Live bodies

In which it is quiet on the blog, but I speak in public. 
In early February I had the opportunity to talk to and with a few K-12 teachers about the potential of open education resources and personal learning environments. It was a sizable conference, with an attendance of about ten for my particular session, and [...]

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CCK08: Wait– done already?

In which I have been told several times in the past few days to “step away from the computer, and no one gets hurt…”
What with the last days of the formal Connectivism and Connective Knowledge (CCK08) course activity falling on a long U.S. holiday weekend, I’m feeling rather scattered and pulled among local and distant networks [...]

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CCK08: Paths less taken

In which the best I can do is try to “be the change…“ 
Do schools and education need to change?
Yes, at least for some.
Why?
1. Because some learners are unhappy/ worried/ stressed/ frustrated/ bored/ ill-served.
2. Because learners are easily and commonly convinced that these conditions are trivial/normal/good for them.
What obstacles are in the way of change?
Upright and [...]

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CCK08: Skyped

And in other news..
I think I first used Skype in 2003 or 2004. We called the other half of the family (thanks to the dispersal of technology genes on two sides of the ocean) for Christmas and wound up talking to at least eight family members. Our pork roast baked to leather, and our elfin, [...]

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CCK08: Shh. I’m listening…slowly

In which I explore the rudiments of a concept and reflect on connective knowledge through listening…
There’s slow food. Slow travel. Slow blogging. I’m a fan across the board. So it’s no wonder, then, that I’m also inclined toward what I’ve decided to call “slow listening.”
Someone I’d consider an internationally known “slow listener,” Studs Terkel, died last [...]

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CCK08: Notes on paradigms and power

And in other news…
Notes from recent popular reading:
On paradigms
Paradigms are mental models that constrain our thinking and are often based on assumptions so strong we don’t notice them. New paradigms cause disruption and uncertainty, even calamity, and are nearly always received with coolness, hostility, or worse. Vested interests fight against the change, and leaders of [...]

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CCK08: Gimme an “M,” Gimme an “O”…

In which I make explicit tacit understandings on my part…
Our household recently received a box of old (ah-hem, 1970s) comic books from an uncle who was cleaning out his storage room. We found the advertisements even better than the comics themselves. Who wouldn’t, when the inside front covers feature a full-page ad urging kids (well, [...]

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CCK08: Telling Tales

And in other news…
In a recent elearnspace post, George Siemens commented on the growing role of personal context narratives in education. As a primary user of this technique in relation to the connectivism course, I spent some time ruminating on the context for personal context narratives…
I would suspect that the open course format, with its [...]

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CCK08: Born Digital and a new map

And in other news…
As is the case with any consuming topic, connections to connectivism are everywhere. Here are a couple I’ve been mulling over:
Last week’s early elluminate session with Alec Couros brought talk of multiple lives and digital identities. Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives  (John Palfrey and Urs Gasser, Basic Books, 2008) [...]

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CCK08: Complexity 101

In which I catch some air and put boots on the ground.

 
Every once in a while, I’m invited to work with groups or classes on history projects as a “real live historian.” (Insert your own joke here.) Several years ago, I parachuted into a group of students who were putting together a self-selected, relatively “open” [...]

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