yes… i know it’s still the beginning of December Mr. Downes.
10. Connectivism
Many of us have taken a huge leap this year from the dungeons of our physical existence up to the light and wonder of connectivism. Each of us has had the wonderful experience of having hundreds of people send us a message in a hundred ways to in some way interact with what they’re doing. Each of us has also had the awful experience of having hundreds of people send us a message in a hundred ways to in some way interact with what they’re doing. Connecting is the only way we can succeed in the world of edtech. This years theme for the top10 list is connecting and the forces of bad that are trying to stop us from sharing. And no… I don’t know who started connectivism.
9. Year of me realizing that I’m not a lawyer
from Bud
A variety of legal issues popped up this year that including the ‘resolution’ to the blackboard owning the internet problem. Sharing is about the only way I’m going to get my mind around copyleft, copyright and copycenter. It’s gotten so bad we don’t even know when we’ve won anymore. I’m not a lawyer… I need lawyers to share with me.
8. USTREAM
Another of our sharing tools this year was USTREAM. I’ve been in people’s classrooms, in their meetings, and streamed myself out to a variety of places around the world.4 months ago I’d never heard of it, now I’m slowly learning how to watch three videos at the same time on the same screen. How much of the daily life of people Iâ€ve never met do I really need to watch? Don’t know yet, can’t think, too busy watching.
7. Ted Stevens Alert! Banning social networks!
Mr. Ted!
Early in January, Stevens introduced Senate bill 49, which among other things, would require that any school or library that gets federal Internet subsidies would have to block access to interactive Web sites, including social networking sites, and possibly blogs as well. It appears that the definition of those sites is so vague that it could include sites such as Wikipedia.
I love this guy. Not content with clogging my tubes with his rampant ignorance, this year he’s trying to stop read/write sites for an encore. His new babydopa bill 49 is tearing it’s way into the american educational system again… and, to preempt the US centrism critique from last year (you know who you are), as the US educational system goes, sadly many of us follow.
6. Cape Town Declaration.
Cape Town
The declaration is intended to make it easier for us to work together. It’s a series of guidelines that are intended to sow happy, connected working togetherness. It’s part of the ongoing work on many people in education to make This declaration set off a ripple of dissent and agreement across the blogosphere. Share my way! Share my way now!
5. The evils of bad timing. VISTA/Amazon – Woohoo!
Sharing can also be about timing. This year two pretty big companies have decided to share their products with us. One, maybe a little too soon, the other maybe a little late. Vista has ripped a swath of pain and misery across the new computer buying world and Amazon is now trying to charge us $400 bucks for the privilege of buying their digitized books. While, sitting at number 4 on our list
4. CHEAPO comps in 3rd world.
computer wars
So, uhh… amazon, you want me to pay how much so I can buy your books? OLPC’s windmill tilting has forced everyone else in the computer industry to drive down their own entry level offerings toward the $200 mark… a nice corporate bidding game shielded under the guise of third world revitalization. The upside, we may just get another billion people connected. That’s good. That’s very good.
3. Choice.
I can choose. And I have to choose. I can’t be everywhere. Every educator is having to decide where they will stake ground. To twitter or not to twitter.
2. TWITTER
Holy connectivity batman. Twitter has brought new meaning to ‘connected’. I now know when people are getting out of bed, what they put in their coffee, and how good the cleaning staff is at their schools. I just read that someone missed their favourite television show. They never bothered to mention what it was. Just said they missed it. What, tell me, am I possibly supposed to get from that!?! That being said… holy wow… It’s saved my buns a bunch of time. Yay Microblogging.
1.Tom Wood.
Internet warrior. My new personal hero. Has set the best example for the rest of us this year. He’s gone out and used his skills for the cause of good, the cause of keeping us connected… and the… uh… cause of porn. He’s the kid from Australia who cracked the $80 million dollar government sponsored porn filter in 30minutes. I’d like to finish off with wisdom from Mr. Wood.
“For his part, the teenage hacker, Wood, says filters like the one he busted, don’t address larger issues. A former victim of cyber bullying, Wood says educating kids on how to protect themselves online, is where he’d like to see money spent.”
Hey Dave:)
Tom Wood here – just want to say thanks for being really supportive and to let you know that the Federal Policy makers here have listened, and a lot of what I was pushing for is going to happen throughout next year!
Regards,
Tom
As I said last night…lol. Number 2 – it isn’t Twitter, it’s the rise of micro/presence blogging that’s been the significant shift this year on how people engage with the web. Some people I know are actually abandoning their feed readers in favor of updates from trusted friends and colleagues. I can now stream my posts, pictures, twitter & fb updates, del.icio.us links etc through my Jaiku feed for example.
The flip – more personal side – is the idea of presence, and being able to maintain constant peripheral site of what your contacts are getting up to. Although I am kind of hoping that people get a little more creative with their wake up and good night calls 🙂
I am an impatient person (I know, I hide it well) – I love the idea that a lot of things in life only need 140 characters or less.
Coming soon is micro-twittering!
I’m going to set up a twitter micro-feed to alert people when I have posted something new on twitter. Nothing but tinyurls to the twitter site…