Just for posterity, I want to note that this site published its 1,000th post today. Considering it took about 13 months to get there, and that I basically endured a forced exile for the month of July, I have to say that I’m pretty impressed with the effort. I’ve said before and it remains true that this Web log has been the most consistent journaling and writing that I have done in many, many years…maybe ever. Certainly, these last two years of blogging at various places are the most sustained public writing that I have ever done, and that alone has literally pushed me into places that I never, ever thought I would get to. It’s been a heady, very cool ride that I sincerely hope some of my students can experience at some point. Actually, I know some are, because I read their personal sites and am continually impressed with the depth of their thinking and the quality of their writing. This is such an amazing technology, and the best part is that we’re still just kicking the tires. I’m looking forward to the next 1,000…

Another entry into the free Web logging space is mo’time, which on first blush has some cool attributes. It’s quite a lot like Blogger, though I have to admit it’s been a while since I’ve posted to any of my dozen or so Blogger sites. Mo’time has the ability to turn on and off comments as well as limit them to just members of the site (which I’m not sure Blogger can do.) It’s got an easy way to update links, and the only promotional feature is a little line at the top of the page that links to the mo’time homepage. A couple of downsides are that there is no server space allotted for pictures and there doesn’t appear to be any RSS feeds from the sites. Still, it looks like it could be a nice entry point for educators wanting to get a taste of blogging. And by the way, just for the record, mo’time is not in any way shape or form connected to Apple. ;0)
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Tomorrow we meet with representatives of the sending disctricts for a Social Studies articulation meeting. My department chairman has turned out to be a big proponent of the use of Web logs, and he’s attempting to set up a site to improve communication among the districts. (Btw, the US-Poland project is slated to get underway this week as well.) I mocked up a sample “learning object” that a teacher would post, and got the meta data search up and running. I think if we were able to collect 12-15 or so lessons by the end of the school year we’d be off to a good start.

Admittedly, it has been difficult getting people to post to these types of sites in the past. As much as I beg and plead sometimes, participation at the EdTech and Website Redesign sites is minimal. I’m sure much of it has to do with time and the general overload that most feel here. But I also think that it’s going to take a sea change in work habits for collaborative spaces like these to really take hold. That’s where most of the work is going to have to happen. Right now, it’s all introduction.
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A story in the Phila. Inquirer about Web logs and their use by political candidates.

Yet, today, thanks largely to the Howard Dean phenomenon and other Web-driven developments, the Internet has become such a potent force in national politics that its most vocal boosters are heralding a brave new world of civic engagement, a new era of grassroots Jeffersonian democracy.

I’m going to be interested to see how blogthevote2004.org turns out for just this reason. Not to say that our site will end up being a major forum for young voters. But I am anxious to see if the kids who do use it get more engaged for the simple reason that they are able to contribute to the dialogue in an easy way. If nothing else, Web logs are giving people the ability to feel more connected to the candidates or to the causes, and I think that’s one step in the direction of repairing the sense of disenfranchisement that a lot of people feel. Hopefully that will be the case with this experiment as well.
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iBlog is Apple’s entry into the Web logging world, and we know Microsoft isn’t far behind. They look pretty standard, more MT than anything else. I apologize that I can’t remember who it was, but someone was musing on the effect this will have on other blogging systems out there, specifically Radio. I don’t claim to be as up on MT or TypePad or some of the others as I should be (like I even have time for this space…) but wouldn’t it seem that most primarily single paged Web logging will be under the domains of the big companies out there within the next five years? I know there will always be open source alternatives, but I think for most of the billions of people out there who still don’t even know what a Web log is, Microsoft and Apple will be their first introduction. And you know what that means.

Personally, I’ve been feeling lately like UserLand is missing an opportunity. The more I get my elbows dirty with Manila, the more I like it despite its quirks. I’ve finally gotten to understand that the power of the software sets it apart from most other Web logging apps out there. Thing is, no one else at my school sees it, yet. It’s taken me two years to wrap my brain around just how extensive the effects of a CMS like this could be here. Showing that to others and convincing them of same is no doubt going to be like pulling a cement mixer up a steep hill. Molecules at a time. But we’re all moving in that direction, I think, and it seems like medium sized districts who are looking for a fairly inexpensive way to move operations online, facilitate distance learning, and communicate more effectively with their publics (among other things) would be chomping at the bit to get something like this working.

