Top 50 education innovator award

I don't know if you noticed my shiny new badge on the top left of this blog. I have no idea who nominated me for it, but I presume it must be someone who reads this blog regularly, so no doubt you will read this post. Whoever you are, thank you. I'm flattered.

See here to learn about the other 49 recipients.

Bear with me...

This blog is undergoing some redesign, and may be a bit unpredictable over the next few days.

Looking back over the furrow

This morning, for some reason best known to itself (possibly due to the partnering with Ingboo) my Technorati search on my name returned 200 hits. I'm sure there are some people for whom this is a daily occurrence. I am not one of them. My name crops up only occasionally, so I had a moment of panic when I wondered what I might have done to cause such a flurry of interest.

As it turns out, none of them are new. But I found myself reading back over old posts from a number of people with whom I have I have engaged in online discourse over the past few years or so.

I also found myself rereading some of my own posts and was really glad of the title of this blog. Because, boy oh boy, I don't exactly plough a very straight furrow! But I'm not a farmer and straight furrows are not among my goals. This is a learning journey. And I have learned. A lot. I have also, and this never fails to fill my insecure little heart with joy, been a part of other people's learning journeys (for good or ill).

As far as I can remember, today is not a red letter day. It is not my anniversary as a blogger, or my x thousandth post. It's just an ordinary day on which some small thing outside of my control made me pause and look back.

If you're reading this post, you have been a part of that crooked furrow. So I'd like to thank you. Just off the top of my head, a few names that deserve special mention are (in no particular order):
Harold Jarche
Janet Clarey
Stephen Downes
Wendy Wickham
Christy Tucker
Virginia Yonkers
Tony Karrer
Don Taylor
Mark Berthelemy

Virtual hugs to you all!

A fragmented conversation.

I confess, last night was my first conscious exposure to #lrnchat on Twitter. The theme was online learning myths. Jane Hart has captured the event nicely with this post.

It is quite a challenge to capture a cogent thought in just 140 characters! Fortunately a myth can usually be expressed quite succinctly.

Next week's theme is confessions of trainers and learners. That might be less conducive to brevity.

It's worth noting that I came to know about #lrnchat via Jane's Facebook status. It was updating with her contributions to the conversation and Donald Clark and I began to respond to her updates on Facebook. Jane invited us to join the conversation on Twitter. I did, briefly, between the various things and people that clamour for my attention of an evening.

This ties in with a question Wendy Wickham asked on Facebook about blogging:

"Question for the long-time edubloggers - is it just me or are we all getting quieter? How frequently are you posting these days?"

• My response was: "I don't blog as much as I used to. The conversation appears to have moved elsewhere... like here [Facebook], for instance!"
• Harold Jarche's response included: "Maybe life-streaming is replacing blogging for some people, but it's still a key part of my online professional communications and learning."
• Stephen Downes (after pointing out that he wasn't getting any quieter, which is true) observed: "a lot of the 'connector posts' (I link to you, you link to me, we form a chain of conversation) have moved to Twitter and Facebook, etc. Still a lot of good blog posts out there, a lot of good commentary, but they aren't tightly linked the way they used to be."

One thing I've noticed is that threads of the same conversation run through a variety of spaces. As happened with the whole lrnchat thing, I come across fragments of a conversation in one space and follow the trail to where the main body is taking place. Once there, I find and follow links to all manner of tendrils in a host of other places.

Sometimes the links are to contributions I would not have related to the subject at hand (in fact it is unlikely that the original contributor would have done so, either, in some cases), until the connection was identified by another participant. In those situations, it's a little like looking at one of those optical illusion images and only being able to see one perspective, until someone says, "No look. That's her cheek there, and that's a feather in her hair. And she's kind of looking away from you..." Suddenly it all becomes clear and you have an "Ooooh, yeah - I see it now" moment.

But the conversation is everywhere. In all the spaces at once. If I were to suddenly stop twittering or facebooking or reading blogs, I feel as if I would stand to lose a valuable strand. So, even though I have been quieter here than in the past, I feel no less engaged in the conversation.

What is your observation?

Where the conversation now takes place...

