Wednesday, October 10, 2007

what you can say in 27 minutes

So you understand everything there is to know about the abyssian world of blogging, twittering, and social networking? Then you're a consultant! Congratulations.

For the rest of us, this landscape is all epiphany and Hamlet.

I don't know about you, but I'm totally webtigued. Just when I think I have a grip on something, I feel like I'm trying to keep one of those water tube snake things from slipping through my hand. Plop!

And this evening I took it all out on Twitter.

I'll say three things up front:
  1. Taylor inspired me to believe that Tweets can serve as a post.
  2. To appreciate the stream, start at the bottom and up! up! and away! Stop when you get back here (although, you are welcome to read in traditional linear, top-bottom-left-right fashion).
  3. Sometimes arriving at a point is a mental cross-country drive, not a simple peregrination next door.

kenrodoff snooze one, snooze all...dream in Beta.

kenrodoff @taylorteacher and then the borg ate one another...and that guy that used to be on Sesame Street...faking blindness...pirate whore!

taylorteacher Been working on a blog post about that Borg thing. This "node" is signing off.

kenrodoff @taylorteacher and the unsolvable puzzle was web2.0

garageflowers @ken , @chrisL 'night gents - 12:00 really should only come once a day for me.

taylorteacher @kenrodoff reminds me of an episode of StarTrekTNG in which they were gonna destroy the whole Borg collective with one unsolvable puzzle

taylorteacher @kenrodoff You asked that before, and thinking about it send me into an infinite loop. I don't think I know.

kenrodoff blog image? again...what is the ultimate goal of the blog?

kenrodoff @garageflowers i've done the vodwikicast...it's over-rated.

garageflowers @kenrodoff sometimes it's nice to just talk about books in English class, with nary a wiki in sight :-)

garageflowers @kenrodoff these tools and toys are great fun, and I dabble in it all, but I'm not rushing to turn every assignment into a vodwikicast

taylorteacher @kenrodoff sure. I'll send whatever I find out -- what about blog image? confused.

garageflowers @kenrodoff a well crafted, pedagogically sound lesson plan. don't force the fit.

garageflowers @kenrodoff "i am hyperlink, i am widget", etc. don't let the tail wag the dog. tech is a tool, not an endpoint. Use tech as part of

taylorteacher @ kenrodoff you're hilarious -- it must be pretty late there, too

kenrodoff @taylorteacher so you will inform me about the 'how to'? I am so relieved to know that my earlier thoughts about blog image are true.

taylorteacher falling asleep. nitey-nite. I'm outie!

kenrodoff @taylorteacher fair enough...direct and to the point...Polonius would be proud, but alas, he is slain.

kenrodoff I am text. I am word count. I am hyperlink. I am widget. I am a shell of the person that used to stand in front of a room and teach
kenrodoff what are you reading? will it improve A) your esteem? B) your spirit? C) your perspective? D) your jingoism?
kenrodoff STD: sustained typing disorder
kenrodoff Aristotle = Poetics = Catharsis = Twitter
kenrodoff my sons smile @ me every day...A) they love me w/out question, B) they just don't know any better
kenrodoff speak at a conference, mingle with warlick, richardson, ew, and ah, and then what? how do you feel?
kenrodoff Affect Change...go, do it now...then tell me what it really looks like.
kenrodoff how often do you scoop your cat litter?
garageflowers @kenrodoff Our school just abandoned the writing portfolio - neither teachers nor students were finding it meaningful
kenrodoff the microwave in my kitchen is no longer emitting waves of micro...what do I do? buy another...how american...bigger and macrowavier!
teach42 @kenrodoff Yes, no, maybe, yes, definitely. Hard to answer questions when they're rapid fire! Yes, wordpress is better. Yes, feedburner rox
kenrodoff can students keep portfolios on their own blogs? how valuable are student portfolios? should I apply for Eng. Dept Chair?
kenrodoff How do I carefully choose widgets? Should I abandon blogger for wordpress?
kenrodoff is Feedburner better? And to whom?
kenrodoff how should I really feel about my Technorati rank (or lack thereof)?
kenrodoff would my blog matter only if someone read it?
kenrodoff would my blog matter if no one read it?
kenrodoff I am tired of people hiding...I want to connect.
kenrodoff i wonder..are you out there? or should I ask that to Dar Williams
khokanson @kenrodoff why the twitter rant this evening? get some SLEEP
kenrodoff District Tech Requests are spawn of the devil, electronic spawn.
kenrodoff i am tired of feeling like i need to be everywhere all the time...you can have the chat room, ustream, and WOW! (they wouldn't let a man in)
kenrodoff the score for the movie Transformers is moving, sweeping, and not what you would expect.
kenrodoff i believe in the power of my own integrity over anything else.
kenrodoff i was voted 'most friendly' Abington High School, class of '89
kenrodoff i surrendered one of my cat's this past summer and it was a horrific moment and I felt like a failure.
kenrodoff i have 2 children and a 3rd due in March
kenrodoff i have spent 150 dollars every other week (money I do not have) to see a psychiatrist.
kenrodoff i have yet to recover from the shooting at my school last december
kenrodoff i have trichtotillomania.
kenrodoff i teach @ Springfield Twp. High School
kenrodoff i am 36. i live in PA
kenrodoff i am ken rodoff

Did I learn anything?

Presuming I did, is this the type of learning we want to advocate and see from our students?

If they tell us how they feel, if they unpack their baggage in clear, concise 140 word textbites, are we ready to listen? Are we ready to demonstrate real empathy?

Are we ready to say that the content we teach is a massive cover-up, disguising the real goal we should focus on with our students:

Getting them in touch with themselves, so they can move forward, sooner than later.

And can Twitter do that?

4 comments:

Graham Wegner said...

Read this - you'll feel better. For the record, I reckon twitter can point to learning but I wouldn't say it is an effective model for learning - Darren's tongue is just about through his cheek on this one.

Ken Rodoff said...

@graham: thanks for sharing that. Amazingly, I feel better! Now, with my renewed sense of optimism, what shall I do?

Graham Wegner said...

Actually, now I've re-read your post, I think I missed your point initially. Just goes to show I was only reading what I wanted to read from your words so I could add my own twist in. I think I used a twitteresque reading style and I totally missed what you were getting at - in fact, only by slowing down, reading your instructions and proceeding through the twitter stream bottom up, did it start to crystallise where you were headed. But I'm glad you feel better. I'd better thank Dan for linking me to your very thought provoking blog - very glad that it doesn't seem to echo in here like some of the other places I frequent on the edublogosphere.

Ken Rodoff said...

@graham: good lord, thank you. Praise - few and far between. Thanks.