Tag: blog

Just made it home. The last leg was a little tough. Approximately 24 hours sitting on the train from Jasper to Winnipeg. Some folks can sleep anywhere. Not me! However, the view leaving the Rockies was great.

Those who follow my blog for the emphasis on educational technology may wonder about this series of “off-topic” posts. For example, I have not written anything that on the surface may appear to have educational relevance for several weeks.

If you care, here is a justification.

I have a habit of reading over people’s shoulders. I admit this to be completely inappropriate, but I cannot help myself. While on this trip, Cindy has been reading Rafe Esquith’s ‘Teach Like Your Hair is On Fire”? Catchy title! Anyway, the last paragraph in the Prologue reads as follows:

There are so many charlatans in the world of education. They teach for a couple of years, come up with a few clever slogans, build their Web sites, and hit the lecture circuit. … I hope that people who read this book realize that true excellence takes sacrifice, mistakes, and enormous amounts of effort. After all, there are no shortcuts.

The point? If you believe in something, you practice it first, continue to engage in the activity as part of your normal routine, and talk about it as a by-product of this commitment.

I have been just been practicing in what for me is a little different setting.

As the title for this blog indicates, blogging is a way to learn through the processing of personal experiences. There are all kinds of learning experiences. There were some “traditional educational experiences” during this past week. I exhausted my supply of podcasts stored on my iPod. I also listened to “Looking for Alaska”, “The Search”, and “Earth: The Sequel”. There must be 20+ hours of content in the collection so getting through 3 books in less than two weeks would exceed my normal reading load. I also had the opportunity to take several hundred pictures and about an hour of video. Some have been uploaded to Flickr and more will end up there. For an old biologist, the setting was nearly ideal. I have a collection of material for a podcast I want to do on making Fireweed jelly, but it is back to the office tomorrow and working up the material on making jelly will require a little more research,.

A recent post from Museum 2.0 (I know, I know, but I suppose everyone has a 2.0 niche) considers the question of “How much time does it take“.

The post attempts to offer advice on the time commitments required for various Web 2.0 roles. Translated – if you want a school administrator, a teacher, etc. to blog, podcast or whatever, just what will the time commitment be.

The post proposes the time required to qualify as a content provider (maintain a blog, podcast) is 5-10 hours per week. You get off easier for a Facebook or MySpace account – 1-5 hours.

I am not sure how one arrives at such numbers. Experience I suppose. 5 hours a week seems about right for a blog.

Louis Gray offers a comment on a trend that encourages secondary sites to offer content originated by bloggers. I noticed this was possible several months ago when I moved my blog to its present location and registered the new location with several aggregators. I found that I could read my entries from “readers” without having to actually connect to my site. The links to my site that were provided were pretty much unnecessary because all recent posts were there and complete. Back when we offered content via old style web pages embedding images or pages within frames appearing under a different URL was frowned on. I know that WordPress allows me to determine how much content I offer via RSS feeds and I have my feeds set to offer only part of each post. Automated ways of integrating and cross-referencing online content are intriguing, but I do hope individuals who find my material of value take the trouble to explore this site in its entirety.

For a different perspective – shyftr

I follow technology and columns from the Washington Post. I must admit this is a matter of habit and I cannot really remember why I started. Let’s just call it inertia. Anyway, the Post published a list of favorite education blogs for 2008. If I remember the post, the section writer asked an ed blogger friend for help and together the list is a product of their collaborative effort.

I must admit most suggstions I have not encountered before. I guess there is nothing wrong with expanding my personal RSS list and this may be a place to begin. Checking out the picks of someone outside your normal clique may be a way to avoid the typical spin cycle.

No, I am not on the list. I think the only list I make is my own.