As someone who used to love working out and exercising (Lettered Varsity football my freshman year at Denver Lutheran High School...Go Lights!), it is becoming increasingly harder to force myself to get up and get moving. The next best thing is taking my dog Sadie for an evening stroll. Thus the reason for this blog post! While taking a brisk school night stroll, I noticed the hazy sky shining only a few evening lights. That struck me as a bit odd. Why when I looked at the sky, could I see such few stars. For some odd reason, this prompted me to think about my professional learning network. When I sit back and critically analyze who is part of my PLN, there are only a few bright lights shining, dominating my "night sky". I loved living in Denver (haven't been back in years though), where I could drive for just a short time and see what seemed like millions of stars. While I am impressed at the brightness of the few stars that are able to cut through the city lights, there is real beauty and joy in the multitude.
This post isn't meant to demean any of those folks who I consider a vital part of my PLN (Dave Black, Dennis Grice, Lisa Durff, to name only a few. There are a host of contacts in Twitter, and on SKYPE who are also critical to my learning). I've just noticed that my RSS feed is filled with "the few, the proud" and the"rock stars" of Ed Tech-dom: Dave Warlick, Wes Fryer, Wil Richardson, Vicki Davis, etc.
I guess I'm looking for more variety, if not more variety, then more voices (Especially around Presidential campaign time. I tend not to share similar political views with many of my colleagues).
If anything, I'd like to be able to share more and have deeper conversations. I love reading Dave Warlick, but he's not likely to comment on my blog. Maybe I should dive more into our Technology in Lutheran Schools Ning.
Flickr image:
greefus groinks, "The north star goes wobbly." greefus groinks photostream. 11 Jul 2007. FLICKR. 27 Aug 2008
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2 comments:
For what it is worth Rob, You are one of my PLN Shining Stars. Without asking or even you knowing, I have used you in more than one conversation with my princiapl about Educational Technology. I believe just in our own LC-MS we are blessed with some great educated minds, you, and others you have mentioned and Josh S and Jon O and Many More!. As I do follow many others on Twitter, I make sure your (and others mentioned) posts are text to my phone directly. I dont' want to miss something I find important (Even if it is Dave talking about baseball :) ) I have learned so much from all of you guys and enjoy reading the posts and blogs. It also helps when I can quote two, three, or even four or more Tech guys out there to help get my tech in our school and classrooms.
A while back I even blogged about you and your blog about ALICE. My blog however isn't anything real substance usually about my son :) but once in a rare while I try to write something of substance.
Thanks for your kind words. Sometimes you wonder if anything you say ever gets heard. But then again, I try to remind myself it's not about "being heard," it's about being part of a conversation. I'm glad you are part of my conversations in Twitter Burk! Thanks for commenting!
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