This past Sunday I had the good fortune to be invited as part of a podcast to discuss using WPMu in educational institutions with a great group of educators primarily based in the UK. It was a fun discussion, and I really liked hearing about the particular uses and challenges of blogging in the K-12 environment. I keep meaning to open up a discussion between higher ed and K-12 with my favorite guy Tom Woodward in the form of a podcast, joint blog, or what have you, because I’m far too caught up in thinking about this stuff for universities and colleges. I seldom stop and think about the far more difficult and crucial battles that are happening in primary and secondary schools all over the world where the fear quotient and concerns about privacy open up a far greater series of difficulties.
For my small part in the podcast, I think I was the weak link because I could only focus on my obsession with plugins and syndication hubs, but the rest of the folks picked up the slack beautifully and tolerated my non sequiturs gracefully. In fact, the beauty of this group is that they refused to get caught up in the logic of the tool for its own sake, rather they spent a solid portion of the show thinking through and sharing examples of the ways in which blogs are being used in the classroom and the unique challenges and opportunities they present educators and students alike. Thanks go to Doug Belshaw for being a gracious host, Dai Barnes for inviting me along, and Andrea R for recommending me as an “expert” on WPMu in education, which I’m afraid is an overstatement—I’m more like a diletante with attitude.
BTW, we are starting on our second round of syndicated blogs today…cool stuff.