Buried in the comments of Barbara’s latest post (an excellent think-piece about different blogging styles) is a fine statement that sums up quite nicely why I ever bother to put fingers to keyboard or pen to paper:
I want to write better than I do: lean and lush, deep and real, sitting down with a bunch of frayed threads of clashing colors and see if I can weave them into something beyond myself.
Me, too, Barbara. Me, too.
UPDATE: In the comments below, Mike advocates for free versions of desktop software. I am completely in favor of those options for students and schools. I also like free and open source software for digital infrastructure. (Both the software packages I mention in the podcast are free and open source tools.) The “free” I’m talking about here is quite different. Forgive the poor title choice.
In today’s podcast, I talk a little bit about my reaction to a Twitter conversation from yesterday about free tools and why I’m not necessarily in favor of them, at least for what I believe are basic educational needs. We’ve got to support our schools and our classrooms and our educators and our students, but not on the backs and whims of third-party kindness. As always, I’m interested in your thoughts as I continue to develop my own.
Links I Mentioned
A smattering of some of the Twitter conversation. (These don’t do it justice, but will give you a bit of the flavor of the conversation.)
Vicki Davis’s posts on her Lively project/protest.
Karl gave me a very special gift this year, as well as a way for me to do the same for other folks. Lee explains:
Today, Karl Fisch posted a message on his blog inviting members of his PLN (Personal Learning Network) to join Team Shift Happens and contribute however much possible to Kiva. Kiva is different than other charities in that it is a micro-lending website. People, like you and I, can loan money ($25 and up) directly to individual entrepeneurs in the developing world.
On Karl’s suggestion, I’ve donated $25 to an entrepreneur and I also purchased two $25 gift certificates that I have emailed to two members of my PLN. I’m asking them to do the same as I did:
- Log in to Kiva.
- Join Team Shift Happens (click on Community and search keyword, “shift”)
- Choose the entrepreneur to whom they will loan the value of the gift certificate.
- Then consider doing the same thing I did – purchase two $25 gift certificates and email them to two members of their PLN with the same request to “pay it forward.”
- Make a $25 loan yourself, or
- Do what I did; make a $25 loan, then purchase two $25 gift certificates and email them to folks you know and ask them to do the same, and/or
I’ve been honored to pay it forward as I received one of Karl’s original certificates and have been sharing gift certificates with others. I also made an investment on my own, following in Karl’s footsteps. I learned a great deal as I made my way through Kiva’s site, learning more about the specifics of micro-finance and peering into another part of the world. It’s been a treat to continue the chain, and to make someone’s day by sending along a gift that I know will be a useful one.
I wonder if you might want to send such a gift, too.
Join Team Shift Happens. Make someone’s day – e-mail them a Kiva gift certificate, and ask them to keep paying it forward, to make someone else’s day, too. Lots of folks win. Better yet, as loans are repaid, this can be a gift that, literally, keeps on giving.