I would like to thank the following people for contributing so much to my learning. I’m only nominating in categories where the impact has been powerful and potent. I’m also going to cheat and add a few ‘honourable mentions’: These may not mean much to the Edublog Awards, but they mean a lot to me, (if you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll already know that I follow my own rules that work for me in my own learning space).
I actually almost never go to Stephen Downes’ blog, as I read his daily email updates. Since his is the only daily read that I do, and since it leads me all over the web and exposes me to so many other ideas and points of view, I can’t say anyone has had more of an influence on my learning this year.
So much of what I end up sharing myself has been introduced to me via Alec Couros. He is integral to my PLN (Personal Learning Network – and – Professional Learning Network).
Honourable mention to: @SueWaters since Sue will always step up and extend a hand to anyone in her network, and @ShellTerrell – Shelly is the Queen of ReTweets, she finds gem after gem and shares them.
Bryan Jackson is a wonderfully reflective teacher and he has a fantastic job working with some of the most gifted kids in his district. This gives him a great playground for bouncing around innovative ideas and his reflective nature produces wonderful insight.
I love this caption from the blog, compliments of teacher Jan Smith: “Please notice our successes, not our mistakes. Our blog is a invitation to see what we are up to. Some of our work will be polished, and some will be in draft form. Please honour our attempts.” Jan makes student blogging a learning experience that it should be, and not just an exercise in doing old things in new ways. Don’t just visit her blog, go to her student blogs and check out what they are doing!
Honourable mention to: Clarence Fisher’s Idea Hive. I’m sure there are other classes doing work as meaningful as Jan and Clarence but in my eyes they are in a league of their own. Like Jan’s students, Clarence’s students deserve a visit and a comment.
Liz B. Davis‘ brilliant post that helps others to lead the way with teachers new to tech. A MUST READ POST!
Honourable mention to: Would You Please Block? My favourite line from this wonderful Bud Hunt post: “Students off task is not a technology problem – it’s a behavior problem.” Be sure to skim the many comments too.
Most influential tweet / series of tweets / tweet based discussion: Blogworthy Tweets
I love the opening sentence by Claudia Ceraso: “These tweets of mine need not be noteworthy, except that I want to make a note of them. To make sure they do not vanish in cyberspace. They deserve a spot in this personal learning scenario.” What strikes me with this post is the realization that some of these less-than-140-character thoughts are deserving of more thoughts and discussion. These are not truly a series of tweets but I have a bias in that it was posts like this by Claudia that got me onto twitter.
Honourable mention to: #EdChat I haven’t been on twitter too much to join in recently, but I peek in occasionally and it is always a rich conversation. This isn’t a blog, but worthy of mentioning.
Kim Cofino continues to be my teacher and I’m a big fan of teachers who help other educators. Kim is tireless in her attempts to promote globally connected teachers and students.
Lesley @Bookminder Edwards is going to retire soon, yet she is leading the way for the next generation of teachers. I want to be as inspiring as her when I reach that part of my career. She may be stepping away from schools, but I hope she doesn’t retire from sharing her wisdom online!
If you are a blogger, you’ve probably used some advice found here, or shared here first then modeled by others. Sue Waters consistently brings sound blogging advice and direction to readers.
Best elearning / corporate education blog: elearnspace
Sorry, no corporate blog here, George Siemens brings you up to speed on the latest ideas in e-learning. If you don’t know what connectivism is, it’s time to sign up for his weekly email.
It’s Sue Waters again. This time offering an easy launching point for people who want to expand their Personal Learning Network.
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So there are my nominations. Besides Stephen Downes, who only follows one person, I’m connected to every one of these educators on Twitter and I’d be remiss in not mentioning that. In reality, I have seldom opened my RSS reader this year and so the list above was greatly influenced as a result of my connections to some amazing people on Twitter.
