I’m pretty sure that I was only in Finland for four days. However, given the number of meaningful experiences that occurred during that time span, it seems hard to reconcile its brevity. That being said, I’m back on US soil again, have replaced jet lag with common, every day exhaustion, and am ready to share a bit of what I learned from the experience.

First of all, I do have to thank three groups. A huge thanks goes out to Nokia for hosting an event like this. It was creative, innovative, and a distinct pleasure to be a part of. I also need to thank WOM world. They truly did a phenomenal job of making sure everything ran like clockwork and that the attendees were treated like celebrities at every turn (more on that to come). Lastly, I want to thank the other invitees who attended the inaugural event. I learned quite a bit from the group to say the least, and much of it had nothing to do with cell phones. It was truly an honor to consider them peers.

Alright, now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get on with the good stuff.

That which rocked
I’m trying to by concise, something I’m not really good at. But I think I have to say that it was the people that made up the experience. The attendees were an eclectic, international group who each had something different to contribute. Very diverse perspectives in many ways, not so in others, but on the whole just hanging out with them was a learning experience in itself. There were plenty of Nokia employees around throughout the event, and I do have to admit that it was fascinating talking to them. It’s a massive company and there are so many different aspects of it. It was interesting hearing what each of them have been working on, and discussing what the implications could be for education. And of course, the people of Finland were incredibly gracious, with the exception of one drunken Finnish woman. Oh, how I would love to know what exactly she was screaming at Brian.

The conversations definitely rocked. That’s no different from any conference. However, these were intended to be a little more open, less constrained, and focused on asking “What could we do if…” There were some very creative ideas that arose from the conversations, and some that weren’t quite so. While at times we seemed to be spinning our wheels, on the whole I think there were some innovative subjects broached. I truly hope that Nokia learned something from the event, I know that I did.

The social events truly rocked. There were two fantastic dinners, with drinks and merriment aplenty. Between the stand up comedian one night and the brilliant guitar the second night, it was very clear that they wanted to ensure their visitors had a great time. And we did.

The last piece that gets thrown into the ‘rocked’ drawer is the amount of free time we had. I was truly worried that I wouldn’t have much time to experience Finnish culture and explore Helsinki. I was wrong. I had a very memorable walk with Mike and Jen with plenty of photos to be uploaded still. I experienced a true Finnish sauna, which involved getting to know far more of the group than I had anticipated. And that’s all I’ll say about that. A group of us visited the Kiasma, a modern art museum that had some rather evocative exhibits…. and some that weren’t. One exhibit in particular, The Trainee, I have to admit I did not get at all, until I encountered it again at the airport in Helsinki on the way home. They recreated the exact same installation and I have to admit it was much more intriguing than I my original opinion, which seems to be the museum’s motto, “I don’t get it.”

Meh
We were sent out the Nokia e71 prior to the conference to try out. I swapped my SIM card into there and used it for a couple of weeks leading into the workshops, but unfortunately it was the European version and I couldn’t get on with a 3G connection. Not a big deal, I figured that they did that so we could have high speed connections while in Europe. And one of the first things handed to us when we got to the hotel was a SIM card to use for the trip. That being said, this was a group of people that were accustomed to carrying multiple devices. And for the most part, the e71 wasn’t exactly the ideal all in one for this group (myself included). So there was a ton of sim-swapping going on, and to be honest I didn’t really see that many people use the e71 that much. Compounding this, was the minute the conference was over, we were required to turn in the SIM card. I’m a bit perplexed why they didn’t just have us return them before we left, or even mail them back. Most people I spoke to basically turned off the e71 when the SIM card was taken away, and went back to their regular device. If they really wanted us to make proper use of it, I’d think they’d want to either give us the version that we could use in our ‘homeland’, or at least provide us with a SIM to keep making use of it beyond the constraints of the event.

I know how much I hate when groups just go around the table and everybody shares who they are, what they do for a living and what their favorite shape of pasta is, this event really demonstrated why that’s so necessary. When we began collaborating, we didn’t know each other. In fact, by the time we had an idea who each other were, the first day was essentially through. Context is so valuable to conversations, and it would have been helpful to have had some when we began collaborating.

Third ‘meh’ for the event was a certain lack of communication. I never really knew what the goals were for the event. In fact, there were some very X-Files conspiracy theories floating around. One theory was that the event was actually more for internal purposes, to illuminate the rest of the company to the power and relevance of social media. Another was simply that it was good for marketing, because surely the bloggers would type up posts like this one. All buzz is good buzz, so sayeth the gods of social media.

Fail
This leads me to the stuff that I don’t think worked. Namely, the structure of the event. There were two days. One day was workshops, the second day was presentations. During the first day, we’d have a 10-20 minute introduction about a topic, and then about 40 minutes to discuss, brainstorm and share back with the group.

Side out rotate.

We were randomly put into groups, and often the specific direction that the groups discussed was determined by the age old system of whoever shouts out first and loudest. I don’t mind randomness though, in fact sometimes it’s kind of nice talking about a topic that is far away from your comfort zone. However, that being said, is 40 minutes really enough time to do a deep delve into any topic? I would say no. In fact, at least three times i felt like the conversation was just barely beginning to get rolling, when we realized we had to stop and start planning how to present our ‘findings’. I was mortified when people who were striking out in some different directions that were contrary to what the group had been talking about, got cut off because we simply didn’t have time to explore their ideas. Very disappointing.

