Google has introduced a Klingon interface for its search engine. Should intrigue all the Star Trek fans out there. Beam me up Scotty!

Via Google Operating System.

This afternoon Shao-Ping, myself and our two guests from Taiwan, Claire and Kelly, went for a drive south through the Illawarra, past my school at Albion Park and then up Macquarie Pass to the top of the Illawarra Escarpment. A new tourist attraction opened on the escarpment two weeks ago ~ The Illawarra Fly.

What is the Illawarra Fly you ask? A large insect of the order Diptera with dimensions not unlike the Big Banana at Coffs Harbour? Perhaps a massive opened zipper comparable in size to the Big Pineapple at Nambour? Well, thank goodness, the Illawarra Fly is not a kitsch piece of titanic tourist trash. It is a tree-top walk along the edge of the Illawarra escarpment.

We arrived at the ‘fly‘, bought our tickets and made our way through the temperate rainforest to the structure. It is quite high and I am not one for heights actually. Not sure why. I climbed Uluru when I was 14 and I have even been on two tandem skydives from 4000 metres but some heights still get to me. I ventured out on to the structure and began taking photographs. I will admit that I did not climb the tower. Perhaps next time.

The views north and east across the Illawarra escarpment are sensational. You can see all of the peaks conquered by my alter ego Larry as a member of the Adventurers’ Club. Mount Kembla, Mount Keira and Broker’s Nose are all there. The Illawarra looks like a nice place to live and work, eh? I car-pool with Diamond and Horse from the Adventurers’ Club.

Looking north towards Wollongong in the distance and the Illawarra Escarpment

Beneath us lay Albion Park and the Yellow Rock region. Due east is Shellharbour. The Pacific Ocean spreads out along the eastern horizon. The weather was perfect for the adventure.

Yellow Rock and Albion Park countryside

Following the tree top walk we made our way back through the forest and I took a few more photographs. I think I took 71 in all. I should create a new gallery.

A massive tree ~ I do not know the species…

Shao Ping, Claire and Kelly

After that we drove back down the mountain and through the dairy farms. Claire and Kelly jumped at the opportunity to photographs the cows in the late afternoon light.

Contented cows. They’re not thinking about joining a Diigo group.

At least two Diigo education groups have been created in the last three days. Think about it. There are many more similar groups on Diigo. Which one should I join? Should I join them all?

Help!!!! This is all getting a little out of control. I feel like it is the middle ages, a convicted criminal, four horses attached to my four limbs and they are all galloping in a different direction. Should I join that Ning? Should I follow that group? What about Diigo? Yeeeaaaagggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!

Time to move to another planet. At least get out and take some photographs and have a  quiet beer.

Doug Belshaw wrote an amazing post about the changing face of the edublogosphere. Do yourself a favour and read Doug’s post. I hope it is a wake-up call for education bloggers. Similar thoughts have surfaced in other education blogging circles of late. Graham Wegner wrote an excellent reply on Doug’s blog. I wrote a long comment on his blog. It was a collection of my recent thoughts and observations that I have written here and there lately plus a few new ones. This is my comment:

“Doug, what an incredible post and how very reassuring.

I have blogged about all sorts of crap for a while now. Last year I thought I would give the blog a bit of focus.

I have returned to the secondary school classroom to teach history. This is after ten years in educational technology in corporate and tertiary fields. I have experienced some fairly incredible highs and also one incredible low that left me in a Singaporean hospital for about five days in 2000. Nothing like being bullied into submission and having your self-esteem surgically extracted by an abusive boss all in the name of IT, portals, eyeballs and stickiness.

The classroom restored my focus and I thought I would rebirth the blog and write about education and technology and history. It was time to enjoy education technology. I enjoyed it at first and garnered a few comments here and there and made some contacts. But then late last year and early this year I began to get this sinking feeling. The blogs that I read were becoming homogenous. So many blogs began to look and sound the same.

I was on quite a roll myself early January but then the wheels fell off my litte red cart. Something about the education blogging environment was gnawing at my guts. Whatever it was it must have been gnawing at your guts too.

I may elaborate further on my own blog Doug but in short I agree with you wholeheartedly that “…the edublogosphere has changed from being about ‘the conversation’ to being part of ‘the network’. It all smacks a little too much of ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ and, to be honest, viral marketing of Web 2.0 apps”.” I know I have been a part of that. Forgive me father for I have sinned.

