Chris Betcher

When I started writing this blog in 2006, I was living in Canada on a teaching exchange.  It was a big year for the social web, with blogs, podcasts and the birth of the Web2.0 really hitting the mainstream of public consciousness that year, and it was good to be in the North American time zone to be fully immersed in the revolution that was unfolding.  I'd dabbled with blogs a little in 2005 when I was encouraging some of my students to use a blog as a diary to document some of their Year 12 major works. But this actual blog you're reading now was born on August 26, 2006, partly as a way for me to jump into the idea of blogging to explore what it was all about, and partly to start documenting my own thoughts and ideas. During the first few years I blogged a lot, about all kinds of random stuff.  But gradually I started to find my voice, a voice that felt authentic. My posts became more focused on things that mattered to me both personally and professionally. I learned to...

Yes, it's meme time again.  A meme , according to wikipedia, "comprises a unit or element of cultural ideas, symbols or practices; such units or elements transmit from one mind to another through speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena."  In other words, it's a way to help spread a culture. The blogosphere occasionally sends these memes around as a way to spread this culture of online community... sort of like a "getting to know you" exercise that you might do with students on the first day of class.  A topic is chosen, people respond to it and then pass the meme along to others to contribute to.  By tagging others like this, the meme spreads quickly. I was tagged a couple of days ago in a meme called 7 Things You Don't Need To Know About Me, by a PE teacher in Victoria named Jarrod Robinson , or mrrobbo to those that know him.  He was tagged by Rodd Lucier from Canada, otherwise known as thecleversheep .  (I find it interesting that Rodd...