Let’s face it. You handpick 35 early adopters, social media gurus, highly connected, bleeding edge leaders in the world of new technologies… You fly them out to Helsinki and put them up for several nights… You create a stimulating environment and host lavish meals and events for them… And then have them contribute for a grand total of 3 hours? (4 brainstorming sessions x 45 minutes each) What a waste… With the group of people in that room, I truly felt like we could have accomplished something, really delved deeply into some of the different topics, provided some new insight or innovative ideas, beyond off the cuff surface thinking. Instead, there were many people who’s ideas were never heard, which is horrifying considering the nature of the event.

Additionally, there was very little effort made to involve the outside community. We pushed quite a bit of information outwards, but short of a brief pseudo-integration with Second Life, there was no effort to bring anybody from the outside in. If we’re sharing the event with the outside world, why not take it the next step and invite them to participate and contribute? Heck, just putting up a Tweet or SMS wall that allowed people to interact with the attendees would have been welcome in my mind.

Along those lines, one of the biggest surprises to me was the distinct lack of backchannel. Backchannel’s are commonplace for most edtech conferences now, so I was very surprised that nobody expressed a desire to create a backchannel for the conference. Twitter kinda sorta served as an unofficial backchannel, but by the time most of discovered and connected to the other people there, the event was basically over. I think that would have been extremely helpful, particularly during the presentations of the second day.

Lessons Learned:
I guess this one should be obvious, but you get out of an experience what you put into it. I realized pretty quickly that education wasn’t going to be a focus, and didn’t really figure much into most of the topics we were discussing. I could have tried to force the groups along my preferred path, but I didn’t think that’d be constructive. Instead, I realized that we had a pretty eclectic group of people gathered, many of whom are currently making a career out of jobs that didn’t exist when we were growing up (sound familiar?). So with that in mind, I thought I’d do a little informal survey and see what people had to say about their education. I asked about 10 people or so some questions about their schooling and got some pretty fascinating answers. Videos to be edited and shared soon.

Another point that I think bears further exploration is the idea of fame in the 21st century. Every person at this event was famous… for 15 people (give or take a few thousand). Very well known, very well respected, among a very tiny community of people. I like to think that I’m pretty well known in the EdTech community. And yet, I guarantee you there was not one person there that knew who I was. And for the most part, I didn’t know anybody else there prior to being introduced to them. There were sites I knew and employers I recognized, but nobody was what I would consider a household name, even amongst the bloggerati. However, as I said, everybody there was famous.

It made for an interesting dynamic. Some were rather outspoken, others rather soft spoken. Clearly a few people felt intimidated and didn’t want to chime in despite efforts to draw them out. Others simply dominated the conversation. It truly did emphasize to me the opportunity that every person has to become famous nowadays. It doesn’t take much to become famous, simply persistence, courage and the confidence to put yourself on the line. That’s it. Ironically, expertise is optional.

The last point I’ll mention in closing is more of a question than anything else… Which is more important, diversity of ideals and interests, or diversity of cultures and personalities? We had plenty of the latter, and not as much of the former. As diverse a group as we had, we were remarkably homogeneous. More often than not, it’s the conflict of opinions that leads to new ideas. Innovation doesn’t occur in an environment where everybody agrees. And there was precious little disagreement during these sessions. If people disagreed, it would come out on Twitter later, rather than verbally much of the time. I suppose part of it could have been because of the limited time available, but I think it was actually more due to the fact that everybody there had similar characteristics when it came to technology.

Ok, one more point/rant and then I swear I’m closing off. Let me just say that after spending half a week with this hyper connected, social media obsessed group, I really wanted to throw my cell phone through a window by the end. Believe me, I’m still pro-twitter, pro-blogging, pro-sms, pro-cell phones in the classroom and all. But I was appalled at how many people simply were unable to UNPLUG even just for the duration of a meal. I vividly remember at one point looking around, and at a table for ten, six people were busy typing away on a total of 8 devices. We were flown halfway around the world, being put up in an incredible hotel, and had the opportunity to collaborate with some brilliant minds… and people couldn’t seem to break away from the network overlay. Believe me, I understand the desire to tweet everything that happens, and I’m hardly a model example for the manners textbook, but that was just too much… Cell phones and mobile technologies should augment communication, not replace it. I just kept flashing back to the presentation we had seen earlier in the day by Adam Greenfield. He showed an image of a woman walking through the mall talking on her cell phone, and pointed out that while physically she was there, mentally she was nowhere near that mall. Her mental space was a technology overlay completely separated from her physical space. For the most part, that’s what seemed to be happening quite often throughout the weekend.

I’m not advocating that we eliminate the technology, but I do think that this is even more of a reason to teach appropriate use during schools. After all, the flip side of appropriate use, is understanding when NOT to use it.

