Drape's Takes

Dave Cormier explains perfectly the reason why I still blog:


Not for awards, not for fame, and (don't hate me for saying) sometimes not even for the "conversation," the main reason I continue to blog is because I love having a place to catalog my thoughts. To that end, I can't tell you the number of times I've googled my own blog in search of something I've written before - usually to share with others.

That you, as a reader, still feel welcome to straighten me out from time to time by commenting on what I've written - is icing on the cake.

Original image source: Flickr user mybloodyself.
Quotation source: Dave Cormier.

Mark my words: The EduCon/EduBloggerCon/Unconference conference model is the absolute future of QUALITY educational conferences. That said, I'd like to invite you to join me next weekend at EduCon 2.0.

FORTUNATELY, there will be nearly two hundred top-notch educators from around the world attending the event. Yep, these are folks that actually get it. Check out this list of attendees.

UNFORTUNATELY, not everyone attending has signed the list (myself included).

FORTUNATELY, it's a wiki. [Adding myself to the list]. Now I'm on the list.

UNFORTUNATELY, I had to admit that I probably won't make it there in person. I mentioned to my supervisor that I would be co-facilitating one the discussions - and pleeeease can the district help me get there. I was answered with a very politically correct "Fu-gidda-boud-it, Draper."

FORTUNATELY, there's Skype. And Ustream. And our world is flat. Remember?

UNFORTUNATELY, sometimes even the best made plans turn into the worst nightmares.

FORTUNATELY, I'll be co-presenting with the very capable Robin Ellis. I also figure that she'll have a room full of extremely capable ed-techies, anxious to discuss OpenPD, to come to the rescue if need be. Besides, I also see now that our session be broadcast on EduCon TV - Channel 6. Does it get any better than this?

UNFORTUNATELY, eight simultaneous Ustream broadcasts from the same pipe could cause issues.

FORTUNATELY, Chris Lehmann's running the show. We're definitely in good hands!

To conclude, we'd love to have you join us (either in person or virtually) in our discussion about current and future professional development practices from 10-11:30am EST on Saturday, January 26.

Image Source - Educon 2.0

Technorati Tags: educon20 openpd edubloggercon08 conversation

Technorati Tags: twitter education technology conversation

The conversation went something like this:

“It’s storming pretty hard in Salt Lake. Power’s out, rain is falling sideways.”

“How do you know,” asks my wife as she brushes her teeth, getting ready to call it a day.

“Well, you know Twitter? One of the guys I follow on Twitter just posted about how he’s stuck in his car on the side of the freeway.” I pause. “I guess ‘follow’ isn’t really the right word”.

She looks at me as if I’m not the same person she married. “It's 10 o'clock at night, you know what he’s doing. You’re following him.”

Even I know that Twitter’s weird. That’s why I don’t expect everyone to understand it. I certainly don’t expect everybody to use it and am kind of glad that many people don’t. Can you imagine a person in prison using Twitter? (Tweet 1: Staring at wall. Tweet 2: Staring at wall, still.) Nevertheless, when my own wife accuses me of being a stalker (speaking of prison), I start to question what I’m really doing.

So I’ll ask the question again, this time with a better idea of my answer.

What in the Web 2.0 is Twitter?

Because if Twitter is nothing more than a huge stalk-fest, then I think I’ll pass. Five hundred sixteen “tweets” later however, I’m convinced that it’s nothing of the sort.

I'm convinced that Twitter is about community. Twitter is about people. Twitter is about the network. Here's an example of what I mean:

So Twitter's ability to connect me with a network of like-minded people is huge. However, there's more to it than just the network. Take "the news" as another example. I’ve noticed a strange thing happen to "the news" as I have used Twitter. With Twitter, the news has added meaning for me. Like when I learned about the steam explosion that happened in New York a few weeks ago. It brought the news home to me knowing that one of my colleagues was so close to the actual event.


To continue, remember the rain storm I referred to in the beginning of this post? I could have watched the news (like normal people) to see that a storm was making its way across the Wasatch Front. I would have learned the facts and been able to prepare for the inevitable. However, seeing that Thom (a person whose Twitter tweets I follow) was stuck in the storm, sitting in his car on the side of the freeway because of the storm, I immediately understood what kind of storm I would probably be dealing with.


Furthermore, because I “know” Thom (through his tweets), I now have an emotional tie to the news that I once only watched.

“So that's Twitter, honey. Weird? Yes. But that's just the way I like it.”

Technorati Tags: twitter conversation communication

Thank you, Teacher.

Thank you for the many things you have taught me. Thank you for your guidance and words of wisdom concerning teaching, learning, technology, and education. Thank you for your insights, as the views you've shared from your corner of the world have shaped how I see mine. Whether you've known it or not, you've helped me to understand better what it means to live in our rapidly flattening world. You've taught me that we're all in this together.

So I thank you.

As I've learned (and am learning) about what it means to communicate in this world we call cyberspace, I am increasingly cognizant of the different ways that bloggers converse. These are three observations I have made:

• First, some bloggers don't communicate with others (or they save their communication for the worthy few). Their conversations are a one-way street, flowing directly from brains to their fingertips, to the words that make up their blogs.
  
• Second, some bloggers visit the blogs of others, commenting and participating in the discussions of others. These bloggers seem to both give and take.
  
• Finally, there is a conversation that takes place among bloggers simply through an elaborate dance of cross-linking. This type of conversation is very interesting to me as it seems to provide genuine communication, both direct and indirect.

As I consider YOU to be my teacher (in one form or another), I'm genuinely interested in why you do what you do. What makes you write what you write, for some or for none or for many to read? Yep, why do you expose your thoughts to criticism, to ridicule, and to praise?

In short, why do YOU blog and what have you learned by participating in this worldwide community?

Please take the time to answer my inquiry (either directly or indirectly) in a post on your blog or in a comment on mine. I'll be watching and waiting, waiting and watching, and will post the results of this quest in a few weeks time.

Thank you, again, for being my teacher and participating in the conversation.

P.S. If I have failed to link to you above, it doesn't mean that I'm not interested in your opinion yet. It most likely means that I simply don't know I'm interested in your opinion yet - please participate, giving me a chance to get to know you better.

Image Source - 1

Technorati Tags: blogosphere communication conversation