It’s not as if I don’t have plenty of material to think about. After several years of jeering about the cult of the iPod I recently came by a 30GB video model. Although I spend a lot of time driving alone in my car I rarely listen to anything but music CDs. It’s not that I don’t enjoy listening to MIT material and TED talks, etc. I just prefer to be able to see what I’m listening to. When I got the iPod I decided to try (again) to listen to some podcasts and lectures while I’m on my travels. I transferred a selection of stuff to the iPod, tuned the gadget to 88.1MHz and had another go. I have to admit that it’s doable but I still don’t think it’s for me. I’m definitely a music on the move person.

Actually the iPod is more than an audio device to me. After all I have several different MP3 players and a fairly decent radio and CD stacker in the car. I realised that if I formatted the iPod (now called nix’ pod) under MSWindows I could also use it with a Mac. Also I could keep a whole heap of “stuff” on there. Stuff that I usually (yes OK, still do) keep on a USB key. Only more of it – like on an external hard drive. Convergence.

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Disclaimer: Although I have no idea why I might need to justify it, I didn’t purchase said iPod. It came to via via a deal with a daughter. Apparently it’s cooler to have a Shuffle.

Related posts:

1. Toy Love

We did our original work inside Blogger and then copied it all to a static webpage on a piece of web real estate that the company claims will be free for ever. Seven years down the track I’m not entirely certain that I want that work up on the web for all to see. Not that it’s easy to find. I was unable to track it down using any of the keywords or phrases inside it. So am I going to take it down? I probably won’t because however naive it reads, it does represent a piece of thinking at a certain point in time. Unless I get too paranoid about the stalkers.

I guess that’s one of the reasons why I am slightly cynical when I hear about these new tools called blogs. Or wikis. The tools have been around for a few years now. Blogs started when people decided they wanted to be able to diary on the web or keep collections of essays and ideas together and they wanted an easy way to do it. Blogs allow people to keep adding to their space and most readers rarely go beyond the front page so all of the older and possibly embarrassing writing is mostly hidden.

On a side note

It’s a little bit scary to look at your work with a critical eye. We did a bit of that scary stuff yesterday when we deconstructed a lesson that one of our cluster teachers had videoed as part on an action research project. Although the intention was to look at question types, there was so much other stuff opened up for all to see.

(Mandlebrot image from CC licensed Flickr image set)

No related posts.

David Warlick’s (in)famous “I don’t get it” post about social networking for ‘education 2.0 issues’ (Oh how I need to write up my 2.0 agonies. But I’ll save that for later.). David made the point that he just wasn’t into ‘clubhouses’ and said that

I don’t need someplace else to go to on the Internet. I need it to come to me, to my aggregator, or my mail box. I need it to be organic, infinitely shapable, and to be a valuable conversation.

And I agreed, although I kept that to myself.

Then a couple of days ago, Artichoke posted “Could do better”: A checklist for participatory communication for development . Arti looks at her (all of our) role as ‘edu_tech missionaries’ and looks at the implied assumptions of our roles. I think we’ve had a religious discussion before haven’t we?

While I was digesting Arti’s piece (I wasn’t stalking you Arti, just needed to think about it again… and again …), Konrad Glogowski wrote a great post entitled Autobiographical Practices . And it kind of started to come together.

Konrad writes,

I contemplated adding my name to one or more of these communities but it seems to me that they are nothing but containers, systems where the name threatens to define or even pre-define the discussions within. I thought the whole point of what we are experiencing now, educationally speaking, was to get away from boxes, systems, and containers. Now, it seems, we are building more. It is interesting that, instead of building our own networks using rss, for example, instead of charting our own paths as professionals and educators, we prefer to confine ourselves to pre-defined boxes.

And this is me! I struggle with the concept of an educational blog because it’s limiting and it encourages conformity. I want to see opposing points of view and I want to see world views. If I’m doing it my way (my blog, my RSS feeds, etc) I can be in charge.

Konrad next says,

However, according to Steve Hargadon, who created Classroom 2.0, professional development today can greatly benefit from social networking. He is right when he says that it is much easier for a novice to join a social community than start his or her own blog.