I enjoy the Edublog Awards because they always expose me to blogs and connections that I would not have had otherwise. I don’t believe there is a need for competition amongst edubloggers, but I do believe that highlighting the people you admire is worthy. Thanks again to these wonderful people for their inspiration and for being my teacher… I look forward to learning and sharing more with you.
Sue Waters, a friend who has always stepped up and helped me out with just about every request I have ever made to my PLN, sent me an email a couple nights ago. In it she said:
I’ve been asked by some 4th year preservice students to put together a video on the value of blogging. They had wanted me to answer the questions but I decided that it would be considerably better to get videos from people around the World sharing their thoughts — that way we get more ideas.
If you are able to video yourself answering some or all of these questions that would be excellent.
What are some of the benefits of blogging?
How have you used blogging with your students and how has it helped them?
How do the students feel about blogging?
What are some tips for educators new to blogging? (with using them with their students)
This was the first time that I used Camtasia, compliments of Techsmith and Alan November teaming up and providing it to all of the BLC09 presenters. It is a great tool that is easy to use with all the features that a Mac lover like myself would expect. The transitions are a little choppy, but I basically sliced and diced up a Powerpoint presentation, ‘This my blog has taught me“, and then recorded my screen as I spoke. The whole process took just over a couple hours and it was a lot of fun to be doing a project like this again, after creating my POD’s are Coming presentation this summer.
I noticed as I watched this and listened to myself that the idea of a blog being a ‘learning space’ came up both when talking about my own blog and when I spoke of the classroom and what technology could do to expand the classroom space. I think that our idea of where learning happens has made a fundamental shift from book knowledge of the last century to anywhere/anytime information access of today. It is exciting to see classrooms make this shift too. Last night I commented on a blog post by a student of Clarence Fisher’s, in Snow Lake Manitoba, Canada. In a way you could say that I visited Clarance’s class. We live in an amazingly connected world and I love that sharing and learning has become so global.
I’d love to see others share their blogging story, and if you do, share them with me and Sue too!
Yesterday marked 3 years of being a blogger. What a wonderful journey it has been!
I may be over exaggerating when saying my blog is my Phd, after all people like Stephen Downes have done this much work and still don’t have one. Furthermore, the focus and intent of my writing has been far from such a standard, and sure to be rejected as a dissertation… BUT…
I know a few people that have a PhD and they have all shared comments like, “I’m never going to school again!”, and “What a painful experience”, and “I’m sooo glad that’s over!”, and even “I’m Done with learning!”
Meanwhile, I’ve never been so excited about learning. and I’m far from done, I’m continuing my journey and 3 years of ‘work’, of reflective learning, has done nothing but broaden my horizons and make me excited about what’s to come.
Personalized Recognition
So for the fun of it, I’ve personalized my journey with a PhB: A Blogtorate of Philosophy.
So what’s this worth? Personally it means the world to me, I wouldn’t trade my blogging/learning experience for any other, but what would this document get me in the ‘real’ world? We are now throwing (very deserving) accolades to DIY / Edupunk – Leaders… yet we don’t really ‘credit’ them in a quantifiable way.
Accreditation
So how do we credit all this very real, very meaningful learning? How do we credential-ize the learning that people are sharing online… Things happening outside of classrooms and credits and courses? Who does the next big company want to hire, the Harvard Graduate or one of these ‘candidates’?
What is my blog worth in the world of academia?
Does it really matter that what I’ve done hasn’t been for marks? What’s the big deal if this ‘work’ isn’t counted toward some (archaic) institution?
After all, it has been shared with colleagues around the world;
This blog has provided me with an opportunity to share my learning, and more than anything else it has challenged me to be accountable in a way that no other professional development ever has. It has reminded me that I love to learn and it is part of a learning process that I truly love. My blog may not get me any more letters after my name but more than anything else, it has set me on a journey I’m going to continue, not for some external reward, but rather for the intrinsic value and for the love of learning.
Appreciation
And now having said all this, I’d like to thank you!
Thanks for being a part of my Personal Learning Network; Thanks for joining me on this journey; And/or thank you for contributing to my learning!
