Looks like Pat and I and possibly others are going to try to put together a proposal for the NCTE conference next fall, and we’ll use the Web log linked above to do so. (Pat’s obviously been holding out on the newspaper template!) Best part is that I get to practice what I teach…this is pretty close to what I expect my Media kids to do, only Pat and I are doing it from coast to coast.

I like this little app and will keep in installed for at least a little bit to play and think. I like the ease of it, and I already really like the community feel it adds here. Great for feedback, but as Pat says on his Tag Board, it’s probably not great for chat. Why is it my brain keeps gravitating to the potential of abuse? Too many years with adolescents, perhaps??? Still, for this purpose, easy, clean, nice.
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A site that looks like it has some interesting ideas on infusing Tablets into the classroom. Still waiting for mine…sniff.

And, via a link, a Tablet sales guy makes the pitch. Sounds good to me.
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Here’s what I’m thinking with my Media class. They’ve been posting research to a class Web log on a variety of group topics in preparation for a presentation in a couple of weeks. In addition to the 15-20 minute stand-up (during which they need to use three forms of media), they need to submit a paper that does an overview of the material they present and some further analysis and conclusions. I want one paper from each group. What I want is for each group to compose its essay collaboratively within the/a Web log. The purpose is to be able to see each person’s contribution to the task.

Now, I think there are a couple of ways to go about this. The first is to have them work in the current class space and do revisions through the discussion group feature. This way, the initial post would be simply a brainstorm or summary of the information, and then the posts that follow would chronicle the thinking and composing of the piece.

The other way is to create separate Web logs for each group just for this purpose and make them all Content Editors. (I don’t want to make them all CEs in the class Web log.)That way I could tell each student to use a different color to edit/revise on the drafts instead of doing so in different posts. They would still have to start over with fresh drafts at some point. Not sure if that makes it easier for them, but I think it would be pretty interesting for me to do it that way.

Either way, the bottom line is that I want to document their participation in the process. Not that it should take away from face to face work on the essays, but that at least some of it, a good portion of it, should be visible within the Web log. Feedback welcomed.
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Albert’s php discussion board is very cool, and might be a good venue to discuss the plans for next year. It is kind of interesting to me to compare the Web log to the forum…definitely a nicer interface than Manila’s, but as Pat says, we could still do a Manila site and achieve basically the same thing all in one place. Frankly, I kind of like that idea simply because it would push my experience with Web log discussion and collaboration. At some point I need to write about the differences pro and con of forums vs. Web logs since that has been a discussion in some circles at my school.

Anne Davis is doing some very cool things down in Georgia. Next time I get down there to visit the in-laws (Yee Haw!) maybe we can have a mini edublogvention. Here’s a quote:

“The students absolutely love having an audience. They tell me time after time that the best part about all of this is having someone respond to their writing. I have found it hard to find mentors who have the time to be consistent with tracking and following up on individual students.”

This is without doubt the strength of Web logs, and one that I really want to focus on when I get back to school next week. I’m going to attempt to have my Media groups compose the written portion of their projects collaboratively in their Web logs. Could be interesting…tomorrow I hope to flesh out how to do it.
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NCTE in San Francisco? Edu-blogvention then as well? Pat is floating this balloon, and I think it can work, at least for me. If everything falls into place I’ll have traded in my teacher’s hat by that point and have enough flexibility to attend. I’m almost sure I could get the trip out paid for, and if Pat can rustle up some cheap digs…I think it can work.

The bigger question is about the presentations. I would love to present on my journalism projects, and by that time I may have even more collaborative examples in the bag. (BTW, anyone want to set up some type of journalism cooperative Web log project for February/April? Lots of ideas…) But what I’m wondering is whether or not some of us might team up and do a panel of some type. I think it would be so cool to collaborate on something specifically for the conference, in keeping with the partnering theme, and then get us all up on the dias to rouse the congregation. Not sure what that might look like, but would at least like to see if there’s any interest. We’d have to start talking fast, however, especially with proposals due in two weeks!

Regardless, 2003 will see the first gathering…who’s in?
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Nothing like Christmas with little kids…wrapping presents last night…Wendy and I getting our stories straight about Santa and how he does things…getting up at four to create the illusion…Tucker, who has been sick for the last three days, made it up at six to see what Santa brought, making sure to wake up his big sister as well…a fresh blanket of snow on the ground…lots of unwrapping and playing and singing and kissing…nice way to start a day.

Merry Christmas all. And in these strange days, may we all have Peace on Earth.
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I’d forgotten how much I really like the feel of Lloyd’s Web log and the way he honors his students by excerpting them into his own space. He’s really done some exceptional work with kids, and I’m really impressed with how many of them have stuck with it, most likely due in large part to his continued interest.

Quote: “And that agenda was, simply: I wanted kids to write, to express themselves, on the web. To become part of a loose online community of writers and thinkers, making self-expression in this medium a regular part of their lives. And it has succeeded, to what I think is a remarkable extent; just look at the long texts and grads lists on the left there. I would have been quite happy to have had a dozen students who would become regular webloggers and writers over the years; instead, there are a few dozen.”

A best teaching practice if ever there was one.
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This is a nicely conceived project between a school in Illinois and one in New Jersey using Manila. While most of the student Web sites are down, here’s one that gives an idea of what they were doing. I wonder how the rest of them turned out. Will add this to the best practices list as an example of multi school collaboration.