Welps, that’s enough of a rant for now. More to come. And while it may seem like a lot of moaning and whining, it truly was an incredible learning experience. I hope Nokia got as much out of it as I did!

Related Reading on Teach42

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The good stuff was easy. Much more challenging to document the stuff I think we need to learn from. Before I go any farther, let me just say that these are my own personal observations and thoughts. While I may sound critical of some people or behaviors, I don’t begrudge anybody because I don’t think anyone I refer to here had any sort of bad intentions and to be honest, I do understand why many of these things occurred. I’m not saying that I have any solutions, but I think discussing the problems (whether real or just perceived) is important.

Let’s start off at EduBloggerCon. As I’ve told Steve Hargadon on multiple occasions now, I think he did an amazing job of getting that pre-conference day organized, supported by NECC, and managed. It’s no easy task and he truly put in a Herculean effort. Regardless of my other thoughts on the day, he did a job that few others could do (and nobody else did), and he did it with grace and a smile on his face. That being said, I think there are lessons to be learned from this second year. First of all, I called it a pre-conference day, because I feel that’s what it was. Last year it was closer to an unconference, this year it was more like a precon where the agenda was set very very very very late (as in when people got there). What’s the difference? There were essentially about 12 presentations/workshops/discussions throughout the day, all rigidly timed. It would have been a challenge at best to from a splinter group that people could actually know about and choose to participate in. A few small groups broke off and went off on their own, but that was based on direct conversations. There would have been no way for others to know it was happening or what the subject was so people could choose to participate if it was something they were interested in. Additionally, several of the sessions were just getting rolling when the time allotted for was expiring. That’s really too bad. The unconference format is ideal for actually trying to ACCOMPLISH something. Rather than just discussing policies, we could have been trying to create a collaborative policy. Rather than discussing leadership, we could have been creating a program to help leaders build their own Kool Aid stands. As much of a challenge as it would be in a very large group, I really think that next year it needs to get back to its roots and move closer to the Open Space unconference format. If you want to read more about what a true Open Space looks like, check out and listen to this post.

And then there was the Pearson’s issue. There’s been plenty said about Pearson’s presence at EduBloggerCon. I’ve done a lot of soul searching on this one to try to pin down my exact feelings on the subject. Let me start by saying that I think Steve Hargadon was completely innocent in this one. He saw it as a way to promote the good work we’re doing as a community and was as surprised as anyone by what occurred. Best of intentions, too bad how it turned out. See here’s the thing, I really don’t think I would have minded them being there. I don’t think it would have bothered me that they were using us for commercial purposes. However, it was the WAY they did it that upset me so much.

They said that they would ask permission before recording people. Maybe they did for interviews, but they did not ask permission before recording individual sessions, nor did they ask permission before recording personal conversations around the area. There were several occasions where I would see a good friend or meet someone for the first time, be engaged in a conversation and then look up to see a boom mic floating above me. Then I look to the side and see a giant video camera in my face. Think about how hard it would be to have a casual conversation with a friend, knowing that every word was being recorded. Yes, I could tell them to stop it, but at that point the conversation has been completely waylaid. Very disturbing.

Almost as disturbing as getting settled in for a session and then looking up to find that while you were getting out your laptop, a camera crew of three people had set up right in front of you in the aisle, completely blocking your view. No “please”, no “do you mind?” They just set up camp wherever they wanted and made it pretty clear that the audience in attendance was secondary to their little documentary. I actually left the first session because I was so disgusted. I returned the main room for the discussion on leadership and was appalled by how intrusive their crew was. I can’t count how many times people took the microphone and then glanced up to see a boom mic over their heads. While Ewan McIntosh was the only one to ask them to turn the cameras off, several people seemed to lose their train of thought when they say the cameras shuffling around them.

While we could argue their right to be there, and their rights regarding the footage and ideas shared at EBC, I truly feel that the reason I was so disturbed by them was the way that they went about it. If they had put a single microphone at the front of the room and kept the cameras in the back, out of the way, I don’t think it would have bothered me much at all. Out of sight, out of mind. Wes Fryer was recording every session he attended, but didn’t disturb anyone when doing so. That’s why it didn’t bother me. ISTE recorded every session in the Lila auditorium. I couldn’t even find the camera in the audience, so it didn’t bother me. Pearson made themselves the center of the show. The rest of the conference had to work around them. It felt as though they thought we had arranged this entire day just for their benefit. Truly bothersome. But enough about that, when we have so much more to discuss.

Next up is the issue that Scott Mcleod summed up so eloquently with his FB meets NYFB post. There are several bloggers who have been around for quite a long time and have become close friends. They look forward to conferences like NECC when they have an opportunity to see each other face to face and just hang out. However, for one reason or another, many of these people have rather large networks. People in this network look forward to meeting these long time bloggers face to face and chatting with them. While there’s nothing wrong with that, it can make it hard to just hang out with some old friends you don’t see very often. So what’s a blogger to do?

