Daily Archives: August 31, 2007

4 Comments

I feel pretty tired now - travelling even on a jaunt from one state to another is draining - possibly because I so rarely do this. But if I want to capture my thoughts from today's participation at the "Live To Learn, Learn To Blog" event at Ivanhoe Grammar here in Melbourne, I'd better do it now before my good intentions fade away.

I only had two participants in my first session - one, an experienced edublogger who I have read and connected with for a while, Warrick Wynne and another young teacher for who the whole concept of blogging was brand new. Warrick wanted to see whether my experiences fitted with his perspective and he still found out a few new things along the way but my other participant was eager, open minded and busily taking notes and contemplating the possibilities. I showed my 4slidecomp entry as my way of introducing myself then used my slideshow as a way of keeping myself on track and some visual metaphors for my ideas. We had a brief sojourn into Bloglines and public accounts and some more interactive discussion because the group was so small. Time went pretty fast and before you know it, it was time for the next group.

The challenge was here because I asked if anyone had their own blog and everyone raised their hands. Cool, I thought, they'll be ready for my ideas. Until it was pointed out that they had just started them in the session before with James Farmer! All of a sudden, I wasn't so confident my session would be hitting the mark. Anyway, same process but we spent some time looking at Google Reader as a Bloglines alternative and I also plugged Pageflakes as a good way to have "small pieces, loosely joined" RSS content. Also, for any of the workshop attendees, here's the link to Alan Levine's "More Than Cat Diaries".

If you were in one of my sessions, don't be shy, chuck in a comment - tell if I was useful, boring or baffling. If you link to your edublog, I'll practice what I preach, visit and leave you a comment in return.

It was great to head out for a meal afterwards with Warrick and Joseph Papaleo, who was the brains behind today's event. Thanks gentlemen, for the company and thought provoking conversation. I must say, Melbourne is a great place.

Update: here's the edited audio to go with the slideshare.