Truth About Wikipedia – YouTube Video. This documentary from VPROInternational explores Wikipedia and in doing so some core concepts of the participatory web.
Louis Gray offers a comment on a trend that encourages secondary sites to offer content originated by bloggers. I noticed this was possible several months ago when I moved my blog to its present location and registered the new location with several aggregators. I found that I could read my entries from “readers” without having to actually connect to my site. The links to my site that were provided were pretty much unnecessary because all recent posts were there and complete. Back when we offered content via old style web pages embedding images or pages within frames appearing under a different URL was frowned on. I know that WordPress allows me to determine how much content I offer via RSS feeds and I have my feeds set to offer only part of each post. Automated ways of integrating and cross-referencing online content are intriguing, but I do hope individuals who find my material of value take the trouble to explore this site in its entirety.
For a different perspective – shyftr
My “sources” are quite varied. Here is a link to a column from the technology talk show host Kim Komando (the digital goddess). The topic concerned legal issues in photographing the public. I have wondered about some of these issues and I thought maybe you have too.
My wife watches the Today show every morning before we head to work. If you happen to do the same, you know that one of the featured stories “today” examined the beating of a girl by 6 acquaintances in Florida. The beating was supposedly in retaliation for comments made by the victim on MySpace. The beating was also taped so the perpetrators could use it later to further humiliate the victim.
This incident will likely generate a great deal of media attention. I am concerned with the “spin” that may be attached.
The Sheriff investigating the case was quoted in the Today show online summary saying:
“Our goal is not only to deal with this issue, but to try to educate parents across the state and across the nation that this is what your children are watching,” he said. “This is what some children are participating in. And we as a society have got to say, ‘This has to stop,’ because if we desensitize our children to this today, then what’s next tomorrow?”
Today does include a segment from the beating for viewing. It is shocking and potentially could encourage parents, educators, and law enforcement personnel to take bullying more seriously. Actually, I am not certain who must be convinced this is a problem. I am concerned that the video also serves as a positive example for misguided adolescents. Somehow recording the bullying of peers has become cool. How do you change such a perception? Certainly not by filtering and pretending it does not exist.
I follow technology and columns from the Washington Post. I must admit this is a matter of habit and I cannot really remember why I started. Let’s just call it inertia. Anyway, the Post published a list of favorite education blogs for 2008. If I remember the post, the section writer asked an ed blogger friend for help and together the list is a product of their collaborative effort.
I must admit most suggstions I have not encountered before. I guess there is nothing wrong with expanding my personal RSS list and this may be a place to begin. Checking out the picks of someone outside your normal clique may be a way to avoid the typical spin cycle.
No, I am not on the list. I think the only list I make is my own.
Access to EdWeeks’ Technology Counts issue used to be a big deal for me. The resource served as a source of information on student access to technology and we used the data in our writing activities. I used to even buy the special issue so I could carefully examine the numbers.
I have grown more and more disappointed in the direction this publication has taken and the value of the data provided. More and more the topics seem to concern whether policies are in place. I want to know what kids are doing with technology.
For the past several years, I have read the headings, was exited to learn what was happening, and ultimately ended up disappointed in what I learned. Here is what I mean. Use of Technology. What does that imply to you? Here is what Technology Counts was able to offer on the “Use of Technology” in North Dakota.
This looks like the results of a survey sent to Departments of Public Instruction.
Ed bloggers (here unnamed) have latched on to a School Library Journal article suggesting educators often unnecessarily limit themselves (and their students) with a conservative interpretation of fair use.
Fear and guilt seemed regularly in the way of innovative teaching and creative expression.
While I am not a lawyer (anyone who comments on copyright says this, so I will too), but I have written on the issues of copyright and fair use as these issues relate to student created multimedia in our books for future educators. I am likely one of those people who takes a conservative position based on my reading of the law and the participatory activities I feel are of greatest educational value.
The “take a more liberal few of fair use” seems to focus on promoting the value of transformation as unique expression.
What I would like to see are classroom examples arguing for the need for “mix-up, mash-up” projects. I want such examples so I can ask myself and others whether such projects would really be the best choice for engaging students. Why not focus on projects that require students to create their own content from scratch – take your own pictures, write your own prose? Why not share resources with other classrooms if location is an issue? I am not suggesting that it would be impossible to create a scenario in which repurposing the work of another might be necessary, but I am thinking such situations would be extremely rare and creative opportunities by their nature are basically unlimited.
I think a more significant issue is the confusion articles such as the Library Journal create. Will educators read the article carefully enough to inform their practice? Is the article informative enough to inform practice? Will the impression that others are doing it serve as an excuse? Are Grateful Dead concert posters really cultural history? Will people who advocate mash-ups as good education understand what the previous question meant?