Some time back, I set up the Friendfeed app within Facebook so that my Twitter comments and blog posts all appear within my Facebook news feed. I now find that the conversation is shifting

People who would not previously have commented on my posts, who may indeed not even have been aware of them, have begun to participate in the conversation. However, they respond to the Friendfeed notification on my Facebook page rather than here.

Ironically, this tool which allowed me to unify my various communication streams has also fragmented it. People who comment in one space, don't get to see the comments of those who do so in the other.

I'm not really going anywhere with this observation. Just sharing. I'll be interested to see if it resolves in any way, or if I'll continue to be piggy in the middle of two conversations on the same blog post or tweet.

Hmm.

Blogger's spellcheck

You've probably already realised that this is a Blogger blog. It's no big deal - it was the easiest to set up when I ventured into the world of blogging, and I've never really had any reason to change. I might switch at some point when I figure out how to put my website and my blog into the same space. Hopefully that will be after I've figured out how to customise the design, since I'm not really happy with the look of either of them, and none of the templated alternatives do the trick for me.

But I digress...

Just lately, Blogger's spellcheck appears to have taken leave of its senses. When you run a spell check before publishing, any unrecognised words are highlighted by means of yellow shading. Clicking on a shaded word generates a list of possible alternatives. Rather like Word, except you use the left mouse button, rather than the right to view the suggestions.

Lately, words are being highlighted that are perfectly fine. The list of alternatives usually starts with a duplicate of the highlighted word. At first I thought I was seeing things - you know how we have a tendency to read what we meant to type, rather than what we did type? But this has been going on for a few days now, and it genuinely is suggesting exactly the word I have typed, spelt exactly as I have spelt it. This time around, the spellcheck has taken to the word alternatives, which it suggests I spell alternatives.

Sigh.

Anyone else having a similar experience?

Welcome to the blogosphere

I recently wrote an article on blogging for Training Zone magazine. In it, I promised readers who were started blogging that I would give their blogs a mention here. So I am making good on that promise.

Isobel Tynan blogs over at Lifetravelling, where she looks at "creativity, innovation and learning and development". Please swing by and encourage her with a response to one of her posts or a link to a blog covering a similar issue.

Training & Development Links

Off the back of a Training Zone magazine article (requires free registration) I wrote, I learned today about a new(ish) blogger on the block. I hope that there will be many more such discoveries over the next while.

Training & Development Links seeks to point to useful resources about the training industry. The blogger, who operates under the pseudonym of Flipchart, has been experimenting with writing voices as he tries to hit upon one that will work for him.

Why not swing by and add your 2p worth as a way of helping him adjust to the blogosphere?

One thousand

This is officially my one thousandth post on this blog. I started blogging on 4 July 2005. Since that time, I have encountered some great minds in the field of knowledge and learning. I have learnt more than I could ever explain, and I have gone from new escapee from the traditional training classroom to social media geek.

Thanks to everyone who has walked with me along the way.

Image acknowledgement: stocksnapper network on iStock

"I read your blog" and other surprising revelations

In the past few days or so, I have been surprised to discover two regular readers of this blog in unexpected places.

The first was during a game of Wordscraper (more about that, anon) with Stephen Downes. In the chat panel, I referred to a blogpost of mine, which Stephen said he remembered. Remembered? This meant he had read it in the first place! I remarked that it never occurred to me that he was a regular reader. It seems he is - of this and many more blogs than he believes people realise.

Last night, a friend described how moved he had been by the Zander video. I asked how he had come to hear about it only to learn that he, too, is a regular reader of this blog. He said "You'd be surprised how many people read it."

It's humbling to think that my ramblings reach further than I had realised. It's also gratifying to know that the interest in the conversation is ever-extending, that Everyman is well and truly taking the reins of the read/write web.

Stephen's is one of a list of names my kids may still be the only people in their peer groups to know, because they regularly hear me talk about them. But this may change. Because the names on that list crop up quite often on this blog, and because this blog has readers in unexpected places (the friend I mentioned is a financial adviser - totally unrelated to the world of L&D), that list of names is becoming known in new places. And perhaps these non-L&D readers will be challenged/inspired/motivated (pick your verb) to take control of their own learning journeys. So perhaps, one miniscule patch at a time, inconsequential people like me (and you?) will change the face of work-based learning provision.

