StigmergicWeb

I just read about this via Dean:

K12 Online 2006 Conference…

Announcing the first annual “K12 Online 2006? convention for teachers, administrators and educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice. This year’s conference is scheduled to be held over two weeks, Oct. 23-27 and Oct. 30- Nov. 3 with the theme “Unleashing the Potential.”

Holy cool idea, Batman! There are so many conferences that I’ve had to miss because of scheduling or being too far away, but this, as Dean points out, could be good. I’d even say this could be great! Big salute to Will, Darren and Sheryl for organizing this.

The organization of this conference is brilliant in its simplicity:

There will be four “conference strands”– two each week. Two presentations will be published in each strand each day, Monday - Friday, so four new presentations will be available each day over the course of the two-weeks. Each presentation will be given in podcast or screencast format and released via the conference blog (URL: TBA) and archived for posterity.

I think that limiting the length of time of the conference and selecting the presenters will help to limit the cognitive load on conference attendees and prevent repetitive presentations. How many conferences have you been to where two (or more) presenters are talking about the same thing? There are some terrific affordances that become apparent when a conference gets changed from a physical, synchronous event to a virtual, asynchronous one!

If you are interested in presenting, and who wouldn’t be, you can get further information at Will’s blog post about K12online 2006. I’d love to contribute something - anyone want to co-present? How about an EdTech Posse presentation? Anyone else interesting in co-operating to put something together? I am pumped!

I meant to mention this earlier, but it seems like Stephen is back somewhat from his hiatus. Given the hysteria around web based e-mail accounts, MySpace and other threats to the educational orthodoxy, the timing couldn’t be better.

Its good to have you back, Stephen. We need all the help we can get, now more than ever.

News from the BCEd Online Annual Conference

Stephen’s Web: A Conversation With Stephen Downes

And yes, the hiatus is nearly over; stay tuned to this channel for more.

What more need I say - follow the link, already! I haven’t even listened to it yet, but I know that its going to be some seriously good stuff. Also check out the audio from the UnKeynote from Stephen. D’Arcy also has reflections/braindump, and Brian provides the requisite levity.

More thoughts shortly - first I gotta listen to the audio.

(by the way, I’m trying Performancing in Firefox for blogging this, just to give the full release a test)

I had been expecting this for a while. It seems a natural progression with many bloggers - you try using Blogger for a while,  but eventually you need something a little more distinctive. Alan did it, D’Arcy did it, and now its Dean’s turn. You may find the newly renovated and much more roomy Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech at http://ideasandthoughts.org (with a little installation support and MySQL voodoo from yours truly). Update your RSS feed readers, y’all!

I just saw this up at Stephen’s Web

I have always tried to offer as much of myself as I could through this service and others in my work and in my own time. It has never been enough, which was made clear to me today, but I am tired and don’t have anything more to give. Accordingly, I am placing this newsletter and website on hiatus for an indefinite period. I will be back when I’m back. Please know that I have always valued and held in the highest esteem the work that all of you are doing to try to make things better, especially for the young. My dedication toward your objectives, toward social justice and opportunity, toward a better life for all, is never wavering, will never waver. It is time for a darkening of the light as I retreat and think about what I am going to do and how I am going to do it, but know that the light will never flicker and never fade. I wish you well in your endeavours, and I will be back to walk the long hard road alongside you.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I feel a bit like Frodo after Gandalf fell in the Mines of Mordor Moria (thanks, D’Arcy). I have much I still want to accomplish, but I am without the presence of my virtual mentor and friend. I’ve met Stephen a few times, and I was always deeply impressed by his intellectual honesty and his accessability for anyone who wanted to ask him any questions.

OK - enough of sounding like a eulogy! Stephen, you got me and many, many others engaged in some serious discussions about where we want education to go, and the appropriate role of technology in that future. I also want to thank you because I began doing some serious blogging after hearing you speak at a conference in 2002, and I’ve been trying to follow your example of intellectual honesty and putting everything out there for anyone to comment/use/criticize ever since then. Take care of yourself, and best of luck with whatever the future brings you.

I could sense a growing disturbance in the force for some time now, and here is the first (and probably not the last) manifestation:

Weblogg-ed - Reinvention Chapter 2 - I Quit

In a nutshell, Will Richardson has quit his day job to pursue his muse, wherever that may lead him. Will, I am happy for you, slightly envious, and just a bit concerned. I am happy because you are following your bliss, and I truly believe that the world would be a better place if more people did that. I suggest you read Paul Graham’s essay on How to Do What You Love for further guidance in this.

I’m envious because as a teacher I’m working in a system that I see as having some serious flaws. I teach in the province of Saskatchewan in Canada, so I’m pretty lucky because I really believe that the educational system here is not only a pretty good one, but it truly has potential to grow beyond some of the current limitations. The limitations are still there, though, and sometimes I chafe a bit because of them. Our system is set up to do a really great job of educating students of the 1960s, but that describes the teaching staff and not the current students. Still, I manage some occasional small innovations. But I know that a lot of teachers, blogging and non-blogging, feel some frustration with the system and want to get out of it. That’s one of the reasons I’m worried.