For the last couple Mondays I have presented to two of Betty Gilgoff’s TLITE Classes, (TLITE- Teaching and Learning in an Information Technology Environment). I did two different presentations one based loosely on Learning Conversations and the other on This My Blog has Taught Me. Both presentations asked for teachers to contribute to a VoiceThread and to join a cohort diigo group.
I’m really impressed with this SFU program and the teachers who have signed up for it. The TLITE program offers teachers an entry point into engaging students with technology. Both classes have students with very wide ranges of digital competence, but all with a willingness to learn within a community of other learners.
Check out some of the comments these teachers contributed to our VoiceThreads. The first Voicethread was created for my Learning Conversations presentation, but I didn’t encorporate any time within the presentation for participants to use it and as a result it wasn’t really used -lesson learned there! The second one I put together just for the TLITE class. Please feel free to add you own voice.
I wanted to introduce a tool that would be easy to sign up for and easy to see value for in classrooms, and so that’s why I chose VoiceThread. And I also wanted to help these teachers learn from each other and that’s why I chose diigo groups. The first session felt rushed when we got to diigo whereas the second session was given more time. In the second session I talked a bit about the potential for using diigo in the classroom… what a great opportunity for educators to use this tool with students!
Thanks to Betty and to the two TLITE cohorts for inviting me into their classes. It excites me to see teachers in learning communities engaging with new tools.
Yesterday I had coffee with Heidi Hass Gable, our new District Parent Advisory Council (DPAC) President, and blogger at “I was thinking…“. I suggested to her that she watch Lost Generation while we were discussing some well thought out ideas she shared with me about nothing less than the purpose of education. Here is the video:
This morning I thought about a post that I wrote, which keeps coming back to mind.
This post looks at the responsibility of the learner to be an active and engaged participant in the class and in the learning process.
What excites me about web2.0 tools is not the tools themselves, but the ability of these tools to actively engage students in their learning. Students are often far more capable of leading their own learning than we give them credit for. Should students come up with their own manifesto? Or a class manifesto?
Also, it is important to remember that the adults in the building are participants too! What are we going to do this year to model and share our learning journey with our students?
The answers will vary from staff member to staff member… there is no cookie-cutter answer. However, regardless of the path we choose, we owe it to our students to have high expectations.
With the start of the school year coming next Tuesday, I am excited about the possibilities before me. Many wonderful opportunities await myself, my staff, and our students. I believe that if we enter our schools as active, engaged learners, then we can have great expectations, and we can create an environment where we meet those expectations too!
Here is the write-up for the 2 hour Professional Development seminar that I ran today for 9 dedicated teachers who showed up on a sunny Saturday, after a full day of Pro-D on Friday.
Start Your Own Blog A practical session that will introduce you to blogging.
You will see how others use their blogs and you will get a chance to create your own blog.
You will also learn just how easy it is to create links, add pictures and even movies to your blog.
Also, you will learn a bit about web2.0 and very easy to use tools that make your time on the web faster and friendlier.
I did my best to make these resources that could be: a) used by others to structure their own Pro-D sessions; and b) used as a self help tutorial.
… any feedback would be appreciated.
The session went very well with the teacher participants asking great questions and showing enthusiasm. Overall, I spent too much time talking about the tools, and didn’t get onto creating their blogs until we were rushing against time. Feedback from one participant was that we should build the blog first, then talk about the tools- an excellent idea, and I will change the wiki sometime soon (well, not too soon, I’ve spent enough of my life collecting resources and building these tools over the last couple weeks!)
The power of WE: Special thanks goes to a few people who saved me hours of time by helping me out, and by having great resources already built, so that I didn’t have to create them myself.
