I really did try to stop myself from talking any more about bloggers at the Democratic National Convention, but then Dave Winer posted a link to this article by Jack Kapica at the Globe and Mail. He makes a great observation about the role of bloggers in a media environmnet that is owned and dominated by a few media conglomerates. Bloggers are rushing in to fill a void, one that was once held by local newspapers, who sent reporters as representatives of a constituency back home to report on major events in the way that mattered to their communities. Consolidation of ownership in the media has largely done away with that. A good observation – bloggers are becoming the eyes and ears of the people. This has been seen with 9/11 (when I found that good old slashdot was the … Continue reading »

A very nice post today over in Tuttle SVC commenting about weblogs representing the future of the web. I’ve never heard of anyone who used weblog software very long and decided they’d rather go back to keeping a homepage with FrontPage. Its true – I’ve found blogging quite effective in reducing Dreamweaver and FrontPage dependence. But, more seriously: The web is only going to grow. Its use is only going to grow in schools. And weblogs and content management systems will be seen as the best way to use the web. It might take a while, but it is inevitable. The only thing to fear are really shitty future implementations built on WebCT, BlackBoard and the like. Well said. Here’s how WebCT describes why you should use their new version: WebCT Vista 3.0 adds new capabilities that help educators impact … Continue reading »

Brian Lamb writes about the webloggers at the Democratic National Convention – A plague of webloggers, and he finishes with: One real change that weblogs do represent, however, is a means for ordinary people to speak back to media, and to demand accountability — outside acceptable channels such as filtered letters to the editor. The ability for anyone to grab the microphone (however tiny the amplifier) makes those who currently have a tight grasp on it uncomfortable — just as it makes some educators uncomfortable. That’s a great way of putting it. Weblogs really allow anyone to access the means to broadcast to a wide audience within this new medium. And from what I’ve seen so far, the bloggers at the DNC are doing a great job of calling it like it is. Here’s Dave Winer’s commentary: Well, the convention … Continue reading »

I would hope that someone who appoints himself and a few cronies as the web police, there would be an attempt to appear to offer some sort of sincere discussion of the web as an emerging media. Sadly, in Adam Penenberg’s Media Hack column of July 26 over at wired only manage to trash U.S. politicians web sites much in the style of US Weekly’s Fashion Police (I have not seen this column, but Penenberg cites this as an influence) That is to say, they seem to be more interested in making cutting, catty remarks for the sake of amusing each other, rather than offering any serious criticism of the way that web sites are being used by politicians, or examining how the use of web sites is changing the nature of political discourse in the current U.S. election. They … Continue reading »

The point here is that the information one gives about oneself is more selective, malleable, and subject to self-censorship in CMC than it is in FtF interactions because only verbal and linguistic cues – those that are most at our discretion and control – are our displays. (Joseph Walther)

In other words, on the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog. :^) Continue reading »

OK – all the posts for my TypePad account have been exported, and it is time for me to import them to this site! After due consideration, I think I’ll keep this account for my personal blogging, but my educational technology blogging will be moved over to the new site at Just Another Ant (kept at my community incubator and blog hosting service StigmergicWeb.org), where I’ll also be looking at the web as an infrastructure that supports emergent intelligence and knowledge.. Why am I keeping TypePad hosting if I’m setting up new service of my own? Doesn’t that mean I’m supporting my competition? I guess I’m keeping it because “member since 08/2003″ looks darn cool on my page, and I think that TypePad is a seriously cool service. But I also want to be able to experiment a bit more … Continue reading »

Over at Learning Movable Type, Elise has posted a summary of methods for backing up your blog. One of the top suggestions (and a good reason to back up to MT 3) is the availability of the TypeMover plugin which backs up not only content, but also all comments, trackbacks, pings, weblog settings, templates, email notifications, IP bans, categories and authors!! Sounds pretty great to me, and I’m surprised it was not a winner in the MT 3.0 plugin contest, although I don’t know if it was entered. By the way, some interesting plugins have come out of the contest for MT 3, including a new version of MTBlackList – take that, you dastardly comment spammers!!!

Sebastian Fiedler is wondering “Do we have a content problem?” I think this is a valid question, considering the intensity many instructional technologists devote to learning objects. Indeed, their reverence borders on religious ecstasy when the discussion turns towards learning object repositories and SCORM compliance.

I’ll follow up on Rick’s declaration that today is open source day (in honour of Alec Couros‘ completing comprehensive exams for his Ph.D.). Today is a good day to be talking about open source. I just read that there is going to be a cross-campus installation of Moodle at Dublin City University (thanks to Scott Leslie at EdTechPost for the link). Whenever I have looked at Moodle, I always wonder why educational institutions continue to license WebCT or Blackboard. I have heard WebCT described as a programmer’s idea of what an online learning environment should be. Moodle is based on a social constructivist pedagogical paradigm, and was written from the ground up to support that framework. DCU is to be commended for their thoughtful process in selecting a virtual learning environment. They carefully examined their current and projected needs, then … Continue reading »

While working on the project this afternoon, I started looking at the user interfaces for various weblog tools. Sadly, I have come to the conclusion none of the user interfaces would have been what a reasonably intelligent user (meaning me, of course) would have designed. Typepad and Blogger would be about the best available. Both have a few small buttons to take care of standard things you’d want to do while entering a post to a blog – make text italicized or bold, insert an image or a link.