Go us!

Academicinfo - a new string to my bow

I have recently started blogging for Academicinfo, "an online education resource center with extensive subject guides and distance learning information." Their mission is "to provide free, independent and accurate information and resources for prospective and current students (and other researchers)."

The posts I write there are not a duplication of those that appear on this site. Currently, I am busy with a series of book reviews, which may expand to include must-read blogposts and ezine articles.

On the same site, you will also find a series of posts by Harold Jarche who is exploring social media and new understandings of literacy.

Please swing by and let us have your input.

It could be worse!

I recently hypothesised about the risks of corporate blogging, but the woes that befall us in these situations are still a far cry from being jailed for 20 years for shedding light on atrocities. It's one thing to risk getting into trouble, or even getting canned at work. This is a whole different league of courage-of-your-convictions stuff.

Blogging - when the rope hits the rudder

One of the major risks for employees who blog is that of causing offence to clients and finding themselves in the dog box as a consequence.

Let's say, for example, you attend a meeting with a client in which the client expresses a view that you disagree with. This client is by no means the only one to express this view and it is something you have addressed in various spaces, including your blog, on more than one occasion. You try to reason with the client, to no avail.

So (you think) you exercise your right to free speech and you write about it on your blog. Again. You know this is an issue many members of your network encounter, too, and you wonder how they deal with it. You point out your objections to the client's line of reasoning. You carefully omit the client's name and any other indicators that might reveal their identity.

A few people stop by your post and submit comments. Some of these are not very tactfully couched. Quite rude, in fact. But you publish them, because (you think) they're exercising their right to free speech.

Then someone from the client side who was present at the meeting stumbles across your post and identifies their organisation as being the one being referred to. They take exception. They take even greater exception to the comments, for which they hold you accountable.

They tell your company that they never want you anywhere near their project again.

This puts your manager in a difficult position. Are you guilty of gross misconduct and therefore dismissable? Can you be quietly redeployed elsewhere? Are the powers that be higher up the food chain baying for your head on a pike? Can he/she get away with slapping you on the wrist and saying "Bad blogger! Don't ever do that again"? Would/should you comply? What action could he/she take if you didn't? Where is the line? Where is the black and the white and what the heck is all this grey stuff?

Many companies have avoided formalising a policy in respect of blogging because of the minefield it constitutes - particularly in respect of privately held, professional interest blogs. It's more straightforward if yours is a corporate blog on behalf of the organisation or if, at the other end of the spectrum, yours is a blog that centres on your leisure pastimes and does not address issues within the organisation's sphere of influence. It's that one in-between that's the blighter! how do they establish a defensible, enforceable policy that restricts what you may and may not say in a blog that is your private-but-very-public property without infringing your rights?

This provides the hapless manager with no guidelines to work from. There are no formal rules that have been broken, so it's difficult ot know what course of action to take. Is a disciplinary procedure in order? Dare he/she go that route, knowing that you might retaliate with an action of your own about freedom of expression and rights and stuff?

Your manager probably hopes that you'll go quietly. Do you?

500

This is my 500th post on this blog.

It came into being (under a different name and with a different appearance) on 4 July 2005, and you can blame Mark Berthelemy for getting me started!

I won't pretend to blase about this minor milestone that so many others passed so long ago. In fact, I have been giving some thought as to what would make a fitting 500th post. Fortunately, since I didn't really have any firm ideas, Vicki Davis came to the rescue. My 500th post, thanks to her, will take the form of a word cloud based on my del.icio.us tags.

Go make your own.

Perhaps for my 1000th post, I'll create a custom template. That gives me 500 posts to figure out how. Gulp!

The conversation

Some time back, one of my lecturers referred to academic writing as a conversation. She was giving us hints an tips on how to write critical reviews at the time. She explained that no-one ever expects to have the last word or to write The Definitive Piece on a subject, but that each person is adding to the sum of material available on a topic, inviting response from others in the field. She spoke for some time, using words like "conversation" and "discourse" liberally.

