I am taking this fascinating online seminar at SCoPE, described as "an opportunity to share our blogging experiences and to discuss effective strategies for teaching and learning." Michael Griffeth is doing a wonderful job with this, and I want to thank Sylvia Currie for again facilitating a very informative session for all! 

I have used Google as my homepage for about 2 years now, and recently decided that it will be nice to start my Internet journey each day with some content, rather than with a search box. It was around this time that I saw the article in Business 2.0 (nothing like finally catching up on my reading!), which listed Netvibes as one of the disrupting innovators.

I used Netvibes for 3 weeks, and found it easy and useful, but very slow in loading. So slow, in fact, that it often took more than a minute for my personalized webpage to open. I then tried Google's version, which was fast but not as user-friendly. I finally settled on Pageflakes, which loads very fast and it my current favorite.

I know there are other AJAX-based websites that allow us to select and organize our own personalized content, so I am interested to see what comes next. For now, PageFlakes is my favorite.

I was reading the current issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, and read an interesting article on lifelogging, which is "continually recording images from their vacations, conversations from business meetings, and even intimate confessions to friends." Strange as this sounds, it involves wearing a camera around our necks or a recorder, and recording everything which is done.

According to one of the researchers,

"I fully believe that we will all be wearing this stuff all the time," said Mark T. Bolas, a visiting associate professor in the film school at the University of Southern California, as he hung a digital voice recorder around his neck when we met a few months ago. "The day before you die, your kids are going to look at you, when everybody else is doing this, and say, You mean you didn't record when you were growing up? You're just going to die and all of this is going to go away?"

Sounds interesting, but somewhat unrealistic. Do I really want to sift through every conversation I had at work yesterday? How about the sound of the subway last week? Bathroom sounds? Arguments? Snorring? CLient meetings (yeah, sure they would give permission!). Why would anybody want to record all that? How would it be tagged to find any of it and make use of it? I don't even tag my own blog, much less look at pictures from five years ago or lecture notes from last my college days. There may in fact be some use or functionality with it, but I am not yet convinced.

Well, our whirlwind of a week with the Online Connectivity Conference has now ended, and while I have been getting at least 100 emails extra each day, I will miss the creative juices that have been flowing. I will need to spend some time catching up with some of the posts I have wanted to add, so hope the Moodle server remains open for our comments.

I preliminary finding I had from reading and interacting with my colleagues, there was a great amount of excitement with Second Life, and while the conference was primarily around a theoretical foundation, it is interesting how the theory has been brought, almost seamlessly, into practice. This is a recurring theme in my own research (cf., my upcoming paper presentation at AHRD in March). Nice to see that gap being briedged here.

For all practical purposes, I now have two things to consider–the theoretical foundations of Connnectivism as well as how many see it coming into play in Second Life.

OK, my curiosity was awoken in the Online Connectivism Conference due to so much chatter about Second Life and its use in education, learning, and business. So, I created an account and played around for about 10 minutes. Amazing graphics, and while I only flew and accidentally (sorta) pushed somebody else into the water, I thought I needed to get back to work.

Well, this is related to my work as I am a learning professional.

Well, the Northern Voice bloggers have made their decisions, and alas I have not received a bursary to attend the conference later this month. Too bad, as it would have helped with the 3 planes I need to take to get to Vancouver with the combined 12 hour trip (so complicated from New York, it seems!). Well, they have their reasons, and I am glad at least to have had this opportunity to apply for it, especially given this organization is non-profit and run completely by the most dedicated group of volunteers I have seen in a long while.

Well, I suppose that means I will approach my friends at Amex and Visa for their continued funding support instead. As I see myself more and more as a researcher, I plan to continue my research project as I initially proposed it nevertheless. Hey, I like observing experience and phenomena and creating new knowledge!

Today's OCC conference was wonderful! I really enjoyed listening to Will Richardson who spoke about Connectivism with students. I wish he could have spoken more about it with a higher education perspective, but many of his examples seemed based on his experiences with teaching younger students. I tried to ask a few questions toward the end of the session, only to find out my new microphone has an on/off switch which was, you guessed it, off.

I wish Will would have spoken about the diagram he showed on a slide with his connected contacts around him (in the center). I did not understand what he had that for, and wish my microphone worked so I could have asked him. Nonetheless, I shall ask him here. Who knows, perhaps he may reply.

I have been attending the Connectivism Online Conference , which is a week-long conference around the work of George Siemens and his thinking around Connectivism. The schedule for the conference is on the University of Manitoba site. I read George's book, Knowing Knowledge, and have beeen struggling with his learning theory. He states that the quantity of information that we face and the amount of learning we do within a network causes our conception of kwoledge to need to be revised. Knowledge, according to George, is no longer that thing which resides within us, but rather more of a shared notion that exists in a more systemic manner.

This reminds me of work in learning organizations, especially with Peter Senge, though on a larger scale. I used to be fonder of this thinking than I am currently, as I can't help but think that learning happens within a person, and if people leave a so-called learning organization, then the learning is no longer present. I wonder how this works in our connected networks that George is discussing? This conference promises to be informative, especially given the number of participants and variety of views that are being expressed.

I really like this, and am becoming increasingly interested in the philosophical foundations of this work.

Time and Date is one of the most useful and practical websites I have used again and again, and recently I have seen a great feature it offers being more widely used. Yes, I do get excited about a website that, you got it, gives the time and date for different cities around the world.

With more blogging and utilization of social media regardless of location and timezone, the Fixed Time option is wonderful for scheduling meetings. Just today I got a link from George Siemens about the Connectivism Online Conference that begins next week, and he fixed the time so participants from the 40+ countries that are attending the conference can be clear what time it is for them. Such a little step, but what confusion and needless time wasting it solves. Thanks for the example, George!