Small, but perfectly formed

I'm just back this evening from 'The Networks, Communities and Learning: Show that you Share' conference hosted at the University of Utrecht, Holland by the Bazaar Network. It was for me, an excellent experience, and well worth the effort to attend, even though I got lost in Utrecht and wandered around trying to find my hotel in freezing temperatures for over 30 minutes when the bus driver dropped me off 2 stops away from my destination! It truly was 'show that you share' when a Dutch car-park attendant helped me to find a taxi, and offered to share his coffee with me. All I can say is: "Dank u wel, Mijnheer!"

So, along with 40 or so other delegates, I participated in Bazaar's final conference - a small and intimate event. The sessions focused on subjects such as Personal Learning Environments, Open Education Resources, Metatagging and Interoperability, and Data Security - all explored by experts and students alike. For those who stayed to the end, a fullsome summary was given by several of the delegates, who had participated in round tables and workshops from myself, as well as Helen Keegan (University of Salford, UK), Josie Fraser (EdTechUK), Wolfgang Greller (Open University, NL), Veronica Hornung (University of Salzberg, AT) and Marco Kalz (Open University, NL).

Tomorrow, when I have had more time to reflect, I will write a summary of all the key points that emerged from this final Bazaar event. In the meantime though, there are some useful summaries already up online, including Pierre Gorrison's blog (in Dutch) and in English, and some great Flickr photos that captured the whole day, from Helen Keegan and Wytze Koopal.

An eventful month ahead...

I'm very pleased to be so busy at the moment. It keeps me off the streets but on the road. There are several events that I have been invited to participate in over the next month or so, starting with an online event hosted by Yale University tomorrow night. It's a webcast for edubloggers only, in which a new online initiative is being launched. Main speaker will be Professor Diana Kleiner, Deputy Provost at Yale.

On Thursday I fly out to the University of Utrecht to lead a workshop for Bazaar's 'Show that you Share' Networks conference. Other speakers include Marco Kalz, Helen Keegan, Graham Attwell and Josie Fraser.

In January, I will be speaking at a number of events including the HEA hosted e-Learning Symposium at the University of Southampton - Jon Dron will also present; an 'Ask the Experts' online event for the University of Staffordshire, which also features Dave Foord; and last but not least, a paper presentation for the BETT show at Olympia in London. Then I'm going to lie down in a darkened room with a damp towel over my head, Ricky Hatton style...

Going Dutch

I have been invited to speak at the Networks, Communities and Learning Conference Bazaar at the University of Utrecht, in Holland on December 14th. Bazaar is a European funded project which seeks to support the development of a community around Open Source Software for education and open content development or Open Educational Resources. Bazaar has organised a series of 'Show Me' days around Europe, and this is the latest one. The subtitle to the Bazaar event is 'show that you share' and it looks like being a very interesting event. My own session is entitled: 'Use of wikis to promote a culture of sharing', whilst other invited speakers in the international lineup include:

Graham Attwell, Organiser (Personal learning environments) - pictured above left in contemplative mood, Josie Fraser, UK (Social networking services and social search), Helen Keegan, UK (THINKing and UNDERSTANDing the internet), Marco Kalz, Holland (Developing open educational resources), Veronika Hornung, Austria (Creating and sharing open educational resources) and George Bekiaridis, Greece (The future of leaning management systems).

Graham, Helen and I will be meeting up at Online Educa Berlin two weeks before this event, to present a join panel session on the educational uses of Second Life.