How has Google changed the world? Well if you want to get a hint of the potential, check out this example of being caught in the act. Those naughty Republicans have been spewing their pro tax cut baloney by sending the exact same letter to dozens of newspapers across the country all with different authors’ names. (The English teacher thinks somewhere in here is a relevant lesson on plagiarism…) How cool is that? A little detective-like thinking and an Internet connection can expose all sorts of interesting things these days… (via Dan Gillmor)
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(Link via Jenny) I’ve been playing around with my new Acer tablet PC for about a week now and it’s pretty incredible in terms of handwriting recognition and portability. Now comes this DesXcape thingy from Philips which looks like basically a tablet PC that you can dock and use as a desktop. What a very cool idea. I really like the tablet concept in general, and some of the supervisors who I have shown are chomping at the bit to try one out as they could WRITE notes during observations, translate them into text and have most of their work done by the time they leave the room. Student use has some interesting potentials too.

What about this vision…My journalism students settle down after the bell rings and take out their tablets and fire them up. I give them five or ten minutes to do some freewriting which they then post to their Web logs using the built in 802.11b LAN. When they’re done, we spend some time talking about feature leads, and they check their news aggregators for some samples that I “sent” them earlier and have projected on screen via LCD. They do some quick edit and response using the stylus, and post to their Web logs. One click and those posts are aggegated into my computer, and I open a few at random that we discuss together on screen. I ask them to take a few minutes to search for more feature lead examples from today’s papers online. They post, I aggregate, we talk. Finally, I upload a fact sheet from which they write their own leads and post to their Web logs/notebooks/portfolios which I again collect and read in my own Web log…and so it goes. Sheesh…

Laptops are one thing, but just from a tap, tap, tap standpoint, they can be distracting. Think about creating quiet text and graphics all at once and then just clicking a button…
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At least that’s what I think it is. Maybe it’s Italian. And here’s another. Interesting that Edublogs are hot in other languages too. Now all we need is an automatic translator…how about freetranslation.com? (Where I figured out it IS Italian.)

Just an excerpt: “Other interesting teaching example of use of the weblogs is supplied from Mr. Will Richardson, teaching I press the Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington, New Jersey. The site from him realized, “Weblogg-and. Using weblogs in education”, is full of ideas, reflections and suggestions for the profitable utilization of the weblogs in scholastic field. On this site is possible to read also of the experiments conducts from other teachers, that intervene in this space to the inside of a teaching discussion really stimulating. Very rich the equipment of links of deepening or of connection with other sites, capable of to supply a precise idea of what can mean a good weblog in apprendimento of community of limits and search. From a teaching document of planning for the use of weblogs in class, we extract some interesting reflections:”

Hmmm…profitable, eh?
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Questions below were taken from the National Learning Infrastructure Initiative which has selected e-portfolios as a “key theme” this year. In each case below, the words Web logs were originally portfolio or e-portfolio. I did some quick switching and am wondering if answers to these questions might help to lay the groundwork for implementing Web log practices. Might be worth some time to work through. I have emphasized some that I find particularly intruiging.

1. What are the teaching & learning issues associated with Web logs?

• How can Web logs be effective in generating, recording, and assessing learning?

• What are the pedagogical benefits?
• What should the content standards be for Web logs?
• How can Web logs contribute to both formative and summative assessment?
  
• How can Web log programs be guided by what we know about how students learn?
• How do we document and assess the impact of Web logs on student learning?

2. What are the higher education system issues associated with Web logs?

• What set of potential purposes are there for Web logs? What characteristics are appropriate for each purpose?

• What are the key challenges faced by higher education in moving from the paper record keeping systems to those that include Web logs?
• What are the short and long-term policy implications of Web logs (security, privacy and access, long-term legal implications, definition of official record, need for institutional gatekeepers, FIRPA)?
• What are the implications of a potential shift from institutionally-based to lifelong learner-based records?
• In what ways do institutional Web logs contribute to an institution’s development and record its mission and outcomes?

3. What are the institutional planning, implementation and programmatic issues associated with Web logs?

• How can campuses define the learning outcomes necessary before institutionalizing Web logs?

• What are the institutional policy implications (e.g., intellectual property issues associated with content)?
• What are the support and long-term maintenance implications (financial models, storage and archiving, lifelong Web logs)?
• How can we use our understanding of prior efforts to avoid some of the pitfalls?
• How can institutions of higher education collaborate with each other and with government and industry to address Web log challenges?

4. What are the technical issues associated with Web logs?

• How can existing technologies be used to design effective Web logs?
  
• How can Web logs be integrated into existing enterprise systems (SIS)?
• What are the standards and technical specification issues?

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Looks like Tim has is getting his school set up with MT Web logs. Just seems like this is a natural application for elementary schools where younger kids get a chance to publish and parents get a chance to follow along with what’s up in the classroom. Note too that XML and RSS are featured prominently on most pages, and with this handy little tool, parents could get feeds right into their Outlook In boxes.