Even though I found numerous It Worked! carcasses during my travels, it still makes me wonder how many more teachers there are out there who are doing things with Web logs that we just haven’t found yet.
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Quote: “Blogs, or online Web logs of news and views, were the hot story of 2002, the year when blogging caught the eye of the mainstream press in a big way and pundits began to recognize blogs as useful tools for everything from venting about politics to raving about a favorite band.”

And another piece from the Post: Free Speech-Virtually.

So here’s the question…what effect, if any, will the publicity and legitimizing of the Web log during this Trent Lott debacle have on classroom adoption? As of now, any journalism teachers worth their salt will have at least heard of Web logs, and if they grasp the idea even a little bit they should be exploring ways to get their student journalists blogging. And what about writing teachers in general? Again, the publishing aspect of Web logs should create a buzz among those who are looking for real audiences for real writing and collaboration. No doubt, the Web log in general train has left the station…the Web log in ed train is just getting warmed up. But I really feel like once people start “getting it” for all those other reasons, educators will follow.
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Quote: “What does it all mean? The squeaming mainstream press might let a story play out online first, and see where it goes. Bloggers can instantly spin a story, and dig online for deeper background. And if the Big Media wavers on something controversial, the Small Media online have the chance to make a big splash.”

It’s been really interesting to watch the legitimizing of Web logs as a tool for journalists. I can’t imagine their importance won’t continue to grow, therefore legitimizing them as a tool for the journalism classroom.
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Pam is searching for answers about the state of our union here in teacher/Web logger land. For the most part, they are similar to questions I was struggling with at the end of the last school year when my classroom “experiments” with Blogger were coming to an end. What good is all the Web log stuff, really? How does it change how or what kids learn? Why don’t too many other people get it? Etc…

A couple of reactions. First, I still don’t think we’re at the point where we can genuinely answer those questions. As I wrote a couple of months ago, I’m still in that “Do No Harm Stage” where I know enough about the technology and the concept to play with it and I’m secure enough in the way I implement it that my students aren’t suffering or getting less than they were before. But are Web logs more effective? Do kids learn more? Dunno, and I’m not really worried about that stuff yet. What I do know is this: by and large, my students like Web logs. By and large, they do consistent, solid work in their Web logs. By and large, they are effective ways for me to communicate and expand on what I do in the classroom. And, they provide me with many more opportunities to have my students collaborate with others and revisit work with the idea of improving it. Can I measure something in there? Sure, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to tell me what I already know…there is a lot of potential here.

At some point, Pam is right. We’re gonna have to validate the experience that our students have. But we’re not there yet. What motivates me more than anything right now is the amazing discussions and discoveries that Pat and Joe and Seb and Sarah and others are having about how to make this work and what their kids are experiencing and what we need to learn next and all that stuff. We’ve answered a few, but what I see is a big boatload of questions still out there that this loose collaboration is slowly but surely wading through. And at some point, we’ll roll up our sleeves and get to the data.

Look, Pam’s right; there aren’t a lot of other teachers signing up for duty. I wondered about that too until I started showing off at school and got a lot of blank stares in return. Teachers, for the most part, a) don’t know what Web logs are, b) don’t have the time to put into thinking and learning about them, and c) don’t want to leave their comfort zones. Frankly, I don’t know how we do it, because innovation takes time and certainly is not comfortable. (And I think about Joe keeping up what with his imminent arrival.)

Do Web logs stand “a legitimate chance of being embraced by the educational community?” Absolutely. But it’s going to take time. Education always runs years behind the business world when it comes to implementing technologies or practice. Just now, business is coming around to the idea of Web logs as KM…that means at least a couple of years before schools start figuring it out (at least the ones without the benefit of our foresight!)

For me, now is the time to push my thinking, be creative with my implementation, and collect Best Practices and watch them get even better. This is too much fun to get serious about it!
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So many things to read and learn and so little time to do it that it really gets frustrating sometimes. Random thoughts…

…seems as though Joe is making some Earth move in Brooklyn, and that’s a good sign. Some hints of that here too as some in my Ed Tech Committee are actually starting to post to the Web log. And I’ve started another project for a colleague who is looking to do online lit circles. Some other nibbles at the fringes too.

…Pat’s idea of a blogvention piggy-backed on Dave Winer’s Weblogs in Meatspace idea makes sense to me, although I still like the idea of just the edu-focused of us copping our own space. Try as I might, a lot of the big blogging guns are just too far above me to get my heartrate up. I’d rather talk and think about things I can do in the classroom. (Course, as Seb suggested a while ago, we could always go here.)

…now that we got our cable modem, finally, we went WiFi at home this weekend…oh what fun it is to read recipies right off the Web while sitting at the island in the kitchen. I cannot believe the speed…just like sitting at the desktop (especially when compared to the 26.6 kbs I was connecting at from home!)

…going to tackle Smart Mobs over the break. The subtle yet fascinating ways that connectivity is changing the culture. Any one read it yet?

Jenny is great at finding cool new features for the Web life, and the latest is UltraBar. Just like the Google Toolbar except you get a customizable dropdown list of other search engines to fire up all from one place. It even highlights the words you are looking for on the page it returns. I added a couple of my favorite site-specific searches to the list like the ones at magportal.com and Google News. Between this and Amphetadesk, I’ll have a few more hours to go shopping! (Yeah, right.)
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