Wes Fryer is right. We need focus. We need a little chaos and anarchy as well. Is that what Graham means when he writes that there is room for all users? I think I sound confused. Must make sure that the focus does not create an all over grey world of bloggers.

I worry about the education bloggers that are guiding the more recent entrants to the medium how to blog. New bloggers have surfaced recently, have been adopted by “more seasoned” bloggers and have been moulded into the image of their guide or mentor. These may be like the “bland joneses” that Ewan McIntosh refers to in his comment. Some of these “bland joneses” are now centre-stage in the education blogging environment.

I have observed a number of new education bloggers join the networks of late and they soon become mirror images of the more seasoned or ‘vocal’ edubloggers. By vocal I do not mean provocative or innovative. I simply mean they have a voice within the edublogging environment that is taken as gospel. It is a pity. I feel that the twitter networks play a role in the establishment of this sameness. It is quite intriguing to observe.

Lisa Stevens makes a good point about the intimidation regarding new tools. I have been caught up in that as well but nothing incenses more when I blogger mentions how they spotted that app before such and such did. Who cares? The earth will still manage to rotate on its axis without that knowledge.

Perhaps I am getting old but the excessive positivity about this tool and that tool in some blogs annoys me. Does that make me a ‘grumpy old man’. I am a little tired of the excessive use of bold font type and exclamation marks in some blogs to proclaim some ‘new’ tool. Lately it has been Diigo and Friendfeed. As you mention there is a diigo craze on the moment. I think there is now an inverse correlation between the number of exclamation marks a new tool receives throughout the education blogging environment and my willingness to give the tool a try.

Sometimes the tools are not all that new and have escaped the attention of the majority of education bloggers until one of the old-guard, blogging elite or a member of the newer ‘generation 2.0′ drops a line about a tool on Twitter or their blog and all the acolytes jump on board and go into orgasmic delight about the world changing benefits of the ‘new’ tool. It is the acolytes that add the bold font and the exclamation marks. As Carl Anderson commented the evangelising of new tools is indeed sickening. I have been caught up in that. I guess I need to say ten “Hail Marys” and stand in the corner now.

Vicki Davis is also right. It is “hard to find fresh thoughts and innovations”. I have also wondered about the conversations and the reducation in th diversity of thought within the edublogosphere and at least within the blogs that I read there seems to be a sameness creeping into the environment. I articulated these thoughts a little further on Christopher Sesssum’s blog when he posted about social networks the other day. Some of them are repeated here.

I have sensed of late that segments of the “edublogosphere” are dominated by a small coterie of seasoned bloggers who are followed by a dedicated core of disciples that hang off their every word. I think this is stifling original thought and creating a sameness in some edublogging arenas. The conversations are limited to a few yet cloned by many.

Christopher Sessums asked “What sort of mechanisms can we set up to encourage creativity and diversity among edubloggers?” I agree that the world of education bloggers should be more like an agora as Christopher alluded too with a highly varied range of discussions, debates, marketing of ideas and the ‘playing of games’ (as per an agora). (The agora of ancient Athens was largely responsible for the creation of democracy, philosophy and western thought).

Vicki Davis mentions that more people are Twittering. Twitter is a strange beast. I wonder how an educator can rack up 4000 updates in 3 months? That is an obsessive compulsive disorder in my opinion. It is bizarre. Do they actually teach in a classroom? [Vicki, I am not referring to you.]

I wonder about the relationship between Twitter and education blogging.Has anyone else observed anything peculiar about Twitter? Is it just me? I have written positive posts about the tool but I also have uneasy stirrings in my gut about Twitter. I cannot help but feel that there is an us and them tendency in some Twitter networks. Am I imagining this? Is there a sense of exclusivity that is related to the number of updates or followers? Perhaps I am paranoid.

Your readers may think I am full of sh*te but its how I see things. There are of course great and humble educators that produce excellent blogs that are not a part of the self-flagellating and mutually-masturbating and occasionally elitist group that I have observed. Why do these bloggers not get the voice that they deserve? Are their Twitter ranks too low?

I recently spoke about these trends and a friend simply said why give the education bloggers that you feel do not contribute or lack innovative thinking a voice? Why link to them? I agree. I mentioned to Christopher Sessums that perhaps it was time to look for fresh contacts. Elements of my Google Reader list have indeed become stale.

