Not a great deal of Web logs, but one cruise through some of these sites and it is apparent how much the Internet is changing journalism. What I am most struck by is the interactivity that journalists are practicing with their readers. Readers are getting their questions answered right from the ground. That’s pretty amazing, I’d say.

Once again, the Christian Science Monitor is leading the way. But I’m happy to report that New Jersey.com actually has a Web log running for breaking news. (This sets me up for the use of the Newswire site, which I’m planning to crank up again this week.)

Unfortunately, CNN pulled the plug on Kevin Sites War blog. And there is much discussion among fellow Web loggers about it. J.D. Lasica, who runs a great online journalism related Web log, has a pretty good rundown of the debate. Personally, from what I can tell, Sites may not have been as clear as he could have been to CNN about what he was doing. But regardless, there is no doubt that what he and other reporters are starting will change the way major events like wars and disasters and more are covered. 9/11 started it, but that was pure reaction. This time, people have thought it out. And there is no better coverage of this war than what you can find on the Web.
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With the slight hope that there might be someone listening, here’s a little wish list for the Manila aggregator:

If I’m going to create a Web log as Web site that has things feeding from and to every which place, I think it’s time to roll up my sleeves and start learning some more Manila.

Trying to figure out how Pat funnels Terry‘s column at the eBN site. I get that it’s the RSS feed of a separate Web log that he has set up for Terry to post. And I’m also guessing that he uses the includeHttp macro to do it, though I may be wrong about this. Bryan Bell talks about using it for the Kern site, and I know there are some limitations. He uses it in conjunction with the printFriendlyLink macro, and I can get it to work on the Prefs-Advanced page here, but not on the home page. I think there is a CSS element that Pat is using too because I can get it to work but the text is all screwed up.

Tried the viewRssBox thing too, and that worked better. It actually may be what Pat is using. The only problem is I couldn’t seem to reduce the column width…hmmm. If anyone wants to take a look at my play space and send some help, have at it.

So much to learn, and when I have the time to play, I make some baby step progress. I still wish I could find the manual.
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BBC reporters throughout the Middle East are posting to this collective Web log. There’s something really fascinating in the way this has been put together, and it just adds another chapter to the Web log as J discussion.
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How cool is this:

Two new server-level preferences were released today for Manila’s News Aggregator feature. The first is used to allow managing editors of Manila sites to subscribe to any feed they want by URL, without having to ask the server manager to subscribe the server to the feed. The second allows server managers to automatically subscribe to all Manila sites on the server, making them available for subscription by Manila site managing editors.

Now I know I have no life, but I cannot wait to get into class tomorrow and turn them loose on this. News4Sites has a whole bunch of aggregated feeds that lend themselves perfectly for my kids’ beat work. Just that fact that Jake is back at work with all of this makes me very happy, especially since my idea for Web log Web site seems to be moving forward.

Thanks for the pointer to Greg, who I know won’t mind when I quote his e-mail observation that this is:

Sounding more and more like a classroom dream…

All students with blogs.
All sites have a pointer to the news aggregator for that class.
All students able to easily see who has updated recently, which will
foster competition to maintain their sites.
Instructors can easily keep on top of students blog activity by using
their own aggregator page for their class(es)

The Web based aggregator I’ve been wanting built right into Manila? Very neat. Now if they can just tweak the read out a little bit…
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Incredibly, it appears the stars may be aligning for an opportunity to recreate our school Web site using Web logs as building blocks. Our current site is a mess, we have new blood in key positions, we need to reduce the load of the new Webmaster position, and we’re embarking on an intranet project as well. Seems like the perfect time to start over, and I think I’m on the verge of convincing them that Manila may be the answer.

We’ve had what I would call a very narrow pipe in terms of creating and posting content to our site. Everything funneled through one person who was ultimately responsible for all content. It’s a system that really inhibits content production in any meaningful form. But in the grand vision I’m laying out, that changes as production and publication is distributed throughout the school community using Web logs. I’ve got 75% of it worked out in my brain including the build in of RSS and new templates for various audiences. (Attention: consultants stay tuned.) I’ve shown the superintendent and others the Kern site, Delano, Basehor-Linwood High School, and others.

