Welcome to Gameplay / Magical Chairs
Posted January 11th, 2008 by Charles -hipbon...
As our title indicates, this space is dedicated to play: not to the hard seriousness of work, but the serious lightness of being; nor to the deliberate and willed, but to the unconscious and unpredicted; and thus to the arising of that most treasured of moments, the creative breakthrough, the aha!
Because play is not only how children — those greatest of learners — learn: it is also how masters express their mastery…
Please join me in playing some of my HipBone Games, in which ideas network as sociably as people, and vice versa..
Then first game we’ll be playing is an "ice-breaker" called Magical Chairs, which I’ll explain in following posts.
— Charles Cameron
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Let’s talk about Magical Chairs — don’t worry, this isn’t a game that eliminates you by leaving you standing while everyone ese is sitting down — in which individuals who participate will get to talk with specific others according to a secret plan I have. It’s a game, and it’s played on a board which represents chairs..
Imagine the two circles are chairs, in which you and I can sit down and introduce ourselves. My name, Charles, goes in position 1, say, and yours in position 2 — and the line between our two circles, or chairs, indicates that we should talk.
Who know what we’ll talk about? — the friend who brought us to the conference, perhaps, or where we come from, how we teach, our taste in tea or coffee, music, our politics or lack of interest therein, the ages of our children, the wisdom of our students…
And as we talk, we find slight, and then suprising similarities… slowly, we begin to know one aniother, to feel a kinship — both here in front of this board, playing this game, but also both having a story to tell about a son or daughter, Thailand or the Bronx…
And someone else come in, takes the next chair…
Hello Charles,
May I sit next to you? What a pleasure to see you again! Thank you for accepting our invitation and sharing with us your experience. The games you organized during the OSN 2005 made conversation so much more alive and fun as we savoured each others’ words, dug further into concepts trying to find connections and filtered ideas through other people’s perspectives. What I love about playing is that it allows us to go beyond duty and necessity, bringing people together through common discoveries and opening our mind to creativity.
I live in Brazil - in Sao Paulo, to be more precise - but now I am spending a month in Australia, traveling and staying with people I have met either online or f2f during the event Future of Learning in a Networked World, which took place in New Zealand in 2006 and is now being repeated in Bankgok this year. Although the vegetation, weather and landscape resemble very much the South of Brazil, the combination of people, their personal backgrounds, and how they view and react to this environment is at the same time unique and familiar.
And so we begin…
Hi Barbara, and of course, yes, please take a seat. I’m delighted to be here, and want to thank you and Nancy for so kindly inviting me.
Here’s our board, with the pair of us occupying seats 1 and 2, and a third seat open for whoever chances by next and feels like sitting down and introducing themselves…
I just moved less than a week ago from the high desert above Los Angeles to the beautiful town of Sedona, AZ, and already it feels for me too, both unique and familiar. The beauty of the place is staggering, with its red rocks and canyons — but the friendliness of the people, small town and very creative, reminds me of Ashland, Oregon, where I lived for four years almost thirty years ago.
Ok, before I get to bed, can I sit in on your left side Bee?
You know this already but most people don’t of course as this is not something easy to talk about! I need to get up early to follow a sort of class for partners of people with dementia. That’s what we thought had sadly happened to my husband for the past 14 years this fall, but lo and behold - medication helped him overcome a depression - which means he is NOT really dement. However I got the clear sign on what’s in it for me the day this may happen, or my dad or anyone else in my close reality. I want to be prepared.
One good thing is that I can work a lot from home as a free lance, and keep him with company! We share a good warm and cosy hose in a nice and a bit wild garden where the first yellow little erantis flowers are just peeping up (too early but we have had almost no winter)
And, as often as possible I can get away to meet with my grandchildren, my son and daughter and a large growing family; they all live within less that one hour from here, in Farum north of Copenhagen. I was born and raised not so far from here, as well.
May I sit an llisten to you? I´m a good listener and not so good at conversation. I´m in the hot Argentininian landscape, on holidays in the mountains. Please, keep talking, and I will listen with a broad smile.
I’m going to sit next to you, Susanne, still moved by your husband’s
story, but feeling how strong you seem to be so as to face reality with
such an active attitude.
Denmark is far away. However, I can picture those early yellow wild
flowers. I haven’t got a garden here, in the middle of Buenos Aires. I
do have a small yard. It’s getting a bit wild, too. Plants growing out
of control. Some of them are trying to block the entrance to my studio.
I don’t know whether they want to prevent me from getting in or out.
I was born in a small city, San Nicolás; I used to live in front of the
river, my mother still lives there. I’ve been living here for
more than thirty years and I still miss the river.
Oh, I was too slow to sit down… so now I see I’m sitting next to Edita.
Can I sit next to Gaby and give her some yellow wild flowers? I´m Jennifer co-moderator of this session. I´m from Buenos Aires but lived 7 years in Rio de Janeiro,Brazil.
I´m quite shy…so I think you have to start the conversation.
Oh Charles, you are now living in Sedona? Such a wonderful landscape and great energy. Incredible lightening storms!
I spent two days in Sedona back in 1998, when I took 45 teenagers (2 classes) on a 15-day bus trip around the West Coast of the USA. The rocks, the red soil, the beasts, the hot dry air, sweltering heat and blue sky are very similar to what I am experiencing now in Australia. We had a great time riding the jeeps around, listening to and enacting some of the local stories.
Where else have you lived and what memories do you have of these places and people?
Sure, Sus. So good to have you here next to me. I am glad to learn the medication helped your husband avoid dementia. My father, as you may know, is suffering from Alzheimer, which was slowed down by the different pills and vitamins but is progressing . This is a cruel disease which has destroyed his social life, memory and intellectual capacity. It is important to be prepared to better cope with this situation.