And this makes sense too. Except that this is all based on the assumption that everyone must be part of the blogosphere because this is where all the best conversations are happening. Try making that point in the nearest school staffroom.

I am regularly invited to participate in wikis, blogs and communities that have been set up apparentlyfor my benefit. In some cases I do participate, but I’m actually really a lurker. I’ve been that way for years so I’m quite good at it now. My aggregator gets a daily skim through and I also subscribe to the odd old fashioned email list. I’m quite happy to join a conversation, but I also want to be able to get out when I want. It’s all about having my own space really.

And I’ll come to the two point oh business soon.

Other useful brain food

Christopher D. Sessums:
How Do Educators Learn Successful Practices using Social Media/Social Software?

Stephen Downes:

To the School or Classroom 2.0 Advocates

One-Sided Discussions

No related posts.

I need to come out of the water blog closet. I need to open up and talk about a  problem that I have.

I. B. S.

Irritable Blog Syndrome.

So, here I am, baring my soul.

Sometimes I am blog-stipated. I can sit with an editting window open for ages. I can try all sorts of measures. But I can’t perform.

Other times I have blog-ohrea. It just falls out of me. Weak, insipid, formless posts. Causing me to rush to the editor at all hours of the day and night.

Neither is ideal.

I’ve tried regular doses of the right kind of fibre. The solid staff that takes a while to digest, bulks up as it pases through my system.  I’ve tried to increase my intake of fluids. Slugged down the water at each and every opportunity. But, alas, to no avail.

I remain, a sufferer of I.B.S. – Irritable Blog Syndrome.

No related posts.

Windows Live Writer

Ink Blog Plugin from Ed Holloway

Related posts:

1. WYSIWYG
2. Blog-xymoron
3. Evolution

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On getting noticed:

Once upon a time there was an island named Blogosphere, and at the very center of that island stood a great castle built of stone, and spreading out from that castle for miles in every direction was a vast settlement of peasants who lived in shacks fashioned of tin and cardboard and straw.

Nicholas Carr looks at the hierarchy of the blogosphere. The A-Listers bite back.

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You just have to look at this great piece of Flash: Animator vs Animation

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is this a JAP (Just Another Photoshop)? Via jkOnTheRun

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And from my I-want-it-no-I-need-it-now-well-its-probably-not-available-in-NZ tags: the iGo PowerXtender Battery Operated Charger.

Related posts:

1. Linkeracy – 14th August 2006
2. Linkeracy – 16th August 2006
3. Linkeracy – 26th August 2006

My news monitoring started way back in history when I used to read (and contribute occasionally) to Usenet. I subscribed to a few .nz groups and watched the antics of a few crazies. It regularly got a bit tedious as ‘newbies’ and more experienced users warred away.

When I first met blogs I loved the idea that you could visit a person or a site regularly if you liked the style of writing or work. And then I discovered RSS. Great. Now I could subscribe to my favourite sites using a feed reader or aggregator.

I have tried a lot of readers. Sage (not really a reader, more a Firefox extension), Feed Demon, Bloglines, BlogBridge and more recently I sunscribed to Feedlounge. I quite like Feedlounge. The developers are working really hard and are responsive to what the users want.

Today I decided to subscribe to a few feeds independently of feedlounge and fired up a download of BlogBridge. I got a shock. It’s a rapidly moving product. It’s faster than Feedlounge and it some of the other advantages might mean that I’ll be going back to it.

Take a look at BlogBridge and some of the cool new features that they are woring with. Or compare the features that all of the aggregators offer.

Related posts:

1. News Hound

If the Bledisloe Cup were at stake could we match them? Beat them?

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Firstly I added a new entry page, here.

Then I added a couple of extra pages about internet security and some of the services that I offer through my business, NixIT Teaching Technology.

Related posts:

1. Searching
2. Wireless
3. Three Score and Ten

For blogging links, podcasting, video, wikis, file-sharing …

Related posts:

1. Short Bits