Doug, you are the first of those new contacts. Thanks for reinvigorating my interest, restoring my faith in the medium and giving a voice to the thoughts I have felt.

Best wishes, John.”

This morning I read an article in the Sydney Morning Herald about the world’s oldest recorded sound. The recording was made by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville on a phonautograph. The audio recording predates Edison’s sound recordings by a couple of decades. The recording is available from the the First Sound site.

The world’s oldest recorded sound

The entire recording is ten seconds long and features a Parisian singer giving a rendition of the folk song “Au Clair de la Lune”. The recording was made on a phonautograph, a device that was created to record sounds visually. It was not designed to play them back. A group of scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California devised a method to decode the paper based transcription to audio.

The 1859 model of Scott’s phonautograph. Source: Franz Josef Pisko,
Die neuere Apparate der Akustik (Vienna, 1865). Image courtesy of David
Giovanni and First Sounds.

Detail of an 1859 phonautogram made by Scott and included in his patent paperwork, preserved at the Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle (INPI),
the French patent office. Image courtesy of David Giovanni and First Sounds.

David Giovanni gave permission for the reproduction of the images on this page. His own web site is well worth exploring. David Giovanni has been involved in the discovery and publication of old recordings. One of his releases, Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1891-1922, even won a Grammy Award.

David Giovannoni inspects Scott’s first two experimental sound recordings,
made in 1853 or 1854, in the archives of the Académie des Sciences
of the Institut de France, where they were deposited in 1857.
Photo by Isabelle Trocheris. Image courtesy of David Giovanni and First Sounds

.
I have always had a fascination with audio. I used to enjoy taking bootleg recordings of artists like Bowie, Led Zeppelin and others and then attempting to improve the sound quality using tools like graphic equalisers and a DBX 117 dynamic range enhancer. I was once a guest editor of Crosstalk, the journal of the Australian Tape Recording Society way back in 1980, I think.

Vaguely related note: If you are interested in old 78RPM records I highly recommend that you check out Joe Bussard’s Fontone Records site. He was born in 1936 and is a classic digital native. Check out his MySpace profile for his take on rap music and rock ‘n’ roll.

Links:

Wikipedia: Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville
First Sound.org
David Giovanni’s web site.
New York Times. Researchers Play Tune Recorded Before Edison
Sydney Morning Herald. Listen up: world’s oldest recording gets airplay
Archeophone Records
Fonotone Records
Joe Bussard’s MySpace page

If you are in Singapore during mid April and have time to spare you might like to drop along to the following presentation or one of the three follow-up workshops during that week at the Centre for Educational Development, Nanyang Technological University. Each of the four items is described below.

Show & Share on ‘Extending the Boundaries of Web 2.0 and The Read~Write Web’
14 April 2008 2.30 pm – 4.30 pm

The aim of this presentation will be to share both current and forthcoming trends of the Web 2.0 or read~write web and their application in education. 2007 was a maverick year in which the world of Web 2.0 and the read/write web reached wider audiences. Educators in particular have enthusiastically taken on the read/write web and are now exploring new tools that they can apply in their own classrooms.

This presentation will consider the application of tools such as Nings, Twitter and WebNode in education and also explore the possibilities of tools such as the newly released Google Sites and the innovative Yahoo Pipes.

What role can mashups play education and research? How can these tools be used to support teaching and learning? A practical down-to-earth approach will be taken during the course of the presentation. The pros and cons of the read~write web will be considered.

Venue:
NTU Lecture Theatre 12
NTU Academic Complex North
Level 4 via Lift NS2-2

Nurturing Your Networks via the Read~Write Web
15 April 2008 · 9.00 am – 5.00 pm

This practical workshop has educators in mind and is simply designed to remove the mysteries associated with education networks, blogging, twitter and RSS feeds. The Internet has evolved from a platform that presented static information to one that invites participation and user-centered interactions. This workshop takes advantage of this evolution in the web.

Educators who wish to take their use of the Internet that one step further will benefit from this workshop. Participants will learn to make effective use of Web 2.0 technologies in order to support and enhance their own professional development and make practical and useful connections with other like-minded educators.

