http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ConfusedOfCalcutta/~3/136234851/

Fang – Mike Seyfang

I agree that we need open communities.
I did think that an approach of having the user decide if their individual component of info was public was ok. It means people could draft something and ‘publish’ it later? Perhaps I am sliding into codgerness.

I found the mix of concrete squeak and web 2 conversation in Bill and Graham’s presentations useful.

I feel that the SJ stuff about teachers is more a product of context and delivering to formal requirements than any innate SJ flavour. Although I guess if you want stretchy folk they will self select out of more formal contexts.

Apologies for not putting a paper in and for being a chaos fairy on the day. Hoping that the codecamp will become a kind of applied group paper/project.

j

Interesting isn’t it how the trends change and evolve. Maybe it’s because we have a more open environment over here in Vic insofar as blogs etc and schools go. At last year’s equivalent to CEGSA, the ICTEV conference, there were 3-4 Web 2.0 based sessions on offer compared with the 7-8 focussed on IWB’s. This year there were some 15 Web 2.0 sessions including James F and Jo as well as Greg Gephart from Netalert. So maybe the full wave is yet to hit over there in SA.

As I blogged recently I was very disappointed by the attendance at one of my sessions at the Science Teachers Conference in Perth recently. For the practical hands on session, make a blog and wiki I only had four participants yet back in Melbourne the next Friday I had 15 participants. This despite a worry from the ICTEV people about teachers attending all day PD’s in their hols. I wouldn’t despair too much as in the words of that old ad, “It won’t happen overnight but it will happen” (I think old age is hitting as that doesn’t sound quite correct even though the sentiments are what I mean.)

In the mean time it gives you more time to hone that message for when the hordes do start beating down the door. Hey I’m jealous though that you got to have such a laid back chat with Al etc.

I am really pleased that you found the Open Source software of interest. You have a blog with a great reputation that could do a lot of good in terms of spreading an understanding about this. FOSS provides a fantastic way for schools to be encouraging students to be continuing with their learning outside of school unencumbered.

‘Learn with the Free Stuff first’.

http://paulwilkinson1.googlepages.com/softwarelinks

if anyone is interested.

That OLPC laptop looked interesting. I’d love to have a play. What are your thoughts on it after having a hands on?

Cheers

It’s a shame you couldn’t stay around for the committee debriefing afterwards – As we start to use and demonstrate online social networks ourselves, others will come to see the benefits, use and adopt them for their own learning and collaborations. We’re still very much a minority but there really are people with vision within the system – we just have to develop strategies to reach them AND the teachers as well. Targeting both ends (but not directing them) – that’s why I talk of “using what we have NOW”, “developing a critical mass” and (a most innapropriate phrase for SA) “the snowball effect”. It appalls me that words like ‘web authoring’ ‘web hosting’, ‘chat’, ‘games’ and ‘storage’ (this is a big one) continue to stop our access to faciliate rich learning. As more sites become available then we will have more options. For now ‘work arounds’ and using unfiltered sites (eg edublogs.org) are what we have to work with. That’s why I’m developing the South Australian Preschools Blogging Network … ‘get them while they’re young’ actually is get ‘them’ (the system and the teachers) while they’re (the kids) are young http://hayki.edublogs.org/
Meanwhile I hope my passion for online social learning tools and fury of the obstructions (including “negligent” – my words – administrators and teachers) were evident at the conference. Online learning is part of our work detail – it’s embedded in what we signed up for!
I also implore you to continue your quest to spread the word of what is, can, could and might be integral to new directions of learning in SA and beyond … not that anyone could stop you now

Although I’ve yet to determine my own ‘re-entry’ strategy into the global networking scene, I’ve got you to thank for encouraging me to dedicate more time there.
Thanks again for your continued contributions. It’s great having you on our committee now. I’m sure we will see more Ning and Twitter (or similar) forming part of our 2008 conference. It’s time to start planning and seeking out more kind hearted keynotes. Ideas abound
The world is such a glorious resource and is full of wonderful souls. I can’t wait to get back to it. Cheers, Al