Arrived at Taipei airport and got through immigration and customs quite quickly. I was received at the airport by Waiway Lin, a doctoral student at the Graduate School of Curriculum and Instruction at the National Taipei University of Education.
It appears that she (and others in their graduate program) have read Matt’s and my work and have had some interesting discussions. It appears that some of her fellow students do not think that TPACK is a different kind of knowledge. This is the same old argument, that Matt and I have heard multiple times—that all that gets subsumed under Pedagogy. I noticed that she had a GPS system in her car, and I pointed out to her that having that little box fundamentally changes how we drive. So yes, it is still driving knowledge but of a different kind, brought about by a new technology. I should remember to use this example in my talks. Maybe even tie it in with the discussion we have of Mechanical, Meaningful and Generative and how the GPS unit acts as a cognitive amplifier or tool. I hope I have the internets in the hotel I am staying at – ‘cos I need to work on my talks. I give 3 talks in 2 days, which means I have to be prepared today!
She also said that I looked younger than what she had imagined me to be (from my photograph). So I asked her how old she thought I was, and she flattered me by saying 30! As if!!! How diplomatic. She had guessed my age correctly from the photograph though. What can I say, my photographs do not do me justice ?
Finally, I saw a funny sign at the car park of the National High Speed Rail terminus, something along the lines of “Kiss and Drive” written in English and its equivalent in Chinese. I asked Waiway what that means and she said it means drop and go. I NEEDED to take a picture of that but when I pulled out my camera it didn’t work.
Sadly the battery of my camera is dead, and I think I left my charger back in Delhi in Hartosh’s apartment. Arghhh… I feel horrible about this lapse on my part, because it means that I can’t take any more pictures. I do have my tiny Sony Cybershot, but that is a just a terrible camera that I don’t know whether I have the heart to use it. Maybe that is all I will have to work with. We shall see…
Lots more to write but it will have to wait until tomorrow…
It is now in your msu mail account now with a bunch of other pictures I (or we) took.
Please send me that picture since I didn’t even see it the second time around. Most probably my only regret of my visit to Taiwan 🙂
Last night, back to Kaohsiung from Taipei, I noticed the kiss and ride sign. I was not even aware of the sign before you mentioned that. I took a picture of that sign (Did you catch that later on? Or I could share the picture with you).