Access to the Web, social tools have surely helped people to find out more about these issues and discuss them with others. They also allow us to work at home, as you do, next to our loved ones, enjoying your home and garden.
I am away now, but sharing my experience with the whole family through Flickr and sending quick notes on Twitter to update my friends :-)
Hello everyone. I’m in Australia, it’s Monday evening, just got home from work, logging into this course for the first time. Since Bee was here I’ve been inspired to try learn to cook cos she made it look so easy. I’ve now tried 2 dishes, both truly terrible. So I’d like to sit next to whoever has brought their picnic basket with them.
rose
So I will sit next to roseg as I am in front of my PC, just about to have breakfast on this Monday morning in this part of the world - I know it is not so early for breakfast but it is summer recess and this is the time I like starting the day when I’m on holiday! ANd I know roseg wanted a picnic, this is not exactly what I have before me but there are some cookies I ‘d love to share not only with her but with everybody taking part in this game.
I live in Argentina, which is really a big country. My city is called Resistencia and it is a bout 1,000 km km from Buenos Aires. It is in the North East. I am actually very close to Brazil and the weather here is now extremely ho, evn early in the morning.
Holding a cup of tea in my left hand(typing wih the right one) I say hello to all of you and shout : CHEERS!
Can I sit next to you Alicia and share breakfast? It is a real pleasure to listen (?) to your stories.
I also live in Argentina, some 1200 kms from Alicia, such a big country! Here most of us are enjoying our summer school break, I’m trying to make good use of my free time to finish my final paper for an online course I started next year, but I find this so fascinating I keep interrupting myself in order to participate. Should be back to my paper or it will never be finished!!
So nice to share this with all of you!! Be back soon!
Hi Gladys. You’re quite far away from me in time, space, and weather! I’m Kirsten. I live in Kosovo. I just finished teaching my last class at the university today, and soon I’ll be on my winter holidays. However, at the moment, I’m imagining how good it would feel to be in Argentina wearing short-sleeves out in some warm sunshine!
Good luck in keeping your focus on your paper, Gladys! It was nice to meet you.
Hi Kirsten, may I have a seat next to you? I see we are nearly neighbours since I live in Switzerland. I also teach an English class at the university here in Lucerne, but classes don't begin for me until the end of February.
It's grey and cold here, but snow in the mountains. My boys just spent the Sunday snowboarding in the fresh snow.
Could you possibly pass one of those cookies from Alicia? I've just made myself a tea and they smell sooo good :-) Illya
Well, wow: Susanne, Edita, Gabriela, Jennifer, Rose, Alicia, Gladys, Kirsten — and someone I can only identify thus far as IClark ! And welcome to our game!
To be honest, I’m almost not sure we need the game any more, you have all jumped in so fast with such a willingness to talk that providing an "ice-breaker" game may be a little beside the point.
The last time I presented one of these games, at a conference for 700 teachers with an interest in theArctic ,
it took several days for all the chairs to fill up, and here we are with a
company of about fifty, and the entire room is filled up already…
Let me think about this. The idea of the game is to get multiple conversations going at the same time, and to get people talking with other people as specified by the board…
*
I’ll have the board posted here, with as many chairs as I have room for, and your names in them, in a few minutes…
You don’t have to do this, we’re already accomplishing the goal of the game without following any of the rules! — but the idea is for you to talk with those people whose names are linked with yours along one of the lines on the board. Not your best friend, or the person you came in with, the person next in line — but the *people* the board connects you to. That’s so we avoid only talking to people we already know.
And then I’ll set up a new room, and start a new set of conversations — because there are already more of you than can fit on one game board, in one room, and at the moment some of your are perched temporarily on the armrests of other people’s chairs…
Hang on, give me a mo — I just woke up, and here I am in a room positively crowded with people before I’ve even had time for coffee…
Hi Illya,
It’s grey and cold here in Maryland as well. I’m glad that your boys enjoy winter sports like snowboarding. Personally, although I grew up in snowy Buffalo, I prefer the weather in spring and fall when neighbors are out and about and we all get to chat.
My New Year’s resolution was to start a great exercise and dance program, but over the holidays I pulled a muslce in my leg and now can hardly manage stairs. :-( Oh well, knowing that it, hopefully, is only temporary, I’ll just have to spend more time at the computer. Ha ha!!
Maryanne
Let’s keep talking!
*
And in the meantime, I’ll set up a new room, and begin with myself and IClark talking — and if you arrive slowly enough that I can post a new board each time someone new arrives, you’ll get to see the whole series of boards, and the poems that go along with each additional chair!
As I said above, not that it matters — the conversation is rolling, which is the main thing, and if the game fell off the edge of the known universe and we didn’t notice but still kept on talking, we’d be doing what we came here for anyway!
Good morning everyone! I am stiting on a comfortable sofa in one of the graduate students' rooms at my university in Toronto. It has been snowing since the early morning which is a nice change from the grey and rainy weather we have had for a couple of days. I like snow (not too much though); it beatufies the world in many different ways. I am enjoying your conversation a lot; so many great friends gathering around.
I have a lot of interests in life, but my biggest hobby is travelling and taking photogrpahs. I just came back from the Southwest USA and, Charles, I whish I had known you live in Sedona because I spent a couple of days in Arizona. It was beautiful! I am still posting my pictures to my Flickr. My biggest dream is to go to Nepal and India one of those days. Has anybody ever travelled there?
Here’s our new board…
Illya, Maryanne, you both get to talk to me.. and our next guest can sit in seat #4 and talk to Illya and myself — Maryanne, don’t despair, your turn will come, with plenty more conversations to begin..
And remember, the idea here is to talk with someone until you have a sense of an aha! or syncrhonicity, or some other form of bonding…
We want to walk out of here a close-knit company of friends.
Hello, Charles, Bee, Susanne, hello to you all. I’m glad to find you all here. It seems so cosy in this room that I don’t mind standing at all. I can also sit on the floor if that’s OK with you. ;-)
I’m also sipping my coffee. Can I get a cookie, Alicia? They seem so delicious!
