It's the only way to change the education system as it is. From the bottom up. Getting a massive installed base of blogging schools. Aggregate, aggregate organise. Work around the slow system.

The 'Internet' is never going 2 b on the UK Gov. syllabus and lesson plan. Not in my life time and tomorrow is too late.

Imagine a world where the UK is 'the' most web literate country. Not Taiwan, not the US. Imagine. And there's no point in thinking that the primary schools that blog now will come through up to University, and that the change will bring good. It's too late.

Revolution is fast and furious. And comes suddenly, before anyone is truly aware. Blogs are the answer.

via email off my Nokia N70 mobile phone.

[Midnight update] "Anyone want a couple of thousand eduweblogs? You want to pick them up in the morning, or do you want them to go?"

On my way back. Was it worth it? I think so, meeting all the great and good. But will it all be hot air and move too slow? I guess the way forward will be to agitate, agitate, organise and make UK kids the most web aware in the world. Or at least my two kids and those in my gang(s) :-)
[Midnight] I was having thoughts on my walk back through to Euston, about the domain name issue that came up at the end... "blog.ac.uk." It hadn't been registered. I think it was put on hold, because there needed to be a constitution written, there was concerns that .ac.uk was exclusive to sch.uk, perhaps it was to be decided today. Then someone from Becta said, 'others had a legitimate prior claim.' I was flabbergasted. No domain name yet? Worse, no decision as to what to do about gathering the 50 great and good into a forward dynamic. There's an email list... Somewhere.

The round ups were vague and meaningful, but off in the distance.

I was beginning to realise, everybody was slow. And prepared for slow. They thought slow. Knew it would be slow. Slow. The great and the slow.

I'm flabbergasted, still.

Through my walk, past tramps, beggars and Big Issue sales people, past the beautiful young people that make London. A real world. I became angry. Not all know the wonders of the Internet. Teachers, kids, grown ups. A bunch of the best yet, evangelists, those who have access to young brains had gathered and were happy they had, and that was enough.

"Blogs are the answer... What was the question?"

He's famous :-) Apparently.

 [Midnight] And wasted an hour or more of... Something. Anything else. "All the things I could-a-been doing. All the other things I could-a-been doing." Soz, Steve, you didn't do it for me, nor, I'm sure the rest of the room. I hadn't heard of you before, been to the site, several times, but nowt there for me. It's a big world, attention is expensive.

Here it is.

 

[1st Edit midnight] (Another edit later on Monday maybe, with links etc.) Kicked off well, hot coffee, big smiles, for real people. Famous people in my part of the universe. The EduGeek, the delectable Josie, some geezer with a blog and two posts every day. Oh man, it was wicked! Mr Ford, the Scottish geezer, it was shaping up into a cool showing.

Suddenly Barb, had us sitting down and leaning forward... Loved her key note. "Mother blog..." She said it first, AFAIK. Coined then. Some debate later about whether it was auto generated, or forwarded to. Whatever, my phrase has always been, "the blogger, who blogs the blogs." A neutral role, but human. Sometimes it's a chore, and I wish it were automated, when on Wednesdays we get a fire hose of school posts from many schools.

I wonder what a father blog is? Would that be a spawning blog—where you create blogs from and its action is to blog that action. Human, or not.

Barb's a new hero of mine. A new find into my aggregator. [Auto subscribed too... Nice headers Barb :-) With <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS"... it's even easier for me—you're a 'favorite/bookmark' away from being on my radar.]

Then some scribing, taking notes about a subject I had no understanding of. Staff development and professional development.
Will web 2.0 staff development absorb or challenge current Information Learning Technology support and practice?
This session will look at the implications of digital literacy for Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
Topics the group will be exploring include:

• What does the current staff learning landscape look like?
• What are the sector specific/common issues and frameworks?
• Integrating new and emerging practices in to departmental and institutional strategies.
• Formal blogging qualifications? The issues.
• Training and best practice: available resources and strategies
• Blogging survival guide: employee agreements for weblogs and new technology use
• What are the potential benefits and hazards of using weblogs for employees and employers within the education sector?

I wrote, something. And was bored. There could-a-beeen a working party spawned there, then. Tips, advice and best practice could have been brought together, on the web somewhere... But me thinks, there'll be no great enthusiasm.

Lunch time brought some business headaches for me. Desperate calls outside, and a borrowed fag, to calm my nerves, from the Scottish lass, who flew, from Scotland. In an aeroplane. They came from everywhere. And she was up in the morning, about the same time as me.

There was another session, in the afternoon, that was effectively quite general, good natured, technical, bloggy-woggy chit chat. Something to do with... Changing the world, I think. There was only 6 of us, in our little break way. High speed, across a broad range of issues and technologies. Again, I think an opportunity missed. Maybe we could-a stormed the citadels. It slipped out of our hands.

Not quite the crack of dawn. Close though. Off to London for the first UK Edublogger Conference.

[Midnight] Editing later, now back home in front of a keyboard, instead of my fat fingers on the mobile phone...

Three snoozes from 4:30am alarm. N70 pre loaded with cool tunes, ready for the trip. Snap blogging as I go. Luverly morning, haven't been up this early in years. Last trip to a big city, was London, on a Saturday 10 months ago, with my two kids, to the Natural History Museum to see the whale. Also went to the first meeting in the House of Commons, about blogs. Three years ago. Funny, some wag, said then, "no matter the question, the answer is blogs." And blogging.

Blogging cures all.

All blogs are is talking. It's the conversation. Even, if you're talking to yourself. Which I do, standing at a train station, 20 minutes early, awaiting my train. I was excited, keen and eager. London, with 50 of the great and good of my little world.