last night I scored free! backstage passes to meet and see ‘THE VERONICAS!’ live at the Metro, thanks to my girlfriend, Belinda. Ha! Yes don’t laugh they rocked!!! (for all the size of them).


I've put up a video of the crowd from the concert.... can you spot me?! surrounded by 100’s of teenagers, average age of 14! As soon as The Veronica's came on stage, on and up went around 100 mobile phones to snap 'n send photos of posterity, though it mainly appeared to be for the videoing of the concert (my girlfriend included). Half way through the gig there was some audience commotion, when Lisa (one of the Veronica's) posed questions to the audience..... ‘Who has a mobile phone!?', followed by 'Who’s on MYSPACE?’. The crowd overwhelmingly screamed back "Yaahhh!!" with 100’s of mobile phones aloft!! …

I was amazed at the crowd’s response, there seemingly felt an awareness in the crowd of a sense of connection and community. 'MYSPACE' is an online community where you can blog, email, post to groups and find out what's going on in your local area/country. Check out The Veronica's MYSPACE.

Based on crowds the reaction, technology is cool, the in thing to be 'hooked up to', is now very well mainstream.

When looking around, it struck me HOW MUCH the mobile phone was part of their concert experience, and mine. As we have ability to take photo and video with our mobiles, people are more easily willing to display their captured images and share their experiences with the world/others/groups/friends/strangers. Right now this is done by blogging (eg: blogspot, myspace) and photosharing (eg: flickr). Where tomorrow?

One could see that as more people (at a younger age) move to embrace this new way of experimenting with technology to 'make a connection', and with the rapid development of these Web2.0 technologies the need for mainstream teachers (primary through to tertiary) to be aware and get involved to understand it's application to utilise in pedagogy is NOW.

Encourage Blogging with your colleagues and students! ... to share views, joke, upload pictures (flickr)... of Easter break, family, friends, The Veronica's concert! or even linking to something fun. This is a valid Professional Development strategy to encourage teachers to put the time into aspects of 'networked learning'. This is just as relevant for teacher realisation to engage students in their day to day lives, to complement the learning environment.

7 comments:

Stephan said...

Very interesting and relavent post given the demographic of the students in the VTE sector. Too bad that in DET NSW if you want to check out The veronicas myspace

http://groups.myspace.com/OfficialVeronicasGroup you have attempted to access has been classified as Custom Deny_NSWTAFE. ACCESS DENIED!!

Sean FitzGerald said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Sean FitzGerald said...

Sure I can see your head in the video Steven. How can I miss it when it's so big! :-)

Unknown said...

Nice post Stephen.

A great deal of what you say makes sense and IS what's going on.....at least out there in blog heaven mosh tics land.

I've burnt myself a bit doing the pioneer gigs [ http://www.moblog.co.uk/blog/mobdeadly ] and the seld identity gigs [ http://www.moblog.co.uk/blog/engageme ] and the network gigs [ http://www.moblog.co.uk/blog/aflf ] and the corporate gigs [ http://www.moblog.co.uk/blog/cli ] and the downright personal [ http://www.moblog.co.uk/blog/alexanderhayes] gig.

I've been burnt , drawn and dissected by some people , vilified by others and ostracised by students for attempting to make things 'fun' , interesting and so on. It's taken it's toll but i'm pushing on with the cause ( causality and casualities mainly at the mo.)

With a 90 % ban on mobile technologies in ANY VTE or school environment it will be a while till real world blogging, uploading and on the fly tech. meets LMS, PLE and others.

Sure there's the PDA 'bloggers' with integrated standards comliant, SCORM compliant , WC3 compliant , every stripped down compliant and linked-to-database learning occuring but I think ( correct me if I'm wrong) your refrerring to the real-world-hand-held-hip-top-bedope culture that we are all enrolled in.

Agreed.


> ".....One could see that as more people (at a younger age) move to embrace this new way of experimenting with technology to 'make a connection', and with the rapid development of these Web2.0 technologies the need for mainstream teachers (primary through to tertiary) to be aware and get involved to understand it's application to utilise in pedagogy is NOW......"

Fuggin yeh !

Rings true and s' on the move. A cool blog to read on the mobile web 2.0 exists here - http://www.al4ie.com/

Regards,

Alex Hayes

Steven Parker said...

Ha yes I do have a big head Sean.

Thanks for the moblog links Alex had a quick look, no doubt your generosity of spirit, in these projects.

I think ( correct me if I'm wrong) your refrerring to the real-world-hand-held-hip-top-bedope culture that we are all enrolled in.

---Um Yes :-) Kids using mobile phones

Really like this blog a mish mash of stuff the guys into

http://www.al4ie.com/

Leigh Blackall said...

Nice post Steven. Have forwarded it around my office. Indeed the time for teachers is NOW. Too bad there can be no teachers in NSW DET networks.

Anonymous said...

I'm beginning to think that we really don't have to do anything, in a sense, because the future will probably take care of itself.

Every person I meet under 20 has a MySpace account - this includes trades apprentices, the summer casual at David Jones, kids I know who don't own a book. The girl I met at David Jones yesterday was telling me she'd just joined a concert photography Flickr group as casually as if she was saying she'd met someone down the beach.

By the time you're boring your children with your stories of fighting for FOSS or the early 21st Century copyright/DRM wars, most of them will have been resolved by the tide of orderly and unorganised action that will - through the sheer force of common practice - hopefully have made these current issues a non-event.

roseg

PS The Veronicas are wonderful. Wish I was there.