Group items tagged

When I log into BlackBoard, I see about 30 different things I can do, and for each I have to click a link and go to a page to do the action.  Twitter strips away the features, instead using an inherently flexible textual space to facilitate communication, accomplishing the same goal of other feature-ridden “course technology.

I see Twitter’s artificial limit on post size as an important factor in classroom success.  First, it keeps the information space managable, meaning information is economized and easily retrievable

Twitter’s short form as a communication equalizer

Luckily for Twitterers, there’s Mr. Tweet, a free recommendation service that analyzes your current network to suggest new friends and members whose feeds may be of interest. Like the Shorty Awards and many other third-party applications that make use of Twitter’s platform, the company has no official ties to San Francisco-based Twitter, which allows people to post messages up to 140 characters in

I think where I’m going with this is that I worry that the ed. tech. blogosphere is reasonably saturated.  Related to Darren Draper’s post on Twitter Set Theory, I feel like there are some central figures whose spheres overlap considerably and a whole lot of us outsiders trying to penetrate that inner circle.  It’s as if folks like Will Richardson, David Warlick, Wes Fryer, Vicki Davis, Dean Shareski, Stephen Downes, Chris Lehmann…(and, yes, you Scott) are having an awesome cocktail party conversation and I’m standing on the outside staring over their shoulders and listening in, trying to get a word in, but not penetrating that conversation at all.  I know there are LOTS of us on the outside looking in. 

My theory is– don’t worry about getting your voice out there, or comments, or rankings, or even being invited to the right parties (inner circle) — rather focus intently on children, your vision, and leaving education better than you found it. Concentrate on helping those within your sphere of influence to make principled changes in education that is in the best interest of kids.

As many of you know, who follow me on Langwitches, I am working on a Digital Storytelling Guide for Educators. I will be using Wordle to create a storytelling cloud with words that come to mind when you think what Digital Storytelling means to or for you. Please contribute keywords, that come to YOUR mind when you think of storytelling in a comment. Don’t hesitate to add duplicate keywords what digital storytelling means to you. That way Wordle will highlight more important keywords. I will add your reponses through the comments and through Twitter and Plurk to Wordle and add the collaborative cloud to this post and as part of the cover art of the hardcover book that will be available for free download on Lulu.com . This cloud will be a digital story in itself, told by all of us!