WARNING! This website is no longer actively maintained. It is an archive of 2 years work by Doug Belshaw who now blogs at dougbelshaw.com...
It’s links only this week, I’m afraid. Although Baby Belshaw seems to be quite happy in my wife’s womb (he/she was due to make an appearance last Wednesday), I’m nevertheless very busy, being snowed under with work towards my Ed.D. Consequently, in lieu of the usual more comprehensive roundup, I’ll share via links and short comments ten posts that have grabbed my attention in the edublogosphere this week… :p
- Artichoke - What do textbooks look like when knowledge is a verb? (a marvellously sarcastic view of current trends in quoting various authors in edu-circles)
- Dan Meyer - Decontamination: Gratuitous Extension (a practical suggestion as to how to ‘zone’ your classroom for behaviour management)
- Dave Warlick - Social Networking Examined (fewer teens than some think use social networking, etc. every day)
- Doug Noon - Symbol Makers (discussion of the ‘universe of discourse’ and the difference between symbols and the things signified)
- Jeff Utecht - Pedagogy Defines School 2.0 (points out that some uses of technology are just School 1.5 - it’s the pedagogy that defines School 2.0 a.k.a. Where We Want To Be ASAP!)
- Jim Forde - How much ed tech do teachers need to know? (reflects on Doug Johnson’s original post and gives the other side of the story)
- John Connell - The Old Person’s ICT Curriculum (illustrates the anachronism that is the ICT curriculum in the UK given today’s ‘natives’)
- Lucy Gray (Infinite Thinking Machine blog) - Choose Your Own Resolution (some practical things to do in 2007 with educational technology)
- Martin Owen (Flux blog) - The Generation Game (things to take into account when designing learning spaces)
- Rose Luckin (Flux blog) - Is Personalisation Fit For Context? (learners should be able to create their own ‘ecologies’)
I’ve also been ruthless with the feeds to which I subscribe. I’ve got two edublog folders: edublogs and edublogs (must reads) in my Google Reader account. The former has been culled by almost half and some of the feeds from the (must reads) folder have been demoted. Having said that, a couple have been promoted. I’m afraid if you don’t syndicate full feeds, or if you’ve been posting boring or irrelevant stuff for the last couple of months, you’re gone. 
I really don’t get why people don’t have separate blogs for their professional and personal lives. Although it’s relevant to have some biographical detail and context for people’s ruminations on life, technology, etc. I really don’t need to read a whole post that tells me you’ve just bought a new mobile phone, that it’s snowing a lot where you are, or that you’ve changed the layout of furniture in your house, thank you very much! 
Oh and one more thing: you might think you’re cool and hanging with the in-crowd if you have your del.icio.us links posted each day to your blog, but I’ve got another word for it: annoying. Why not just post your del.icio.us username on your blog with a link to your account? I can always subscribe to an RSS feed of your bookmarks if I really wanted to. Stop cluttering up my feed reader please…
Popularity: 6% [?]
Hey Doug - take it easy - do you drink coffee? If so, leave it alone for a while? You went a bit manic in the last two paragraphs
and try not to worry.
The beauty of blogs is that people use them in wild and wonderful ways. I agree that they should tag and syndicate them properly so those using readers can pick and select which parts they want to read but don't have a go at people for using blogs in any way they choose. The brilliance of blogs is that it is the creators prerogative
Hope all goes well with the baby - take it easy!
Yeah, sorry about that. I kind of got on my high horse after getting up a wee bit early to do some Ed.D. research…
"I can always subscribe to an RSS feed of your
bookmarks if I really wanted to. Stop cluttering up my feed reader please…"
Ok, Andrew tagged you already so I'll go easy
The assumption being made here is that the feeds you are reading are solely for your (the external readers) benefit. Many folks, and I count myself as one among them, use their blogs as personal knowledge management systems, as a means to log, reflect upon and pursue ideas that they would like to come back to later.
That being said, I don't disagree that non-topical feeds (those unrelated to the theme of the blog) are frustrating. I also like feeds with reflection, a bit of why it was important to the blogger. One of the reasons that I've tried Diigo is that I enjoy it's built-in reflection tool. If I don't have time to develop a full post, I can tag my thoughts to the page and move on.
Hope all is well with you and your soon to be growing family, from one proud dad to another!
Cheers,
John
http://edventures.whitemountaintech.net
That's fair enough, John. But there's personal wikis for that sort of thing - or even a separate blog. So that I'm fair to my readers I have a separate blog for my personal stuff and another one for my Ed.D. stuff . And I've a wiki for quotations, half-finished thoughts and random stuff. Whilst, inevitably, things overlap to a certain extent, we have a duty to try and keep some semblance of order…
Or am I just being grumpy?
Nah, not grumpy. But you do remind me of myself right before each of my three kids were born!
I see your point about the separation of personal v. professional but being the stereotypical guy, multitasking is not my forte! I fear that trying to balance and be true to the needs of multiple blogs would leave me feeling, to quote Bilbo Baggins I believe: "…stretched. Like butter over too much bread."
Keep us posted on the arrival of your future techie!
Best wishes,
John