This stuck with me, and, when we came to think about our dissertation topics, I came back to these words. You see I like conversation. Those who know me in a face to face capacity tend to describe me using words like chatterbox and motormouth. What they less often appreciate is that I listen enthusiastically and rapaciously as well, and what they relate to me will become part of my portfolio of knowledge, to reappear in a later conversation with someone else. I quite often say things that are aimed at eliciting a response of some kind. I don't mind being disagreed with and set right, just TALK TO ME! I can't learn anything from (or about) people who don't talk.

The trouble with the conversation in its academic format, as I see it, is that it's rather like a conversation between Ents. Any other sad Tolkien bores out there will remember that Treebeard says at one point (in both the book and the remarkably faithful movie) "it takes a very long time to say anything in (Entish), because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to listen to."

The academic conversation/discourse is like a series of long, ponderous monologues. Of course, the fact that it can take anything up to two years for an article to be published once it has been accepted by a print publication does nothing to speed things up.

I completely sympathise with the hobbits Merry and Pippin whose frustration knows no bounds when it takes the Ents several days of their discourse to decide that hobbits are not orcs. The poor hobbits are almost hopping from foot to foot with impatience because the Ents have not even touched on what they consider to be far more important matters.

Like Merry and Pippin, I feel small alongside the profound minds that turn out the academic writings I encounter during my research. Like them, I want to interrupt. I want to say, "But what about..?" The only trouble is that, to enter that conversation, I have to observe its rules and learn the language. My but-what-abouts will take two years to appear in print, by which time, other things will have captured my attention. I can almost hear them say it: "Now, now, don't be hasty little Hobbit..."

But there is another conversation going on. One that is far more suited to my impatient, pondskater nature. And that is this one.

You don't have to be an Ent to participate in this conversation. You can be a hobbit, or a man. You can be an orc or an elf. You can be Gandalf or Sauron himself. It doesn't matter. It's open to everyone. If you are an Ent and you want to take two years to think about what you're going to say before you say it. You go right ahead and do that (just don't expect the conversation or the audience still to be in the same place when you get around to it).

So, over here, there is "yes" and "no" and "I agree" and "don't be daft". And over there, there is "hoom" and "A-lalla-lalla-rumba-kamanda-lindor-burúmë".

It's a bit like the difference between playing Scrabble face to face and playing Scrabulous online. But, just as I have learned to do and enjoy both of those things, the challenge for me now is to figure out how to "do and enjoy" the academic approach to the concept of discourse and conversation, so that I can hand in a decent dissertation!

The fact that I have chosen to explore the impact of the use of social media on my professional practice puts me in a tricky position. How do you explain crackle and snap of the speed-of-light, open to all, global conversation using language that "takes a very long time to say anything in it, because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to listen to"?

I feel as if I have to deliver live commentary at Wimbledon in an imitation of the style of a medieval balladeer!

Why do I blog?

This is a topic I've visited to various degrees before, but a recent post from Tony Karrer got me thinking that it might be time to take another look at why I blog. As ever, it is in the comments on Tony's post that many gems lie - don't miss those... and I don't just say that because I am one of the commenters ;o)

This blog is not my attempt to win the wider world over to my own particular brand of (ahem) wisdom. It is instead the place where I hang my ideas, experiences and thoughts out in the wind and stand back from them to see whether they have value, whether they stand up to scrutiny. I like the fact that others stop by and share their views. I like the fact that I can do the same with their blogs. I treaure the relationships that have come out of my time as a blogger.

When I read some of my older posts, I find that I have moved on from those views and ideas - sometimes to such an extent that I cringe to read those words which are permanently linked to my name. And this has been largely due to encountering the thoughts and views of fellow bloggers who have been brave enough to send their fledgling ideas out into the world.

I know that there are those who consider blogging to be an egotistical pastime. Many of my colleagues feel this way. However, in an attempt to share how untrue this is, let me relate something totally left field:

My younger son is a wrestler. Sadly, not the noble art of Greco-Roman wrestling, but its showboating relative to be found in the world of WWE. He is still fairly new at it, and is scheduled for his first bout at the end of May. Excitedly, he told me that I would finally get the chance to see him compete.

It took every ounce of parenting skill I have (which is probably not a lot) to explain why I would not be there.