Well, what they did do was establish a satellite bloggers cafe and keep it relatively quiet. Now don’t get me wrong, I totally understand why they did it. There were some people that couldn’t walk more than a few feet without attracting a small crowd. However, at the same time, I can truly see how other people on the outside looking in could see that as elitist. In fact, that act alone did more to contribute to the idea of there being a ‘cocktail party’ than anything else. As I said, while I understand why it was being done, I can also see other people seeing it and thinking that those people must just be too big to hang out with the ‘d-list’ bloggers. Truly a shame because I know that’s not the way things actually are. But unfortunately it came be pretty difficult to distinguish perceived reality from actual reality at times.

So what can be done about something like that? While it seems silly to compare these people to actors or athletes, the reality is that when they’re in a public setting they really are in a similar situation. They have their audiences, and in some sense I think they owe it to their audiences to be available and social, as time allows of course. And if they want to get away, they should really get away entirely. Would anyone begrudge people a private lunch or dinner? Of course not. I think evenings and meals are the perfect time to get a private table or room and just hang out with the people you’ve been itching to spend time with. But while on the conference grounds, disappearing like that just feels icky for lack of a more scientific term. Especially when they’re the people that helped make the Bloggers Cafe and EduBlogging Community what it is today. My two cents, you can take it or leave it.

Moving right along, I think there’s a few things that need to be said about live streaming, backchanneling and the like. As many events were broadcast this year or had collaborative elements, let’s face the facts… I’d say about 1% of the conference had these sorts of elements. Should we be surprised though? How old is podcasting? Ballpark, about 4 or 5 years old. And yet we still had about 1800 people in our Podcasting for the Absolute Beginner panel discussion. Blogging continues to be a hot topic, with thousands of educators still interested in Blogging 101 sessions and getting started for the first time. So why on earth are we surprised that there weren’t more people doing Live Streams or backchannels when those technologies are just barely one year old (in the edtech community that is). Think about it, backchannels first came into the prime time during NECC last year! uStream became a hit in the Fall of 2007. So why would we be surprised, or even disappointed, that there wasn’t more of it going on at NECC? We need to be more aggressive about training people how to do these things and take a leadership role ourselves. Just demonstrating that it can be done is far different than helping others to do it themselves. Jen Wagner asks why more sessions from outside our little community weren’t broadcast. The easy answer is, because most of us attended sessions by people that we know, on topics that we’re familiar with.

Let’s face it, go to enough conferences and you get sick of being disappointed at sessions. So you find a presenter that you like and you go see them again. Why? Because you like what they have to say. Because they vibe with you. Because they put into words things that you’ve struggled to verbalize yourself. It’s natural, I understand it and do it myself. But if we really wanted to make a difference and HELP the education community, we’d be hunting for people we’ve never heard of that deserve to be broadcast to a larger audience. We’d be attending sessions from people who are completely unknown and doing our part to share their message with the world. We’d be taking more chances, and quite possibly be disappointed on occasion, because it’s the new voices and diversity that are going to lead to innovation. I’m as guilty as anybody on this front and I realized it when I had a conversation one night with Chris Champion. He said that for the last day of NECC, his mission was to spend the day talking to people that he doesn’t already know. To meet the people in his network that he hasn’t encountered face to face and to chat with them. To see some new presenters and look for new voices. I can’t tell you how much that impressed me. We spend all year looking forward to seeing each other that we lose site of the opportunity we have at a conference like NECC. As nice as it is to be re-acquainted with people, this is a prime opportunity to expand our circles, to challenge our own thinking and to get in touch with different perspectives from around the world. It’s clearly something I need to make a priority.

My last comment about the darker side of the conference lies in expectations. I’ve heard from many people that they were largely disappointed with the conference and that the best part about it was simply the conversations outside of sessions. I can’t argue with the conversations part, because I think networking is a major reason to attend a conference. But as far as being disappointed, I think we all need to re-examine our own expectations. Did you have concrete objectives for San Antonio? If so, what did you do to accomplish those? If you just wanted to talk to people and have a good time, well then that’s easy. If you actually wanted to learn something, did you identify what you wanted to learn ahead of time? Did you go to sessions that addressed those issues? And then take it one step further, did you FOLLOW UP and take the next steps, either by networking with other people in those sessions and arranging a ‘next steps’ meeting, or seek out other people that were interested in addressing the same topics?

I’ll give you a concrete example. One of my goals for NECC was to begin establishing a framework for what may become a Web 2.0 related graduate course. So, amongst other things I deliberately sought out people that had some experience teaching those ideas in a formal way, made contact, established timeframes to follow up, and so on. There were certain people that I’ve never met before that I went out of my way to be introduced to, and a few vendors that I sought out to explore possibilities. I knew what I wanted to accomplish, and made sure that I went after it.

I think many people go to NECC just expecting to be dazzled and that magic things will just happen to them by being in the vicinity. I think many of those people were disappointed. I think others wanted to be stretched and hear some new ideas, and yet they didn’t attend sessions presented by names they didn’t know. Others wanted to see the community stretch itself and evolve faster, but instead spent most of their time hanging out with people who were already on the cutting edge. The more time I spend working with teachers at conferences, the more reasons I have for continuing to offer ‘the basics’ and hope that others do the same. Let’s face it, who has more perspective on the fine art of blogging than someone who’s been doing it for 4+ years? While it may seem boring to you, it’s important for the attendees to learn from the perceived leaders of this community. I’ve heard it said so many times, “Why should I bother? Other people can do it just as easily.” Because others don’t. Because they won’t draw a crowd like you will. Because you have experience, and because you have an audience. Because you’re an expert. That’s why.