The day is drawing slowly to a close here in Slovenia but it was so bright earlier that it reminded me of spring.
Take care.
Wow…, one surprise after the other here…! First, as an Argentinian, and as along-standing Webhead, it is sheer pleasure to see how many EFL colleagues from different spots in my country have joined this wealthy well of knowledge and friends, ready to share and learn together…
Then I also feel the pleasure of meeting Bee again and learning so much from her vast experience and generosity…, and last but not least, the joy of seeing Sus around…., a once "virtual" friend who became a f2f wonderful "sightseeing partner" and much more! in Copenhagen, when I visited this incredibly beautiful city two years ago…
What a great place to meet, guys —thanks, host Charles, for the cosy welcome!!—, it’s like being home already, and yet there’s such a long and fruitful time ahead to profit from together!!
I’m giving up on arranging chairs, there are just too many conversations to have… and you’re all meeting and greeting without any need of my boards!
Sarolta, Rita — hi!
Patricia — India, yes yes! I was there in a pilgrimish sort of way back in the early sevenies, mostly up in the hill country.
I love india, loved especially the little earthenware cups of chai (tea) you could buy whenever the train stopped, drink, then dash the cup down on the tracks where it would quickly become again part of the reddish earth…
Bee — Sedona reminds me irresistabky of Ashland, OR, where I lived for four wonderful years. Creativity, spirituality, small town hospitality, landscape, wonder…
Hi Gladys, I also have to finish a paper,which I keep interrupting for blogging reasons. I´m from Rosario, but I´´m spending my holidays in Cordoba. Where areyou?
Edita
Maryanne may I sit next to you? Sorry to read that you have pulled a muscle and hope that it mends soon. Dance and exercise class what a great idea, I may just borrow your new year’s resolution.
I too prefer Spring and Autumn. Summer here in Israel is too hot and humid and winter is usually spent waiting for rain. When my kids were young the first rainfall would see us running outside to feel the raindrops and soak them up, my neighbours thought we were mad! I just put it down to being British.
Hello, Everyone in the room!
May I join in the conversation? I have just arrived from a 10 day vacation trip to Florianópolis, Santa Catarina , Brazil. Has anybody been there? It is just beautiful! All those CLEAN beaches made me wish I could live there.
So now I feel refreshed (although it is boiling hot in Rio de Janeiro now, at 7:30 pm) and ready to start this new learning experience.
There are so many people here! Some "faces" I recognize from the Webheads. I guess this is going to be really awesome!
Hi everyone, may I sit next to you Doris? I’m off for a shower and bed in a minute but wanted to look in here first. Is this where I’m supposed to be today?
I’m feeling a little bit lost, I’m missing a chalkboard on the main page listing today’s specials - something telling me what’s on offer today, where I should/could be and what I’m supposed to be doing. Or have I simply overlooked it?
Lots of names I recognise from BAW and other EVO courses from previous years, looking forward to reconnecting with you and making new friends too.
Lucy
@Charles and all,
"I’m almost not sure we need the game any more"
Oh Charles, please continue. I know it is very difficult to arrange rooms and connections on the board with this open unregulated flow of participants :-) but it would be really nice if we could go on.
Although conversation is happening, I feel it tends to be either parallel or one to one, maximum two. The rooms and board connections, as you say, encourage you to listen (read) more carefully to people whom you do not know, discover their points of interest and relating to them in more depth instead of just acknowledging their presence. We have the social, media and helpdesk fora for all other exchanges.
Bee -
PS - so in my room I relate to you/Sus/Rose/Jennifer/Gabriela and Edita, right?
Bee:
Correct! Wherever there’s a line on the board connecting two names, those two people are supposed to chat until an aha! of some kind makes them feel notably closer than when they started.
I just need to talk with you, Edita and Jen in that room.
You’re a good listener, you say, and you keep up a couple of blogs, and are currently among mountains.
I just moved to Sedona, Arizona for a few weeks, with incredible red rock formations all around me. I had been in fairly boring suburbs for a while, so this kind of backdrop is spectacular!
Hi Gabriella,
Nice to meet you :-)
Similarly to you, I do not live where I was born (Rio de Janeiro) nor where I spent my childhood (Santos) and where my parents still live.
Because of my studies and work, I had to move to the metropolis (Sao Paulo), far away from what Nature has to offer - so I long for it. Fortunately, I can escape to the countryside every WE to breathe, walk on the grass barefooted and hug trees.
Sao Paulo is crossed by two rivers, Pinheiros and Tiete, but they were long ago swallowed by the city and are enclosed between the city expressway rings. Instead of a flowing vibrant source I imagine a river can be, you can only smell stagnant pollution.
As Charles gave up arranging seats, I guess I can sit in any empty chair I find, among good old friends. I’ve been a Webhead since 2002, though not an active one.
I was born and have lived in Valencia, Venezuela. This WAS the industrial heart of Venezuela, now it holds a cemetery of closed factories!! But, when you look up, the ring of mountains that separate the city from the sea makes you think of other areas which are so beautiful and nice to visit. The mountains are part of a San Esteban National Park, where the Spaniards built a trail to come and go to the other side, where one of the Venezuelan mains ports is: Puerto Cabello. One can go camping, and in some areas you step on the same spot where the Spaniards and their horses walked.
I teach English at the Univesity of Carabobo, one of the most important ones in the country, with a vast range of influence. The School of Education has held three regional VenTESOL conventions, and one TESOL Summer Institute, in 1995. In my blog
Reading what Patricia Glogowski wrote about the weather in Canada, reminded me of the two times I’ve been to Minnesota, where my eldest son and his wife are doing their PhDs. The weather there was really something new for my husband and me, the huge amounts of snow and the very low temperatures were Mother Nature elements we have never had experience of.
