You know what I love? Poptropica! This little game is captivating and I think Pearson is really onto something big. Pearson, the company name keeps rearing its’ head at NECC08. They are apparently very visible and very in-you-face trying to collect footage of the events. Read this highly critical review of the Edubloggercon by Ewan McIntosh.
Ewan has a great blog, must read because he tells it like it is and gives you lots to grapple with leading to numerous comments. I also wanted to include a section from Beth Ritter, Beth’s Second Life because she is a virtual attendee, like me. Here is her take on the Pearson/Edubloggecon incident.
Profit based learning, hmmm. I have been thinking about this conundrum. My school uses many of the Pearson Publishing resources and they are excellent and the web based tools, very cutting edge from what I can tell.
I have always been a big fan of Fact Monster, Fun Brain and now Poptropica. They are all Pearson and all free. They have become much better at placing relevant ads in the body of the web pages. It’s free so I can’t complain.
I wasn’t at the unconference so I wonder, why it was such a big deal? Free press, the participants come off like experts on edtech. I have have attended podcamps and they love to get press coverage. I ask you, aren’t newspapers for profit? Then what’s the difference? If the conference is free then who should be excluded? Should anyone with a goal of monetizing their skills be excluded? I think that would leave out a significant portion of the participants. After all, the speakers at NECC get paid, the bloggers who want to sell their consulting services get paid. In the end, everyone has a monetary motive even if it’s simply to save money by gleaning free gems from experts who typically charge for their workshops. Why is this so bad?
Tags: bethritter, ewanmcintosh, monetize, necc08, pearson, unconference
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