I was amazed at the ease of use of Windows Live Writer. It was actually fun to write the blog post. The easy-on-the-eyes interface is crammed full of useful features that even the most demanding blogger wants and needs. No more sluggish and clunky Wordpress Dashboard for writing new posts. The interface is clean and user-friendly. And the best part is that it links to your CSS file so that you are writing and editing in full preview mode. Can’t log into your blog host provider to make your daily updates? No worry, just post directly from Windows Live Writer. It is slick!

I also like it better than Firefox’s addon, ScribeFire; but it is my second choice. Actually, I wish that WLW was also a FF addon, as I use the fantastic Firefox Portable browser off of my USB flash drive. There is a WLW Portable edition too. Can’t get any better!

Want to Ask Frank a question about education, Web 2.0, EFL, teaching, training, or how to pass 5 hours in Starbucks for $2 bucks with free Internet? Frank has been giving sound advice to colleagues, friends, and family for years. Now you can ask your most pressing questions; and get very depressing answers. FREE! Why wait? Or maybe you just want to share a thought or start your very own discussion topic? Welcome to the Ask Frank forum.

Warning! Reality may be further away than it appears.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills - U.S. Students Need 21st Century Skills to Compete in a Global Economy
(tags: 21st century 21stcentury education k-12)

CogDogRoo » 50 Ways50 Web 2.0 Ways To Tell a Story
(tags: digitalstorytelling storytelling web2.0 tools)

elearnspacelearning, networks, knowledge, technology, community
(tags: edtech technology network community knowledge)

This video is being posted as a “warm-up” to the following post, “What does the network mean to you?”

George Siemens explaining that the network is the learning.

Related resources:

George Siemens

http://www.elearnspace.org

Associate Director, Research and Development
Learning Technologies Centre

George Siemens, is an Associate Director with the Learning Technologies Centre at University of Manitoba and author of Knowing Knowledge, an exploration of how the context and characteristics of knowledge have changed, and what it means to organizations today. George is also Founder and President of Complexive Systems Inc., a learning lab focused on assisting organizations develop integrated learning structures to meet the needs of global strategy execution.

Questions? Please contact George Siemens at george_siemens@umanitoba.ca.

Alec Couros has put up a Voicethread asking for feedback from people on their experiences with networked/social learning. I am posting this VT here so that my visitors can jump in; and because I just think it is great and want to archive it in my blog.

Alec’s 1st Voicethread was somehow inadvertently deleted. Luckily I was able to listen to all the contributions just before it disappeared; and have paraphrased and summarized some of these voices, see below.

There seemed to be a general consensus among Voicethread contributors that a network means some of the following (summarized from my meandering and inventive memory):

1. Having a ready “always on” community of experts and answers to pressing questions
2. You have a “river” where you can go to drink and get refreshed, it’s constantly flowing and moving, unlike a reservoir
3. Discovery of new resources out there that others have pioneered or stumbled upon, trying out new things is a safe and supportive environment
4. Never feeling alone or in isolation, but rather feeling connected and included
5. That you get to travel around the world and witness what others are doing, even if you have scarce professional travel resources
6. In general a wealth of tools, resources and experiences that money can’t buy (nor school budgets allow) that save time, as the resources come to you through RSS and twitter, etc
7. Exposure to new ideas, a constant professional development training course
8. Sharing between people, not just Educational Technology or Edublogospehere but across many disciplines.
9. Making new friends and professional contacts for collaboration, events participation, chatting, etc.
10. Having a sounding board to bounce ideas off of for consensus checking, seeing opposing sides, validation, relevancy, peer review and the like
11. The network allows people to have better and more productive relationships with their colleagues, including “offline” local staffs and teams that they help to train or share with
12. Some contributors where more detailed and focused on technical facts, while others expressed feelings and social implications of being networked. All spoke of the great benefits in both directions
13. Lots more that I can’t remember fully, 20+ voices with much to say and share. Heck that summarizes the network… keep sharing

Incidentally, I learned of this activity through twitter, a microblogging social/professional network that I participate with. Below is an example of a twitter tweet stream related to this topic.

Related posts:

1. PhD Dissertation - Examining the Open Movement: Possibilities and Implications for Education (Alec Couros, Dec. 2006)
2. Alec Couros - 21st Century Teacher
3. Web Tour: Open Thinking Ustream Webcast