The true educator is member of a sacred profession. Learning is a journey which never ends. Every day true teachers make positive differences in the lives of other learners through their words and actions. This blog exists to document my own journey of personal growth, as well as facilitate collaborative thinking with others. I believe each moment of every day is a gift, and it behooves us to be intentional about the ways we choose to spend our limited heartbeats. I’m thrilled to have opportunities to exchange thoughts with you via this magical network which connects us. Let’s continue to make the world a better place one conversation at a time.
Those are some of my personal beliefs about education and learning, and what this blog is about. More thoughts are available on my pedagogic creed.
Some technical stuff about my blog: (updated 12/30/2007)
My blog (this website) is powered by an updated version of the free Wordpress blogging engine. In July 2007 I updated my blog theme, I had previously used a slightly modified version of the “famous Kubrick” theme. Now I am using a modified version of the free Blue Wonder theme. The drop-down menus at the top are a feature of the Blue Wonder theme, each is a Wordpress “page” rather than post and they are organized under “parent” categories within Wordpress.
I’ve used various plug-ins since I started blogging with Wordpress, currently I’m using:
- AddThis Bookmarking Widget
- Advanced Search Lite (at bottom of my left sidebar)
- Akismet
- Comment Timeout
- Flickr Tag Cloud Widget
- PodPress
- reCAPTCHA
- sds_Talkr_Plugin
- SimpleTags
- Simple Trackback Validation
- Subscribe To Comments
- This Day
- WordPress Database Backup
- wp-cache
This configuration is presently working well to keep comment spam out, from time to time I’ve also used Spam Karma 2 but currently I’m not using it. I had some problems with PodPress in fall 2007 I couldn’t resolve which messed up my Podcast RSS feed, and I eventually switched to using FeedForAll to create that podcast feed. I continue to use Feedburner for 4 different feeds related to my blog: My primary feed for all posts, my podcast feed / channel, my blog comments, and a feed for educational technology related posts only. This latter feed is still available but I am basically deprecating it as it’s no longer linked from my blog sidebar.
I love the “widgets” feature of the latest Wordpress and use nine different text widgets in my left and right sidebars for additional content. I have considered cutting down on the number of external content links included here to improve loading speed for my blog pages, because I realize these are cumbersome for those viewing my blog on slower Internet connections. Currently I use embedded content for the following free services:
- my del.icio.us network badge
- my upcoming presentations and workshops (next 30 days) shared with RSS Calendar
- my recent publicly shared pictures in a Flickr badge
- my technorati blog widget
- feedburner generated chicklets and feed subscription links
- email subscription services from FeedBlitz
- 2 world clocks via clocklink.com
- live traffic feeds via FEEDJIT
- my Google Reader shared items
- A customized ShowYourself widget
My blog footer includes two important elements:
- my Creative Commons license
- my ClustrMap showing blog visitor statistics and locations (I pay the annual fee for more detailed stats.)
I provide additional attribution guidance for my blog in a static Wordpress page linked at both the top and bottom of every page.
In addition to blogging here regularly, I post once every two weeks on Fridays at TechLearning.com, and periodically on Google’s education blog, The Infinite Thinking Machine. I also periodically post on a Christian team blog, Eyes Right. My children are blogging periodically on Learning Signs, which I setup as a family learning blog.
Inspired by a blogger whose thoughts, work and writing style I admire, Dr. Lawrence Lessig, I periodically invite “guest bloggers” to take up the author’s chair here on “Moving at the Speed of Creativity” when I am offline. This is a fun way to infuse my blog with new ideas, share the fairly visible author’s chair which is this blog with others whose ideas I respect, and keep the content here dynamic for visitors and subscribers. Those guest blog posts are all archived within the category “guest blogger.”
If you want to contact me directly, my contact information (including my current Skype status) is available on my personal website.
If you are interested in starting your own blog, check out my presentation and workshop links related to “Safe Classroom Blogging.”
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