Dan Mitchell is compiling his ruminations about the use of Web logs in education. Dan was one of the first edubloggers I found and his work at De Anza College has done a lot to inform my own thinking about teacher and student sites and templates and such. For example, in his process of having teachers create and maintain Manila sites he says:

While several of us are aware of the deep underlying power of the Manila weblog environment, we decided at the outset to focus on providing basic skills for our faculty users. In fact, we set a very low basic threshold for success: faculty members should be able to create and maintain at least a single web page that contained important contact information along with some personal information. Virtually everyone met this standard, and most created more sophisticated sites with multiple pages and posted course information, etc.

I’m wondering if that might be the very least we could ask of our teachers as well, the creation and upkeep of a single page of contact information with some additional background info. Teachers who are so inclined could add a resume, or discuss best practices, their philosophy or more. Just a thought…

How much text can you cite from another website in your blog before you’ve crossed the line and entered into copyright infringement? Is it okay to post an image you didn’t create in a blog? Even if it’s just for window dressing? Does the “educational” use of blogs in our journalism classes give our bloggers greater freedom and protection to cite text and post multimedia?

From a new Web log New Media Journalism @ Seton Hill U.. Dennis Jerz has been using blogs in his classes and finding some resistance to assigned topics. I think that sense of ownership is pretty cool, and I still waant to find ways to give my own students more ownership. But there is a difference with university students, isn’t there? There’s more of an expectation for structure on my level, or at least that’s my sense of it. Somehow, interspersed posts like “Sit tight. I’ll be back with something cool about my mundane student existence soon.” don’t feel as appropriate in high school. Sometimes I wish I was teaching college.

Pam is finally getting some recoginition for the great work she’s doing with Web logs as a mentoring and professional development tool. Her being featured in Teacher Magazine will surely do much to get others thinking and experimenting with this type of reflective journaling. I really like this quote:

“In my weblogging circle,” she says, “I’m able to discuss ideas and share with teachers from all over—New York, Chicago, Georgia, San Francisco, and Canada. When has that ever been afforded to teachers?”

Way to go Pam.

Also interesting to me in this article, however, is the caution that the author implies teachers must use when writing in such spaces. It appears that those gut-wrenching moments that all teachers go through when the kids or the administrators or the parents just get too much to deal with are not good fodder for Web logs. Showing the emotional side of teaching may get you in trouble. Doubting yourself, griping about the amount of work, even commenting on the political state of the world seems to be cause for some teachers to be called in to ‘discuss’ those feelings. That’s not good. I know when I look back on my own reflective journals, one of the best things about them was the vent space they provided. Sometimes it was the only place I had to really go off on the state of my teaching world. But Web logs require some balance, it seems, and that can be good or bad. The teacher in this article says

“With a weblog…I’m conscious I’m writing for strangers,” Thelwell says. “In education, you teach people how to think about doing things. Well, writing for an audience is one of the most metacognitive things you can do—why don’t I want to say that, write about this?…It helps me identify what’s happening to me.”

I think as more and more of us turn to the Internet to share our experiences or feelings or compare notes, Web logs are going to prove to be very valuable tools for professional development. But as with everything else we’re working through, the boundries of content are still unclear.