I don’t know how things are for teachers where you are, Will. I know that despite a pretty good (and potentially great) system here, there is a great deal of frustration at the sometimes glacial pace of change. Any publicly funded enterprise will be the same - the tax-paying public tends to be quite conservative (and even Conservative here in Canada, but that’s another story), at least when it comes to paying taxes. But we’re never going to change the system from the outside, because once we’re outside we no longer have a vested interest in creating that change. I’m concerned, Will, because your example may demonstrate to others that the way to deal with frustration is to exit stage left. I hope that doesn’t happen in general, and I hope that doesn’t happen to you specifically - I still want to read your ideas on education and the betterment of the public system of it in a year, and in 5 years! The only way to get some real change is if we all walk in together singing “You can get anything you want at Alice’s restaurant“

Good luck, Will. I hope you avoid any trap or distractions that might try to lure you off course. I think I speak for - well, I speak for myself I suppose, that’s the whole point of having a blog - so speaking for myself, I need to let you know that I will feel deeply disappointed if you end up as another suit-with-a-book-to-sell-earning-more-money-for-a-30-minute-pep-talk-than-teachers-earn-in-a-month. We need you to do better than that.

Keep the faith, and remember what is motivating you to do this!

This much I do know. We need to get everyone, and I mean everyone access to the knowledge and people and ideas that now make up the Web. Educators need to be a part of this evolution, and maybe the revolution, too. I don’t yet have a clear idea what role I can play in that, but now, at least, I’ll be open to it should it come.

(And update your blog software so I can leave a comment without registration!!!)

If podcasts were eggs, we’d have enough now to make a dozen! EdTech Posse Podcast #012 is now available for your listening pleasure, featuring the last bit of our SACE conversation with Dean, Stephen and I (and a special mystery guest!). Enjoy.

I mentioned this in passing in my SACE wrapup post, but I wanted to make sure I gave a proper welcome to the blogosphere to Shaun “Grandad” Loeppky and his new blog (with the great name) Of Mice and Middle Years…. As Shaun points out, the title was inspired by intelligent conversation at SACE, and catalyzed by a small number of girly innocent cocktails. Now wander over there and give him a big howdy!

I just helped Shaun set up his new blog - Of Mice and Middle Years…. I’m sure great things will happen on it, and it definitely has the best blog title I’ve heard for quite a while.

I was going to title this Dean kicks educators in the RSS, but reconsidered.

But seriously, Dean Shareski just gave a great session on RSS. I think the trick that he hit onto, besides a great intro with a thoroughly engaging presenation (which proved that Powerpoint does not have to be considered a tool to lull your audience into a hypnagogic state), was avoiding the discussion of what is RSS as much as possible, instead focusing on what you can do with RSS.

Dean was also trying to do a bit of recording of the presentation, so I hope that there will be a podcast/screencast coming out of this from him. In the meantime, here are some of my impressions.

Life before RSS - simple and fun! (Great slide) But eventually, there is so much stuff out there, it gets difficult to make sense of it all.

Dean has a picture of me and Noami (at her soccer game) on his slide show. Dean says that I strike him as quite geeky (or at least I did back in our EDCMM 802 days - I wonder if my geek factor has worn off since then?).

The first time Dean looked at RSS, it scared him. (big laughs - Dean is a great presenter). It stands for really simple syndication. “Syndication for me is when Seinfeld goes into re-runs“

Newsreader - a place/program where you can read info that is syndicated by RSS. Bloglines is a good one, and it is web based.

Finding RSS feeds to add to a newsreader. Problem that they don’t all look the same, but they are out there if we look carefully.

Checking my bloglines account is more important than checking my e-mail. It is professional development, personal development. There’s no spam - its just stuff that I want.

Cool RSS stuff:

• calendars
• packages
• auctions
• social bookmarks
• photos
• searches
• e-mail
• more stuff! (including breaking up with someone? Read the list for more details)

Educator’s guide to RSS by Will Richardson is a resource interested educators should look at.

Dean introduced us to his friends, via his bloglines account. Bloglines make it easy to add RSS feeds via a bookmarklet. Dean showed how easy it is by adding D’Arcy Norman to his bloglines list.

It is now about 15 minutes past the end of session, but everyone is still intently listening. RSS definitely is a technology that gets people’s brains going once they find out about it.

Suprglu A tool for rip, mix, feed with RSS - takes many RSS feeds and turns them into an uber-blog. I think this is too cool for words. Check out the EdTech Posse on Glu for details. (This could be the most powerful yet easy tool for creating ePortfolios!)

Great session, and really well done by Dean. There was a lot of buzz afterwards about how this could aid with the always present problem of sharing information in education.