Web 2.0 based applications that will be demonstrated and workshopped with the participants during the day will include:

• eduBlogger, Wordpress and/or Blogger: a simple to use web based tool that allows you to create and manage your own blog
• Google Reader
• Twitter microblogging
• Nings

Taking Web 2.0 To The Limit with RSS and Mashups
16 April 2008 · 9.00 am – 5.00 pm

The world of web 2.0 or the read~write web is simply interesting. It allows users of the Internet to both easily publish to the web and to explore the web in new and interesting ways.

This workshop is designed to teach educators how to make use of the full power of RSS or really simple syndication. The fundamentals and practical usefulness of RSS and tagging will be illustrated and workshopped with the participants.

During the workshop participants will set up and customise the following online tools:

• Google Reader
• Del.icio.us
• Yahoo Pipes

Additional tools such as Technorati, Dapper, GoogleEarth and AideRSS will be utilised to demonstrate the power that RSS feeds can play with providing current news and views on the areas relevant to your areas of teaching and learning.

Core Web 2.0 Tools – Blogs, Wikis and Podcasting
18 April 2008 · 9.00 am – 5.00 pm

This practical workshop has educators in mind and is simply designed to remove the mysteries associated with Web 2.0 technologies and introduce the participants to the core Web 2.0 Tools.

Participants will be given the opportunity to create and set up an education blog using tools such as eduBlogger, Wordpress or Blogger. Each participant will be given a detailed insight of the settings and management of the blog.

Following creation of the blog participants will be taught how to set up a simple wiki using tools such as Wikipsaces or PBWiki.

The third component of the workshop will provide a hands-on creation of a podcast media file. Participants will then be given a practical demonstration of the publication of the podcast.

The final component of the workshop will illustrate how the three tools can be linked together via the newly created blog.

Venue for each of the three aforementioned workshops:
CED Training Room
Centre for Educational Development
NTU Academic Complex North
Level 5 via Lift NS3-3

For bookings and additional details of each item please consult this calendar of events at Nanyang Technological University. Should you have any additional inquiries please do not hesitate to email the staff at the Centre for Educational Development via this email address: TEAMS@ntu.edu.sg.

You can also drop myself an email if you would like additional information. My contact details are available via this link.

[Chinese New Year's Eve, Singapore, 2003.]

Scanning through the blogs in Google Reader spotted this post by Scott McLeod on Dangerously Irrelevant. Scott is responding to a post by Wes Fryer regarding ‘creativity fatigue’. Take the chance to read the full post by Wes.

Scott feels that we should actively combat inclinations to get set in our ways and I agree. We should endeavour to stretch and go outside our comfort zone. Take a new course, teach a subject in a different faculty, work overseas, and, if in administration, return to the classroom if possible. I wrote a comment on Wes Fryer’s blog in repsonse to his original post and I have added it below.

“Wes, I was alerted to your post via Scott McLeod’s blog. I agree with your comment regarding empowering students, practical approaches for teachers and participation in educational networks.

What are additional possibilities to negate ‘creativity fatigue’ within teachers? Years ago the University of Wollongong in NSW, Australia, offered a Graduate Certificate in History Education for current teachers. The course provided the participants with an update regarding current trends in historical research and historiography, an update on trends in Australian history and finally a component on the use of technology in teaching history. The course was completed in a single year part time. It was free. It was enlightening, rejuvenating and all of the participants benefited. It certainly worked for me. It was a watershed in my own teaching career.

Alternatively, opportunities could be provided for teachers to take sabbaticals or work experience in a different field, probably related to education. These experiences can ‘recharge batteries’ and allow for a chance to refocus. Some teachers may indeed discover that their vocation lies in a different direction. That would also be a positive outcome.

Finally, senior staff and administrators, out of touch with the classroom could reground themselves with real classroom teaching experience. Get them out of the office or cubicle. Not likely to happen but in the event it did enlightenment may take place.

Scott, I agree with your thoughts regarding the roll out of programmes year after year that are not well considered (or perhaps lack inadequate follow through). Teachers do indeed roll their eyes. Practical programmes with meaningful follow-up and small achievable goals should be given priority. A practical commonsense approach to professional development, preferably provided by fellow teachers on secondment to the administration providing the pd.

Cheers, John”

Mathew Needleman, author of the informative blog, Creating Lifelong Learners, created and posted this excellent video on YouTube the other day. It is well worth watching. The video elegantly portrays in a visual manner the essence of much of the writing in the world of educational blogging.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/lm1sCsl2MQY" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Update: Mathew has blogged about the video at this post.

