Backyard

Faced with needing to avoid the possibility of not having posted at all during this decade I offer this article from the Sydney Morning Herald which has some amusing insights into the passage of time and the inability of any of us to actually avoid getting past our use by date!!

Still in my early 30s, I have never felt the world grow unfamiliar – until now. Every generation, sooner or later, finds itself growing out of touch with the next. But few could have expected it to happen so soon.

Brendan Shanahan

Testing

This is our chance to nominate and celebrate

the achievements of edubloggers, twitterers, podcasters, video makers, online communities, wiki hosts and other web based users of educational technology.

Here are the categories, I would like to nominate the following individuals:

• Best individual blog- Kim Cofino- Always Learning Blog  http://mscofino.edublogs.org/
• Best resource sharing blog- Andrew Churches – Original Origami – http://edorigami.edublogs.org/
• Best teacher blog- Helen West – Rampantred – http://rampantred.wordpress.com/
• Best librarian / library blog – Judy O’Connell -Heyjude – http://heyjude.wordpress.com/
• Best educational tech support blog- Sue Waters Blog – http://suewaters.com/
• Lifetime achievement- Wes Fryer- Moving at the Speed of Creativity- http://www.speedofcreativity.org/

Professor John Hattie is someone we have all come to respect and he would be one of the most quoted educational researchers working today. You may be interested to hear his opinion about National Standards (they are on the way in NZ).

As always his ability to expose the clarity in a complicated issue is exceptional..

I’m experimenting with Livestream and seeing if it will embed (Guess what? It does!!)

Finally a new post!!!  I have been going to write for ages but ……

I’m at Christchurch for the uLearn Conference. It is 12 noon during the first breakout and I’m listening to DK (from Wales). He is currently tallking about blogging and Bubble us so I am taking the chance to collect my thoughts and recharge my battery!!! Actually reflecting on the difference between Twitter (I have been wanting to post about it for months!!…later) and this form of slower media!!

It is now Wed and I’m in Mark Treadwell (Even though this is the greatest temporary wireless network I have ever seen this post didn’t publish properly yesterday).

Time seems to get away and I have been more than a little flat out in the ftf world recently. Finally I have taken a little time to actually Gread some other people and I find that, as usual, it has started my mind thinking.

We are headed to Christchurch for the uLearn Conference in a month so I have been trying to pull together some NZ people and ideas to stimulate the thinking of some of my colleagues. Jane Nicholls from Dunedin got me going and this sharetab which gives you direct links with lots of NZ Principals – see if you get lost in your browser (the way I did!) when you first open it … very nifty, thanks Jane!!

I know that it is always dangerous to expect too much but I am really hoping that Christchurch lives up to some of the hype, because to be honest, I think there are not many conferences here in OZ that really “excite” these days – there are good things, don’t get me wrong, and lots of good people but we don’t seem to have a common thrust these days?? Or is it just me?? Anyway, I am looking forward to maybe developing some networking among people in NZ along the lines that Tony Ryan often speaks about: “I am constantly astonished by the professionalism of the Kiwi teachers who attend sessions during their holidays.” (BTW Tony’s latest post pointed me to some jaw-dropping Google sweeties – Google Wonderwheel, Google Timeline and Google Squared – far out! I’ll let Tony tell you but you mindmappers will loove Wonderwheel!!!

A couple of others I am looking forward to meeting ftf in Christchurch are Andrew Churches and others on the presenters’ page to say nothing of the breakouts.

It is the Saturday of a long weekend here in Oz so I am in more relaxed mode and have been sitting reading the newspaper in the sun. I read with real interest about Obama’s speech in Cairo, which I had missed and, of course, cranked up the mac and went to Youtube to have a look!

As  I watched this excepetional man speak I became aware of just how much deeper my involvement and learning about this significant event are because of my access to the visual media. To watch and hear and “be in the crowd at Cairo” is a far greater experience and deepens my understanding of the events Obama talked about. He was talking to the world. I sensed myself “sitting beside” people with much more at stake e.g. people huddled in refugee camps in Palestine. It was quite an experience!

It reaffirms for me the dawning understanding that the world has changed and the way I learn has changed. So we must change the way we teach in our schools!! (I have worked in a couple of institutions this week where the “battles” around freedom and access are still being keenly fought, I was a little tired from this but have been lifted by watching a truly 21st Century leader!)

Sitting in a meeting which is quite worthwhile, but a bit of a curate’s egg, like most human interactions. I have had internet access up to now but it just dropped out and I’m legless!! It is interesting to monitor my reactions (cf. Mia’s reflections on her holiday). I am a bit lost!! I feel annoyed at the top as I now am just “in this room” and at the mercy of the presenter. I already know a lot about what she is discussing (that’s is not to say that it is not useful for all of us in some way). I am aware that I like to be “connected” not simply to be distracted but to really enhance what is going on in the room but perhaps my main feeling is that I simply have to postpone many of the things I could do until I get back online. My issue is about my time! I honestly don’t think my multitasking takes away from my contribution to this group – I’m not integral to the meeting, just a participant.

My answer?? I have dropped into Word and am writing this as a post for my blog –but I’ll have to upload it LATER!!!

By Kylie Davis in the SMH yesterday:

“The world is fast dividing into two types of people. First, there are those who fear that even typing the word “MasterCard” into an email will result in their bank accounts being emptied by Nigerian scammers.

Then there are those who breathe the digital environment like oxygen – who have never been inside a bank branch, who will chat with friends without talking and who will cheerfully buy from, sell to and make payments to people they have never met, regardless of the country in which they live.”  (Where do you fit???)

Mia Freedman in her blog and column, in her inimitable way, really puts it to those of us who can’t live without our technology ….. how long since you had a real holiday!! Worth a read!!