• Kris (Wandering Ink) for helping me find worthy links for my example page: A variety of bloggers, blogging mostly about blogs and blogging. Kris also edited my ‘Making a Splash‘ post. I hadn’t published it yet so I threw it into a Google Document, where she edited it. We chatted on MSN throughout and then I cut-and-pasted the edited sections back into my post. It was easy to do – especially with our dialogue via chat. A teacher and a former student collaborating, (late on a Friday night), to create a tool for teachers, in a way that was impossible not too long ago… very cool!
• Mike Temple for his blog Edublog Tutorials. This blog linked to another great resource: MSU (Michigan State University) video tutorial. Mike has done a great job with this blog!
Thank you to these people, and all the wonderful people that I linked to in on the wiki.
Personal Reflections:
-This was the first time I tried to do technology based professional development, beyond introducing a few tools to my staff, and I am happy with how things went.
-We only had about 1:45 minutes and this would be a great 3 hour Pro-D. A typical teacher blunder when trying something out of your comfort zone… pack too much in!
-As a mac user, I need to be a little more familiar with a pc lab.
-I really should have them make their blogs first, as was suggested.
-I only got the e-mail address of 4 of the participants and none of their new blog addresses- I’ll have to hunt these down for a feed I created. I think this is a good idea to offer support and community for new bloggers, and I should make the collection of this information more formal.
* I invite feedback on the Start Your Own Blog tools… and I hope that others will find them useful!
Thanks,
Dave.
Originally posted: April 22nd, 2007
Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting:
Why on earth did I do a Pro-D on ’start your own blog’ instead of on ’start blogging with your students’? Of the participants, one started a blog with her students in an elementary school (in the interior of BC… I offered her some help last year, but have lost touch this year. I don’t think any of them maintain their own personal blog.
In the post Darren asks a few questions including:
How do we transform OpenPD so as to attract the kinds of teachers that aren’t the most technologically savvy?
How do we garner the participation of additional groups of teachers? Sure, individual participation from wherever you may be is fantastic, but a class of multiple classes would be ideal.
Here, in my comment, is one possible direction I could see Pro-D going if we want more people to engage meaningfully with technology:
If you want to capture a ‘new’ crowd then you need to offer them low-hanging fruit. Twitter has a difficult introductory stage. RSS takes time to develop… why not just have a few educators sharing with Google Reader on a resource wiki and let that be an initial introduction to RSS… challenge participants to add to the resource page.
I think wiki’s are a great entry point. They are easy to use AND when students begin to learn from their peers, or take responsibility for their own learning on a wiki that excites the teachers to want more!
Give them a project with easy-to-find success within reach. For example, a fully developed 2-3 week student project with rubrics they help develop (with your help too) – something with a start, and a finish, and a lot of opportunity to build student buy-in, to get support and to find success.
It is a fallacy to say that a networked teacher does less, or has an easier time engaging students… that takes hard work and good teaching. So, don’t pump-it-up as the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Instead, provide an opportunity for teachers to see and experience the transformative nature of these tools on LEARNING (as opposed to ‘teaching’). Once this happens it is difficult for a teacher to go back into their pre-technology cave of shadows… they’ll be hooked and they will seek out the new tools, and take the time to develop their own network.
How is a post inspired? Where do the seeds of thought that blossom into these very words come from?
The seeds
• I have a student in my class that is currently on a very unhealthy diet. I know that I cannot convince her to get off of it without replacing it in some way. I hunt down my copy of Anthony Robbin’s ‘Unlimited Power : The New Science Of Personal Achievement‘ because I remember that it has a very well executed, healthy eating strategy. I find the book and it has a few paper bookmarks in it from a couple decades ago. From the page with the first bookmark:
… you will enrich your world and enrich your work if you bring to it the same curiosity and vitality you bring to your play.
• I read Claudia Ceraso’s insightful post, Blogging So Far , (I like her blogger’s view of Google). I realize that like Claudia, I too have had my blog for 1 year. I follow the links and come across a few “5 reasons I blog” posts… not my kind of post to write, but interesting to read. [From Claudia's post]
A blog is a learning engine A node in your PLE (personal learning environment ). A virtual zone of proximal development . Learning happens when you connect to other people (other, meaning diverse , not just a group of different people). Reading alone with my books is half way to learning. I need to ask. If the author cannot be consulted anymore, I’d much rather find what their readers are writing in blogs. Always connecting, constructing, learning.
