XplanaZine

Here’s a summary of ideas and conversations from the edublogging community that have captured our attention in the past 48 hours.

Vicki Davis has a good follow-up to the Higher Ed BloggerCon session on blogging/wiki research. She gives a good overview of the session and reminds us that “Research is important and vital. It must be
href=”http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2006/04/research-integrity-new-study-linking.html” target=”_blank”>unbiased and thorough. We must know why we do what we do and be willing to self-implement sometimes painful paradigm shifts. We must never be closed minded and learn to disagree as professionals.” Amen.

Dave Cormier talks about expertise, what it means to be one, and what it takes to remain one. Specifically, he discusses authority by accomplishment and authority by community, and questions the validity and processes by which such conference occurs.

Another theme going around is that of education as experiment. Wesley Fryer has this post responding to an earlier article by Doug Johnson. Wesley argues:

“In the educational, classroom environment, authentic education is always experimental. This is because
href=”http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=discoveringharry%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=1412909023%2526tag=discoveringharry%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/1412909023%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002″>teaching is an art, not a science. Many, many people sadly mistake the purpose of the educational enterprise as mere content transmission.”

I agree with the part about content transmission, but I’m not sure that necessarily makes all authentic education experimental. Now, if he had said experiential. Brian Crosby has also chimed in on the subject and Doug Johnson has followed up his first post with further conversation on the topic.

Finally, Gardner Campbell posts an audio file of a student panel discussing “life online.” This is a great insight into the lives of students.

In the general stuff category:

• James Farmer’s video post on Blogs as Personal Learning Environments is now live over at Higher Ed BloggerCon and it’s definitely worth checking out.
• Kathy Sierra has an informative post on making good presentations and giving audiences more meaningful experiences.
• Bill Kerr give his take on podcasting and its significance.