Leigh Blackall, an educational technologist that ‘specialises in the use of socially networked media and communication and its relationship to socially constructed learning’ at Otago Polytechnic, New Zealand has written a telling post on connectivity. His post looks at the premise that content is king and he argues that it is connectivity that is important in education.  Well worth your time to read. I could not agree more with Lee’s sentiments.

I have been catching up on my reading and procastinating a little at the same time. But, to get to the point. Sue Waters and Michelle Martin have written simply excellent posts about Twitter and blogging respectively. They actually compose excellent posts all of the time and I wonder if I will ever manage to do the same. I can only hope.

Sue Waters posted some excellent advice on how to manage your twitter community and how to keep relatively on top of it all. Sue’s advice is practical and straightforward. Her advice is always useful. I haven’t been watching Twitter that much in the last week or so but I shall see if I can manage a Twitter moment each day and see what crops up.

Michelle’s post last week was on why people do not comment on your blog. I read her advice closely of course as I do not attract many comments. I am not that paranoid about it but it would be nice to obtain more comments. I will follow her advice and make some changes to my blog and writing style. Michelle has written a great follow up post as well.

Maybe my writing is too scientific. Perhaps it is too academic? Is it boring? Is my writing clear? Is it too verbose? Enough.

Frankly, I would like to let go and post about life at work and what I see happening at school and in the local area vis-à-vis educational technology however I felt that would simply become a rant. So, my present goal is to converge my two separate career backgrounds, history and technology, and focus my blogging in that area. I shall try and merge with other other history~ humanities educators and build up a community that way. I will of course write about the tools but at least attempt to add a curriculum example as part of the tool review.

Do yourself a favour and read Sue’s definitive post on Twitter and Michelle’s invaluable post on blogging. Don’t forget to tag their posts in del.icio.us and share them via Google Reader and the like!

I recently purchased an award winning book created by the artist Shaun Tan. The title of the book is The Arrival and via a captivating series of beautifully illustrated pictures it tells the story of an immigrant as they travel and adjust to a new land. It is a superb book.

The story is told without a single word. It is a truly beautiful book. The following two links provide more information on the book.
1. University of the Sunshine Coast item.
2. Good Reading Magazine.
It can be purchased via Amazon.