I have been in the crowd for every single thing my kids have done. Every stage performance, every chess tournament, every sporting endeavour. I have screamed myself hoarse. I have applauded until my hands stung. I have tried endlessly (and totally without success) to whistle through my teeth. I have "Woohoo-ed" more loudly than the rest of the crowd put together. I have mopped up the bitter tears of the loser and coached the art of winning with grace and losing with dignity. I have always made sure that my boys know that, win or lose, there is someone in that crowd who is rooting for them and doesn't care who knows it. I have no shame!

And yet, I am opting out on this occasion. How could I?

Let me explain that there is no way I could sit in the crowd and watch someone hit my son, especially since, as a "face", my son would be coming up against a "heel". I know it's all fake (although you didn't hear that from me!), but sometimes the wrestlers really get hurt. Also, part of the idea is to "sell" - to pretend to be in enormous pain. Would I be able to tell when he was selling and when he was genuinely in pain? I have worked hard on my son. He is the product of fourteen and a half years of a labour of love. He is "flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone". and I didn't do all that so that I could sit by and let some "baddie" to try to smack the living daylights out of him! Bear in mind that this is the son who has been the victim of much bullying in his life, which I have shared before on this blog.

Fortunately, he understood. His Dad and elder brother (hardier souls than I) have agreed to make a valiant effort to make as much noise as I would normally be expected to make (they are unlikely to succeed - there are only two of them, after all).

So, what is the point of that saccharine sweet revelation? Simply this. I am not detached from my thoughts and views. The line between what I think and what I feel is not very clearly drawn I am a naive soul and I invest myself in everything I say and do and think. There have been times when I have shared my theories in this blog or in comments on others' posts, only to see them mercilessly demolished by someone else. Sometimes, when the debate is purely academic or intellectual, that's no big deal, but there other times when I react in much the same vein (although to a lesser degree) as I would were I to see my son taking a beating in the ring.

Blogging can be a humbling experience. It can even be humiliating. But, if you make it your goal to learn as much as you can from the process rather than simply to bare your own soul, you will find that you learn more than you thought possible. Stretching and growth can also be uncomfortable, as you are forced to hold some of your less well formed notions up to the light and recognise that they are unfounded or inaccurate. But, at the end of the day, it must be a worthwhile experience... otherwise we wouldn't keep it up, would we?

Stats, metrics and html. Oh fooey!

I've never really been driven by the numbers on my blog - just as well really, because they are rather paltry!

However, I did think I might use them to provide some quantitative material for my dissertation, which is why I installed a couple of metrics tools. From the outset, they gave me widely different readings, which Tony Karrer might have explained in the conversation in the comments on his recent post.

Then, in his comments on one of my recent posts, Doug Belshaw indicated that he had had trouble seeing my blog - that it bombed out while loading. Patrick Dunn and Mark Berthelemy have previously told me the same thing, so I decided the time had come to something about it, in the interests of what amounts to customer service, I guess.

I went into my template (always a dangerous undertaking considering my prodigious ignorance) and pruned the Java script, including one of the metrics tools, opting to lose the one that Mark indicated had a tendency to slow things down.

Cobbling together advice from different people (and probably adding apples to oranges in the process), I also moved the script for the remaing metrics tool into the "head" section of the template. Since then, my metrics have flatlined. Just 5 minutes ago, I tried moving the script into the "body" section and there's already been one hit on the site. Hopefully this means that I have now resolved the problem.

I tell you what, when it comes to html-ish, I am dangerous! The next thing I want to try and do is to create my own custom template using images and graphics that I have generated. But that is for another day! If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them... provided of course, that I understand them!

In the meantime, I hope you approve of the slightly amended, somewhat more streamlined appearance of my blog.

Edublog awards

The winners of the 2007 "eddies" have been announced. I would have liked to attend the online ceremony in Second Life, but it clashed with what little family time I have these days, so I had to wait to get the news.

I enjoy the fact that the nominations alert me to some blogs I had not previously encountered. I also enjoy the fact that at least one of the blogs I vote for usually comes through. This year one of my nominees won a category, too.

Not everyone likes the idea of adding an element of competition to the whole social media scene, and I respect that. There has got to space in the blogosphere for all shapes, sizes and persuasions. At the time of the conversation, I stated that I had no problem with it.

