Blog Wondering

Just spent the last hour wondering around the edublog world via my bloglines account getting caught up on everything I missed while unwired for two weeks. I was actually planning on doing some commenting on great articles that inspired me, but didnÂ’t find any. ThatÂ’s not to say there are not great conversations going on, just none that were calling me to contribute, and I find forced contribution leaves me thinking more then writing.

So on my blog wondering a couple of things I enjoyed.

PodcasterCon 2006

I love this whole blogging, wiki, podcasting thing that can be done at conferences now. Here I am in Shanghai, and I can still partially attend the PodcasterCon conference thanks to David Warlick and Steve Dembo doing a great job of blogging their thinking during the conference, and there is even more info on the wiki page. I just wonder: What does the law say about this? I mean, if IÂ’m a big speaker dude going around to conferences and people are blogging, podcasting, etc what IÂ’m talking about, will people stop coming? IÂ’m waiting to see the day someone gets sued over podcasting a conference where the entrance fee is 500 bucks.

Lobbying for Change

A great conversation going on with Doug Johnson and John Pederson over creating change at the macro level, and a strong rebuttal from Tom Hoffman.

Still trying to get my head around this whole idea. I understand we in the edtech world are all frustrated with the slow pace at which education moves, but unless there is presidential backed legislation like NCLB, change will continue to be slow, not that we can afford it. Tom makes some good points in his posting and I like JohnÂ’s approach to the problem. In the end change takes time, you will find it in pockets around the world where leaders of schools (Superintendents, Principals, etc) who understand the change process and who realize the world outside the walls of our schools are changing will continue to progress. But those with leaders who do not think beyond the walls of the school will continue to lag behind. With the added pressure of NCLB breathing down school leaderÂ’s necks, how can we change? Change can only take place if you know where you are at, and right now IÂ’m not sure education knows where it is. NCLB has left many educators scratching their heads. We know standardize tests do not tell the whole story of the whole child, but we continue to use it to do just that. I wonder if there are any other companies/organizations out there that continue to do something when research shows that itÂ’s not right and when the majority of employeeÂ’s agree itÂ’s not right.

Best entry of the day

I enjoyed reading Clarence Fisher entry on Wikifying Knowledge. HeÂ’s doing some great things with his 8^th graders. IÂ’ll be using his class wiki site to show teachers at my school the power of the internet.

Tim Lauer continues to amaze me with the cool things he finds on the web. This time I grabbed the Geo Visitors link from his page. He finds some of the best educational software/add-ons/ and goodies from the web.

Upcoming.org

John Pederson started an upcoming.org edublogger community a place to put upcoming conferences and events for the edublogging world. IÂ’ll be checking it often, not that there is much I can do from here.