You can read more about myself in http://marialbers.wordpress.com/about/
Hi Maria:
Actually, I haven’t given up altogether on placing chairs — Bee persuaded me to keep on, because the "game boards" do help people to talk with people they might not otherwise interact with. So come tomorrow morning, Arizona US time, I’ll put up another board, and by then there will probably be lots more people and I’ll be overwhelmed again!
Such is life!
A bit later in the event, I’ll be introducing my games in a different format, with ideas rather than people as the "moves". That will slow things down a bit, but also build on all the goodwill we’re accumulating here in the meantime, both in this item and elsewhere in the conference.
This is the year I hope to have a stand-alone web-playable format for my games, at which time I’ll be hoping they will prove of interest in your specialy of "Computer Technology Applied to Education"!
Rose,
I cannot believe you did not manage to reproduce the dishes I have prepared in front of you. They were pretty straightforward and easy. The missing ingredient must be me :-)
I have cooked encore at people’s places along the way. I made the leek quiche for Shaggy & family in Lithgow and a couscous, lamb chops on barbecue, ratatouille and mixed greens with pine nuts for Alex and Jane in Orange.
Now…eating the leftovers from the doggie bag I brought back from the Lebanese restaurant I went to with Robyn yesterday evening: hommus, lamb with onions and pimientos, garlic puree and chicken skewers. Tastes good - have some!
…and then I joined the conversation although I’m finding it difficult to sit as I’m aware that my presence is as a bridge is to a river….enabling others to connect and re-connect from other conversations and connections made in past time.
One such conversation is occuring at the FLNW2 camp which is a river or stream of dis-chords, connections, re-connections and brilliant singular contributions. The future of such learning is thematically renedered to quizically retrospect and intro-spect on what it means for our future and that of others seeking connection…in anetworked world.
Part of the onus on acknowledgement of others in this equestion including all the amazing people here is in knowing when and where to sit and fit….much like coffee cups in a staff room in a school…..on shelves…where visitors confuse labels, with shapes, colours and proximity to the water supply.
The difficulty is also in the determinent that we as individuals contribute by choice or in some circumstances are co-erced into contribution whether by stealth or careful social design….the Facebook invitation, the LinkedIn prompt, the ad-placements in our wikis…..
We pair and compare, group and re-group and when confident we declare networks and then we work back to "un" everything till we are seen to be individuals sitting…side by side, in circles and other social configurations.
Here is another "network" I’m part of and another older conversation that sought to connect people in pictures with less ciphers and signs - http://www.moblog.co.uk/blog/aflf
Sometimes I seek permissions to contribute and sometimes I’m ivited to speak.
May I join this conversation circle please ?
What other shapes and names may we know it as ?
:)
testing….1,2,3
Barbara wrote: I cannot believe you did not manage to reproduce the dishes I have
prepared in front of you. They were pretty straightforward and easy.
The missing ingredient must be me :-)
DEFINITELY. I can’t believe it either. I think you must be a magician - you are SUCH a great cook. Tonight I’m trying minestrone - someone please say a Hail Mary for the poor vegetables I’m torturing… (And if you never hear from me again, you’ll know what happened.)
r
PS Nice to meet you Patricia - we heard lots about you too. And speaking of torture, I think I lost 3 kilos from the constant hilarity generated by your husband in New Zealand - Konrad is the funniest man I have *ever* met - seriously. Next time you send him anywhere, it might be a good idea to issue a warning first! :-)
Edita,
Tell me more about the hot Argentinian landscape in summer and the mountains. Where are you exactly? What are these mountains like?
I was in Argentina twice.The first time as a teenager, with my parents - we went to the plains and I was amazed at these flat plains just stretched unendingly before me. The second time was much later, with my husband. We visited Buenos Aires and went shopping for shoes and leather :-) We also had some memorable bifes de chorizo with papas fritas accompanied by the excellent Argentinian wine.To end the night, we went to watch tango at El Viejo Almacen. Good memories. I wish I could visit Argentina again. It is a beautiful country with an incredible culture.
Nice to meet you too, Bee.
Metropolis swallow people here in SA, just as they swallow nature. Not all of them, though. That’s something I love about Montevideo. A big city with lots of cultural activities and with clean beaches and a clean river. The same river we have here on the other side, but polluted an surrounded by buildings. I used to love Buenos Aires when I first came here (+ than 30 years ago)
Anyway, now you are in Australia. Perhaps with plenty of grass to walk barefooted. Such a relaxing feeling.
It’s noon here, midnight there. You might be about to go to bed.
Are we still playing the game Magical Chairs? If so, I would like to sit next to Illya if she doesn’t mind.
Anyway, I would like to socialize here a bit with all of you so we know one another better.
It’s a pleasure being part of this interesting group of people from all over the world. I come from Portugal. I live in a town called Portimao which is located at the southcoast of the country. The region is called Algarve and it’s well known as a touristic destination.
I teach German to 10th graders (beginners) and to 12th graders (level 3) at Escola Secundaria Manuel Teixeira Gomes in Portimao. This year I started using blogs with my classes and it has been a positive experience with the beginners but not as much with the students of the 12th grade. If yo’d like to read why, you can read my reflections on my personal blog.
Joao Alves
Could I sit next to Joao, at least to start with. I live in Bilbao, Spain and it seems that he and me represent the Western European contingent at the moment.
I work at the British Council centre and am the ICT coordinator, the post sounds more important than it perhaps is in reality - but at least I’ve managed to set the blog ball rolling and 5 or 6 teachers here have now set them up with their classes.
Ann and Joao can I join the European group?
Very glad to speak to you all, I can’t remember all your names, not yet, but hope to deepen our knowledge in few days also thanks to this beautiful game.
The city I’m living in is L’Aquila, near the mountains, this is one of the coldest city in Italy, unfortunately for me!!!
