On the Beat

I've just realised I can post slide shows from SlideShare; of course I can, this is user-created content...

This is "Thirst" which I found so impressive (sorry, it doesn't seem to embed properly...):


and this is "Footnotes", which is really fun:

One of the blogs I look at was conducting a survey about "Personal Learning Networks"; this is something that sounds interesting to me - but I don't really know what they are.

So I felt I couldn't really complete their survey without finding out.

Of course, I google "Personal Learning Networks"; but all the sites I find seem to assume that you now what a PLN is: basically, as far as I can tell, it is a Bloglines account...

So perhaps PLNs are just a bit more web 2.0 social networking jargon - in that anything can be a personal learning network.

But I also found SlideShare - a (beta) site where people have posted various slideshows they have created. There was one on PLNs; but I found myself browsing - wanting to know more about SLideShare, now, than PLNs; and there is some fascinating stuff there.

Including this prize-winning presentation called Thirst, by John Brennan of ApolloIdeas.com.

The presentation is excellent - simple, concise, and hard hitting.

I may not have learnt what a PLN is; but I have had a fascinating journey!

And whilst I am carping on about politicians and their ongoing funding scandals, Donald Clark has written a timely post about politicians and learning - he designed an e-learning programme to teach Labour politicians about the funding rules....

I like the line

"Politicians, it turns out, are always carping on about skills and training, but refuse to accept the idea that they also need to learn."

I came across this on Donald Clark's blog (there a couple of interesting things on pledging allegiance to the Queen, and how managers fail to develop...).

TED talks is a very interesting resource - a series of lectures, recorded and published on the web. Kind of like intellectual YouTube. In this talk, neurologist Jill Bolte Taylor describes how the brain works, and what it felt like when she had a massive stroke. Rather like Alice in Wonderland, apparently.

I used to work within the learning community a training department, and I still take an interest in issues within training and development, and particularly e-learning.

Donald Clark was the founder of a large e-learning provider and regularly blogs about training. Here he writes interestingly about some diversity training rather lacking in diversity. His point: a little thought would go a long, long way.

And here he writes about "m-learning" - that is mobile learning; but it really stands for missing....

Stumbling and Mumbling has an interesting post on the role schools play as an instrument of the state, and in particular reinforcing individuals' place in capitalist societies.

I thought some of you who may not read this blog might be interested.