Another great gathering last night at the Pacific Cafe for great food and conversation after watching a perfect Pacific sunset on the beach. Pat is San Francisco’s premier guide. Many thanks.

Heading home today with very much to think about and catch up on. (Top of the list is lots of hugs and tickles for the kids.) Too much on the schedule this week, and as usual, not nearly enough time to get to it all. But I’m hoping to get down most of the good thinking and planning that happened this weekend. There is very much to be excited about.
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Went late into the night (at least the East Coast night) with Pat and Tim and Ilene from Intel showing and talking Web logs (which as Pat rightly notes really are just plain old Web sites in the form that we use them…that’s a whole ‘nother post.) Took a twilight walk up windy Bernal Hill for a 360 degree amazing view of the city, then to great dinner (just for the halibut) and later some online fun at Pat’s. As I said yesterday, the really high energy of our discussions has me and I think the rest shaking our heads at the potential of eBNvenference (don’t ask) in November. There’s just so much to share and so much to learn about the people behind the places that I’m starting to think it could be a very serious launch to a very serious network. How cool could that be?

There is much to write about…technical stuff like ways to feed other sites into Manila using include macros, a new need to look at MT after Tim described it’s uses more in depth, more ideas about RSS and how it might fit in the classroom and in schools, content for the eBN site, and more. Not sure any of that will get done until after the next few days of travel and recuperation. We’re going to try to get together for dinner again toinight.
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The members of educational Bloggers Network (eBN) are working to instill several generations of young people with the values and concepts of narrating the work, sharing their knowledge, and thinking out loud. By the time these young people enter the workforce such ideas will no longer seem foreign, outlandish, or wasteful. Rather, they will be seen as ways to do more, learn more, and earn more. We won’t have to spend 90 percent of our effort just convincing people to share. The change won’t happen immediately, and it won’t happen soon enough to help some of us at all. But it will happen. And because it will happen we need to support efforts like eBN in whatever ways we can. These people are on to something that matters. We should help.

This is definitely the kind of thinking that will bring all of this to more and more teachers and educators. Well said!
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I’ve gotten a smattering of e-mails in the last few days from teachers wanting to know more about Web logs and blogging. I think more and more people are starting to catch on to the potential, and I also think this is a great opportunity for eBN to establish itself as the support network it’s intended to be. The new look Web site, the publicity of late, and all of our good thinking seems to be gelling together at the right time.

Anne includes some excerpts of e-mails she’s been exchanging with teachers across the country, and one strikes me:

Some say weblogs would certainly lead to some revolutions in publishing given the speed it grows. I’m not that worried. However, I do want to try some blogging. I’m wondering whether those who have tried can share their experience of implementing weblogs in teaching.

That is exactly what eBN is about…I’m wondering if Pat or others have some ideas for beginning to gather that content, and whether we need to solicit some article ideas, set some deadlines, and just develop the content in general. Suggestions?
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Lookin’ good…time to start crankin’ out some content for all those edublog newbies. (I just want to say, I’m disliking this lexicon more and more…maybe we should start by renaming all this stuff!)
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Aside from everything that comes with my first official day on the new job, I’ve been thinking a lot (more) lately about the content of the eBN site, and it’s obvious others are as well. The recent discussions on MT, Al’s new questions on the eBN Wiki FAQ (say that three times fast) show the scope of what lay ahead. I’m gonna propose another Wiki (as much as I’m not sure what to think about Wikis I keep on using them, don’t I?) to collect some content ideas. While I know time is short for all of us, maybe we could start knocking off some of these pieces in preparation for the site design. Just a thought.

Also, I’ve been thinking that since many of us feel the need to publish, we should probably think of a way to coordinate our efforts in terms of topics and markets. Again, just a thought looking for some feedback.
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Congrats to Pat and Terry who yesterday birthed the very first offical eBN hosted Web log (still very much in diapers.) May it be the first of thousands.
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If you haven’t read the blogchat between Pat and Seb yet, you should. Some really great thinking and writing.

16:30:43 pat d: well, albert was saying this morning that he feels like ieBN is a not so slowly building …
16:30:56 pat d: volcano, geyser, tide –
16:31:02 pat d: tide, that’s the best analogy
16:31:19 pat d: ebn is this jerry-rigged little boat on a rising tide
16:31:29 pat d: it’s flexible and well-tooled but
16:31:38 pat d: it’s never been out of port before
16:31:44 pat d: i’m worried a little bit
16:31:56 pat d: that we might run aground if we move too quickly or too slowly
16:32:09 pat d: i have this quaker and bawp background that leans toward the slowly

This is the biggie, I guess. The Timing, the Tipping Point. Part of my brain says this will happen quickly, ’cause I think there are a lot of teachers out there who will seize on this when they see and understand it. Another part says it’s going to take a while because of all the reasons Pam has been talking about.

Look, my main interest in eBN here is to be set up to support teachers who want to try this technology whenever and however they find it. I want it to be easier than it was for me. That’s not to say that the support I got from Pat and Seb and David and Sarah and others wasn’t great, but it was haphazard since half the time I didn’t even know what I wanted to know. AND I NEEDED A LOT OF SUPPORT. (Still do.) That’s why I keep talking about the field manual/users guide. And then, if we have some organized support at the ready, we need to provide hosting.

16:57:36 pat d: way beyond schools
16:57:42 pat d: which is why it isn’t about a
16:57:45 pat d: business plan
16:57:50 pat d: or the establishment of another
16:57:53 pat d: blackboard.com
16:57:54 pat d: like
16:58:00 pat d: blogGuys.com
16:58:08 pat d: it’s looser than that
16:58:10 pat d: more powerful than that
16:58:16 pat d: bec. the tech has advantages
16:58:22 pat d: for making it wider and more flexible

Just to be clear, I don’t want blogGuys.com either. But I’ll argue that there has to be some structure to what we do. And if we can offer services to districts who may not have the capital to provide them for themselves, then we are helping to provide “equity in resources and opportunity, and support for partnership and community.” But to do that we need a plan, I think.

One last observation. While the asynchronous communication that Web logs provide has worked very well in my classes, I’m finding myself somewhat frustrated by it as we hash out these ideas. Seems like all of a sudden I’m talking to a lot of people on the phone. I really can’t wait to get to SF and speak face to face with Pat. I’m looking forward to November when hopefully we can all sit down and talk (what a concept.) As a group, I don’t think we’re moving to fast…I like the idea of welcoming teachers into a network that has it’s collective stuff together. But, somewhat ironically, I’m finding the Web log isn’t fast enough.
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