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is an ongoing conversation about media of all kinds ...
Testimonials:
Generations from now, they won't call it the Internet anymore. They'll just say, "I logged on to the Jim Groom this morning.
-Joe McMahon
Everything Jim Groom touches is gold. He's like King Midas, but with the Internet.
-Serena Epstein
My understanding is that an essential requirement of the internet is to do whatever Jim Groom asks of you while you're online.
-James D. Calder
@jimgroom is the Billy Martin of edtech.
-Luke Waltzer
My 3yr old son is VERY intrigued by @jimgroom's avatar. "Is he a superhero?" "Well, yes, son, to many he is."
-Clint Lalonde
Jim Groom is a fiery man.
-Antonella Dalla Torre
“Reverend” Jim “The Bava” Groom, alias “Snake Pliskin” is a charlatan and a fraud, a self-confessed “used car salesman” clawing his way into the glamour of the education technology keynote circuit via the efforts of his oppressed minions at the University of Mary Washington’s DTLT and beyond. The monster behind educational time-sink ds106 and still recovering from his bid for hipster stardom with “Edupunk”, Jim spends his days using his dwindling credibility to sell cheap webhosting to gullible undergraduates and getting banned from YouTube for gross piracy.
I am Jim Groom
Find out more about me here.
Recent comments
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- Reverend on You’re definitely Dr Detroit …
- Alan Levine on You’re definitely Dr Detroit …
- Reverend on Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, It’s Off to ILTA’s EdTech 26 We Go
- Maren Deepwell on Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, It’s Off to ILTA’s EdTech 26 We Go
- Eric Likness on Building a Blog You Can Walk Into
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- Alan Levine on Deferred Maintenance: Upgrading Mastodon and PeerTube
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Recent Posts
- Unscripted Futures
- Conference, Camera, ILTA!
- You’re definitely Dr Detroit …
- The Reclaim Student Showcase Returns for 2026
- Domain of One’s Own Version 2
- Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, It’s Off to ILTA’s EdTech 26 We Go
- Atari 2600 Game Cartridge Display Stand
- Building a Blog You Can Walk Into
- Deferred Maintenance: Upgrading Mastodon and PeerTube
- Fulci the Psychic
browse the bavarchive
Contributors
some favorites
- Alan Levine
- Andy Rush
- Audrey Watters
- bava.social
- Bonnie Stewart
- Brian Lamb
- Bryan Alexander
- Chris Lott
- Clint LaLonde
- Cole Camplese
- Darcy Norman
- David Kernohan
- David Wiley
- Gardner Campbell
- GNA Garcia
- Grant Potter
- Jeffrey Keefer
- Jon Beasley-Murray
- Jon Udell
- Kate Bowles
- Kin Lane
- Laura Blankenship
- Leslie Madsen-Brooks
- Lisa M Lane
- Martha Burtis
- Martin Hawksey
- Martin Weller
- Mike Caulfield
- Mikhail Gershovich
- Mountebank
- Paul Bond
- Scott Leslie
- Serena Epstein
- Shannon Hauser
- Stephen Downes
- The OLDaily
- Tim Owens
- Tom Woodward
- Tony Hirst
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Going into deep experimental mode
The bava may be in and out over the next day or two as I upgrade my own WPMu version to the 2.7 trunk (pre-beta!) and integrate it with BuddyPress and bbPress (the last piece of which has consistently proven … Continue reading
Here’s to 3 years on the bava…
…and all the irreparable harm its has caused me. (Watch the HD version here.) Exactly three years ago today the madness began, here’s to at least three more. Film Credits: Andy Rush as an impeccable “Floyd” the bartender who absolutely … Continue reading
30 Seconds on Community (American and Queen’s English verisions)
Cole Camplese posted a call for 30 second video responses defining community. He actually didn’t specify which language he wanted it in (i.e., American English or the Queen’s English), so I covered all bases, for reading text is one thing–but … Continue reading
In-Universe Perspective
I was reading up on one of my favorite movies, The Terminator ([beginning of insanely long tangent] which I love that Stephen Downes references when re-framing what might otherwise be bulldozed as an unquestionable firing offense of a teacher in … Continue reading
Skitching
We had our first very, very light snow here in Fredericksburg on Saturday, and it was refreshing given last year we got nothing to speak of all Winter. It also made me think of one of my favorite childhood Winter … Continue reading
Social media is a channel optimised for the insignificant
James Gardner of the Bankervision blog (nod to Tony for pointing me to this one) beautifully describes the presiding logic of insignificance in social media in this post. Below is the excerpt that hit my like a diamond in the … Continue reading
What was May Place
Inspired by Luke Waltzer’s screencast using Google’s Street View to experiment with digital storytelling, I decided to take a look at the neighborhood where I grew up in Baldwin, NY. This process was really trippy for me, and the possibilities … Continue reading
Aggregating Google Calendars
One of the biggest complaints on campus right now is that many of us really don’t know what is going on. I don’t mean this in an abstract way, but quite literally what events are happening at what time and … Continue reading
You teach from where you are
Sometimes I miss the classroom, but I find that is becoming less and less a concern these days. I’m beginning to realize more and more that you teach from where you are, and I’m deep in the blog right now. … Continue reading

Facebook Hazing
I was talking with a faculty member about social networking Tuesday, and while she was giving me some tips on my Facebook profile I switched my relationship status from single to married, something I didn’t think twice about at the … Continue reading →