In my attempt to (im)migrate into a web2.0 user/participant it has been the informal learning that has been most beneficial/rewarding. For example, your post: Competing Paradigms and Educational Reform struck a chord with me almost a year ago, and prompted me to quote you on my fledgeling blog. It was one of a number of influences that has made me questions my practice and the practice of schools.
I am now trying to bring Science Alive for my students in a way I never dreamed I could before… But this did not come from any formal community. It came from a loosely bound community of learners, unequally nurturing and feeding off of each other. It came from a digital web-path of hyperlinks which has helped construct meaning and relationships not easily discovered in a linear learning environment.
I think it is the informal learning experiences: the resourceful, interest-driven meandering between, among and within more formal communities/conferences/platforms and collaboration opportunities that has been most meaningful to me.
In essence I have become an empowered learner!
… This comment isn’t just another seed, it is the roots. It is what this post is about. It is why I blog.
The gardening
I start to make the connections between these seedling ideas.
• ‘Vitality‘. My blog is not work, it is play. Play from which I have the benefit of enhancing what I do in my classroom, in my daily job… which in turn provides even more vitality.
• ‘Always connecting, constructing, learning‘. I haven’t been able to finish my book for our book club because I read for 5 minutes and my eyes/my brain are craving a hyperlink… the lateral shifts in thinking that help mesynthesize and add meaning to what I read. I want to interact with my reading, have it engage me. (See the ‘Read a reading’ section of Claudia’s post.)
• ‘An empowered learner‘. I choose. I link. I follow links. I follow my own agenda. I change my agenda because something interests me now. I change my mind. ‘I’ control my learning… and I have never in my life enjoyed learning as much as I have since I started truly ‘blogging’ a few months ago.
The bloom
So how is a post inspired? I find seeds of inspiration, let them germinate in my mind, and a new post has blossomed.
“Because we all need to take a stand…”
Today is Stop Cyberbullying Day – Friday March 30th, 2007
This kind of learning is so rich, and it is so diametrically opposed to traditional school learning.
Hyperlinks bring learning alive for me… they give me choice. How do we give students choice about their learning in school? How do we empower them as learners?
DavidArrived here to your post through the blog reactions widget. From now on, I will call it seed tracker.
I confess I had many doubts before publishing my ‘Blogging so Far’ post. It was a kind of stream of consciousness that made me wonder how much sense would readers make of it. I was talking to myself.
This empowered learning as you say can point to so many directions, I think it is good to post about it and let others get into conversations with our thoughts.
Emma, Thank you for the link, I really do appreciate it! Claudia,
How serendipitous… When I first read your post, (one of my ’seeds’), I followed some links within your links and came across Christine Hunewell’s a blogger as writer. When composing my post, I spent about half an hour looking for it, it really was another seed to my post!
… and here we are full circle with you, once again, providing me the link- thankfully the path is more direct this time.
With respect to your ’stream of consciousness’ writing… I believe that state is an ideal writing state, and that some of my best writing has come when I have written to/for myself.
Thank you for your comment, and your wonderfully inspiring post!
David Truss on Saturday, 31 March 2007, 04:36 CEST
Original title: Blog Rules – Just the basics, 4 rules based on Respect, Inclusion, Learning and Safety
In May of ‘06 I taught a 10 day course on Leonardo Da Vinci, as part of our yearly Renaissance Fair. I did this in a brand new way. I started the project off by having students create their own blog here on elgg. I also created a learning community/forum for each of the two classes, and a social forum to be shared by both classes.
There is one thing above all others that significantly impressed me with this experience: Students owning the learning, asking the important questions, and helping each other to learn. They showed an incredible willingness to contribute/share their ideas.