Laura, I’m mixed up with names, too. Perhaps if our photos could appear next to our names in the forum… I’ll ask Rudolff, he seems to have the control of this kind of stuff here.
Of course you can, Laura. Nice to meet you. Are you an English teacher, too?
Hi Ann,
I am very pleased to meet a Spanish neighbour here. I hope we have a great time during the six weeks here.
Ha!
As far as the game of Magical Chairs goes, room number two has now entirely filled up, and the way the chairs are arranged actually dictates who you’re next to and who you should be talking with — the idea is precisely that you can’t and shouldn’t talk to the people you already know, and the game board is designed in such a way that you’ll wind up talking with people you don’t necessarily know.
Here’s how it works:
You talk to the people whose names are in circles ("chairs") connected with yours along the board lines.
So Susan, in position 6 for instance, needs to talk to me (Charles) in 2, rita in 5, Doris in 7, Lucy in 8, Sarolta in 4 and Illya in 1 — but not with Maryanne in 3, since there’s no board line connecting positions 6 and 3.
But Susan had asked specifically to sit next to Maryanne…
That’s the point, that’s the game — to talk to the people you’re connected to on the board, until you feel a connection with them as people.
*
But of course, it’s just a game, and if she wishes to, Susan can talk to Maryanne anyway.
*
It’s just that for game purposes, and to make sure we meet people we haven’t met before, and don’t just talk to our best friends — we need to talk with new people.
I need to strike up a conversation with Sarolta, for instance…
We won’t all manage to be best buddies with all the people in our "room" of course, and not even with all the people we’re linked with. But as we move in that direction, we’ll expand our range of acquaintances and deepen some of them into friendships.
And that’s the point.
And so now I’ll prepare a table for Joao, Ann and Laura…
Back shortly! And in the meantime, talk talk talk …
Hi Charles,
Thanks for organising this game and adding me to the second board. I have one little question: Do I use this forum thread to chat with my roommates/designated connections or is there another place we’re supposed to use? Should we use the messaging system or create a new thread in the social forum? (Sorry if I’ve missed the obvious.)
Lucy
Jennifer, we’re not supposed to be talking to the people we know; but I’m supposed to be talking to you. What Charles doesn’t know is that I’ve heard a lot about you from Claudia. So I feel I almost know you.
Charles, thank you for this wonderful game. I find it intriguing since it is a kind of network, and yet not the kind we know. I have 3 boys and so I am an experienced player of games, and since 2 of them are well into and soon leaving puberty. They ride snowboards at the moment and I’ve been learning the lingo. Do you know the difference between a nose-turn and 180? However, I don’t do any winter sports myself. I let my boys do that.
I bet you must also have children from the way you set up the game.
Gabriela:
Ooh, that’s deliciously sneaky!
Lucy:
You didn’t miss anything — and the chat can take place here. The hubbub will probably be overwhelming, but not to worry — the main thing is for us to be talking!
Sarolta, before I head for bed, I’d like to say hello to you. I was gone the whole day and came back to find myself sitting next to you. I think I read somewhere that you are from Slowenia. And I’m living in Switzerland, not too far away from you. But I’m originially from the United States. I hope I’ll find out more about you :-)
Here we go:
All you arm-of-the-chair perchers can have chairs of your own now — and perch cookies and coffee no less precariously on the arms of your chairs!
I got here late and wow! a room full of people!
I guess I have to find the coffee pot. Where do I sit???
I
registered late because I forgot the EVO started this week. I’ve seen
the names of a lot of people I know and even more I don’t.
I’m in beautiful Mexico City. I’m a free lance writer and full time grandmother…who is awaiting an outbreak of chicken pox.
JoAnn Miller
Mexico City
Do you like Córdoba Edita? I´ve been to Córdoba for the first time last December because I was invited by Fundación Evolución to attend Educatec.
I bought some "alfajores" so please serve yourself and share them with the rest.
Gaby that was our big secret!! I also heard about you through a friend. Do you live in downtown? I work there three times a week.
Uhmmm these alfajores are great try one please.
Alright, I am looking forward to seeing my connections in the game. I can speak to almost anyone since I only know Bee, Illya and Dennis here.
Joao
Hi Illya, in spite of being already in the board (which I hadn’t noticed before) sitting next to people I should be talking to, I am glad that you talked to me again. I have lived for 5 years in Germany when I was a boy, I went to school there. Then I came back to Portugal and studied German and English at the universiy in Lisbon. When I finished, I became a teacher of both languages. But I have been teaching more German than English in past 9 years.
Hi Laura, I see you live right in the middle of Italy. That’s certainly one reason for it to be so cold there. I live near the sea, just 3 km away from it, so it’s not as cold here. Besides, this is the south, Algarve, where the weather is much better than in the north.
I like your country very much. I drove once to Italy and visited a few places. The best way to know a place is driving by car. I love that. I was impressed by the countryside, by the pasta and pizza and by clothes and shoes. I am fond of nice shoes and you have the most beautiful shoes I know.
Hi Bdieu! I´m in Cordoba spending my holidays. The whole family around! I´m enjoying the hills, which are not very high hills. The highiest mountains are further to the west. I live in Rosario, in the flat plain asyou say, so being here is magical. My routine: swimming pool to fight hot weather, mates under olive trees, and SMielt when I can get the computer! As I told you the whole family is here, so we struggle for computer time. Thank you for your interest!
Edita
Hi Charles! I picture a rocky landscape around you! I ´m in Cordoba among hills and olive trees. It´s a very fertile valley where organic olive oil is produced. Every morinig I enjoy home-made bread, with honey. As all my famiy is around I struggle for some computer time in the afternoons. Tell me a bit more about those red rocks.
Edita
Yes, it WAS a secret, but Charles overheard our conversation. I live in Almagro. I work downtown too. Not right now.
mmm..I love alfajores cordobeses.