Ironically, Bill McCoy of School Blog or Not fame is back with some new ideas (most of which are way over my head, but he’s trying to help me get it.) While his new idea of using Outlook (or similar) e-mail messages and folders to feed content to a Web log (primarily for ease of use), I’m a bit more interested in his experience with building his school site with p-machine. He has some interesting observations on his site, including:

With 6 months of elementary school web site volunteering under my belt, I’m convinced that weblog software is fantastically useful in the school environment. Our school went from no web site (aka stale, dead web site) to a web site chock full of fresh content. BUT – and it’s a big but – the vast majority of that content passed through yours truly or another “techie” volunteer en route to the site. Sure, we’ve got a couple of other parents publishing content directly and a couple of staff tiptoeing in. But 3 months post our site launch, our very tech-savvy principal is still emailing in content submissions to a volunteer to put onto her own “principal’s corner” weblog. Why? I ask myself. I can’t blame our pMachine system: no one has complained that it’s hard to use or slow or whatever. Rick Ellis has built a gem of a system and I find the pMachine control panel web interface more usable than half the installed applications on my desktop. But, the reality is that busy people (unless they are CTOs with a penchant to learn new SW) simply don’t want to mess around with learning new stuff. They’ve barely figured out Outlook – not because they’re stupid, but because Outlook’s just a means to an end. And, Outlook does happen to have a fair few features to learn (several of which I’ve stumbled on only in the last few days of research into this topic). So asking someone who’s still learning the ins & outs of Outlook to pick up a whole new user interface is – I’ve reluctantly concluded – a very real barrier to adoption.

Now I don’t know how Bill sold his Web log as Web site concept, nor do I know how or if the teachers were trained. But these are some telling observations from an early adopter that it seems I may be about to follow. (Anyone else with any experience here please feel free to comment.)

At any rate, the next few days should be interesting as I start to flesh out my “vision” for the decision-makers. I am truly psyched and overwhelmed at what may lie ahead.

Is it me or is there a bit of a lull in posting on Web logs lately? Just seems like we’re all a bit preoccupied with world events, and I know I’m finding it hard to stay motivated. As much as the act of war repels me, however, I’m finding the “playing out” of the end game here to pretty fascinating, especially from a journalism standpoint. Web loggers in Baghdad, journalists with videophones in Kuwait, a plethora of media outlets to follow from around the world. It’s amazing how far we have come with our ability to get the news at the scene. I can only believe that this is a good thing, that the truth will be told despite the wishes of our government. I keep telling my students that that is what journalism is ultimately about, the truth, but that lately it’s been harder and harder to get to.

I heard today that the Bush Administration had put aside billions of dollars in contracts for American firms to rebuild Iraq once we’re done destroying it. And, I heard that many of those firms are owned by the half dozen or so media monopolies that have co-opted the news gathering process in this country. Where is truth these days? Somehow I have to believe it’s in the hands of independent journalists who are empowered by mobile technologies and the ability to publish to an audience of millions. Whether or not they are heard or believed is another story. But the mere fact that they now have a voice is half the battle. (Poor choice of words, I know…)
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It appears today will be a very sad day for those of us holding out any hope of a peaceful resolution to the Iraqi situation. The “president” will be on the tube tonight telling us why we need to start dropping bombs on primarily innocent people in an act that most of the civilized world doesn’t see the need for. He’ll repeat all the usual rhetoric, invoke the name of god eight or nine times, tell us we have no choice, and give the go ahead. I don’t think I’ll watch.

I guess what has irked me most in these final days is the jingoistic jabber that politicians and preachers have been throwing out, specifically god’s role in all of this. It’s obvious that god likes us better than the Iraqis ’cause he’s watching over us. I guess he’s not watching over the children and the elderly and the infirm in Iraq…no one mentions them much. Must be some other god’s dominion. We have to protect Americans, as if we by some birthright are inherently more important or worthy than those born in other places. Our president believes that “the United States was called to bring God’s gift of liberty to ‘every human being in the world.’” Yeah, liberty in the form of two-ton bombs and heavy artillery. Some gift.

This is a sad world, and we’re going to make it sadder tonight, or tomorrow, or the next day. Two million children die of disease in Africa each year. Two billion people on this planet have no water to drink. Twenty five percent of African’s suffer from chronic diarreha because of it. Yet our priorities are to spend billions of dollars and an enormous amount of our reputation to topple a egomaniacal dictator whose closest neighbors don’t even fear.

Excuse me if I don’t get it.

Jim McGee raises some interesting points about knowledge management that I think relate to schools very appropriately.

Craft workers exist to share the fruits of their creating. A true knowledge craft product embodies something of the soul and personality of its creator. You share it with others not so they can copy it but so that they can find inspiration in using it in their own craft. Weblogs hold so much promise in the organizational realm precisely because they amplify this connection between craft and creator. Your record is there to be seen and to be shared.

It’s an interesting line of thought, one that makes me see some very interesting potentials in schools. In the grand vision, the Web log becomes the school portfolio. It’s informative, and its main goal is to share knowledge about the school, but it’s also a collection of selected best practices of craft and thinking. It could be a place where teachers and community members and parents and others have a collective space to share and develop ideas. And in a community like ours in which most have access, the whole idea of using syndication to push content and in turn increase involvement just increases the possibilities.

