Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Blogs, Wikis and other technical stuff

A small group of us were sitting in Weld Hall (our residence for the conference) on the second floor in what I suppose is called either the common area or the living room. Bob Hazen had his computer out and was talking technology with us. We started, I think, with blogs such as this one. He was explaining how to invite authors - actually I think his becoming an author on this AMTNYS blog is how it all started - how to keep things private, moderate posts and all sort of cool stuff. He showed us many blog sites that are specific to educators and meant to be used with one's students. We learned the difference between a blog and a wiki and a few good sites for each. I have a ridiculous amount of bookmarked pages set as such in barely 20 minutes. In any case, if you do a search you can easily find his website and his blog about blogging...or you can pull him aside and ask. Those that are interested can join me tomorrow at Kate's session on blogging. I am sure we'll get even more information there.

The point of this post though was not merely to tell a story, but to pick up on what someone said while we sat in the living room talking about all of this. Basically, ours was not a session in the program, it was not planned on or expected, yet those of us there got a lot out of our conversation with Bob today. Interactions like these they happen often at events like these. They can be incredibly helpful and meaningful. They can teach us a great deal. Spontaneous teachable moments...and the more one is at such events the more likely they are to pick up some great information, engage is some meaningful conversation, spark some sort of interest.

1 comment:

  1. This type of interaction is key to why I come to conferences. The sessions are great but the time you spend just picking others brain is just as rewarding and useful

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