There’s no doubt that the potential for increasing communication between parents and schools and teachers is huge with content syndication and Web logs. Some might argue that may not be such a great thing, but I think the more visibility we can create, the more parents will appreciate the process. Too many of the problems arise because there isn’t enough opportunity for parents to stay involoved on some level.
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Remember “School Blog or Not,” that great site that was tracking the debate of one school district in terms of Web logging their site? Well, Bill is back, albeit briefly with some results. They ended up picking p-machine. But their debate doesn’t seem to be over.

Quote: “This weblog, which was just an experiment in the first place, may stay cold for a while until phase two – empowering of non-tech-savvy educators-begins. Or not, we’ll see. There remains a real difference of opinion within the team who developed the site regarding the need to empower end users as well as re: the value of off-the-shelf CMS/weblog tools – truce was declared so that we could actually get a site launched (and hence the IMO completely gratuitous ColdFusion layer) but subsequent developments may merit more discussion.”

And then there’s this site which talks about implementing Moveable Type with a college class. And Joe is playing with MT as well. The “Dream Tool Debate” is started at Albert’s Disruptive Technology Site and I’ll try to cross post my thoughts there eventually. All I know is at this point I’m getting the feeling that as they “get” the concept, more and more teachers are going to be willing to test drive something. But I’m still afraid they’re going to leave it on the lot if it’s Manila, for all the reasons I’ve already discussed.
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Unlike last semester when my Web logs for teachers seminar didn’t get enough sign ups, I just found out that it is running this term. Very cool. Maybe the word is spreading…Going to have to check out Sarah‘s workshop agenda more carefully!
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Spent a little more time at the Middlebury site I referred to yesterday and came across this really interesting project a la Web log on “Sports and Ritual.” What really strikes me is a) the project itself, b) the form that the Web log gives to the project, c) the intensive reflection/metacognitive work that this student did, and d) the collaboration among her peers that helped bring it to fruition.

In my interview yesterday, I was asked for examples of how I had used technology to enhance student learning, and of course, I talked about Web logs. I talked a lot about what Pat mentioned in his proposal, but I also talked about the amazing potential I still see in terms of portfolio and reflection, much like this project. I think my one regret if I get this new position will be that I won’t be able to take a class of my own further down this path, at least not for a while. It just makes me want to revive that independent study idea I had last year when this all started buzzing in my brain. The cool thing is, it’s still buzzing…
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Pat is just blowing me away with his ideas and energy. I swear I don’t know how he finds the time to do all the work he does. His district-wide CMS proposal is awesome, and definitely will serve as a model for anything that might happen here. Amazing. An excerpt:

Capabilities and benefits:

Some pretty interesting responses to Hector’s survey of his first year, Web log using students. Funny how closely they seem to parallel the feedback of my students. Hector’s list of Web log uses is really impressive, and I’m going to have to take some time to go through them…a great resource.
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My media kids are plowing through the collaborative writing process. So far so good for most groups. Some issues with citations and Works Cited need to be cleared up, but for the most part I think it’s interesting the way this is working. We’re going to talk about transitions and the melding of voices tomorrow. I’m also going to have them give me some reflection on the process since I’m sure they haven’t done this before.

As always, this whole idea of collaboration piques my interest. I keep thinking about the process that Middlebury used when coming up with their conference proposal…what was the effect on the writing, on the process. It will be interesting to see what my students say about it.
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Quote: “While many freeware vendors also offer fee-based software and services for corporate users, a newer crop of vendors is stepping up to extend Weblogs to specific business processes such as corporate intelligence gathering and market research.”

Hey Trellix, Traction and Tech Dirt…anyone want to talk about specific EDUCATION processes? Is it me, or is this a no brainer? Huge untapped market. Potential to redefine teaching and learning. Plenty of willing guinea pigs and consultants…DUH!

Ok, ok…I’ll stop, I promise.

This feel familiar to anyone?

“A community of practice is different from a network in the sense that focuses on a substantive topic; it is not just a set of relationships. A CoP is different from a work team in that the shared learning and interest of its members keep it together. It is defined by knowledge rather than by an individual task, and exists because participation has value to its members. A CoP is different from other communities since its members are more likely to share a common profession or work situation…” (via Maish)

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Ok…Manila problem that for some reason I can’t figger out…any help would be appreciated. In the Web logs that I set up for this other teacher, his students want to go in and edit their original news posts, but they are not getting the “Edit” button option. Shouldn’t contributing editors be able to do so? The description says: “Contributing editors can write and edit stories and pictures and take part in the discussion group.” Or doesn’t that include news items? Only MEs can edit news items???

Four teachers have come to me asking if we can build some collaborative Web logs among their classes so that they can meet and share ideas without sharing space. Cool! They’ve been watching my other experiment and want to give this a shot. And did I mention that my librarian approached me about a book review Web log? Slowly, the momentum seems to be building here…

PS…sorry about the title silliness…when I land on a theme I stick with it.
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