EdVentures in Technology
teaching, learning and change
May 27, 2008 at 12:30 pm · Filed under Diigo Links
April 5, 2007 at 11:59 pm · Filed under Twitter Log
- BoSox beating the Royals 3-0 top of the 1st, yippee! #
- Remy, quit jinxing Mike Lowell !!!! B2B errors?! #
- Thinking some more about Coop – what about a mega-feed in which you can dump a number of feeds a la SuprGlu? A stream of consciousness feed! #
- Blogging about Coop #
- Kevin Youkilis with a 2 run homer, 6-1 BoSox! #
- BoSox win it 7-1 #
- Hitting the rack, probably shoveling again t’morrow. #
- Catching up on Tweets and avoiding shoveling the 18+” of snow on my deck! #
- @jutecht: Is the PSU course you are facilitating online or will you be here this summer? #
- Still shoveling! #
- Willrich is stirring the pot again – this time on the UMich degree on Social Computing – http://tinyurl.com/29ma54 #
- Snow day treat – BoSox day game with Dice-K pitching his first MLB game! #
- Twitter-blogging? #
- @davecormier: Safe travels #
- Hmm, interesting Twitter action – when I reply to a Tweet using @user, it now adds “in reply to ___” after then when posted. Twit-evolution? #
- Or am I again just now noticing the obvious? #
- Sox still up 2-1, bottom of the 7th #
- Sox win it, Dice-K gets his first MLB win – nice bullpen support! #
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March 26, 2007 at 8:33 pm · Filed under Random Thoughts, Social Software, Web 2.0
No I don’t mean porn, I mean the dark recesses of the web inhabited by those whose sense of what is right and decent has been abandoned and replaced with God knows what. It is this part of the web that makes educators cringe and lawmakers pass legislation that hurts everyone but their intended audience.
Kathy Sierra is one of my favorite reads. I’ve been inspired by and have learned so much from her blog and although I do not know her personally, her writing and passion have painted an image of her in my mind. Apparently, her writing has painted other images in the warped and twisted minds of a number of individuals who cower behind their anonymity as they post the most appalling things to a number of sites whose sole intent is to bully others. My own personal sense of decency has led me to choose not to repost the links to those sites here. It is one thing to disagree with someone, but it is something else entirely when your disagreement devolves into death threats and terrorism, as was so sadly demonstrated in Kathy’s case.
I admire Kathy for having the strength to write about her experience. I’m outraged that there are individuals who feel that it is o.k. to terrorize others. What Kathy is living through goes far beyond the pale, to the point that law enforcement is involved and legal action quite likely. To the point where she feels that her life is truly endangered. What sort of example does that set for our youth? It sure doesn’t help our efforts as educators as we attempt to break through the barriers which bar our students from active participation in the community of the web. I’d even like to treat this as a teachable moment if it weren’t for the fact that I wouldn’t willingly expose any student of mind to the viciousness and criminality of this series of events.
My thoughts are with you Kathy. You are stronger than they are. The best I can offer is the fervent belief that the best thing for us to do is to shine a great bright light on the dark side of the web and expose it for what it really is.
[tags]kathysierra, blogging, darkside[/tags]
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February 10, 2007 at 11:51 am · Filed under Random Thoughts
February 8, 2007 at 12:16 pm · Filed under Random Thoughts, ce5560
There has been a meme floating about the blogosphere for the past couple of weeks about how bloggers blog – the whys and hows for their own practice. I’ve consolidated a few of these here (which will soon be duplicated in my Diigo and del.icio.us accounts so that I can re-use the content for my summer grad course. I apologize in advance for the duplications!)
Bill Ives – Guidelines for Writing Good Learning Blogs
Wes Fryer – Developing blog post topics
Vicki Davis – Becoming a Blogging Maestro: Composing Beautiful Blog Music
Brian Grenier – How Do You Write?
Miguel Guhlin – Blogging Yin and Yang
For more blogging goodness, do a Technorati search for the tag – howdoyouwrite
It is a small but growing meme, so contribute! I’m working on my post right now.
[tags]blog, blogging, howdoyouwrite [/tags]
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January 26, 2007 at 10:12 pm · Filed under Social Software, Web 2.0
A number of folks have already blogged about the upcoming Northern Voice 2007 which runs from Thursday evening, February 22nd through Saturday, February 24th. Held at the University of British Columbia in beautiful Vancouver, Canada, this year’s conference kicks off with a spaghetti dinner and opening night party on Thursday, with Moosecamp on Friday and Northern Voice running on Saturday. The full schedule of events for Saturday has been posted.
I’ve wanted to attend Northern Voice since its inception three years ago. Many of the folks whose blogs I’ve come to know and respect have made a conscious effort to not simply be present but to participate and help shape the development of our virtual voices. Who are these voices who shape my own practice? There’s Brian Lamb, who spoke with great enthusiasm and passion for his work at a NERCOMP SIG on social software in October 2005. There’s D’Arcy Norman, who’s dogged work on Drupal and advocacy in the areas of open-source software amazes me.
Unlike so many of the corporate conferences, Northern Voice is not a commercial venture. It is built upon the work of, and remains true to, those who contribute to this community of practice. It is a grand social experience. I have to say that the thought of being surrounded by so many passionate and creative individuals is exciting, yet intimidating. I am struggling right now to find my own voice although I’ve been blogging for over a year now. It would be an amazing and enlightening experience to be able to share with and learn from this dynamic and passionate community.
