With the apparent collapse of the MT blogs at aect-members.org, perhaps it’s time to think about a different structure. Now I don’t KNOW what the problem is with that server … and it may be something simple and it might be fixed. What I do know is that it’s been a week and I don’t have any more idea than I had in Orlando. I don’t have access to the server backend, and so I’m relying on overextended home office staff to deal with it.
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My online class wants to start compiling a list of “best practices.” I’ve suggested that the whole idea of best practice is a myth akin to riding the unicorn.
Freudian deconstruction notwithstanding, do we really believe that education really has some notion of best practice? Do we really think that there is One True Path to teaching math facts? Is there a single Road to Literacy? By using this idea of best practice as a kind of short hand for “the right way to do something” aren’t we fostering a myth?
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I wrote three good things and three bad things over on The Overlay. Others are also posting. I don’t know if there’s really been enough separation yet to look back on the experience objectively, but feel like I need to write some stuff down.
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Thanks to D’Arcy Norman for this ego stroking link!
My blog is worth $15,242.58.
How much is your blog worth?
Back when I was a kid, it was a treat on a hot summer day to drink from the garden hose. I lived in rural Maine and we got our water from a spring down the hill. My sibs and I would play outside by the hour and there was nothing sweeter than the faint metalic tang from the brass fitting mixed with the clear, cold water bubbling up from underground and pumped into our back yard. We’d drink our fill, splash each other, and go back to digging in the sand box or riding our bikes around the house.
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There’s been a lot happening and I am still blogging … just not here.
The SPTF Report (Draft) has been sent off to the Executive Board. The group made 40 recommendations on strategic direction, questions for future study, membership, and convention. It’s been a long year’s work and I’m anxious to see what comes of it. We’ll be posting the draft over on Terra Incognita when it has become finalized.
A few weeks ago, I started teaching my online teaching course. It was my first time using a Moodle and I gotta say, I’m torn. On the one hand, it’s kinda nice having the space where people can go — use the wiki, find resource materials, etc — but it’s WAY too “classlike.” I need to think about this. The class has been using EduBlogs, and it’s been working GREAT up to last week when EduBlogs RSS feeds all went west. I’m hoping James gets back from vacation and fixes them this week. I’ve really tried to help the students create a personal learning space by having them put a couple of tools together in ways that make sense for them. I can’t say as I’m feeling all that successful across the board, but it HAS been interesting.
And, like I need another hobby, I’ve been building a computer. It’s one of those projects that keeps my brain engaged in odd ways that still relate to my main work. I want to be able to record the few TV programs I really like, play DVDs, and watch anime from optical disks. It should work on an infrared remote like my TV and actually use the TV as primary output. I needed so solve problems with wireless networking on 802.11g, infrared control of a headless server, and video capture and recording.
I’ve been documenting my progress using Dave Winer’s OPML Editor and blog server. This tool is pretty interesting from a “I need to write something fast and dirty and get back to work” point of view. Anybody who reads Scripting News is familiar with the format. This is a darn interesting tool for the “journal” blog.
Orlando is about 10 days away (tag aect2005). I’m looking forward to seeing old friends, making some new ones, and thinking about the conversations we need to be having about the purposes of a Professional Organization.
