Plaxo : The Pulse
July 26, 2008
[image : eschipul ]
Today, like any other day my email inbox is full of Bacn.
Today, like any other day I received 11 phone calls, 78 emails, 5 IM’s, two text messages and a host of other link spam which I’m not after although some of it makes hilarious reading despite the paradox of the desperateness inherent.
What I would like though is to use services like Plaxo that effectively centralise personal updates, who send me things by MY election, who promise not to share my details without my consent and who like any other business related profiling web 2.0 company show me who’s connecting to whom and why.
Unlike Facebook, Plaxo seems to be centralising service for purpose without all the fanfare, flashing advertisements and entertainment oriented connections. Sure, like anyone I’m keen to connect for positive practical purpose however I like to to be on my terms. I’m inbedding my services elsewhere and hopefully Plaxo will see that they can ‘out’ my profile as I’m still the same person inside as I am on the outside.
So, today like any other day, whilst I was building a website for one client, installing a Learning Management system for another and generally having fun with my youngest son Ethan , partner Jane and doing the housework in between I got to thinking about this once a week Plaxo message which I generally delete. I opened it this time, logged in, updated my profile a bit and then realised that 870 other people on my gmail list are not part of Plaxo and unlikely to know unless I email them what I’ve been up to or no offer as an E-learning & E-Business Marketing Consultant.
Hence the idea of this blog post which I’ll point to via the Plaxo message I’m sending through to those whom I’d like to re-connect with……not because I went to school with them, nor because I fancy them rather because as business goes the broader the access and connections with others the more likelihood of them returning my message and perhaps even commenting on this blog post……when I’ve worked out what code has dropped off to stop this happening.
In the meantime, please drop me a line via my email which you can find in my contact page above. Looking forward to hearing how your careers are going and how we can connect and have a great time otherwise.
Till then….I’m online.
Skype me if you get a moment to say hi ! 
Brave Or Desperate
July 10, 2008
[ image : smh ]
Gentle Giants
June 5, 2008
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[ image : mosieur J ]
Lucy Chili and I have again been exploring what makes and constitutes change whilst acknowledging fear, favour, patterns, binary thinking and other such debilitating conditions of humanity.
Faced with a seemingly undending array of topics to explore which underpin the anxieties of living life as e-learning educators or in Lucy’s sake not education ( although I’d argue it’s concept not a title) we’ve unearthed an interesting piece of prose via the Gmail semantics ad. campaign in the top toolbar.
AFLF E-learning Innovations
May 17, 2008
Once again I’m back amongst the flurry of Elearning with the Australian Flexible Learning Frameworkand a host of really innovative projects which this year focus more upon engagement with industry partners and development of existing skills and knowledge base with less of an emphasis on professional development for teachers.
It will be a short stint of six weeks or so as I’m up to my neck in consultancy and it’s a fill in position until the new Project Officer and CEO’s are installed.
Some would say this is poor move on behalf of the Framework to change tack from empowering teachers year after year however I’d say it’s definetly broadened the horizons for organisations who would otherwise relegate PD to Framework intervention rather than whole heartedly endorse it as core practice within their own camp. So we may be farewelling LearnScope which will always remain a precious project for me and many others and we are moving into a new time where the catchcry could well be;
“….if teachers havent got it by now then too bad….it’s time to do business using these tools and ways of working and less about exploring…”
I’m working four days with three face-to-face with project teams and the Framework team in Sydney and one day “remote” here in Orange in my home office within which I seem to get ten times the amount of online work completed due to the lack of restrictions on my access to tools that really matter. Thats not to say I’m not getting things done on the inside rather my age old intent to make it easier on the inside for the inmates who would otherwise run through the drills and shake their heads in resignation at the everday challenge of using technology as part of teaching and learning.
I’m keen to hear from project teams and it’s business case building time. An interesting time admist a flurry of other projects I’m involved with that you’ll no doubt know about via the front end of this website.