I wasn’t sure what rules I should give around ‘Safe Blogging’ so I pared it down to some basics. In our school we have been slowly rolling out the ideas of Restitution and we have developed 4 basic beliefs: Respect, Safety, Inclusion, and Learning. So I thought why not use these beliefs as the guiding principles for the blogs and communities? Here is what it has evolved to (a work in progress I know…)
Note that #3 in the post below, ‘Learning’ is broken into two sections, 3a for the social forum where this post is found in, and 3b is for the class dialogues and the student blogs. I like this separation, (good idea or control issues- I’m still undecided???), because it keeps the learning space a learning space, and still allows the students a place to be kids- with minimal ‘cross pollination’.
I like having two different class blogs so that I can have kids reflect on things without giving away the lesson to the second class, but I also liked that the social blog was a place they could come together… In fact I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the conversation that often happened in the social forum! I ran a powerpoint presentation during the fair to showcase some of the online ‘conversations’ that occurred. Here is the presentation (Part 1 and Part 2) along with some optional student feedback (all that was given to me).
I’ve found a lot of posts in the ‘edu-blogsville web-world’ recently around Blog Rules with most of them emphasizing what NOT to do. I did find one positive gem, Arapahoe High School’s Blogging Policy, with 3 sections: Safe and Responsible Blogging; Successful Bloggers; and a Sample with ‘additive’ comments.
- – - – - Here is the post with my BASIC RULES:
In the class forums, (I call them class dialogues), I repeat these as the basic rules above without 3a. I also provide a definition:
This is a space for students to add to Mr. Truss’ class learning dialogue.
Definition: dialogue |?d???läg; -?lôg| (also dialog) noun
• a discussion between two or more people or groups, esp. one directed toward exploration of a particular subject or resolution of a problem. See ‘conversation’.
Every student will contribute to this dialogue on a regular basis.
There are some basic rules for using this forum.
(The basic rules are repeated here in the post.)
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Originally posted: January 9th, 2007
Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting:
Even today I am amazed at how well this project went. It exceeded my expectations and ’sold’ me on the use of technology for learning.
I still like these rules, and as an Administrator now, I am really liking the idea of Restitution- making things right, rather than punishment.
“Blogs are powerful communication tools. Blogs are powerful publishing tools. But blogging (the verb) is still much more than that to me. Blogging, as in reading and thinking and reflecting and then writing, is connecting and learning, neither of which are discussed in the article. (And maybe they weren’t meant to be, I know) I’m not knocking what Tim or his teachers are doing, I think it’s great. But I’m just asking the question: how are his teachers modeling the use of blogs to learn not just to teach?”
I have been looking beyond just blogs and considering the use of technology ‘to learn not just to teach’ quite a bit recently. Is it a natural progression to use technology to teach first then to learn, as we integrate new technology? Or is this just a lack of training and professional development? I’ve heard more than a few people call the new Smart Boards nothing more than glorified blackboards recently, (I have yet to actually even see one of these, much less know how teachers/students are using them, so I am really just making note of what others have told me). The fact is that technology such as this needs the user to be trained. How can we implement new things in new ways if we lack the knowledge or training to do so? Also, I think teachers must model what they expect, or at least find appropriate models for students to follow. A blog that replaces a daily diary may be useful, but does it expose a student to the potential a blog has as a reflective, synthesizing, learning space?
On the topic of blogs, I have been thinking about what this blog means to me. I write it as if I have an audience, but I write it for me, not the audience. It is sort of a cathartic expression of my thoughts on education; A place to synthesize ideas and reflect on new areas of exploration. I am surprised just how often I look back at my entries, reread them and follow the links. It has also been an experimental playground where I have learned a bit about html, and figured out how to add tools, such as the meebo messenger, the ClustrMap, as well as the flikr and bubbleshare photo windows. This blog isn’t about my practice as an educator but it certainly affects my practice. It is a learning tool.
