I have been a huge fan of Jim Groom ever since the great Edupunk debates of 2008. As he so often reminds us, “Nobody blogs like the Bava! Nobody!” And man is he right. The quality of, frequency of, and intensity of his blogging is enough to leave any aspiring blogger’s mouth agape. The man lives and breaths blogging, and he is doing it a few years into the future. Whichever direction this whole thing is going, I am certain that Jim will be at the front of the line steering the ship.
I cannot count how many times following Jim and his band of Edupunks as they push the envelope, practice what they preach style of educating, has literally saved my stagnant network from the Edublogospshere mired in check out the latest tool retweets and false idol worship malaise that can be Edtech.
So when I saw that he is creating an online digital story telling course, my first thought was I have to be a part of this. I quickly started to doubt my digital merits, and thought twice about throwing my weight around with the big boys and girls. It didn’t take me long till I came around. We are here to learn right? All this talk about pushing ourselves and learning new things, and exploring new ideas, and working with new people, it’s all meaningless if we are not doing it ourselves. I could write about social networks, web 2.0, and the connected classroom till the cows come home, but I will not grow or learn until I step out my comfort zone and rub elbows with the Bava!
So let’s create some art damn it!
Jabiz,
This is too kind, and last I remember you were right there when all the edupunk stuff blew up, and in fact it was a bunch of us finally materializing and vocalizing some real alternatives. And watching Cormier, Downes, Siemens, Couros, and so many others blaze the path with MOOCs and open courses got me excited. That said, I have no real chops in digital storytelling, all I do is blog. But why I m addicted to the internet, and blogging specifically, is cause it is one of the few places wherein the platform for creating was the means for sharing. And I want to recapture those moments of my past where I was trying to make something great with my toys and ideas. Whatever that thing is, and it is always changing, I think we all ant to do it—and what’s so nuts is that the platform of the internet feeds you hundreds, if not thousands, of other people who do too. That is unprecedented, and education needs to capture that spirit before we turn this space into a mall. We won’t let it happen as long as their are teachers like you.
Let’s make the myths Morrison, let burn it all down and build all back up that much more beautifully.
Man, I am manic tonight 😉
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Hi, all the time i used to check webpage posts here in the early hours in the morning,