About a day or so ago I exchanged a couple of brief notes via Twitter with edublogger par excellence Clay Burrell regarding the Flock browser. I mentioned that I liked Flock but was disappointed that I could not post directly to my self- hosted Wordpress blog. It has trouble recognising the api I think. Prior to that I could post directly to my old Blogger blog. It is a neat tool as you automatically gather the urls and images into the post via Flock’s excellent feature set.

Well, I was glancing through my tweets this morning and here is this tweet from the Flock team asking how can they help with my Flock problem. That is amazing. I wasn’t even following Flock.

Think about it. If I had commented on my Mac or something to do with Microsoft Office would I have received a tweet from those organisations? I replied and I now await their response.

Update: Monday 24th March. Flock replied to my twitter response and provided me with the email address of one of their staff members. Excellent service!

Christopher D. Sessums has written on social networks and he has used the agora of the ancient Greeks as an analogy. He writes that the “various social and participatory applications available to us can serve… as a place where people can freely examine a wide range of ideas and ideals.”

I will not attempt to paraphrase all of Christopher’s post yet he asked a couple of questions that resonated with me. He writes:

“But the next step requires us to be reflective. The Internet and Web have afforded us an opportunity to re-examine and re-define our morals, our communities, our nations, and the globe. But will these conversations be limited to only a few? What mechanisms are in place to encourage and support a wide range of thought and activity?”

I have wondered about the conversations of late and the diversity of thought within the edublogosphere and at least within the blogs that I read there seems to be a sameness creeping into the environment. I articulated these thoughts a little further on Christopher’s blog. Something along these lines…

I feel that his two questions, as quoted above, are timely and they need to be asked. I have sensed of late that segments of the “edublogosphere” are dominated by a small coterie of seasoned bloggers who are followed by a dedicated core of disciples that hang off their every word. I think this is stifling original thought and creating a sameness in some edublogging arenas. The conversations are limited to a few yet cloned by many.

I have observed a number of new edubloggers join the networks of late and they soon become mirror images of the more seasoned or ‘vocal’ edubloggers. It is a pity. I feel that the twitter networks play a role in the establishment of this sameness.

“What sort of mechanisms can we set up to encourage creativity and diversity among edubloggers?” I agree that the world of education bloggers should be more like an agora with a highly varied range of discussions, debates, marketing of ideas and the ‘playing of games’ (as per an agora). The agora of ancient Athens was largely responsible for the creation of democracy, philosophy and western thought.

At the moment I fear that the edublogosphere is evolving into a collection of shopping malls populated with overly dominant voices that are differentatiated only in the way that they are branded. We do need more voices. Different voices.

Looking at Christopher’s blogroll I also think it is time I explored a few new voices and joined a few new networks.

Mathew Needleman’s post on being smarter than a Google search alerted me to a post by Tim Holt. In his post Tim remarks upon a question posed by Marco Torres to a group of teachers.

Marco’s question was: “So, what knowledge do you possess that a 16 year old kid could not look up on Google?”

Tim considers that Marco’s question is very great indeed and his post posits that whereas doctors and artists can apply and synthesise the knowledge that they possess to solve a problem teachers seemingly are not doing that at this moment. Teachers are simply repositories of knowledge. He writes that a change is now needed to apply these higher order thinking skills of synthesis, application and problem solving in the classroom and so bring education up to date. He labels those three skills “21st century skills”. He also writes that the lecture is dead. I could not help but respond. This is the comment I wrote on Tim’s blog.

“I am a teacher and I think I manage to impart some wisdom each day. I have imparted knowledge garnered from my parents, siblings, friends, teachers, lecturers and acquaintances that cannot be found via Google. Allow me to qualify that I am not knocking Google. I actually teach my students how to use Google, Kartoo, Vivisimo and other search tools intelligently.

The knowledge I acquired from my relatives, teachers and friends over the years harnessed in tandem with the wisdom that lies within that knowledge forms a crucial part of the storytelling component of my lessons on 20th century history. That same knowledge has generated laughter and tears as well as understanding. That same knowledge has created a difference within the students. Before that knowledge was imparted the students were at point A in the learning journey. Following the receipt of the knowledge they were at point B in the learning journey. There was a difference, a change. Google was not applied in the creation of that change.

