Never mind the technology, where’s the learning?

Isn’t it great that you can now listen to radio programmes you’ve missed by either subscribing to the podcast or listening online, although it’s a bit irritating that the BBC are still using realplayer on their site. Last week, my wife was listening to Open Book the arts programme on books and authors, and on her recommendation I listened to the most recent edition on their website. It was the section on blooks that she thought I would find of interest.

Download link

(BBC copyright acknowledged)

The concept of turning blogs into books is fascinating, and is somewhat of a paradox as the last question pointed out. The first such book of this type is thought to be one published by Tony Pierce in 2002 (entitled Blook), following the coining of the term by Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine for an entry in Wikipedia. Tony’s blog catalogues these events. And since that first publication he’s published two further blooks – Blook II, and Stiff. Needless to say, he has not entered his blooks for the blooker prize, and therefore has not been shortlisted – he explains why on his blog.

A quick ‘google’ suggests that no edu-blogger has yet published a blook (but I might be wrong), although Cool Cat Teacher (Vicki Davis) is planning to do so in the summer. Her main reason is the transient nature of electronic data, and experienced edu-bloggers have also pondered on the potential loss of their early work. It’s an irony to note that in order to leave one’s thoughts to future generations, even if the readership might be only our own family, we still have to resort to traditional means. Vicki points to another ‘blooker’ who gives an excellent explanation of their experience of blooking.

In a classroom context, blooking might be an answer to archiving learner achievement at the end of a school year. Using a site like Lulu would also enable relatives to buy the individually published work of their loved ones as well. The act of self-publishing might also provide an interesting experience for the learner.

If anyone can point me to an education blook, I’d be interested, but it provides a challenge of all those edu-bloggers that have been blogging a lot longer than me!