SocialTech

Random 7

Kind of like high 5, but not. Thank you Mark Hawker for memeing me, & posting the rules (although feeling a bit Déjà vu on this one, wondering if black holes are really just meme collisions):

• Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post - some random, some weird.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

1. I love comics, esp. Los Bros Hernandez. This is a result of growing up on the fantastic UK girls psychological horror comic Misty, and the mighty booty of my step dads complete collection of Marvel's 1960s output.

2. My parents moved us to North Wales for several years when I was a child to escape the impending nuclear Armageddon.

3. My stepdad had a horrible accident while we were there, trying to fix the TV arial in the middle of a storm. He fell off the roof and lost his memory, but got a cool scar that runs front to back of his chest where lightning shot through.

4. My favorite Bette Davis film is Old Acquaintance

5. Max Ernst, Blondie & The Scarlet Witch were my childhood heros

6. I love working as a social & educational technologist, no matter how many times I have to explain what that might mean to people. I secretly fear the End Of Electricity but I'm always happy being with other people in face to face situations, so probably I could just switch jobs.

7. If I had to get a film directors name tattoed on my arm, I'd go with Jean Vigo

I'm tagging Michelle A. Hoyle, Sarah Horrigan, Rebecca Newton, Graham Attwell, Alfie Dennen, deCabbit, & number 10 Downing Street

Digital Divide slam invite

I'm off to ALT-C next week, along with most of the UKs edtechs and learning technologists. I'll be pretty busy, supporting the 4th annual ALT-C Edublogger meetup, helping host the Emerge reception & live radio broadcast, and contributing to the F-ALT fringe activities.

I'm really excited to be teaming up again with with Frances Bell, Helen Keegan and new girl Christina Costa to be delivering our second ALT-C slam workshop. Last years session explored what web 2.0 meant to participants, and went down really well. This year we're trying to be even more reckless ambitious and inviting old and new friends from all over the world to pitch in to this years slam topic/competition, which is, in keeping with ALT-C's over-arching theme, The Digital Divide.

What we hope to get out of the session is a wide ranging exploration of dimensions of the digital divide: To produce and collect short real-world and digital pieces on what the digital divide means to people, how it can be interpreted, and what it's impacts are. In other words, what does the digital divide mean to you?

Obviously whole we're hoping for a reasonably diverse bunch of participants on the day, there are going to be limits on the heterogeneity of a group of people at an ed tech conference in Leeds on any particular afternoon. So we'd really like to encourage other people to join in. We are looking for participants from all over the world to contribute to building a resource which is interesting, innovative, and engaging topics. We'd like to build a cross cultural snapshot mosaic of what the digital divide can mean and how it's experienced.

The workshop will be running next Wednesday, 10 September 2008 at the University of Leeds, and participants will be creating and performing 'slams' around the digital divide theme - performance pieces which tackle issues in multiple ways. Checkout last years slams for some ideas of this experimental format, and this years wiki for more of an explanation.
   

We'll be capturing and uploading content until midnight GMT on the 10th of September, and then giving everyone a chance to vote for their favorite slam, from those created and performed on the day and those contributed by educators across the globe.

We're producing some sample slams for you to explore, and you can find information about how to upload your own contribution here.

So, interested in experimental, collaborative and distributed research processes? Thinking our session sounds like fun and might end up being a useful resource? Then join in!

1. Come along to our session! This time it's scheduled at a reasonable hour :)

2. Create something for the wiki. You slam could be a picture, a slideshow, a podcast, a 90 second Flickr video - anything. Tell us one thing the digital divide means to you.

3. Already been working on the digital divide? Great! Repurpose something already up or just send us the link if it's already in a fast, accessible format.

4. Checkout the entries once they're up and vote for your favorite.

5. Keep your fingers crossed for us! 

"If you, as an individual or small group, have got something to say about the Digital Divide between now and midnight Wednesday 10 September 2008 check converter, then you can create a slam, publish it here, comment on slam pages.
Then you can vote for your favourite between 11 and 14 September (deadline midnight GMT). We will announce the winners here and by message to members on Monday 15 September. That means that people from around the world can join in, not just those coming to our workshop. You can run your own workshop, or create your own slam, maybe with your friends. More details on how you can participate, just stick to our few simple guidelines."

There will be prizes! Probably not very good ones, but prizes nevertheless.

falt08

5 things meme

Image: 'Tag' by R. Motti

Al Upton tagged me at the end of December, and I've finally gotten round to posting something. My approach has just been to blog the first 5 things that most people are unlikely to know about me that came to mind, briefly. However, I'm slightly depressed that out of the 5, 3 demonstrate my geeky-to-the-core credentials, 1 relates to my hippy upbringing, and 1 is inexplicable, even to me. I'm really hoping that most people know that I do have good social skills.

1.    I’m a film junkie and a couple of years ago I was filing a brief weekly slot about tech in movies over at Engadget. That put me off ever wanting a career in mainstream blogging.

2.    I’m a big comics fan too, especially Love & Rockets. When I was a teenager Alan Martin put a toon version of me into his Planet Swerve series.

3.    If we had an annual family holiday when I was a kid, it was always to Glastonbury Music Festival.

4.    I spend a lot of time playing computer games with my son. I especially like shoot em ups, and Phoenix Wright.

5.    I have a phobia about tiny, Borrower-sized people.

I tag Régine Debatty: check out her 5 things here

Catherine Howell: one of my favorite 5 things posts so far 

Henry Jenkins: his 5 things can be found here

Dave Tosh, and  David  Wilcox.