In the wake of Apple’s education event everyone is talking about the implications of the new technological possibilities for the future of learning. Yet, the revolutionary developments outside of Apple’s world of strangling license agreements and shiny but expensive hardware are generally overlooked. iTunes U is only a relatively limited extension of what has been around for about a decade now: open content. Even after the update Apple’s offerings are neither interactive, nor social. Open education thought-leader David Wiley, however, was right when he pointed out: ”If you didn’t need human interaction and someone to answer your questions, then the library would never have evolved into the university.”

Hannes Klöpper, co-founder of iversity.org

On Altweiber, one of Fastnacht's kick-off events, people in Mainz gather in front of city hall to celebrate. Photo (c) Click Clack Gorilla

Today in Mainz’s city center stands and stages are being set up and decked out with fans of blue, white, red, and yellow while in front of the Rathaus (city hall) a few blocks away a huge crowd has gathered.  Music blares from a large stage set up next to the Fastnachtsbrunnen (the carnival fountain) and is surrounded by people dressed as clowns, bumblebees, witches, animals, and just about anything and everything you could imagine.  (I even saw one woman dressed up as the city’s cathedral.)  Most have a beer in hand, bright colors abound, and everyone is singing along to the music being played onstage.  Welcome to Altweiber or Weiberfasching, one of the kick off celebrations during the Mainzer Fastnacht (pronounced in the local dialect as “meenzer fassenacht”).  And today, if you happen to be a woman, you’re welcome to run around with a pair of scissors cutting off people’s ties.

Löwenzahn, or "dandelion" in English, is one popular German children's show. Photo (cc) flickr user Anja Jonsson

So you’ve moved to Germany.  It took you a while, but you mastered the language.  You understand all the words that your friends are saying, but you still have a lot to learn: because you didn’t grow up in Germany, you don’t have a clue when people start talking pop culture references or reminiscing about the shows they watched when they were kids.  It is a cultural currency all its own, and it’s worth spending some time re-living the German childhood you never had in the name of understanding.

This blogger hearts the Deutsche Bahn. Photo (cc) flickr user Train Chartering and Private Rail Cars

Everyone in Germany, it seems, likes to complain about the trains.  A train will be five, ten minutes late, and you know that at least a dozen people somewhere are muttering (loudly) under their breath about how intolerably unreliable the Deutsche Bahn is.  But I am an American, and frankly, the tendency to be disappointed in the state of the German public transportation system is a cultural tick that I will never understand.  The people grumbling about the delays have obviously never ridden Amtrak or Greyhound.