What I can safely say now that the whole thing is behind us is that I realised that I was speaking as one not in the running.

It's a really odd thing that I love competition... if I can win by my own efforts: sports, board games, quizzes. But I hate being at the mercy of other people's votes. Always have. I take it all far too personally. When I was 11, I was nominated for the position of house captain at my primary school, but I stood down, because the vote was by a show of hands and I couldn't face the possibility of no hands being raised for me.

Later, in my first year at college, I was asked to participate in the annual beauty contest. Quite apart from my instinctive objection to the whole concept of beauty pageants, I was afraid of being humiliated, so I refused.

Talk about your average insecurity!

You would think I had outgrown that by now. But I went through the same agonies when I was nominated for school governor (that time I was persuaded to stand and I was elected). I imagine that I would be the same if my blog were nominated. I am also fairly sure that I wouldn't feel free to write this post, if I were nominated but didn't garner any votes.

By what do we measure the success of a blog?

My dissertation (which I mention often, but have yet to start writing) focuses on how my use of social media has transformed my professional practice. When I read back over some of my early posts, just a little over two years ago, I am amazed at the extent to which many of my views have changed. To me, this is the measure of the impact of my entrance into the blogosphere. However, this is very subjective and qualitative. It would be nice to include an element of quantitative evidence, but I'm at a loss as to how to do that. Having identified my life as my PLE, I have made my learning journey so personal, so subjective that it can't realistically be measured by anyone other than me, and I'm not sure my own measure is an entirely reliable one!

The many facets of me

I've been given cause to think a lot lately about the tension between the various aspects of our beings. For example, in no particular order, I am a:

• woman
• wife
• mother
• worshipper
• practising Christian
• singer
• learning professional
  
• voter
• teacher
• student
• step-sister
• stepdaughter
• social media user
• member of online communities
• learning designer
• learner
• leader
• human
• homeowner
• half-sister
• friend
• follower
• female relative of various other sorts
• expatriot
• employee
• colleague
  
• driver/road user
  
• daughter
• citizen
• blogger
• birth-mother-but-not-mom
• swimmer
• customer
  

I'm sure I've left several out, but you get the idea.

I don't think of these roles as being things I pick up and put down. I am always a daughter, even when I am concentrating on driving my car in rush hour traffic, and not thinking about my mother. I don't stop being a woman when I go to cast my vote. The fact that I am a Christian will influence the way I think about everything else. The fact that I am a wife will influence the way I conduct myself in a social setting.

And yet. And yet.

I am a chameleon. And I'm not talking about the outward matter of grooming - that's a given. I'm talking about more fundamental matters. When I speak on the phone to another South African, everyone in the room knows it - apparently my accent changes noticably. But it's not just that. My vocabulary changes in each situation. When I am counselling one of the members of the church group I lead, I use terminology that would not be acceptable when resolving a situation with a colleague. My confidence level fluctuates wildly. In respect of some of these roles, I am self-assured, in others, cripplingly insecure. My sense of self-worth is inconsistent. In some areas of my life, I know that I am valued - cherished, even; in others, I know that I am not - I may even be despised.

If one of my clients were to be a fly on the wall in my office, would his view of me change for the better or the worse? If my friends were to overhear my next performance appraisal with my manager, would they recognise the Karyn they know? If I had a party which was attended by people from work and people from church, would I be conflicted as to how to behave?

There are times when my leadership role is in tension with my family commitments; when my role as a student conflicts with my role as a mother; when my role as friend puts pressure on the wife in me. Some of the more recently added roles are in tension with some of the longer standing ones, and I'm struggling to assemble the pieces of the tangram into a shape that I can live with, without hypocrisy.

Is this just a symptom of our times? Do we all spread ourselves too thin, and should I just learn to "deal"?

Blogging for beginners

Mark Berthelemy recently ran a workshop for our wider team at work, introducing them to the concept of blogging. I was unable to attend on the day, since it clashed with a lecture for my Masters' course. However, technology being what it is, I have been able to attend the workshop this morning.

Have you been trying to sell the idea of blogging to colleagues, friends, relatives? Or are you a newbie, still trying to get your own head around the concept of what blogging is and isn't. Mark's workshop is pitched at a very accessible level.