Edita;
Am I right in thinking the Cordoba cathedral was built in the middle of a mosque, with its roof sprouting above the mosque roof?
I am deeply concerned by conflicts over religious space, whether in Jerusalem, Ayodhya (India) or Cordoba, and understand the passionate feelings on both sides. What are we to do when people of diverse faiths are so sure of a divine mandate supporting their side in such a conflict?
But that’s perhaps a conversation for another day…
I’m not at all sure where we are at with this current table, but I would like to join in. Am I in seat #5? It hardly seems fair since I already know Charles. But I am sure there are some connections that we are unaware of, too.
Laura, I’ve just checked your Wikepedia link on L’Aquila and the description of it makes it sound lovely. Is it a good place to live in or perhaps better just to visit?
(I’m not sure whether this comment will sound a non-sequitar in the genral conversation flow, I was hoping it would appear as a reply to yours but have just seen that it gets stacked at the end)
Hi Joao, I’ve just read up on your link to the Algarve - more hours of sun than California - makes me feel very envious on a cold, wet, windy day in Bilbao
Charles, I’ve just checked your profile to give me an idea of how to kick off a conversation with you but there’s nothing there, so here’s a comment on the game. I’m afraid it’s making me a bit dizzy, reminding me of the mounting anxiety I had as a kid when playing musical chairs, and not being to insert a reply following the original comment doesn’t help the conversation flow.
Joao, I wave to you now over the many heads of people that have come between us. You are the second portugese I know who also speaks german, and I still can’t say more than Beijos :-) I’m sure you know the other person!
Hi Susan
I just realized that you are also a neighbor and I haven’t said hello yet. How rude of me. I am also wondering if you are the same Susan that I met last year on Open webpublishing.
This would certainly be a pleasant meet again. Would you like a cup of tea? I have a piping hot one for cold days. Or I’d gladly run over and get you a frothy cappucino :-)
Hi Illya, yes, I do. She was with us at Knowplace, right?
You can’t say much in Portuguese but at least you know a very nice word. :)
Beijos,
Joao
Hi Ann, yes, we have a lot of sunshine here although at the moment we have more a grey sky than sunshine. But we also need rain which is usually scarce here. Good that it has already rained quite a lot this year.
joao
Hi, actually I have been teaching Italian to foreigners for many years, I have worked in different Italian universities and I have always had multicultural classes and this is a big resourse to work with, I believe :-)
Hi ann and Joao
yes L’Aquila is a very nice place but if I could choose I would prefer a bigger Italian city to live in, I was born in Rome and attended there all the schools so when I moved to L’Aquila it was quite shocking!
If you have chance to visit Italy it’s good to have a car, as Joao did, and visit all the "art cities", my favourite is Siena in Tuscany, beautiful city and wonderful surroundings, the best landscapes I’ve ever seen in my life (but I didn’t tavel so much!!)
I visited Portugal 15 years ago (Lisbon, Cintra, Evora, Coimbra) to practice my Portuguese and I also went to Spain: I like your countries!
Joao you teach at high school, aren’t you? and Ann where are you working at the moment?
see you soon, Laura
Rose and Susanne, I cannot find you. Are you still sitting next to me?
I’ll be away till tomorow night. Hope to see you when I come back.
All of you have a good day!!
According to the chart, I (Maria) have to talk to Doris, Alexander, Lucy and Sarolta, is that right?
If so, in my blog at Wordpress http://marialbers.wordpress.com/about/, you’ll find some information that will tell who I am.
Sarolta, Doris, Lucy and Alexander,
It’s nice to sit near you!!
Though Sarolta is in a very far country (Slovenia), I feel that our friendship is going to be like the day you mentioned: bright.
Doris, who lives in Brazil (I infere from her writing), shares with me the beautiful beaches each of us has in her country. Venezuela is really well known for her beaches, and national parks like Morrocoy and Los Roques.
Lucy and Alexander, I hope you can give more information about yourselves so we can start talking.
Greetings from a very sunny and cool Valencia, Venezuela,
Maria Irene
Hi, Edita!
sorry for taking some time to answer! my unfinished paper plus power cuts keep delaying me!! I’m in Escobar where I live enjoying my holidays. I usually say that I like to spend my holidays in a place I love and seldom have time to enjoy throughout the year: my house!
What is your paper about?
Gladys Ledwith
Hello Friends,
I’m sorry to be late but why not to add a sit for me between Charles and Maryanne? In this place I could talk with Rita and Susa too!
Misy
@Rose. I believe that you lost some weight due to Konrad’s hilarity. He can be funny… :)
Hi Ann:
Okay, thanks, I’ve fixed that!
Ethnology would appear to be something we have a common interest in. I spent some time with a Lakota (Sioux) shaman named Wallace Black Elk a while back, and co-taught some anthro classes with him and a professor friend, in the very lovely surroundings of Ashland, Oregon. Wallace built and ran "sweat lodges" for the students, and instructed them in the Lakota way of viewing the world.
Heh, the game is making me dizzy too — this version, where the moves are people and the intended result is a deepening of acquaintance into affection and possibly friendship, is really a variant of the game as I designed it, which we’ll play later on, I came up with the variant as a way to "break the ice" — and you guys don’t seem to have any ice, you’re all talking like wildfire already!
So don’t feel dizzy, the cionversation here is bound to veer in a thousand directions just because we’re all talkative and there’s one thread to talk in — don’t worry about the game, just keep on keeping on!
Hi Laura, yes, I teach at a high school in Portimao, a town in the south of the country, as I explained earlier. I teach German to two classes. Students are between 16 and 18 years old. They start learning German as a third language after English and French or Spanish. French is taught less and less, at least here in the south. And there are few students for German, too. We have only one class in each grade this year.
Do you speak Portuguese?
