Building Learning Communities, 2007 Talks

I was invited earlier in the year to speak at this year's Building Learning Communities conference in Boston, MA, and the talk proposals I have put through were accepted this month:

• “We’re Adopting:” An Adoption Strategy for Social Software in Education
  This will cover East Lothian's foray into social media as a learning tool, and taking a look at how we've managed to open things up so much when other education authorities have clamped down more and more.
  
• Is Your Public Body Public?
  This is a talk based on something which is currently happening: how does a large public body not just talk enthusiastically about social media but actually use it in its work. The talk might be about our successes as an organisation but it will also show where other organisations could tread without fear of making (too many) mistakes.
  
• Reel Celtic Connections: Blogging For 5 Million Years
  I love history, more now than ever before, but as I read those dusty old books and wikipedia I discover that Scotland has, in fact, been a nation of bloggers since its very beginnings. This is going to be my favourite talk to plan and deliver, looking at how Scotland has adopted the attributes of good bloggers since pre-history, through the years of wars, its national heros and the Enlightenment to the modern day industrial giant it became at the end of the 19th Century. But where does Scotland go next in the world of connected education?

It's even better now to see that AB will be joining me - he's been before and can show me around. Can't wait to meet F2F some of my blogging buddies who I know so well. I'll be setting up a wiki diary, I think, to try and catch as many of them/you as possible.

Comments

[John Connell]

Ewan, if you haven't already done so, have a read at Arthur Herman's book, "How the Scots Invented the Modern World"

See:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Scots-Invented-Modern-W/dp/0609809997/sr=8-2/qid=1162892340/

He's an American academic (with no Scots axe to grind) - he has a very persuasive argument, although he does, in the end, over-egg the pudding more than a little. But a good read, and lots of material for this extremely interesting idea for a talk!

[David Gilmour]

Herman's book also appears as "The Scottish Enlightenment - The Scots Invention of the Modern World", ISBN 1-84115-276-5. Link
I can lend you a copy if you like.

[Ewan McIntosh]

I'd really appreciate that, David. The book's on my wishlist and I'd probably enjoy having my own copy (we've talked about that one before ;-) but a loan would help me get started. Cheers!