… yet another shameful blogging hiatus (it’s been over a month!) and I’m determined to be a better blogger this year – as opposed to a selfish blogger, which is what I’ve been so far. It’s not been intentional – I just didn’t realise that many people actually read it until fairly recently when I was alerted to the fact that I was listed in Janet Clarey's 'Women in the edublogosphere' post (and TBH, used the blog mainly to keep a note of things I love but don’t have the time to write a full academic paper on, but would like to do so in the future – i.e. never happens because there are always so many other things to do). I’m so appreciative of people that have commented as I rarely comment on other blogs due to being spread so thinly across a myriad of online communities, so after spending a day in the company of Ewan McIntosh blog supremo, I feel really enthused, enlightened, and determined to engage in community discourse, as opposed to ‘hey, this was really good and I’m excited (yet again)’.

The reason for the ‘Ewan Effect’ (should that have a trademark sign after it?) is that he came along to the kick-off meeting for the VITAE project, which finished a couple of hours ago. Three days of project-based discussions (which I’ll report back on after this – too much to write here) and heated debates with – among others - my new friend and expert on all things intercultural Laurent Borgmann (the reason I mention him specifically is that due to certain ideological differences we argued so much – in a good way!). Laurent runs the award-winning Absolutely Intercultural (podcast) site, along with Anne Fox, coordinator of the VITAE project - one of the loveliest, chilled-out women I’ve ever worked with… the whole team’s ace!

*Inner voice says STOP! You said you were going to leave this for another post!*

SO, the hiatus meant that I didn’t blog about:

a)       The supa-dupa BAZAAR conference in Utrecht, mid-December. Probably the best (un)conference of the year – i LOVE this project. Open content for all – SHOW THAT YOU SHARE! I was a workshop leader, along with Josie, Wolfgang Greller, Marco Kalz, Steve Wheeler, Veronika Hornung, Graham Attwell, Ray Elferink and George Bekiaridis, and it was a superb event. Thanks so much to the Bazaar team for inviting us – you’ve done a fantastic job guys! Hey, the ‘Sounds of the Bazaar’ show has come out of this, and it’s essential listening for all us EdTech types, thanks to Graham’s well-informed interviews, choice of interviewees, and all-round production skills. For pics see the world's greatest photo sharing site...

b)      FLICKR!!!! Anybody that knows me on a day-to-day basis knows about my passion for all things Flickr. Although most people (in EdTech-land) will only know one account (work-related), I’m actually the ‘proud owner’ of 4, and after 3 years of being a Flickrite I’m finally about to embark on a series of Flickr-related research projects… and all being well, it’s going to form the crux of my PhD. But once again, too much to write so will put it in another post…

c)       Finishing work for Xmas and immediately coming down with Flu. Yet again. Why is that?

Holy Moly – after saying I’m going to avoid the ‘hey, this was really good and I’m excited (yet again)’ route, I’ve done just that. Some habits are hard to break… like New Year resolutions – easier said than done ;-)

Information E/Revolution which "…explores the changes in the way we find, store, create, critique, and share information": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4CV05HyAbM 

A Vision of Students Today - a short video produced in collaboration with 200 students summarising "how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

... i'm currently writing a paper on information and communication overload, so it's a welcome relief to revisit these themes via a different medium (i.e. video)! Welsch opens the 'Visions of Students Today' video with a quote from Marshall McLuhan (1967):

"Today’s child is bewildered when he enters the 19^th century environment that still characterizes the educational establishment where information is scarce but ordered and structured by fragmented, classified patterns subjects, and schedules”

I'd be interested to hear from others about their experiences of information and communication overload, particularly in terms of student feedback with regards hyper-connectivity and learning networks/multiple network membership. I know that for myself, and many others I have spoken to in the EdTech community our ability to connect and be connected is sometimes as stressful as it is energising! Also, I sometimes worry that constantly multitasking (and to some extent, information 'grazing') means that i'm only paying continuous partial attention at the expense of deeper levels of reflection... Do our students feel the same?

... although (slightly ironically) i've just posted a short account/description of information/communication overload and the 'perils' of social software addiction over at my Elgg blog..

;-)