With that in mind, one of my own personal goals is to get back to the basics. To talk about social bookmarking, share why I continue to think Flickr is significant, and to communicate why I believe blogs should be an integral part of most school communities. I’m going to redefine what the Teach42 podcast is and begin broadcasting again, in a new format that fits the way I work and communicate now. But most of all, I’m going to continue to try to find new ways to reach the thirsty masses that are dying for a drink of Kool Aid and don’t even know that it’s already within their grasp.

While some of the things I’ve written about here may not be positive things about the conference, they’re realities and can be learning experiences… if we choose to treat them as such.

Related Reading on Teach42

• What’s next for NECC?
• NECC: It will soon be time for me to fly.
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• NECC 2005!!

While it may seem like I’m always high on a new tool or site, I really do think I’m pretty choosy about the ones that I wind up sharing. And I wouldn’t blog about it, if I didn’t feel there was merit to it and it was worth exploring. Which is why I wanted to mention Plurk here.

I’ve been using Plurk extensively over the past few days and have started to think that it really could be a better Twitter than Twitter. And after seeing some really neat things happening there, I thought I’d share some of the ‘highlights’ of my Plurk explorations. And while I’m not ready to leave Twitter completely, let me share why I’m digging on Plurk.

Why I *heart* Plurk:

• Conversations are threaded together. When you reply to someone, it STAYS with the original post. On Twitter you have to click from page to page to page to try to follow a conversation. Which is tedious at best. On Plurk, you have one hyperlink to the entire conversation. For example, here is a single link to a live blog/backchannel for Ian Juke’s presentation today. 199 posts, one thread with one link. Don’t want to see those posts? You have one conversation to ignore, or you can even mute it.
• If you link to a video or image, it creates a thumbnail. Yes, that’s kind of fluffy, but it’s a very nice touch.
• While there aren’t many tools out there yet, there are a few that are pretty darn creative. For example, Pollk, which allows you to create polls on Plurk and embed them in. It gives you code to paste in, and as people vote, the thumbnail in your original post changes to reflect the current state of voting. VERY slick. Check out this post and click on the thumbnail to see it in action.

I think I’m going to leave it at those three for right now. There’s more, but I don’t think I need to make a giant list. Of course, there are things that I don’t like about Plurk. For one thing, the timeline is hard to get used to. Maybe if I’d seen it before Twitter, it’d be easier, but I’m so used to seeing things from the top down. Discovering that you can use the arrow keys to scroll though helps tremendously. I’m also not a huge fan of the whole karma thing. I’m pretty competitive, and when I saw that there’s a karma score, I wanted to rack up points. It’s shallow, it’s silly, but to be 100% truthful, I just can’t help myself. You get points for posting, replying and recruiting friends through your unique code. For example, this link would give me credit for you joining, while this one would not. Build Karma, earn things like new emoticons and the ability to change your background. Personally, I think it should be an opt in sort of ‘game’, but that’s part of their schtick I guess. If you have more will power than I do, you could always just ignore it.

Why I’m getting down on Twitter:

• It’s as Twitter as…. well, there’s nothing to compare it to. I’ve never seen a popular site have as many technical issues as Twitter does. Nobody is surprised when it goes down. It’s flaky enough that their error page has even earned itself a fan club. That’s just wrong. Plurk is only a couple months old, so it’s possible it’ll run into these issues when it grows too. Hopefully they’ve learned from Twitter’s mistakes though. Crossing my fingers.
• I’m tired of depending on third party sites to make Twitter manageable. I’m one of the people that actually goes to Twitter.com regularly. For about a week, replies were dead. I follow a pretty high number of people. If I can’t see who’s talking to me, I might as well not even use the tool. So I started keeping Summize open as well so I could see if anyone replied to my Tweets. That meant I was keeping two tabs open to get basic functionality out of a single site. Feh. Also, things like the built in Tiny URL converter has always been flaky. I’ve gotten into the habit of using third party URL shorteners any time I want to link to something. Not a huge deal, but it’s extra steps that should be unnecessary.
• Go look at the Twitter Status Blog. You know why that’s there? Because there’s always something wrong. In the month of June, there were only four days that they didn’t have to put something up there, letting people know what the status was of broken features. That’s just sad. And on the subject of broken features, have you ever tried to nudge somebody? Does that mysterious link actually do anything? Not so far as I’ve been able to see. And I’ve flagged many people to have their tweets sent to my cell phone and have never received a single message. However, Direct messages arrive just fine. Love for somebody to explain that one to me.

The best thing about Twitter is… well, it’s the network. It’s where people are at right now. That’s the number one thing that Twitter has and that Plurk doesn’t. That’s also why I’m not going to give up on Twitter just yet. But I find I’m visiting Plurk first thing in the morning, and only checking out Twitter when I’m done. As much as I’ve liked Twitter over the past year or so, I feel like they’ve done their very best to drive me away. And while alternatives have been available (Pownce, Jaiku), Plurk is the first one that actually feels ‘right’ to me. I’m not saying this because it’s shiny, or because it’s new. I’m saying it because after spending some time there, it feels like Twitter, but a step or two up the evolutionary chain.

