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 This website is no longer actively maintained.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...
I’m up at 5am this morning to go to Futurelab’s Why Don’t You…? conference in London. I haven’t had a chance to post properly this half-term yet as I’ve been up in Durham working on my thesis proposal. Here’s what’s caught my eye recently…
Jeff Utecht has a clarity of thinking when it comes to school-based educational technology which is really refreshing. In Tech Plan Part 2 - School Wide Systems he includes the following helpful diagram:
He then goes on to discuss some scenarios for different groups within the school. It’s certainly worth a read for anyone involved in piecing together a coherent school policy on educational technology. 
I like the way that Mark Wagner puts things. In a post on Infinite Thinking Machine (more on that particular blog in a moment!) entitled Create a Permeable Classroom - Part 1: Google Docs Presentations he shows how Google Presentations can be used by teachers to encourage students to work collaboratively both at home and at school. He also links to some useful examples.
In the last week or so, four blog posts sat up in my RSS reader together as being connected in some way:
- Digital Signposts - Rethinking information handling
- Practical Theory - Connection and Disconnection in the Digital Age
- Paul Stamatiou - A Vision of Students Today
- Moving at the Speed of Creativity - A Vision of Students Today
This deserves a whole blog post in its own right - which I haven’t got time for at the moment - but reading these should give you a sense of how the world is changing and how teaching and education isn’t really moving fast enough. We all know that, but at the same time Chris Lehmann at Practical Theory sounds a warning bell against leaving behind values and feeling. Well said, Chris.
And finally… that comment over at Infinite Thinking Machine. Well, it was the end of a long half-term so I probably should have double-checked my tone before I pressed Submit. Fair enough. On the other hand, I think I’ve got a point. On the one hand I’m sick to death of people being amazed that people who are young can be extremely talented. But on the other I’m fairly tired of the assumption that bringing young people into what is essentially an adult arena (the edublogosphere) is a good idea.
I mentioned in the comments that I believe people are ‘using’ Arthus to prove an invalid point. That point, I believe, is an extreme view of the message to which I alluded two paragraphs above. The reason that it’s an extreme version of it is that it’s being pedelled by those who aren’t in the classroom and whose job it is to go round stirring up the education system. Whilst I think we need change agents within education, I certainly don’t think we need propaganda. Arthus is an intelligent, fluent, hyper-literate exception, as Steve Hargadon pointed out in his post. This boy’s going to end up being another Stephen Downes. No-one would like a world populated by sarcastic and blunt Doug Belshaw’s, and I certainly don’t want a world full of mardy Downeses… 
Popularity: 4% [?]
Doug,
Wow, did you ever precipitate a “dialog”!
I’ll have to go back in tonight and re-read the entire conversation.
Is it adults vs. kids; teachers vs. teachers; experts vs. novices…or some strange and fearsome Halloween witches’ brew with equal parts of each?
diane
I usually only go for one end at a time, but there’s you lighting both ends of the bridge and dancing around at the middle. Never considered that an option, frankly. Kinda awkward to watch.
Who’s bringing us in? What makes it an adult area? It’s not some closed door meeting where you can decide who gets to participate. It’s a free web… anyone can participate who wants to.
In no other sector would it be acceptable to not listen to your customers. In education, students (and society) are the customers. We deserve to have a voice in our own education. ( We certainly have the strongest feelings about it)
Nobody brought me in, and nobody’s pushing me out.
As for me becoming a “awkward; un-co-operative; bad tempered; whiney; aloof; terse or abrupt of speech” Stephen Downes… there could be worse fates.
And so it continues…
Here we go then:
@Dan: Love the metaphor, but I doubt I’m ‘burning bridges’. One is, after all, to have a different opinion to everyone else!
@Arthus: Since when were you a ‘customer’? I thought what you were advocating, like most others in the edublogosphere, is co-learning and voyages of discovery. Cold business practice has no place in education, as far as I’m concerned.
As regards being free to discuss anything you want on the Internet: absolutely! What I take issue with is not you but those who hold you up as a paradigm. Have your voice, along with everyone else on the Internet, but don’t expect that voice to be privileged.