Buses, blogging and breakfast

It all started during my visit to Utrecht to speak at the Bazaar conference last month. Coming out of the railway station at Utrecht, I caught a public bus, which I was assured by the driver, would stop just outside my hotel. It was dark and getting very cold by now, as it always does in Holland in mid-December. I asked the Dutch driver if he would be so kind to indicate to me when he reached my stop. "Yah, of coursh", he said.

A dozen stops later, and I was getting worried. I asked the driver when my stop would be coming up. "It'sh two shtops back" he informed me.......

I was livid. But of course, being British, I didn't show it. I got off at the next stop and started the long walk back to where I thought my hotel was. After over half an hour trudging about in steadily dropping temperatures, I realised I was hopelessly lost in a strange town, with no decent map to guide me. No-one knew where my hotel was. I was getting cold and tired and beginning to despair of ever seeing a warm bed for the night...

Then joy of joys.... I chanced across a car-park attendant who was very helpful. He showed me the map, and said I was miles away from where I should be. Then he called me a taxi. (Frankly, he could have called me any name he liked at this point, I was past caring...). The taxi arrived and I jumped in, and within 5 minutes was at my hotel. Wonderful.

Got me thinking. At breakfast on the last day, I found myself talking to some colleagues including my newest German buddy Kristina Hoeppner. I was holding court about my views on LMSs versus PLEs and likened Learning Management Systems to public buses, which have prescribed ways of operating, and cater more for timetables and costs than they do for the needs of individuals. Drawing on my experience a few nights before, I said I thought that Personalised Learning Environments were more like taxis - you could get them to go in exactly the direction you wished, making them more flexible and personalised.

Kristina brought this all back to me when I read her blog yesterday. (Thanks for reminding me what I said Kristina - I may have forgotton this little analogy otherwise!) It's nice to be mentioned in dispatches but it sure makes you think - if a conversation over coffee and croissants can be blogged to all and sundry, I'd better be a little careful what I say in public in future.