The #blimage challenge spreads

It is barely a week since the fabulous Amy Burvall and I started the #blimage challenge, and we are both just a little breathless as we watch how rapidly it is catching on. The challenge was just a little fun between the two of us at first. We didn't plan for it to become a global movement, but that seems to be the way #blimage is heading. In just 6 days, almost 100 edubloggers have taken up the challenge, and have then paid it forward to their colleagues and friends. There is now a Dutch language version called #blimageNL and a Spanish version (#blimageES set up by Juan Domingo) and other language versions will also follow. Who will be the first to set up a Japanese version #blimageJP or a German version #blimageDE or a French version #blimageFR?

We anticipate that #blimage will grow even wider in its influence, because it has an appeal for everyone who is thinking about education and learning. Ultimately, it's great to see how people are enjoying blogging about education, sharing their ideas, having fun with images, discussing their interpretations and generally connecting with each other in new ways. It has spread across all sectors of professional practice, from primary, secondary and tertiary education, into the workplace learning sector.

Here's the video Amy created to explain the #blimage challenge:



As Amy says, #blimage 'makes your brain dance with metaphorical thinking', it compels you to think more creatively, and I might add, it gets you involved in dialogue and connections with your personal learning network. Some educators are now blogging for the first time. Others have returned to sharing their ideas after a time away from blogging. Still others (like me) have discovered new and fascinating education blogs for the first time. The #blimage challenge exposes new ideas, new resources, and new people you really should get to know. It's about learning through storytelling, and this is lucidly explained by H J deWaard in an insightful post entitled Stories and Spaces within a #blimage Challenge. I would argue that this is learning technology at its very best.

Here are just a small selection of #blimage posts:

Space to make ideas your own by Jeff Merrell
Organic Growth by Andrew Jacobs
The #blimage challenge by Jane Bozarth
Fortunate Learning and Learning Fortunes by Sue Beckingham
Desks of Doom by David Hopkins
Taking up the #blimage challenge by Ignatia de Waard
Not just a waiting room by Rachel Challen
Human Writes by Simon Finch
It's only a jigsaw puzzle by Sandra Sinfield
Playing chess with the enemy by Steve Wheeler
Learning while wandering by Tracy Parish
The #blimage challenge by Charles Jennings
Learning in limbo by Wayne Barry
Time for a fresh perspective by Sukh Pabial
The colours of active learning by Anna Wood
Breaking bread with Steve Wheeler by Amy Burvall
The joy of learning #blimage by Jane Hart
The Web: Network, dreamcatcher, patterns by Whitney Kilgore
The #blimage challenge by Sheila MacNeill

You can see the diverse range of topics these bloggers have written about, inspired by the images they were sent. I'm looking forward now to seeing what the #blimage challenge will unearth next. Do visit the collection of #blimage posts and artefacts that are being collected on a Pinterest Board and a Flipboard, both set up by the marvellous Simon Ensor.  So please do take up the #blimage challenge yourself - and use the image above to inspire your next blog post. You never know where it might lead you!

Photo by Steve Wheeler


The #blimage challenge spreads by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.