Like many bloggers I started blogging years ago using blogger.com. At first I used their site and then I purchased the pro version so I could serve blog content from my own server. Eventually, I moved on to software that was more powerful.
Blogger.com remains an extremely popular choice. Now, Blogger.com has been upgraded and some of the changes may make the service of greater interest to educators. One of the basic concerns has been that students may reveal information that could put them at risk. Blogger.com offers some new security options. It is possible to limit access to those designated within a set of email addresses. If you want to make the effort, the group that can access a blog can be carefully controlled.
I promised yesterday that I would comment on the recent Time magazine articles that have commented on education and the participatory Internet. The cover story of the Dec. 18 Time addresses the question How to Build a Student for the 21st Century?
The summary –
Today’s economy demands not only a high-level competence in the traditional academic disciplines, but also what might be called 21st century skills.
The article presents a view that should be familiar to educators who attend national conferences or follow many education bloggers. Actually, Friedman’s The World is Flat presents what I would regard as a similar and more comprehensive analysis of many of the same issues (Friedman’s work is mentioned). US students will need to acquire an expanded set of skills to compete in a flat world – greater awareness of the world including a commitment to other languages, higher order thinking skills, the capacity to use information more efficiently and more wisely, improved skills in cooperative processes, etc.
The article references a new report – Tough Choices For Tough Times – that provides the summary of a new panel offering advice on a new direction for K-12 education. My copy is on order. I hope the corporate leaders and politicians who feel empowered to set such an agenda also have answers for what should be related funding questions. I assume the Department of Education association with this report will assure an extended conversation of the findings.
The authors do acknowledge what I think is a core question when reform recommendations are advanced? How are educators supposed to meet existing expectations (e.g., NCLB) for core knowledge and take on a new array of expectations? The answer seems to be “focus” – teach core concepts and forget the details. I have encountered this idea – depth vs. breadth – in reviewing analyses of international TIMMS data. If I remember the argument, other countries who seem to score better tend to focus on fewer objectives. US schools tend to both focus on many objectives and spend a considerable time each year reviewing objectives taught in previous years.
A year ago at about this time, MacWorld had an article describing how to use the Automator to generate a 20X30 poster from images stored within iPhoto. This article prompted me to generate a blog entry. The article provided access to an automator script that users can activate to generate the giant pdf poster. Now this only works for those with access to a Mac, but if you are searching for a present your class can generate for each other or for friends and you have been collecting digital images throughout the year, this script does a great job.
The idea is really that you would print out the pdf on a large form printer or send the pdf off for printing (we did this last year). However, the script saves the pdf back to iPhoto and you can then export the image in whatever size you like (see below for sample created from recent China photos).
Things have changed a bit since we provided last year’s blog post. The script has been updated for a more recent version of iPhoto (Versions for iPhoto 5 and iPhoto 6 are available online). If you try this project make sure you are patient. The script may take 10+ minutes to reach completion. Read the MacWorld article (link above) for complete instructions.
Internet neutrality proponents believe that the recent change in Congress is likely to boost their efforts to push legislation that would prohibit tiered access to the Internet.
The article suggests that Reps. Markey and Dingell will be in better positions to support a telecommunications reform bill.
See SavetheInternet for additional information (e.g., are your senators for or against – I did find this presentation confusing – I am assuming FOR means for neutrality and not FOR the Stevens telecommunications bill).
If:book has a post on a procedure Larry Lessig used to update “Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace.” I have a copy of the original (published in 1999) buried somewhere on a shelf. The topics while still relevant required work because Lessig’s writing explores legal issues (laws change) and technology (change happens here too). After a time in print, Lessig released his book as a wiki and allowed readers to edit, comment, etc. Lessig then took this body of material and wrote Code V2. To be fair to contributors and also because he suggests that a copy of the new book would be cheaper than printing the wiki, the wiki version of the updated book is also available. Lessig is in a very different situation than many authors, but I really like the idea of building reader particiaption into the authoring process.
David Warlick has an article in EdTech:Focus on K12 that identifies 3 categories of teachers who blog (independent, professional, and instructional) and then proposes related practices schools might employ.
When I first read this piece, it struck me as a thesis or dissertation waiting to happen. One of the things I value about researchers is that they typically must offer their methodology for review and this requires that they move beyond generalities. In a situation such as this, they must operationalize what they propose should be counted as what!
Rather than identifying categories of teacher bloggers, I would guess the reality would be that teachers author posts falling into multiple categories. Many “tag” posts accordingly. Most of us who do not attach a blog to a specific class include professional development posts and personal posts when the mood strikes us. How would you classify this blog? Some posts are about pedagogy and some about educational tools. Some posts also address politics and other general topics as interpreted by someone whose vocation is that of educator.
Warlick’s comments are helpful and he makes the effort to point readers toward sites he feels provide relevant advice for each blogger category. However, and this may be the liberal in me talking, there seems to be a very cautionary tone that reminds me of the old days when expectations might imply that teachers should not be seen in the local pub. I like the advice “Don’t be stupid”.
In fact, if it is possible to identify a pool of teacher authored blogs, it would be interesting to know what proportion of posts reviewers feel are potentially inflammatory, contentious, etc. With some data in hand, we might then consider whether a serious problem exists. What rate of inappropriate comments or what proportion of hot heads is tolerable? How do attempts to set the rules for educators desiring to participate in the discussion of controversial issues influence the effectiveness of the web as an open forum?
I think teachers should be allowed to blog on any topic a radio talk show host or a television news celebrity is allowed to discuss.
I have commented on the topic of “net neutrality” several times. A recent post by David Warlick brings this topic up again and brought my attention to a Bill Moyer’s “Moyers on America” special “The Net@Risk“. This special covers related topics that concern the significance of an independent Internet and how equitable access and neutrality are being threatened.
The program is essentially about the telecoms’ interest in and lobbying for control of the Internet, and their apparent lack of interest inactually improving the Internet, to keep us in line with the serviceand cost enjoyed by many other industrial countries around the world. (Warlick)
The online video from the Moyers site and the Warlick post (summarizing a Learning and Leading article by Anita McAnear) are both informative and alarming.
The Moyer’s piece mentions of the work of North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan in attempting to bring attention to the issue of net neutrality. Perhaps because I work in North Dakota I have thought about why this issue would be something Senator Dorgan would take on as a cause. One explanation that occurs to me is that in very rural states citizens often have few options for high speed access and may be lucky if they have one option. One of factors that works against the abuse of ownership of the access point is the option of users to switch to another provider. When that option is not there, users are more vulnerable to whatever decisions the provider makes.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