The big question of course is whether or not schools really want community. Do we really want to share what we do inside the classroom with the outside world? Like our student writers, that’s a scary proposition. It’s potentially more hassle and means greater accountability. And more work. As always, a lot to think about.
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Pam‘s moving right along with her Web log takeover of Butterville Elementary. (Is that not a perfect name or what? Could Petticoat Junction be far off?) She has the advantage of a lot of energy and a small school to convert. But I’m sure it will spread. (Great story about the intrigue of computers on her post, by the way.)

I met with the new systems administrator yesterday (my other half) and I was giving him a little Web log tour, laying out a little of my grand vision for him. I think he got the concept, and I think most others will too now that there are more and more good examples of what I’m thinking about. I put together a little guided tour for the Intel folk we met last weekend and found it was getting harder and harder to choose the sites to show. That’s a good thing. It means it and we are growing.

One of the sites I chose was Kern County, where the Bellerico Boys as Pat calls them have really done remarkable things. They are the pioneers in the district implementation of Web logs, no doubt. It’s a beautiful site, great graphic design, easy navigation,all put together with Manila. It’s what I’m going to show as a model for my ideas. At some point, I’d really like to make a visit out there to talk to them and see how they do it. Do they have a bunch of people responsible for content? Do they feed their content to partents through RSS?

I’m going to do some more experimenting next quarter. Bring some parents and administrators into the conversation using Manila and RSS and see what they think. Unlike Pam, I have to start slowly…this is a big place. But I’m getting there.
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I’ve always felt that the main reason I became a teacher was not so much because I loved kids (which I do) or that I wanted to “do good” (which I do) but more because I wanted to keep learning. And I’ve found, as I think most teachers have, that good teaching requires constant learning on our parts. To me, it’s the best part of this job.

Which makes it no surprise that I love this process of discovering Web logs. Every day there is something new to learn, something else to think about and struggle through. My collaboration with Anne is a perfect example. Not only are we both trying to figure out the most effective way to use this technology to bring our students together, we’re also realizing the effects that publishing and mentoring and collaborating have on how kids feel about their work and themselves.

I’ve posted an e-mail that I got from Anne yesterday after she met with her students. It’s worth the read if for no other reason that it so clearly articulates the many levels at which we are both being pushed as teachers by this. Her students are facing a whole different set of challenges because of their use of Web logs. For some, it’s scary to be “published” out there and have big kids reading what you write.

It is a scary time for them and they don’t think they can do it. Typically elementary kids just barrel on through and do not have such concerns. They turn a deaf ear to the teacher saying the same thing over and over, to some extent. This is a different story though. They want to be able to do it. They want to deliver. They have an audience they really care about.

This changes how Anne has to approach this lesson, and it changes my role as well. Today I can bet I’m going to be talking with my students about a lot more than journalism. I’ll be asking them to have empathy, to think about their roles as mentors and teachers, and to plan their responses accordingly. (Refer back to what I said earlier about teaching equaling learning…) It will be an interesting day as we figure out how best to nurture what has become an exciting experience for Anne’s kids. (And don’t get me wrong…my kids are excited too. This particular effort is testament to that.)

And the best part is that while Anne and I may in some form just be slinging this all against a wall to see what sticks, some of it definitely is. Anne says

After meeting with the students today, I met with their classroom teachers for a weblog workshop. They were really impressed with what was happening with their students. One of them has a student who is being considered for the gifted program and this student has to submit a piece of work that they are most proud of.. guess what, it was his weblog. The committee probably won’t even know what he’s talking about – :_). Each teacher stated emphatically that they had noticed much improvement in these kids’ writing. Others made comments that reaffirmed what we have been saying about this process. One parent today told me that her son cannot wait until Thursdays, that it is the most important day of the week for him. NOTHING keeps him from getting to school on Thursdays.

That is just too cool.
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OK, Will, this is going to be a long email but I’m on the tip of something and not quite sure just what it is, so here goes…

Today was puzzling. Something is taking place among my elementary students that is unusual. My kids are truly very excited about your kids helping them but something has been in the air that I haven’t been able to get a handle on. Now they are really into this but something has been amiss. I think I figured it out today. They absolutely realize that their writing is out there, exposed for anyone to view. They also feel like their writing is not good enough. Now, in some ways this is a good thing but I feel like I am treading on new territory. I have empowered them with their blogs and they loved it! Now they have to take a leap of faith and just sort of be exposed. I don’t know how to explain it otherwise. It is a scary time for them and they don’t think they can do it. Typically elementary kids just barrel on through and do not have such concerns. They turn a deaf ear to the teacher saying the same thing over and over, to some extent. This is a different story though. They want to be able to do it. They want to deliver. They have an audience they really care about.