I grow a little tired of how some commentators apply blanket criticisms of the teaching profession. Marco’s question is somewhat puerile and will certainly not endear him to the teaching profession in general. He makes a good point regarding the knowledge economy but surely he could make it in a more collegial and diplomatic manner.

I feel that excluding teachers from your list of experts is rather simplistic. Teachers also apply knowledge. My colleagues and I do so every day. We were all applying those 21st century learning skills last century.

There is still a place in education for lectures. We have all attended great lectures that enthralled us from beginning to end. Granted you need a lecturer capable of delivering a great story.

Cheers, John”

Last week a number of teachers and students from the Albion Park ~ Oak Flats area of the Illawarra visited the Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway in Sydney. We were guest of the Albion Park RSL Sub Branch. The Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL) serves the interests of its members, veterans, the ex-service community and members of the Australian Defence Force.

The Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway is an interesting memorial. It remembers the bravery of the Australian troops who fought through appalling conditions and against superior enemy numbers in the Papua-New Guinea campaign of July 1942-January 1943. The Australians inflicted defeat on the Japanese Imperial Army with US support. The fighting took place along the Kokoda Track.

View Larger Map

The walkway consists of a series of stations along an 800 metre walk. Each station documents an event during the campaign. There is also a larger memorial complete with a water feature and five startling images from the campaign that have been sandblasted into the walls of the memorial.

There were guides from the RSL that took small groups of three or so teachers and students from station to station. Our guides were Charlie and Lloyd. Both men had fought in the campaign and were now in their eighties. The oldest guide was 91 years of age. It was both amazing and moving to meet some of the men that were in the historical photographs displayed at the memorial.

The day was most informative and despite the heat a good day was had by all. The RSL provided lunch for all of the teachers and students as well as providing coach transport to and from the venue. They were excellent hosts.

Looking towards the main memorial

Part of the main memorial

A section of the memorial walkway

One of the stations

A selection of the indivdual memorials at the Rose Garden

The walkway is supported with an excellent web site that provides additional detail and photographs for each of the stations on the walkway. There is also a selection of oral histories with both archival and recent recordings of the ‘diggers’ on the track.

The web site constitutes an excellent resource for teachers and students of both Australian history and the history of the Pacific campaigns during the Second World War. Students undertaking Stage 5 history in NSW would particularly find this site useful as they explore the role played by Australia during the Second World War.

Links:

Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway

The Kokoda Track at www.anzacday.org.au

The Kokoda Trail at www.diggerhistory.info

The Kokoda Track Campaign at wikipedia

George Siemens, author of the Connectivism Blog, wrote a nice piece on pedagogy and technology today. He questions the fixation that some educators have with the role of pedagogy in using technology. I will not attempt to recreate his thoughts myself however I will embed a couple of quotes from his post…

Let’s abandon the somewhat silly notion of pedagogy first and recognize that the choice of technology is driven by many contextual factors and therefore context is what we are evaluating and considering when we first start talking about possible technology to use. Then, after we have selected technology, we can start talking about pedagogy. Pedagogy is just not a practical starting point for deciding the technology we should use.

I thought I would take this opportunity to publish my comment to his post here as well. I attempted to articulate the unconscious (or semi-conscious?) process that I go through when I use technology as part of the teaching and learning process. Here is what I wrote…

George,

Yes. What do the students actually need to learn? What is the situation? What is happening in the school, classroom and in my head? What is the end goal for the students? Is it an attitudinal, skill or knowledge based outcome/objective? These questions float beneath the conscious.

Now, which tool do I draw upon to achieve this objective? I reach into my invisible backpack of teaching experience and select the appropriate tool. Is it a piece of chalk, an experiment, a debate, a field trip, an essay or perhaps I may reach into my backpack and pull out a little technology? As I select the tool I also think (unconsciously?) about timing, place, assessment, my state of mind and the students’ state of mind.

The backpack in context

I am not consciously thinking “pedagogy” as I select the tool. I am simply thinking what needs to be done and what factors are most influential at that time. I am simply applying commonsense and a practical approach to the job. This commonsense is generally an unconscious act ~ it is not uppermost in my mind. It is simply there. It is how I teach/work. Some people may label that process pedagogy. I just think it is commonsense.

If technology is the best or even simply a good tool for the job then why not use that tool? I will pull technology out of that invisible backpack that I carry with me as a teacher. So, this time, reassured that I know it is a good tool (strategy/tactic) I will use technology. Not all the time, but sometimes.