[tags]northernvoice2007, blogs, blogging, ubc [/tags]
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January 22, 2007 at 10:02 pm · Filed under Random Thoughts
Development Blog › WordPress 2.1 “Ella”
Chock full of yummy goodness, WordPress has released version 2.1 of their blogging engine. Here are some of the highlights that I’m looking forward to:
- Autosave – This is probably one of the best things offered considering how many drafts I’ve lost!
- Tabbed editor – WYSIWYG to Source and back with no pop-up windows
- Privacy option – Edubloggers take note, you and your class now have even more control over access to your content!
- Spell-check – ‘Nuff said
All rolled up in an AJAX burrito for on-the-fly edits!
There is a ton more but if you want to improve future versions, jump on the Idea Board.
[tags]wordpress, blog, blogging [/tags]
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December 31, 2006 at 7:46 pm · Filed under Random Thoughts
So after wrapping up the top ten most read posts, I wanted to take some time to reflect on my favorite posts. So here they are:
- Life Altering Moments (My Encounter with Beena Raza)
It was a privilege indeed to meet such a strong and dynamic woman as Beena and I look forward to working with her in 2007.
- Blogging Frustration
I still find myself struggling with style, more specifically, identifying a writing style that reflects my thought process. But as Stephen Downes pointed out, “It is necessary to take an attitude something like, ‘It’s good enough because it’s me.’”
- The truly world-wide web, or my blog’s travellog
I am constantly amazed by our global reach.
- Gilford Middle School Web Access Report
It still amazes me that despite all of our progress, that our schools live in the dark ages when it comes to access to web-based technologies. I echo Will Richardson’s frustration that too many schools focus solely on filtering rather than on empowering our students with developmentally appropriate critical analysis and information/digital literacy skills. Sometimes I wish I were back in K-12.
- Knowledge as Legos or what I learned from my 5-yr old
From my 5-year old philosopher: Like an individual Lego block, data in isolation is essentially useless. The value of data is determined by our ability to combine and recombine it with other pieces of data in order to create a solution or solutions to any given problem/challenge.
- News from WebCT Impact
If I’d only known in July what would transpire in August, I would have had a lot more questions to ask of the gentleman I was sitting and conversing with during the keynote, Senior VP and General Counsel, Matt Small!
The last four posts all carried a common theme – what I perceive to be the growing need/demand for a virtual office. I’ve been thinking that it might make an interesting follow-up book to Will Richardson’s “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.”
- The Digital Nomad’s Toolkit
- Are Google Apps the tool of the future for higher ed?
- Teacher as Digital Nomad, Part I
- Re-visioning the online learning environment, part 1
So what will 2007 bring us? Any predictions?
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December 22, 2006 at 2:58 pm · Filed under Random Thoughts
My blogging buds often give me a hard time – they say I don’t blog often enough. I cannot disagree but I’ve been trying to figure out why.
Part of it has to do with time, but I fear that is a universal truth and one which is not unique to my situation. Recently though, I’ve come to feel that the greater reason has to do with how I think. I envy the likes of Will Richardson, Wes Fryer, Stephen Downes and company because they write either with a flow and passion that I admire, with a sense of the narrative through the use of digital storytelling to which I aspire or with a concise analytical approach that I wish I could emulate. And they make it seem so effortless to boot. By comparison, I often feel like my posts are too simplistic and as a result drag my feet on posting to my blog until I have wrought a piece which rises to my level of acceptability. If I seek to become a better blogger, then I need to understand how I think and in knowing develop a strategy which will ensure my own personal success.
I’ve come to believe that two factors are in play: 1) my unrealistic expectations and 2) the fact that my thought process is rather staccato in nature. My thoughts come to me rapid-fire, often seem unrelated and then branch out geometrically. I find myself struggling to retain some control and recollection over how they developed and how I arrived at my conclusion. I often find myself unable to sit still and speaking so quickly that folks are continually asking me to slow down. My conversation also reflects my leaps in logical progression and I often lose not only myself but the others who have come along on my conversational journey. This is particularly true for those things that I am passionate about. As you might well imagine, coupled with my tendency to “go with my gut,” this behavioral thought pattern leads to quite a bit of frustration!
Where others cogitate, I perceive. In one of my graduate courses, Theories of Learning & Cognitive Development, there was a rather heated discussion between the professor and the members of the class when someone used the term “feel” when they were tallking about something they believed. The professor held that it was impossible for one to “feel” a thought and did not allow the term to be used in our discussions. While technically that may be true, I find that I rely heavily upon my intuition to guide my actions and as a result often use the term “feel” instead of “believe” to reflect my intuitive thought processes. So heavy a reliance upon my intuitive and perceptive nature may contribute to this A.D.D. of the mind. Upon reflection, I ought to find some exercises which will force me to use different cognitive processes to develop my thoughts.
I still do not entirely understand myself but then again, like this post, I am a work in progress! To my blogging audience, I thank you for your patience and I will strive to post more in the upcoming year (with New Year’s coming up, this might make a great resolution – again). And to my own inner critic -
“Shut up and let me think in peace!”
For those with advice on overcoming my blogging writer’s block, your comments are most welcome!
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