Joao
Hi Gladys! I ´m also suffering power cuts! My paper is about visual literacy and a metalanguage to talk about visual texts. I´m stuck at the conclusion. What about yours?
Hi Charles! You are probably right about Cordoba cathedral in Spain. I´m in Cordoba province in Argentina. About the religious conflicts I´m so concerned as you are. What are we to do? What a question! Build Peace in our own environments, listen to each other, share…
Thank you for the time you spend sharing your knowledge
Edita
Hi Sarolta,
Nice to see you’re close by, I’m in Munich. A local wine bar used to serve delicious Slovenian white wine and home-cooked Slovenian specialities, mostly soups and stews but sometimes that funny white strudel thing with quark inside, I think it was called strookly.
I’ve never been to Slovenia but it sounds lovely.
Lucy
Hi Susant,
Just spent ages playing around with Ning after reading your post on the wayfarer forum.
I like all the seasons here in Europe, but winter lasts rather too long. Been very mild so far though, not much snow, is that global warming?
Lucy
Dear Maria,
You mentioning the weather in Minnesota reminds me of the Laura Ingalls Wilder story where she describes her father following a rope from the house to the woodpile and back to stop him from getting lost in the blizzard. I can’t really imagine blizzards like that.
Lucy
Dear Doris,
Just looked up Florianopolis and it looks lovely.
Never been to Brazil but a friend of mine has recently made a film to show how Brazilians are rich but don’t know how to have fun and that Germans are poor but happy party animals. A difficult theory to prove you may think.
Lucy
I would like to sit between Ann and Charles.
Hola, Ann in Bilbao, in Euskadi land! and Hola, Charles. Thanks for this new game for me.
I am french but living in Colombia since 1971. And excuse my poor english. And my blog is in spanish!…
If I can be of any help…let me know
Just entering the room and feel like I am among friends already. You are all doing such interesting things and live in incredible places. I am settled in central Pennsylvania, USA, but unsettled as a high school librarian. I spent most of my adult life as a full-time mom and part-time librarian. We moved here so that my husband could teach (religion at Juniata College).
My school is very small, rural and conservative - we have no ESL students. I am trying to teach students to be information literate, but seem to run into administrative roadblocks at each turn. Yesterday I found out that a student with special needs was reading a "graphic" graphic novel that I had just picked up at the ALA Midwinter confernce in Philly. Today, the book was in the principal’s office open to the scene with frontal nudity and th f*** word. Tomorrow I am sure he will want to talk to me!
Sorry to begin with sample of my problems at school, but, like I said, I feel like I am among friends.
On the bright side, I have three incredible children (20, 18 and 13) and a supportive husband.
Thanks for listening - Sarah
Hi Sarah! What a "graphic example" of the kind of problems you face. The same we face here in Argentina. It´s good to share, because sometimes (many times) we teachers feel lonely, don´t we? It seems the web is here to help us more than staff room does.
I also have a supportive husband, but my three children are much younger than yours (14,10,6), so imagine how demandingn they can become when I sit at the computer.
A pleasure to meet you.
Edita
Nor can I. Especially not in the middle of summer as we are currently in Auckland, with fans and cold drinks the order of the day. I always found that LIW story fascinating too because the blizzard and rope and all seemed so unreal. Even in winter, we never get snow, let alone blizzards.
So here I am social networking in a Magical Chair game - talking about the weather! Hmmmm…
Nice to chat to another LIW reader Lucy.
Karen
Am I too late? Have the chairs been pushed apart and everyone dispersed? Can you find a seat for me/
I thought I was talking to Lucy but it turned out I must have replied just to her. Whoops.
Karen
Yes Joao, I speak Portuguese or I’d better say I used to!
Actually I graduated with a dissertation about J.G. Rosa and I love Portuguese language, unfortunately I don’t have many chances to practice so…
But I will try to post something in Portuguese too in my own blog, I decided to let my blog be in different languages, mainly in English but there will be something in Italian and hopefully in Spanish too!
See you soon online!
Hi Laura, it’s nice to know that you love the Portuguese language. I don’t know many people who can speak Portguese. Actually, I don’t know anyone. I am glad to know that you can speack my mother tongue. If you need help in anything just let me know.
I know the writer and poet Antonio Ramos Rosa but J. G. Rosa I don’t think I do. Who is it? What’s his full name?
Hope to read from you soon.
Joao
Hi jchaupart,
Have to admit that although I speak Spanish I know few words in Euskera. Unfortunately here the issue of language creates big divides. Saw that you work at Universidad Industrial de Santander so we have a link there, Santander is just an hour’s drive away from Bilbao along the coast! You mention your blog so I thought you might be interested in El Tinglado which won an Edublog award this year.
Hi Laura,
I work in Bilbao splitting my time between teaching English, teacher training (mainly ICT see my blog) and developing eduactional web resources. As you can imagine, not always easy to leave time for myself.
Hi Charles,
Think I could probably do with talking to Wallace and learning about the Lakota way of viewing the world. Like many people who have created for themselves an over-busy life I’ve lost the art of spending time socialising!
Hola Ann,
thanks for your message. Santander, here, is the name of a Department (north east Colombia)…and the name comes from one of the Generals Francisco de Paula Santander who tried to give freedom at the beginning of the XIX century.
I know Santander near Bilbao with the very beautiful Altamira’s cave (I had the chance to visit the cave long time ago when I spent 2 years in Madrid as a student!…)
And of course I know EL TINGLADO, a very interesting blog (the only one in spanish with an Edublog award). There is the reference I wrote in my blog on 03/01/2008 : "Y podemos aprender sobre blogs visitando blogs de profesores y de estudiantes. He aquí la dirección de un blog de aula español - EL TINGLADO - que ganó el premio EDUBLOG AWARDS 2007"
Cordial saludo para usted y demás colegas
Jean Michel Chaupart, Bucaramanga, Colombia
Hi Karen,
Yeah, I got to know Laura Ingalls Wilder books when I read them to my eldest daughter about 15 years ago, recently I read them to the little ones who are now 6 and 8. They love being read to before they go to sleep and there’s the added bonus that I get to censor out the racist bits.
