It’s been too long since I wrote a blog post and tonight’s going to change that. I suppose I’m thinking about, and looking forward to attending the Learning Technologies Conference 2008: Learning Connections hosted by Sunshine Coast TAFE in Mooloolaba next week. It will be great to have some time away from work, learning new things, meeting & networking with people, catching up with twitter friends and looking out for inspiration and new ideas. Watch this space…
… but, I’ve been asking myself why I haven’t been writing, and think that there are a number of factors.
My professional work has been very busy as I adjust to a new role and I’ve needed to be closely involved with operational aspects of our learning management system. I’ve also started a research project and spent time developing an ethics application and creating an online survey using an open source tool called LimeSurvey. A fairly steep learning curve for all, this but things are starting to come together.
I wonder if my activity on Twitter has diverted some attention away from my thinking more deeply on subjects. Probably not, but it hasn’t led to me picking up ideas and running with them. I know this has been written about by others elsewhere, but believe that I may need to consciously make an effort to work at developing some of the ideas I come across, into blog posts rather than just leave it to 140 character tweets. I suppose what I’m saying is that I need to develop my one-liner tweets into more substantial missives (blog posts) and continue my professional journey narrative/story with longer chapters rather than individual sentences.
I do need to say though, that I’ve been getting great engagement with, and feedback from the (educational/technology) community I’m part of through Twitter, and see that it’s become an important part of my Personal Learning Network (PLN).
Another reason for lack of posting to ‘learnerbytes’, may stem from the fact that I’m posting regularly in other forums at work. Participating within the institution with colleagues has also been useful for me (and hopefully for others) and I hope to maintain my level of contribution there. Maybe I could post some of the topics/missives here on this blog, and link out to them from our internal forums. Hmm, food for thought.
So, that brings me to what I might write about next. I’ve been keeping a bit of an eye on what other people are posting on their blogs and that has made me think of a few things I’d like to write more about. Topics such as; portfolios (’e’ or otherwise), PLNs and how valuable/necessary they are, learning in higher education (what should we be trying to do?), mobile devices and the possibilities they might bring to learning and collaboration in education, communities of practice and how social software can support them, the mix of learning technologies for learning, professional development for educators, learning management systems, etc. Oh, and my research of course.
Any of those topics of interest to you? Anything you’d be able to contribute to my thinking about them? I would like to hear from you.
Talk to you soon…
Tags: musing
I think this is a common issue right now Col. It’s a sign of the blogtimes.
Are posts to Twitter/Seesmic/12secs/Utterli and ‘grabs’ of material via Delicious and the whole slew of social networking services … legitimate blogging activities? I think so; but of course these are currently scattered and even, perhaps somewhat random and chaotic. Pulling the interim posts into a more considered, reflective, ‘traditional’ blogpost is the kind of blogging I’m doing right now. ‘Organising the chaos’ into meaningful blogposts from time to time seems to be working for me at least for now. I suspect the rhythm and kinds of writing we do in the future will change again as the platforms continue to interlink and the technology and design get better.
Right now I like using Friend Feed to aggregate the random, quick, impulsive bursts of thought that emanate from me and my contacts out there. And of course all this contact stuff throws up lots of great ideas, as you note. This is a different way of conversing and thinking and perhaps we are feeling a little offsided by this faster way of working … at least the vestiges of the traditional academic in me understand the feeling.
Have fun on the Sunshine Coast. Lucky man!