Web 2.0 for educators - Part 5

Started Tuesday 1st February 2011  Started 0636 GMT
Words 323
S.I. =  64.6%

Web 2.0 mirrors village life?


The Village preservation society featured in a previous blog. As I have been watching the news over the last two months parallels between village life and social networking activities.  The world has started to become a village again.

A very sweeping statement but I am of the opinion it has some anthropological basis.  A number of stories over the last few days have re-inforced the fact as people we have lived in village or small communities far longer than we have in cities.  We still have the same networking skills since they are I believe innate.

I read today about research reported in the Daily Telegraph that women of 40 or older using Facebook have more friends (up to 4 times more) than other users.  This seems to mirror the sort of informal networking groups traditionally associated with ladies that lunch or dare I say it the Women's Institute.  I  was constantly aware when I was growing up of my own mother's contacts with others and how well informed she could potentially be of what others (possibly even myself) had been up to.

The use of mobile phones and their replacement of the traditional role of  bike sheds for elicit knowledge (reported in Kindle edition of Telegraph but not website as far as I can find) by  Dr Emma Bond from University Campus Suffolk equally applies to all Web 2.0 technologies including Facebook.  Conversations I have had with friends whose children are wanting to use Facebook all centre around safety and knowing what their children are doing.  Most come to the conclusion that they also need to be a friend on the Facebook account of their child and able to see all posts.

More of  Web 2.0 and the impact of Cloud Computing for not only Educators but small business will appear on the two blogs included in the bar next to the title.

Web 2.0 for educators part 2

I should really have a go at finding
 another picture but this is one design
 I had the foresight to commision and buy
 from a graphic designer in Hersonnisos, Crete.
She took the raw design drawn on the equivalent
  I gave her a little quizzically and didn't do a bad
 (English understatement here) interpreting
my ideas a few Polo shirts later and she was even
more happy with the transaction. 

Started Tuesday 11th January 2010 Started 7.00 am

Word Count 475

As promised the continuation of Web2.0 concepts from the Blog last Tuesday   I will continue to outline the general principles but will use my intended 500 word limit to blog on an important twitter feed  from somebody who I follow.  I do not follow everybody on twitter only those that can add insight to my own endeavours.  I have already ceased following a teaching agency that I realised was a little bit of a  twitter spammer (that sounds a bit rude). 

I won't put her link on here because that wouldn't be appropriate for the potential traffic she may get.  Also twitter appeared to be having a growth spurt yesterday was looking awkward and gangling,  so much so it wasn't recognisable.  I am sure when it's hormones calm down and it's calm again you will be able to find myself and Andrea if you have the inclination.

So what was the twitter feed about?  The knotty issue of Web 2.0 technology safety.  I will not attempt an Alexander the Great solution to this Gordion knot of a challenge.  It is a swinging not and I might miss, severing my own means of remaining balanced on both feet.

A good starting point is the safety principles contained in the Schoolsofeverything website.   The rules for meeting in real life apply equally to encounters on the digital ocean of Web 2.0.  Rather than comment on specifics here and fill up/slow down Google's Public servers for everybody else I would direct yo to the Blogs I run on my domains that are hosted on Business orientated servers.   The links are in the bar near the title of this blog posting. 

So what arrived in the Kindle this morning.  The yellow snow award for journalism goes to the story about  the teacher who let his pupils go sledging.  I won't say where my sympathies lie since I might at some point inadvertently be guilty of eating yellow snow myself.  Web 2.0 has a nasty habit of coming back to bite you when you least expect it.  An Australian friend of mine, who is a computer consultant, was last Friday night was expressing in the pub   his open mouthed disbelief at the  deviousness of some recruitment agencies use of Facebook to select people by assessing their ability to slag their boss off (additional Blog informationn).  This is back on theme with Andrea's twitter.

The moral of the story?  If it's yellow it 'ain't snow.

And...... Finally what would Samuel Pepys have experienced on this day in 1668?  I will not spoil your chance to to make your own interpretation since I have probably exceeded my self-imposed 500 word limit.  

 Tomorrow I will try to answer the question "Why are teachers are a  business' most valuable asset?"

Micro entrepreneurship. What has worked well

Taking the Bull by the Horns,
Minoan Bull

 Started 7:30 am Friday 30th December 2010  
Words 577

Micro-entrepreneurship  is the sub-theme of this blog.  After evaluating the blog yesterday (Blog content) this is the first part of the new cycle.  So what have I discovered and achieved this week?

First is that small can be beautiful.  The danger with a lot of social networking tools is that they can take over and become a means to themselves.  Many businesses are finding that employees are spending a lot of time on Facebook, for example to the detriment of productivity. 

Personally, I do not visit Facebook all that often, owing to the fact that I do not want to know everything that a person is thinking.  Mystery and secrets can be wonderful things.  Also not clever if a recruiter wants an insight into your character.  A small blog article when written well and focusing on a single topic may be  more effective than a display of all your knowledge.  This often leaves a reader a little overwhelmed much as it does in a conversation. The discipline of micro blogging via Twitter removes a lot of the stunned and wonder factor.  However, my experience of Twitter is that there is a lot serial twittering, how do they get the time, whose message sometimes becomes diluted because of the sheer volumes of tweets.  From some sources it is almost like spam email, especially teacher recruitment agencies.  Do they not realise that if you are teaching you only have a small window of opportunity to indulge in tweeting?   

Linking activities and drawing almost Chinese walls between web presences is another conclusion from this week.  Why repeat the same information in a blog (dynamic presence) that could be better served by a static  presence,  a web page?  After all a blog should be like a reflective diary.  It should not be an out and out sales pitch.  Written in a journalistic style it can intrigue and lead people to want to know more.  They  interact and find the information you want to give them.  Then you can do the micro-entrepreneurship from your static presence. It is about time management.  What is the most effective use of your time for producing income streams as a micro-entrepreneur?  

I have spent a bit of time this week looking at a number of areas. Use of Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing and how to make people come to you for your services (which will appear on Tuesday).  Institutions for professional development, which will appear next Wednesday.    On Thursday, those tricky work-life balance issues.  As a Wellbeing Facilitator/champion in a former employment I have over the years acquired some knowledge of this often murky topic.  Which brings us to the free running or free blogging of the weekend, general on Saturday and Lunch on Sunday.   Monday is for that aspirational moment and the intention to ski uphill.

So how long should it take.  About a half-hour per day.  You can always go back to important issues at a later time.  They won't go away, if they do they are not as important as you thought.   This time frame is not difficult, as a teacher I have used reflective practice on occasions.  The trick is to focus on the positive benefits of the experience to best practice.  An Australian technique that was championed by pupil behavior gurus many years ago (do not hear about it too much now) was the ratio of positive to negative comments.  This also applies to any form of communication.  Nobody likes a miserable basket!