While I would never ask anybody to leave their well-established community, I do suggest that you visit Plurk and give it a try for yourself. And give it a day or two, when you have some time. It feels very awkward at first and takes some getting used to. After being doubters, many people have come to change their mind. Hope to see you there!

Related Reading on Teach42

• Be a Better Blogger in just 30 Days
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Stephen Downes called Sue and I out today, accusing us of being on the take under the table.

Are Steve Dembo and Sue Waters getting paid to promote a commercial product? Was Dembo being paid when he started plugging it on his site back in early April? I don’t care if people want to make a little money, but let’s keep the advertising content in the edublogosphere clearly labeled as such, OK? Because, as it stands now, I can’t trust anything Sue Waters and Steve Dembo write – and that’s an unhappy state to be in.

First of all, I’m flattered that he seems to consider me a trustworthy source. It’s a backhanded compliment, but I’ll take it

Seriously though, while I’ll let Sue speak for herself, I thought I’d just make things really clear right here.

No, I have never been paid by MyStudiyo in any way shape or form. They have not given me a dime, a premium account, heck they haven’t even offered to spring for a custom theme on the house! In fact, now that I think about it, maybe I’m getting ripped off here!

Quite simply, I’m a fan of their site. That’s why I created the EduBlogger Quiz. I thought they had a great formula that I wanted to test out myself and encourage other people to try. That’s all. After I posted that on the blog, the developers got a hold of me asked me if I had any suggestions for improving the site. I shared my ideas with them, some of which have actually been implemented. When they told me about the contest and asked me to judge, I agreed to do it because I thought it would help drive awareness of a site that I was a fan of.

That’s it! Nothing more insidious than that.

*whew* Feels good to get that off my chest

In fact, so long as I’m at it, let’s clear the air about a few other things.

I’m also a big fan of PollEverywhere.com. I use them at conferences pretty often, I’ve given them a TON of feedback and ideas for how they could tweak their product to make it more pertinent to educators, and helped them organize an educational pilot program. In return, I have not received any money at all. They WERE kind enough to hook me up with an account with unlimited votes when they created their new account structure. I usually mention that at conferences, but so long as we’re on the subject of full disclosure, might as well mention it!

Hmmm… I guess there’s one more thing I could disclose. I do have a link to Bluehost in my sidebar and I occasionally mention them on the blog. Well, whenever I link to them, I do include my affiliate information. If somebody happens to sign up for an account through that link, I get a kickback of $65. However, I’m a big enough evangelist of them that I always wind up telling people about the kickback, and letting them know that they should sign up even if they DON’T use my link (previous link is without affiliate information)! As I’ve blogged about before, I couldn’t possibly be happier with my hosting company and recommend them every chance I get.

Well, that’s about it. However, if you ever unsure about whether there’s something shifty going on, don’t hesitate to ask. My life is an open book!

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Of all the big players in the social networking landscape, Facebook is the only one that I can honestly say that I actively participate on. After arriving home from NECC, I posted a question asking people to share their one ‘big’ takeaway from the conference. Alfred Thompson’s response was:

Bloggers will talk and talk and talk if you put them together in a room with other people. Seriously though I took away that there are many more technology tools for education then administrative support to use.

He makes a great point that was one of my major takeaways too. With all the talk of Web 2.0, School 2.0, Teachers 2.0 and Students 2.0, who (besides Doug Johnson) is really talking about Policies 2.0?

With nearly every type of software being represented on the internet in a free, cross-platform, browser agnostic version, why aren’t more schools adjusting their filters and policies to encourage teachers and students to make educational use of these tools? If students using real world tools in a more organic fashion isn’t a good enough reason to make the switch, what about saving schools some major dollars? Wouldn’t that be a good enough reason?

I know that there isn’t any single sector that we can target that will instantly enact widespread change, but antiquated school policies can certainly serve as an inhibitor. If the tools are blocked, then teachers won’t even have the opportunity to make use of them.

Given that we’re still in the heart of summer break, this is a perfect time to start revisiting your school’s policies and see if they properly reflect the environment you want to your teachers to promote. Do they really address the needs your school has in 2007? Are they structured in a way that allows teachers to prepare students for the real world? If not, get the conversation rolling and start making some change!

Here are some links to posts and policies that you may find helpful:

How do we teach kids to cross a busy street?
Bud the Teacher’s Blogging Wiki - Examples, links and more. Contribute!
AHS Blog AUP Wiki
Youth Voices AUP
EFF’s page on Student blogging – Great info, well worth reading through.

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I noticed today that there was a little red “NEW” next to the Video search for Google. I’m not exactly sure what’s new, perhaps the ability for users to upload video, but I thought you could do that before. Regardless, the shiney red “NEW” got me to click on it.

I was astonished by what I saw. At least 4 videos on the front page that I would consider not ‘work safe’, and definitely not school safe. I followed the link to the Top 100, and saw that most of the Top 10 followed in suit.