I am developing some ideas about using wikis and blogs in my Science class next month. As I develop the plan, I need to ask myself:
‘Am I adding technology to my teaching or providing students with new learning and new ways to learn?’
‘Am I creating an environment where students will express, synthesize, and reflect on their (and each other’s) learning, or am I creating a new way to report out?’ (A glorified poster board).
‘Am I encouraging students to be lifelong learners?’
What else should I be asking myself?
- – - – -
A side note: The curriculum does not come up in my line of questioning… it seems almost insignificant in this meta conversation. Does it matter what the content is, or isn’t the process far more important?
- – - – -
It is now a few hours later and well into the night. Wandering from blog to blog, I found myself on John Connell’s. From one of his posts a few days ago, subjectdiscipline2.0- join the debate: “…for too many too often, ” the talk is of new ways of learning but all that happens is the old framework is polished and added to.””
Once again, technology to learn, not just to teach!
From my comment on his blog:’I think that if we want students to be lifelong learners, and we want them to take ownership of their own learning to any extent, then subject discipline must be, at the very least, ‘loosened’ up.’
I’ve added the comments on my original post into the first comment below. I’ve also put my questions above in bold font (apparently ‘bolded’ isn’t a word). I find it interesting that this was only my 14th post on this blog and already I was using it as a resource to reflect on.
Yesterday I spoke briefly to teachers with 1:1 classrooms from our district who were meeting for a pro-d session. The focus of my talk was around Scaffolding and supporting students as they venture onto new ground with an online project.
With respect to creating new online projects, (Project2.0’s), I think sometimes the focus is a little too much on just ‘using the tool’ or ‘creating the content’ and not enough on skills like: How to have a meaningful online discussion; How to design a page/project/powerpoint; How to provide meaningful feedback to a fellow student; or What does appropriate online behaviour look like?
Are students ‘expected‘ to know this? We literally spend years teaching paragraph structure to students, but unleash them on a discussion forum or blog with little or no training.
I said/asked things like:
• Create some incremental platforms for success.
• Begin with the end in mind.
• Do students know what is expected?
• Do they know enough to get started?
I also asked a number of assessment questions… without making any statements or wielding any opinions on the subject.
The reality is that most of the teachers are using wikis not blogs, but I think think the points I made apply to making any digital tool more learner centered.
I’ll share my presentation in the coming weeks. I design many of my slides in ways that are very unfriendly to SlideShare or other online presentation tools, so I will take the time to do so after I get this blog up to date.
Turn your speakers on for this one… a little dark humour about living in a wired world. Ordering from Pizza Palace.
Originally posted April 6th, 2006
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One Red Paperclip
We live in a wired world where a man with a blog, and a little PR, can turn One Red Paperclip into some Real Estate.
Originally posted April 17th, 2006
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Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting:
Pizza: The Big Brother potential is highlighted by this spoof. In a later post I show just how much Google already knows about me… the potential is both scary and exciting!
Paperclip: My first hints at the power of the web, and of networks. A group of friends couldn’t make this happen but a network could. This is a great feel-good story:-)
Two Wolves Which wolf will you feed? A Remembrance Day Post
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Warning! We filter websites at school. Filters filter learning!
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My blog is my PhD I have given myself a Blogtorate of Philosophy.
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Bubble Wrap What we are doing is creating a facade of security, nothing more than an illusion of bubble wrap.
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Who are the People in Your Neighbourhood? My (digital) neighbourhood spans the globe.
Personal Reflections:
‘ because I remember that it has a very well executed, healthy eating strategy. I find the book and it has a few paper bookmarks in it from a couple decades ago. From the page with the first bookmark: 
In my attempt to (im)migrate into a web2.0 user/participant it has been the informal learning that has been most beneficial/rewarding. 
• ‘Vitality‘. My blog is not work, it is play. Play from which I have the benefit of enhancing what I do in my classroom, in my daily job… which in turn provides even more vitality. 
Claudia,
Background
