Here are the PowerPoint slides for my ASCILITE 2005 presentation of the blogs @ anywhere paper.

Essentially I’m trying to put the cat amongst the f2f pigeons in a similar way to how I did virtually at at blogsavvy. Nothing particularly balanced, considered or ‘big picture’, just plain old ranting and raving about the fundamentals of how you can successfully work with blogs in education.

What I do like about this though is that it’s one of the first times (in this ‘generalist’ conference sense) that I’m not going to start by explaining what a blog is… unwise perhaps but much more fun!

Spent this morning having an excellent conversation with Anne & Chris around the state of education and technology for Adrian’s upcoming issue of Fibreculture. Will post it here if Adrian’ll give me permission :)

Along those lines, from CJ’s:

“There is now a huge industry of writing about, puzzling about and in general making noise about using computing and related technologies in the noble pursuit of supporting teaching, and by extension, the thing that goes on in peoples’ heads that we call learning. The L word, one of my top ten “catch-all verging on meaningless” terms of all time. What is so interesting is that folk continue to write about this stuff as if it is something new, different, wonderful. News Flash. This has been going on since the late 70’s and before then if you want to include some of the pre-microcomputer stuff. And, most importantly, there has been precious new to say about it….”

This is something I’d *definitely* agree with in K-12 contexts… not sure about HE though.

Gah… the stoopid ‘backup’ system here just wrecked all my email folders & saved messages… Seeing as I generally use this as a big list of “Things to do” I’m in a bit of trouble :(

If you’ve asked me to do anything / emailed me about anything in particular that I haven’t got back to you about in the last week or so please can you send it through again… sorry!

Aw, sod it, I need to make more time for some of these audio babies… any particular podcasts that you’d recommend?

I have some strange vision of listening to these being a strong motivating factor in going for a run / ride / getting healthier in some way…

• Johannes Ernst's Blog – URLs for digital ID… hell yeh!
• Early thoughts on Joomla (nee Mambo) at D’Arcy Norman Dot Net
  Saves me plodding through it :) Looks interesting though… perhaps it’s worth a stroll…

Am having an entertaining time getting ready as a presenter for ASCILITE 2005 next week.

First up the four of us who are presenting on blog-esque stuff were asked to get our heads together in a ‘fully functional’ online environment to decide how we wanted to run our sessions, where (apparently the botanical gardens were an option) and in what way… which all sounds great in principle. Naturally a few group emails went round, we shared our papers and by the looks of it they made the decision for us :)

Then we’ve all been invited to contribute to the 2005 Activity Portal… where no doubt there will be more rich media, integrated and cutting edge online communication tools for us to use.

One of which, I was somewhat surprised to hear, is blogs! Yes, come the 30th November (but not before?) each session (I think, as opposed to presenter) gets their own ‘blogg’ [sic. – that was from an earlier email ;] Oh w00t. Quite amusing considering that my workshop and session are in many ways about how I reckon you *shouldn’t* use the technology!

The coup de grace, ‘owever, has to be what I received in the email this morning (I’m just assuming that they mean 2005 here…) – emphasis by me:

Iron Chef’ Comes to ASCILITE 2006

We would like to invite you to sign up for the Blackboard ‘Design Circle’ challenge at ASCILITE next week. In the spirit of the ‘Iron Chef’ TV show, two groups will challenge each other (and themselves), to design an interactive learning experience.

Ingredients – two sets of identical online course materials, and access to some exciting online tools from fellow ASCILITE sponsors

Menu – Designing a learning experience, utilizing online tools and strategies

Who’s coming to dinner – Your learning design will be aimed at an undergraduate cohort of students. Roughly half of these students are internal and half off-campus.

Chef Experience – unlike the ‘Iron Chef’ this Design Circle does not require you to be an expert or even have used the Blackboard learning environment. If you’re not ‘techy’ it doesn’t matter. We want people to come and learn, have fun, and throw their own special ingredients into the pot.

Expert facilitators from the ASCILITE executive will lead the teams, and Blackboard will provide support to bring your ‘recipe’ to perfection.

Somebody get me a stiff drink… I think I fancy taking the buggers on ;)

• Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Paper aeroplane
  Make the perfect paper aeroplane… I have *always* wanted to know this

Hey, I found Tom Hoffman, wondered where he’d gone :o) But at the same time… this as one of the top 20 edublogs… c’mon, lay off the arse-suckery and get your nominations into the edublog awards!!!

Well, you know you’re doing something right if people start trying to stop you (I know this is an odd logic but it seems to be true in a bizarre way) I quote from two emails received when I sent out the first edublogs.org newsletter:

“I used your blog for a few weeks during Sept, Oct, however, the A-site of our school district has now blocked your blogs. Students can no longer use these for asynchronous discussions. Thank you for providing this service to educators. We appreciate everything you do for students everywhere.”

“Thanks for all you do!! Currently, I’m having some trouble accessing my edublog due to the censorship I have to put up with in my school district. I’ve literally been blocked from using it at the district level. I’ve written our district webmaster and asked for an explanation for this. Do you have any suggestions for me as to how to “get around” this problem?? I put a lot of work into my blog and want to use it with my students and parents.”

WTF???????

How to deal with this??? Any ideas???

Update: Looks like this is happening all over the place.

As far as I can see though, no-one is doing anything about it (apart from on an individual basis)… and you know what they say about collective vs. individual action!!!

So howabout it, I want to be part of something that stands against this ridiculous censorship in schools, that states clearly and unequivocally that he most important thing is to teach people to swim and that can clearly and unequivocally say to these educational establishments that what they are doing is WRONG and STUPID.

Are you with me?

Well, what with Blogtalk Reloaded being announced for Vienna in October 2006 it’s a pretty exciting time (again!) in the world of Blogging Conferences because Blog Hui: New Zealand’s First International Blogging Conference has also just been launched by the ever resourceful and ridiculously energetic Lynsey Gedye.

It looks like it’s going to be absolutely excellent with international speakers including Torill Mortensen, Trevor Romain and the one and only Mark Bernstein!

I’ll definitely be trying to get to this as well… now there’s a drawcard ;)

Here’s the call for papers (or posters!), in summary:

• Case studies of local experiences in implementing blogging technologies
• Blogitics – blogging as a political tool – activism online
• Blogging the arts: Web 2.0 independent music publishing, photographers, and artists
• Personal blogs and portals
• Blogging with a conscience – blogging to make a difference
• Portfolio blogging – promoting, presenting, and protecting your creativity
• Developing blog-based teaching materials, resources and techniques
• Fear and loathing in the long tail – managing your public life online
• Blog writing style
• Collaborative blogging
• Making money with your blog
• Desk top blogging – fine publishing from home
• Building your community and traffic, connecting with your tribe in the blogosphere
• Blogging on the intranet – blogging in the office
• Traditional PR, marketing and the “blogosphere”
• Theoretical and conceptual reviews, technical reviews
• Social networking tools, blogging tools, aggregation and technology: RSS, XML, podcasting and video blogging

Please, if you can, spread the word on this one… it’s kinda the natural successor to Blogtalk Downunder and is as good an excuse as any I reckon for a trip to beautiful NZ and Wellington!