Whatever happened to Safe Search being on by default? I’ve been surprisingly impressed with Google’s Safe Search on the whole, particularly for videos and images. While it isn’t foolproof, it’s unusual when something slips by. However, the Video section seems to be no holds barred. If that’s what their video directory is going to be, there should be some sort of warning or disclaimer.

When I go to YouTube, I know what I expect to see. I thought I knew what to expect from Google as well. When I click Web, I get a search bar. When I click on Images, I get a search bar. When I click on News, or Froogle, or Maps, I get a generic search page. But when I click on Video, I get Topless Car Wash and Girl Swallows Three Foot Balloon.

C’mon Google, get your act together before the school year gets too far underway.

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I’m trying to type up a blogpost discussing all the new stuff Apple released today, and just went through the classic bloggers horror story. Spending 30 minutes typing up the perfect entry, linking everything in and then having the browser crash losing it all. I know, I know, I should type it up in a text editor and then copy and paste it over, but I didn’t.

Regardless, Apple has changed their website to incorporate these nifty intro videos to their new products. If you click on an product’s page, you see a quicktime video that eventually freezes into the menu. Neat idea. Very pretty. And they’ve crash my browser THREE times now.

My glowing review of some of their new products might not be so glowing when I type it up for the third time.

Hey Apple…. Knock it off.

UPDATE:
I finally finished typing up my first impressions of the new Mac offerings, but my browser has crashed two more times. I will totally avoid Apple.com until they remove those quicktime videos that are on just about every page. Oy.

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John Pederson posted a little entry last week calledOwning Contemporary Literacy…The Next Big Conversation.

In a nutshell, the question is how do we get non-techie teachers to drink from the Kool-Aid?

Ever have that frustrated feeling while out there blogvangelizing? “When do you have time?”, “I can’t possibly find the time!”, and “There’s not enough time to learn this stuff!” Yeah. Familiar. I’ve spent hours with individuals, only to find 3,500 new items piled on their Bloglines accounts when I see them the next time. Why don’t they get it?

Been there. Seen that. So what is the magic key to getting people on the Contemporary Literacy bandwagon? I wish I had the easy answer, but I really don’t.

I know others are going to look at it from the perspective of educational systems, but I’d like to consider it from a different angle. In order for someone to make a major change in the way they do things, they have to believe in three things: that they have the resources they need, the knowledge they need, and the value relative to the investment involved.

Classic example: How many people have created a web page in html? To do a halfway decent looking one, it takes hours. Then you decide that you don’t want a solid green background and that takes more hours. Then you decide that you want a menu as well, and that takes more hours. Then you decide that you want a Mail Me icon, and that takes hours to put in. When all is said and done, you’ve spent countless hours creating your site and 10 minutes putting content on it. The relative worth of the outcome doesn’t even come close to balancing out the time that you’ve invested into it. One more website that will never be updated.

So the question is, how can we get people involved in projects involving Contemporary Literacy where the worth of what they get out of it outweighs the investment that they have put into it, while ensuring that they have the resources and knowledge that they need to be successful. Does that sound simple enough? Good!

I truly believe in making things as simple as possible for people. I’m a firm believer in the Macintosh idea of hiding the choices that 85% of the people don’t care about. Keep it simple for the masses. Contemporary Literacy 101 needs to do the same.

Another quick example: Teaching somebody about Bloglines is easy, right? All they have to do is sign up for an account and they’re ready to go. Of course, if they don’t know how to bookmark sites, then they’ll forget how to get back. Even if they know how to bookmark sites, they may have no idea about bookmarklets, toolbars, XML/RSS chicklets, multiple feeds, folder organization, or why their searches for high school English only pulls up blogs from students whining about their classes. There’s more to it than simply signing up for the website. Quite a bit more.

Personally, I’m of the opinion that if we are going to get more people to start sipping from the jug o’ kool-aid, we need to remove as many of the obstacles as possible. Make it simple as all heck for people so they get the desired results without needing a geek degree.

I’ve heard people argue against this, saying that dummying things down doesn’t really help them. People need the background in order to really use the knowledge effectively. Ummm…. I respectfully disagree. That’s like saying you need to know how an engine works to drive a car. Car designers have made their product just about fool proof. Turn the key, shift into drive, step on gas. If necessary, turn wheel.

If we’re going to set our teachers up for success, we need to make things that simple for them at first. I’m an advocate for IT folks at schools going in to people’s accounts and setting up their toolbars for them. With a big ol’ button that says “READ NEWS HERE” on the browser bar. I’d even recommend setting up a group of great blogs, both educational and non-educational (I love getting Dilbert in Bloglines), and importing them into Bloglines for their teachers. Make it so all they have to do is go there, get their information and leave. Make it as simple as possible for them until they have their feet wet, see the value in it and have a desire to learn more.

Set them up to be successful, help them be successful, and let them bask in their success. Afterward, don’t allow them to be satisfied, build on the success. It’s a simple formula, bit it’s worked for me.

