Daily Archives: June 23, 2006

It's great to be reading some Artichoke again, challenging my meager brainwaves and prompting me to get tapping on the keyboard here in earnest. I loved this line from Foreshadowing an Attack on The Blu(e) Fairy:

A trivial concern perhaps, given some of my conversations with the other Blue Fairy, but I find it interesting nonetheless to think about what we accommodate in our “day to day” work in the fairyscapes of education, and how much of what we do each day betrays what we believe.

The bolded bits are Arti's own but the bit that rings true for me, especially when I start slipping into negative mode (see last post). What this phrase does for me is bring up the thought that's been lurking (perfectly acceptable online behaviour) in the recesses of my mind that I'm actually a big hypocrite in so many aspects of my beliefs that run contrary to my actual actions. Here's a few examples:

  • I love the concept of open source software and try to use and promote the existence of programs like Open Office and Cmaps and Firefox but when I want to sync my Windows Mobile 2003 based Pocket PC to read blogs offline, I need my Internet Explorer to link up my Mobile Favourites.
  • I talk up the importance of blogs and the global conversation but have yet to jump the hurdles to do blogging fully with the kids I teach.
  • I talk about the fact that if schools are to use Interactive Whiteboards as an effective technology we need to move on from using it as a teacher controlled tool - I know my own classroom practice doesn't reflect the innovation needed to be true to this.
  • I explore the ideas behind e-portfolios but don't have one myself!
  • I complained about Edublogger Awards being elitist but secretly would have loved to have been nominated in some form.
  • I like to talk up innovation but am slack in getting my work documented along the way.
  • I bristle at people who insinuate that blogging requires a commitment to finding time they don't have but never actually admit how much time I spend crafting my ideas and posts using methods and grabs of time that others might not bother with.
  • I work hard to ensure that our MYLU presentation is equitably negotiated but impose my preferences on the others (hosted on a wiki, my presentation stamp on the flipchart, my choice of theory framework to hang our ideas on).
  • I really am in awe of how my voice has been heard in this global conversation, how many people link to me, leave me comments, have me on their blogroll but still feel envious when others are the ones making impressions on topics dear to my heart or have way more Bloglines subscribers on their feed.
  • In the same vein, I blog for my own reasons and not for a perceived audience but still get really peeved when Bloglines feeds from incsub and edublogs.org drop off the map and I don't see my posts and comments popping up.

So I've opened up some of my own hypocrisy for my loyal readers to peruse and I challenge you as well. I'm a hypocrite - how about you?

Photo credit - Target Sign by seekaltroutes Flickr Creative Commons images.