They came in today with leads ready and got right down to posting. Then we just gathered in a little group for some discussion. I always encourage them to tell me how they are feeling, what they think, how this can be better, what do they need, etc. and they do. You have to understand that for the most part this is just not done in elementary schools. They are usually told just what to do, when, and how – even down to the time they all troop to the bathrooms! We had a deep discussion on their feelings and having the opportunity to have your journalism students help them. They are so afraid that they will not measure up. One of mine said, “I am so nervous about the negative part. They phrased it as having students put down their writing and this would be upsetting to them. They then went on to say that they really wanted the help and wanted this to continue. They are a bundle of mixed feelings.

Anyway, I give you all this background to let you know that I am witnessing a new phenomenom and I really am not quite sure what to make of it. What I do know is that I have a terrific group of kids, they will handle this, they want to do this, and they will help us all learn and see what will work and what doesn’t.

This week, have your kids check in and comment on the leads, give feedback. Encourage them to comment on anything else that the kids have written, if they like. If you want them to go ahead and plan mini lessons on good reporting- nutgraphs, quotes, leads, etc.. We can expose my kids to that but maybe not expect them to deliver all of it.

Next week they are coming to class with this assignment:

News story with good title
Good lead
Details in an overview
More details
One quote
Good ending

Bump up vocabulary
Good flow

They tend to put personal comments and thoughts in their stories which I want to continue. I know it defeats good journalism in news reporting but I want to leave the essence of elementary students writing and thinking within their reports.

I think that if I have the students continue writing a news report (elementary style), your kids can use those to comment on how to improve, what they like, note when they have a good lead, handled a quote correctly, etc.

Do you think it would work if your students pointed out things they are doing well, things they need to improve, but not expect a full fledged correct report while at the same time we’ll tell them what that would be? Making sense????

After meeting with the students today, I met with their classroom teachers for a weblog workshop. They were really impressed with what was happening with their students. One of them has a student who is being considered for the gifted program and this student has to submit a piece of work that they are most proud of – guess what, it was his weblog. The committee probably won’t even know what he’s talking about – :_). Each teacher stated emphatically that they had noticed much improvement in these kids’ writing. Others made comments that reaffirmed what we have been saying about this process. One parent today told me that her son cannot wait until Thursdays, that it is the most important day of the week for him. NOTHING keeps him from getting to school on Thursdays.

Not to say that I wasn’t aggravated with Manila during the workshop today – it never works seamlessly! Your post today brings up many things that we really need to think about – what have we gotten into???? No, not what have we gotten into but how are we going to tame it to have it reach the possibilities we know exist in this arena.

Please, give me your thoughts.

Anne

>>> “Will Richardson” <will@weblogg-ed.com> 03/13/03 17:08 PM >>>
Hi Anne,

How did it go today?

Will
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…a couple of Web log related issues that are cropping up now that we’re making more and more of them here.

I’ve finally gotten around to doing some work under my new job title. I need to help train teachers to use a new Social Studies multimedia classroom. The idea is to work teachers through three levels of proficiency from using the tools to present, integrating the tools for basic production of multimedia projects (PPT, etc.) , and finally, production of higher end projects using multiple media.

Of course, as I’m prepping all of this, my brain keeps coming back to Web logs. (Go figure, right?) I’m wondering what kinds of multimedia capabilities Manila has. How can I (or even can I) use it to create a Web site that incorporates Flash, sound, and interactivity? Are there any examples out there of Web logs as multimedia project space?

Well, my Manila aggregator seems good but not great. It’s already clear that it’s not the ultimate solution for what I have planned, but it will work okay for my classroom experiments. I’m hoping Jake and Dave continue to develop it, or I’m hoping that someone else will develop another Web based RSS aggregator that allows for some flexibility in design and use.

What doesn’t make it for me? There’s a lack of organization, for one thing. As Seb says, “Just throwing everything on one long page in chronological order doesn’t work for me.” Amen. There’s no way to separate feeds into folders so I can keep my students’ feeds separate from my journalism feeds or my teacher Web logger feeds, etc. And I don’t like of having to create one long menu /checklist that lumps student feeds in with all the others. Imagine if we ever do get 1,000 Web logs up and running here. How much fun will it be to a) add all of those sites to the list and b) find the ones that you want to subscribe to? Also, it’s not working correctly with my student sites, and I’m not sure why? (Is there a limit to how much info can be aggregated? Why do some of the feeds show only the most recent posts and other show every post in the student’s Web log?)

I’m a little bit frustrated by all of this because once again these tools aren’t being built for educators. We don’t stay at the same work station all day. We do a lot of our work at home, and if we’re going to use Web logs with students, we’re going to need to be able to pull those feeds together from lots of places. (I graded some work while I was in SF sitting in a Cyber Cafe for cryin’ out loud.) Seems like there must be a pretty big population out there who isn’t tied to a desk or a laptop but would still want to use RSS without having to duplicate the subscription process on every machine they use. Right?
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