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Will has posted an entry that addresses a topic we’re going to hear quite a bit about for the next few years. With students doing so much publishing, on line safety is an issue that is going to be at the forefront of many people’s minds. His post specifically deals with Xanga, but he could have been talking about MySpace or Blogger or any discussion board out there.

Let’s face facts. Students are going to be leaving their mark on the web. They are not going to be passive readers like so many people are write now. They are going to be posting, commenting, quoting, moblogging, editing and publishing. Oh, and just to ensure that there’s no confusion, I’m not talking about doing school time or on school grounds. I’m talking about from home, from their friend’s house, from the library and from their cell phone. They will be publishing their life, whether educators ‘approve’ of it or not. They’ll do it for no other reason than because they can.

It presents a very real problem. Students are releasing personal information about themselves without even realizing that they are doing so. They are leaving little trails that lead right to their house or school that any predator with access to Google could follow. It’s a problem that people should be concerned about.

Unfortunately, when faced with a problem of this nature there are two ways that it is usually dealt with; The problem is either ignored or restricted. Most schools are simply avoiding the issue because this sort of on line interaction may not be happening during school hours. If it is happening during school hours, the knee jerk response is to block the offending sites. They don’t address the offending behavior (besides possible disciplinary action), but they do their best to restrict the issue from repeating.

Both are a great disservice to our students. Restricting access to blogs is like banning hammers because a person hit their thumb with one. Or taking away the blocks in the classroom because someone got a sliver. It just isn’t reasonable. While I do agree that you shouldn’t be giving four year olds a hammer, but the time they hit middle school they need to have acquired the skills they need to use the tool appropriately.

It’s all about education. It’s about life skills. And have no doubt that learning how to be safe in an online environment should be considered a ‘life skill’.

At the NICE meeting I was at the other day. We discussed quite a bit about the dangers blogs can represent, all the different things that could possibly go wrong. At one point I interjected and related Will’s Secret Life of Bee’s story, about how students, parents and even the book’s author wound up collaborating together through the use of blogs. As much as we have to recognize the hazards involved, we also have to keep in mind the positive things that can come from such an endeavor. We can’t let a few bad apples spoil the whole bunch.

It all comes back to education, we can’t ever forget that. It’s all about education.

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This article by the Rutland Herald has set off quite a few responses in the EduBlogoSphere. I’ve had the article open in my browser for about a week now as I’ve been trying to figure out exactly how I feel about it. I’m hoping that Brendan McKenna got some information wrong, and based on one of the quotes, it’s entirely possible.

First of all, the site that was specifically banned was MySpace.com. Yes, this site does provide a person with a blog engine of sorts, I would hardly call it a blogging site. It’s more of Friendster meets Yahoo 360. I’ve signed up for the site. I’ve explored it. I agree, it’s no place for middle school students. There are no structures in place to keep students away from lewd or sexual photos or profiles. There are groups there specifically for adults to discuss adult behavior (you can use your imagination) and no way to keep students out of them. In my opinion, it is definitely not appropriate for children. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of banning any site outright. I believe in teaching our students to surf intelligently and to use their best judgment regarding which sites to frequent. However, I completely understand why a school would ban this site and respect their right to do so. Odds are, I would probably react in exactly the same way if I were principal.

However, my support for this school’s action has nothing to do with blogging. After reading the article several times, I question whether the principal’s action had anything to do with blogging either.

Principal Sousa is quoted several times stating his concerns about student safety, something that I think everyone can agree about.

“It’s not so much a school concern as it is an issue for students and parents,” he said. “This site particularly was getting a lot of hits. It’s a blog site but they also post pictures and biographical information and then send each other notes.”

“As soon as someone has a name and a general geographic location, it can take an Internet predator 20 minutes to find their address and directions to their house,” he said. “Any time a teen puts their own photo or biographical information on a Web site, it’s something that parents at least need to know about.”

He mentions that it’s a blog site, but he doesn’t say that he has any issue with the blog portion of it. He focuses on the fact that students are putting their personal information on the site where any stranger can get access to it. I agree with him, that’s an extraordinarily bad idea.

So why does the reporter say that the school is banning blogging? Let’s take a look at the first few lines of the article:

Officials at Proctor Jr.-Sr. High School have banned access from school computers to an Internet site that students have been using to post to weblogs, or blogs.

Principal Chris Sousa said the decision to block the site from school was made because blogging is not an educational use of school computers.

What if Sousa said that MySpace.com is not an educational use of school computers and he also said that MySpace.com is a blog site among other things. Think the reporter might have connected his own dots there? I’ve read the short article several times now and I really don’t see anything that says the principal is against blogging itself in any of the direct quotes. In fact, it sounds like he’s deliberately not saying that. It sounds like he’s concerned for student safety and taking appropriate action. I know I’m speculating here, but it seems to me like the reporter is putting words in Sousa’s mouth.

So how do we know the truth? Considering that this is the information age, it took me 1.5 minutes to find the princiapl’s email address. I have since sent him an email asking him his thoughts about the article and pointing him to this post. Hopefully he’ll respond to me. I take everything I read on a blog with a grain of salt, always keeping in mind that it is being spun by the opinions of the author. Articles like this one remind me that we need to be just as skeptical with ‘mainstream’ media as well.

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