Oklahoma Digital Learning Team - 2007 Hawaii blog

I do not think I’ve ever taken 247 pictures in a single day. Until today.I have enough videotape, audio recordings, and digital photos to probably work two to three days straight and still not fully document what we experienced today at Pearl Harbor and in Honolulu. Instead of working on that documentary process this evening, after a long day, I am settling for posting these images as a new photo set on Flickr (adding to the collection I’ve started for this entire Oklahoma Digital Learning Project - 2007 Hawaii adventure) and writing this blog post.Our day started early with the high school students in Navy Junior ROTC at Claremore High School, Oklahoma, who had spent the night on the USS Missouri. As you may know, the USS Missouri is the ship on which the Japanese surrendered in September 1945 to the United States in Tokyo harbor. The USS Missouri now sits moored in Pearl Harbor, right next to the spot occupied by the USS Oklahoma during the Japanese attack of December 7, 1941, which brought the United States into “The War.” I thought our experiences the previous day touring Ford Island, touching a remnant of the USS Oklahoma’s mast, seeing the USS Utah Memorial, along with other things would be the highlight of our trip. I was wrong.Standing on the deck of the USS Missouri this morning, hearing the docent re-enact the speech of General Douglas MacArthur and others at the surrender of the Empire of Japan in September 1945… (which I recorded in its entirety and will share later as an audio podcast, of course)… was quite overwhelming. We could see the memorial for the USS Arizona, which represents the starting of World War II, and were standing on the deck of the ship where World War II ended in the Pacific theater. It was a powerful and emotional event, and one which I will never forget as long as I live.After that experience, we spent three hours in the late morning and early afternoon at the amazing Punahou school in downtown Honolulu, which has been on a one to one learning adventure for the past eight years with students in grades four through eight. The opportunity to spend time with teachers and administrative leaders of Punahou was thanks to Chris Watson and a connection we made several weeks ago via Twitter. The connections possible now in our wired world are amazing. Much more to come on that visit and the instructive story of Punahou’s educator leaders on the topics of instructional transformation and one to one learning.The day concluded with a three hour adventure touring Pearl Harbor by boat with about 75 other people, including seven military survivors of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Three of those men were aboard the USS Oklahoma at the time of its attack, and are pictured here with the current commander of US Naval Station Pearl Harbor on the USS Arizona Memorial.I took many photos I think will be worth sharing and remembering, but this one is certainly one of the best. This is a reflection of a Navy sailor saluting the memorial to the USS Oklahoma, on Ford Island, Pearl Harbor:Powerful. Amazing. Emotional. Priceless. Words are inadequate to convey what these moments meant, and how precious it was to be included in the small group of people who spent several hours together on the blue waters of Pearl Harbor this evening, remembering the events of December 7, 1941, as well as the many sacrifices which followed that dark day in United States history.I will share more in the days and weeks ahead but for now, I’ll stop with those words and these 247 images posted to Flickr.At several times during the past three days, I have experienced a surge of pride in my heart and in my soul for our nation, the men and women who have served our country in the armed forces, and those who continue to serve her today. It is an amazing and remarkable privilege to be here in Hawaii and at Pearl Harbor to both experience and share the events taking place here this week.If you can, please plan to join us tomorrow for our live videoconference and webcast at 2 pm US Central time, from Ford Island in Honolulu, Hawaii. The link to the webcast will be available on the Educator’s portal of the Oklahoma World War II Stories project website. (This is the direct link, which will be active during this 1.5 hour videoconference and webcast.)
Technorati Tags:worldwarii, hawaii, navy, pearlharbor, ussmissouri, missouri, arizona, ussarizona, history, oklahoma, ussoklahoma

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Student in Junior ROTC at Claremore High School in Claremore, Oklahoma, are visiting Pearl Harbor this week and will be providing the colorguard for Friday’s dedication ceremony of the USS Oklahoma Memorial. This video podcast features interviews with several of the high school students about their experiences and learning opportunities on this trip to date.Click here to listen to and watch this video podcast. 

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This video podcast includes some footage from the location of our upcoming December 6, 2007, videoconference about Pearl Harbor and the dedication of the USS Oklahoma Memorial. It also includes footage of the nearly complete memorial, now located adjacent to the mooring location of the USS Missouri. Click here to listen to and watch this video podcast. 

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I have posted a new VoiceThread including narrated images taken today on December 3, 2007, on Ford Island in the center of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.Visit our project blog on okwwii.wetpaint.com for information about how you can view as well as participate in our live videoconferences and webcasts this coming Thursday and Friday from Ford Island, as the USS Oklahoma Memorial is dedicated.If you have feedback or comments on any of the ideas shared in this VoiceThread, feel free to share them directly as comments within the VoiceThread or as comments to this blog post.More photographs from Ford Island today are available in this Flickr set.- Wesley Fryer 

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Good morning from Honolulu, Hawaii! It is 7:40 am here, and 11:40 am back in Oklahoma. These are some initial photos taken from my hotel balcony, looking east toward the mountains that are adjacent to the Waikiki beach hotel area.

Waikiki is the busiest and “tourist filled” area on Oahau, which is the island we are visiting in Hawaii for our 2007 Oklahoma Digital Learning Project. We are staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village hotel, which is the “official hotel” of the events surrounding the dedication of the U.S.S. Oklahoma Memorial on Friday. If you click “Hilton iMap” on the previous link, you can see a 3D tour of this amazing and huge hotel. This is definitely the nicest hotel in which I have ever stayed.

I have created an interactive Google Map showing the relative location of our hotel on Waikiki and Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, where we will be traveling today to test our videoconference equipment.

View Larger Map

You should be able to link to photos from Ford Island of the U.S.S. Oklahoma Memorial from the map by clicking on the camera icon there, as well as photos from our hotel this morning. This is the direct link to the USS Oklahoma Memorial website which has photos of Ford Island. We will be adding additional photos of our own to that map link later today and this week.

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If you have a question you would like addressed in either our December 6 or December 7 live videoconferences from Pearl Harbor, please post them here as a comment to this blog entry.Students as well as teachers are also welcome to post questions, as well as offer ideas and answers, on the discussion forum section of our project wiki. - Wesley Fryer 

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We have arrived safely in Honolulu, Hawaii, after a LONG day of air travel from Oklahoma City today. I posted a short video podcast from the Oklahoma City and Minneapolis, Minnesota, airports today as three of our Oklahoma Digital Learning Team (ODLT) members traveled to the south Pacific. Use this link to view this podcast in QuickTime movie format. (Free QuickTime player software is required to view this podcast.) - Wesley Fryer 

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An update for December 2, 2007, concerning our project videoconferencing events on Dec 6 and 7 has been posted to our project wiki on: http://okwwii.wetpaint.com/page/Updates - Wesley Fryer 

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Two different videoconference and webcast events will be shared with students and teachers from Pearl Harbor on December 6 and 7, 2007. More details are available on the USS Oklahoma Memorial Dedication Digital Learning Project wiki site:

http://okwwii.wetpaint.com/page/Videoconferencing

Interested educators should submit the online registration form to participate in the Videoconferencing or webcast events as soon as possible.

- submitted by Wesley Fryer

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