George, you mentioned Second Life as an example. I have never personally used SL but I have been to a couple of educational sites within SL and I feel that Second Life, for example, would probably be useful as a tool for teaching economics students how to run a business or manage an island resort (depending upon the funds available). So, why not use Second Life as a tool of choice? If it matches the need and suits the situation then give it a go. Make a note of the process and store that within your invisible backpack for future reference.

Are my thoughts clear? I think they agree with you. I know I agree with you. Perhaps I need a quiet beer.

Your post stood out among the feeds this late Sunday afternoon as the term ‘pedagogy’ had a bad name within a school where I once taught. Speaking the word was not recommended within the staffroom. The staff had grown tired of, and cynical towards, the endless annual cycles of professional development that seemingly focused more on the theoretical and less so on the practical.

This morning I read and commented on a post by Will Richardson in which he reflects on the 130 plus comments that one of his earlier posts received. He asked the following questions within his post and I replied as indicated below:

Question: Can anyone really read through 130 comments? Answer: Not all the time.

Question: Are we getting too distracted, too connected, too participatory for our own good? Answer: Yes.

When I began using Netscape I used to bookmark everything. It was all so new. It was like being a collector. An obsessive compulsive disorder. I just had to collect that next bookmark. Those hundreds of bookmarks are on a CD-ROM gathering digital dust.

There are only about a dozen websites that I regularly visit now. That is enough.

But then there is those 184 blogs in my RSS reader. Will the majority of those blog feeds go the same way as my deceased bookmarks? I think so.

That question again: Are we getting too distracted, too connected, too participatory for our own good? Answer: Yes.

I feel that there is a considerable amount of redundancy within the edublogosphere, a consequential reduction in original thought and the growth of an edublogging elite.

Now for part 2 of my story. Part 1 is here. The Good To Great 2008 Teaching and Learning Seminar at Nanyang Technological University concluded on Thursday afternoon. There were a number of workshops where the threads of the conference were drawn together and presented to the attendees at the final session. The participants in my group considered issues such as the bridges that need to built to connect teachers and learners. The obstacles that one could encounter were considered and finally the first steps that one needs to take were discussed among the group.

How can we build bridges between teachers and students?

There were some very creative teachers in the group and one collection of teachers produced the following two illustrations…

Two challenges faced by teachers in utilising technology in teaching and learning.

A first step that can be taken by teachers in using technology in the classroom…

During the course of this workshop I fired up Twitter and posed the questions to the ‘universe’. Sue Waters [blog ~ twitter] of the Edublogger and Willis Whitlock [blog ~ twitter] graciously responded and I shared their timely and informative input live with the participants. It was quite neat to be able to demonstrate this tool ‘live’ per se. Thank you very much Sue and Willis! Much appreciated!

Sue and Willis contribute to the discussion via Twitter.

I am not a frequent user of Twitter. I received some feedback about Twitter at the seminar. One commentator confused Twitter with Skype and declared that they would stick to Skype. I find it difficult to understand how anyone could confuse Twitter with Skype. Two completely different tools with two completely different functions. Like comparing apples with aadvarks. By the way, Sue Waters, just published another excellent post about Twitter and some of the tools that you can use to access the messages and embedded urls. Sue is a legend. Sue wished to know how the participants had responded. I shall get a transcript of their work and share it with Sue and all that read this blog.

We all explored Twitter and WebNode

I conducted a couple of more workshops on a variety of tools including WebNode, Wordpress and podcasting. I worked quite hard and I think all of the participants had a beneficial time. Some of my workshop participants are pictured above and below.

Together we explored podcasting, blogging and webnode. Too much for one day!

During the course of the week the conference presenters and delegates were supported by the brilliant team at the Centre for Educational Development and student helpers. They were all very helpful and totally committed to ensuring everyone had an excellent expereience.

The excellent team of the CED

June, far right, with the wonderful student volunteers

At the end of the day, Friday, I packed up and together with Sheryl and Vivien of the Centre for Educational Development at NTU took a taxi directly from the university to the new T3 terminal at Singapore’s Changi International Airport and we shared dinner. It was a wonderful way to conclude the week. Vivien and Sheryl are excellent company and we had a great evening. They bid me farewell at the gate and I took a Singapore Airlines flight back home to Australia.

Vivien and I

Sheryl and I

Our excellent dinner!

Vivien tries the spicy soup!