Martin Pluss

Hi all,

Last night I felt like I was at a rock concert as the wave of virtual anticipation for Mark Pesce’s closing keynote address was unleashed  at #wds08 conference.  ie: Web Directions South.

This morning I got up and Mark had linked to his keynote  through Twitter and I was able to see and read what was being Twittered about last night.

Many of my Twitter friends , including myself flashed across the screen in the opening video.

All that he said and did was fascinating, top shelf  stuff and my little world of education was there and I quote:

Let me give you one example, happening right now. The classroom walls are disintegrating (and thank heaven for that), punctured by hyperconnectivity, as the outside world comes rushing in to meet the student, and the student leaves the classroom behind for the school of the world. The student doesn’t need to be in the classroom anymore, nor does the false rigor of the classroom need to be drilled into the student. There is such a hyperabundance of instruction and information available, students needs a mentor more than a teacher, a guide through the wilderness, and not a penitentiary to prevent their journey.

Now the students, and their parents – and the teachers and instructors and administrators – need to find a new way to work together, a communion of needs married to a community of gifts. The school is transforming into an anarcho-syndicalist collective, where everyone works together as peers, comes together in a “more perfect union”, to educate. There is no more school-as-a-place-you-go-to-get-your-book-learning. School is a state of being, an act of communion.

If this is happening to education, can medicine, and law, and politics be so very far behind? Of course not. But, unlike the elites of education, these other forces will resist and resist and resist all change, until such time as they have no choice but to surrender to mobs which are smarter, faster and more flexible than they are. In twenty years time they all these institutions will be all but unrecognizable.

Source: Human and Network - Mark Pesce 

 

Later on he makes a distinction between a community and a crowd – really  good food for thought.

How does the message get out to the educators who don’t understand @plu #ais08.  It is all just too powerul for me to consume and yet I a rivetted by it on a Saturday morning when I should be outside enjoying the day – which I am about to do. 

cheers  Martin

The Educator Blog

The Running and Life Blog

Hi all,

At the recent #ais08 conference I was privileged to introduce Professor John Hedberg.  Here is the address.

John Hedberg

At the beginning of the year  the organising committee was  sharing ideas about possible keynote speakers.  Two members of the Committee had the same name  suggesting Professor John Hedberg as a keynote speaker.

In the pre internet era I was groupie of University libraries and faculties to try and keep up-to-date with latest trends in education – now the internet makes this easier.  John’s digital footprint gives a random insight into his leadership in education, ICT and pedagogy.

For example at Wollongong University he coordinated the Masters of Education Program, in 2000  he co-authored a report The on-line experience: The state of Australian on-line education and training practices – Review of research and the  document I really enjoyed reading was The Quick Start Role Play an ICT Learning Design Project.

What did these three things reveal to me?

1. John is still actively involved with post graduate students in areas that  are useful for ICT educators – his most recent Web2.0 PhD  student graduates this  week.  He also has a current PhD student investigating the use of Second Life.

2. The online report suggests he can provide solid and relevant research  based evidence that we as teachers and ICT educators can use as we try and negotiate new initiatives in schools. In fact for 2008 he has 12 articles currently submit for review for publication on top of 9 verified publications in 2007 and 8  in 2006.  Sadly the typical teacher does not easily have access to these refereed journals but John if you had an active blog we would enjoy reading your research. Maybe you could also nudge a few of your colleagues as well.

3. Finally,  reading the role play suggested to me that John was well grounded providing practical ways for educators to engage in new .

The   digital foot print only reveals so much so  I did two other things. Firstly, I  contacted John in person. His passion for technology in education was clearly evident and we talked about a whole range of issues particularly the use of hand held devices. At the end he gave me his direct number if I required further information.  I was pretty chuffed – we had a keynote and I had graduated from being a groupie reading notices in the  corridors to having a direct line to the Head of School.

The second thing I decided to do was to go back to the corridors and see what else I could find out. I found  the School of Education to be a friendly and collaborative area of the university.  I knocked on a few doors, talked to a few people, read a few notice boards and felt assured we would be in good hands today.

I introduce to you Professor John Hedberg.

• Twitter Support
  (tags: twitter)
• #wds08 – Twitter Search
  (tags: twitter)
• UserNameCheck.com
• Web Directions South
  (tags: conferences)
• STUDENTS' VOICES LEARNING WITH TECHNOLOGIES
  (tags: articles)
• Marathoners show higher than expected heart risks « Planet Ultramarathon
  (tags: running)
• Listening to students' and educators' voices
  (tags: pedagogy)
• 2¢ Worth » If “It’s not about the technology,” then What is it about?
• Weblogg-ed » Reading Online is Not Reading On Paper

Hi all,

I love your product and give people the heads up about it when I am at conferences and through my published and online writing. That aside I have a few issues , well actually a lot of issues but for you may be able to help me with two.

1. I follow(ed) two distinct groups- runners and educators/technologists. Is there a way to group who I follow into two groups so that the educators don’t have to read all my tweets about running etc and vice a versa? I reckon it would be a cool function to be able to Tweet to a selection (group) of tweeters all at once and spare others you know for a fact are not interested. I don’t really want to start two accounts.

2. Is there something else (besides the third party app LoudTwitter- which I cannot seem to get to work) that I can use that can export my tweets into a blog post say once a week. I don’t mean the updates in the sidebar of the blog. I use Edublogs (@edublogs) for my blog. I accept the issue might be with my blog as well. Are you working on something like this?

I have been researching this for a while and will continue to do so – in the meantime thanks for a great product.

cheers Martin