Virtual Knee Surgery
April 23, 2008
Courtesy of Marg Bell who’s also suffering from a broken ankle, here’s a virtual surgery toolbox - would certainly see you getting squeamish if indeed , like me, you’ve just undergone surgery.
It looks like a great resource so I’m going to start a new online category for Virtual Resources and tag the posts by topic are which may be helpful in retracing them.
I think this would be a handy resource for e-learning learners also as an introductory step into online anything. Do you know of any resources similar ?
If so drop me a comment . I’d love to hear from you.
Contemplation : A Year On
February 27, 2008
It seems an eon ago that I was at the helm of NSW LearnScope, at least thinking I was, only to find that not only was it a sinking ship, but also that it was bound to be scuttled, archived and fondly remembered.
It also seems odd that a few months on I’m up here in the country (as they say in Australia) trying to forge my way around and gain employment whilst going about family business “down town” where doing business is gaining employment and forging around. It’s a complex mix, prone to potent immediacy which others call gossip and some call news.
Which ever way I look at it the case for Alexander Hayes, educator is certainly full of scope and not with standing full of expectation and loaded with history. I just want to take forward all that Ive learned and actually APPLY it , not fluff around any further.
Working for the AFLF afforded me a ceratin distance from the workings of VET Institutes, immune to working parties and committees and action statements and meeting minutes and the like. The grindwheel of beuraucracy that some would argue as a necessary evil. I cast no bones when it comes to my mixed feelings on the subject and only but try every which way but loose to remain exactly that….dodging the mass of dis-enfranchised humdrum. Not that it’s all that….just groundhog day aint ever tooooo far away right ?
My time will come.
Minutes in a wiki live sounds good. Podcast meetings. A blogging ID.
Open courseware - how novel.
Yes …..I also know it’s all about what competition out there barks at the heels of the bigger fish.
On a more positive note I have an office in a cupboard….with a fast internet connection at cost.
The Engageme four disk set arrived on my doorstep today - complete with re-design. My baby son has been taking up a lot of my time. I drink green tea at night. I’m building again things over at MECaT and the Atkinson group.
I’m hacking Moodle with some good results. I’m facilitating a professional development course. Re-theming websites. Web designing again. Hands on tools.
Roll on full-time work. Anyone need a customised Moodle outfit ?
Give me a call
1:44 AM
February 12, 2008
The job application for CEO New Learning Technologies - Educational Leader is complete.
New Learning Technologies ? CEO ?
Whats become of my life ? others have pointed me in this direction for while but will this spell the end to the open ended, catastrophic online entity namely alexanderhayes…..
Here’s to fate.
Either that or i’ll have to invent some other fiction.
Retrodicals | Printdown’s
December 7, 2007
You’ll notice some changes in this blog structure and the way it reads again so here’s hoping this is the end of the spring clean for 2007 and that I can get down to some serious summer business.
Today was the wrap-up meeting for NSW LearnScope and this alone has given me the jitters. Back to consultancy land for a while amidst changes to the local working politic….it makes me happy though to know that NSW LearnScope as a project has been successful , exhausting but awesome two year project (s) journey.
I drove back through the most torrential downpour today all the way over the hill from Sydney to Orange and then have been behind the console since;
- updating the FLNW2 wikispace timetable
- confering with the TALO mob and the overlap with TESOL EVO 2008 group
- Twittering
- chatting with Graham Wegner about the concept of printdowns.
The idea behind printdown goes something like this. A lot of our writing online is at risk of never being printed which for some is no real issue as it means that there’s less paperwork to be worried about.
What about our kids, those in the future who may have missed the online and who for many reasons may never access our musings and connections ? Sure, we could say the same about any online site, wiki, podcast etc. but in my estimations blogging is about a textual connection which has some artefact value.
It would be great to see other people offer a one year printdown of their blog for sale via a widget in the side-bar….it would give others an oppourtunity to digest the stories differently.
It’s a though anyway and probably one I’ll follow up in the new year. Maybe printdown from Jan 1. 2007 to Jan 1. 2008.
Lots happened during that period in my life.