I had a lovely holiday on the south Island a couple of years ago, visiting relatives and "tramping" the Queen Charlotte Track.
Lucy
Poor you Sarah! Hope you don’t get into trouble (and hope you don’t have a sleepless night worrying about it).
Hi Everybody!
Sorry for the delay. I know i have arrived a bit late but I would like to take a seat anyway, if you don’t mind. I have just arrived from my holidays in Cordoba and I’m from Buenos Aires. I have been to a small town called San Marcos Sierras. It is beautiful. I had an excellent time and I rested a lot surrounded by nature and listening to the silenc. Tomorrow I’m travelling to Mar del Plata but i’ll try to do my best to particpate in this course.
Nice to meet you all.
Sabrina
Hi Everyone!
Can I pull up a chair next to you Sabrina, before you rush off to Mar del Plata? My friend just returned to the States after having lived in that very city in Argentina for some months.
But anyway, I am in Japan and Monday is our last day of the academic year here, so in a few weeks I’ll be heading back to the US for a visit. I can’t wait to see some dear friends who I haven’t seen in some time. I hope that we’ll be able to exchange some photos of our travels via our Flickr accounts. It would be nice to see the beautiful places you spoke of, although I’m afraid my hometown is not as picturesque!
See you all soon!
Hi Laura! I´m also thinking about posting in English and Spanish. I think it opens a different space for students and teachers. I want my blog to feel like a friendly space where people can exchange and leave fear aside. Now that I´ve read you do it I wll set it as a goal for my year.
Thank you for sharing
Hi Mary! Great idea to share our photos in Flickr. I have an account there but haven´t used it for a year. Your comment gives me the motivation to do it now. I´ll upload the photos of a beautiful small village where I´m spending my holidays while learning with the help of you all.
Thank you
I think uploading our photos to flickr is a great idea. I’ll do it as soon as I come back.
Sabrina
Here I am, hoping we’ll all talk, and almost completely out of words myself. You make me breathless, you lot.
You can see an image of the extraordinary Mezquita in Cordoba, Spain, at:
http://marksquires.com/Images_Photos/mezroof.jpg
What you’re seeing here is a cathedral built right in the middle of a mosque, pushing up through its roof. That photo is a sort of snapshot of the strife between religions that is troubling us so much these days, caught in a kind of freeze-frame that allows us to look at it as a static symbol rather than an interactive process: we can look at the picture and meditate on the problem, rather than feeling caught up in it.
Hi Joao!
the full name of the author is Joao Guimaraes Rosa and my study was about his novel Grande Sertao: Veredas, it has been an experimental work in which I analysed the element "water", its occurrences along the novel, linguistic issues related to it and different meanings, I know it may seem quite strange but the novel itself is so unusual!
Anyway, I do like some Portuguese writers, when I was younger my favourite (among the ones I knew) was Fernando Namora.
One question for you: do you have a blog in Portuguese too?
Have a nice weekend :-) see you soon!
Edita, sorry to interrupt your conversation with Laura.
When I started to write about my experience in the web, I opened a blog in Spanish, so as to be in touch with other teachers here in Arg, I was a great decision.
Hi Gabriela! I´m at edubloggerargento, a community where I share with Argentinian teachers of all levels and subjects. Was your blog only for teachers of English? How did it work?
Hi Laura, João Guimarães Rosa is a Brazilian writer as I saw in wikipedia. Your work sounds interesting. It must have been quite a challenge to analyse the element "water" in the novel.
I have never read anything about Fernando Namora. I read Eça de Queiroz, Gil Vicente, Almeida Garret and Fernando Pessoa.
No, I don’t have a blog in Portuguese. You can write me an email in Portuguese if you like. Just go to my profile, choose "Contact" and write your mail.
I wish you a nice week.
Look forward to reading from you.
Hi Edita,
I first started to blog in English for my students and then I needed to find some kind of order for my thoughts so I decided to write about my experience. At that moment I was mostly reading edublogs in English and had just started to discover edublogs in Spanish.
I wanted to write about education in general and if I wrote in English I felt I would automatically exclude other teachers here in Arg, so I chose Spanish. I was great because I started to make contact not only with teachers from Arg but from Latin América and Spain, I made really great connections.
I know the Argento Ning. I belong to too many communities and I don’t have much time to participate. I really don’t see the point of a Social Netwok defined by territory when the topics discussed there are general and could be discussed in more open communites such as Classroo2.0 or EdubloggerWorld. What do you think?
My blog in Spanish
http://andamiada.blogspot.com/
My blog for my students
http://takeitfurther.blogspot.com/
Hi Edita:
My paper has to do with how teacher’s talk influences motivation. You are way ahead of me, I’m still half way through! I took an online course in Flacso throughout 2007 where they use Moodle’s platform. The course was very interesting and using Moodle was very nice, we could fin all our classes and materials there. My deadline is Feb 7th so I need to work fast!
Gladys Ledwith
@Mary and others. I have been reading your interesting exchanges and decided to jump in. Mary, I think we are also friends on Facebook? Your travels and adventures sound really exciting - I wanted to share mine. I just came back from a trip to the SouthWest USA and posted all my pics on Flickr. I would love to see yours - You need to add me to your friends/contact list. Mary, where are you in Japan?
Hi Patricia,
Your pictures of your trip to the SouthWest USA are amazing! Thanks for sharing them. I will add some more pictures to my Flickr account during this session; for now, I keep most of my pictures of daily life and domestic travels on a very simple personal blog I set up on Yahoo 360 to keep my family up-to-date on my young daughter’s activities after we moved to Japan. We are in Hirakata,