HippieFest 2008

Last night I attended HippieFest 2008 along with another couple of thousand aging hippies. Why an I writing about it here?

One of the groups was the Turtles of “Happy Together” fame. One of the lead singers is Mark Volman. A graduate of Valley College! In his forties, Mark started college and went all the way to earn his masters degress and taught for us in the Music Department.

I will never forget the day a couple of weeks into the semester when this “hippie guy” came to me in class to tell me he was going to have to miss the next class session because his band was playing a benefit concert.

“What’s the name of your band,” I asked.

“The Turtles.”

I then realized who he was and asked him why he was taking my class. “To become a teacher like you.” I told him I wanted to be a rock musician like him. We have stayed in touch since then.

The reason I mention this here is that we got to talk last night and he told me he the chair of the Music Business department at a small college near Nashville. He is developing courses, conducting departmental meetings and then flying off on Fridays for concerts. Interesting life huh?

But here is the point of the story, finally huh? We talked about distance learning. Three of his courses are being taught simultaneously at both his college and then sent by live video link to the University of Hawaii. A great way to get his expertise on two campus’ thousands of miles apart.

And, by the way, he had a great set.

I am off today to San Fransisco for an Etudes Facilitator Retreat. I will let you know how that goes.

Oldies but Goodies