I’m a Yankee fan and a Cubs fan…two ends of the spectrum when it comes to Major League Baseball. But as much <as I like the pinstripes since I moved out east over 30 years ago, it’s those weekends at Wrigley with my dad that resonate on those rare days like today when the Cubs win something of substance. I cried in ’69, and it’s taken me a long time to have even a glimmer of hope for anything more than a berth in the playoffs. But 19-7 in September. Some pitching that is really finding it’s groove. Some guys behind Sammy who can hit the ball. Hmmm…is there reason to have some hope. I’m impressed by the way they won it down the stretch. They were good…I mean really good. I don’t know if they’re good enough to get out of the first round, but there’s some hope there, a twinkling of what I used to feel riding the El out to Addison St…sitting in the bleachers even though I was too young to be a real “bum”…catching a foul ball off of Billy Williams and making my dad put it in his pocket and keep his hand on it until we got to the car and locked the doors…meeting Ernie and Billy and Glen and Ron and Leo and Randy and Don in what is still one of the best days of my life…taking a sprig of ivy home and planting it in a windowbox by my room. I know that baseball blood runs deep in many, but it’s different for Cubs fans and Red Sox fans, who have made it this year as well. Can you imagine that? A red, white, and blue World Series? Hey…a kid can dream. And so can a grown up. There is something right with the world tonight…thank you Cubbies. (Check out my slideshow.)

Problem solved, I think. Thanks. I used the MetaData plugin and created a field for Keywords, then put the search feature on the page and can now easily retrieve the objects. Now, to take this a step further, is there a way to auto display search results? I mean, is there a way to make a standing link that when clicked would automatically display the search results for that topic? TIA.

Paul Allison’s kids at East Side Community HS in NYC are taking their newspaper online using Manila. His students will also be working with students from my school and Pat‘s school on blogthevote2004 which, in case anyone is wondering, is due for a Nov. 4 serious launch. And, in the Manila as school paper area, we’re hoping to have our screed, The Lamp, online next week as well. (If you check it out now, remeber it’s a work in progress…you can however currently read the first story about blogthevote2004 here. Did I really say that?)
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So did I know about this? Alan Levine has had blogshop running for quite some time it seems, and it looks like a great intro to Web logging, MT, RSS and more. Emphasis is on educators and using Web logs as e-portfolios, which I’ve decided is my BIG project here for 2004-2005. (Web logs as Website is gonna be enough for this year.)

And today on his other Web log, Alan writes about a “Blog-volution” happening in Phoenix, under the radar, as teachers connect and write and talk about what they’re doing with blogs in schools. News is traveling here too, in fact I’ve got my first math teacher hooked on the idea, and he’s thinking hard about how to use Web logs in his classes. (At some point, it would be good to do a brainstorm somewhere for the left-brainers out there who, as far as I can tell, are decidedly under represented in the K-12 realm of blogging. We have a lot of writing and reading and lit teachers and a slew of librarians, but what about those math/science types? Admittedly, Web logs are not as natural a fit beyond the classroom portal function. Or am I missing this too?) What I really like is that a lot of people are approaching me, now. My sales force is growing…

Alan’s right: “This is just the tip of an iceberg (in Phoenix? Yes!)” ON! ON!
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Judging from this description of a BOF session at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference next month, there’s not much doubt that Gates and Co.’s entry into Web logging is nigh:

“By now, you’re probably familiar with weblogging to some extent. What you may not have known is the extent that blogging is used inside Microsoft. In this BOF session, the heavyweights of the blogosphere will chair a discussion on where blogging is at and where it’s headed. Where does .NET fit into all this? Can we expect any blogging services from MSN? What about blogging with the newest version of Sharepoint? Come join the fun and find out. We’ll also be talking about the role of RSS and/or Atom, aggregators, the integration of weblogging gesture with other software, and much more! Park your butt and bring your ideas… It’s guaranteed to be intense, so make sure you’re there!”

For further evidence, check out the PDC Bloggers Site.

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Ok…here’s the deal. The articulation project that I spoke of earlier this year is coming to fruition. Briefly, the five sending schools in our district will be sharing a Web log with us to create a learning object repository for Social Studies lessons and ideas. They would like to be able to sort these lessons by grade level, core content standards, and by school name. Obviously, the easiest way to do this would be to create multiple departments, but as noted earlier, that’s not yet an option in Manila. I suggested that we could create separate sites for, say, grade levels and then departmentalize by standards or schools. But that still doesn’t accomplish the ultimate goal. I’m also wondering about keyword searching with Manila. Or should we implement a Google search that might do the trick.

Without the multiple departments, I’m kinda stumped on how to accomplish this. Any and all suggestions welcomed.

Pam points to a Web log (that I may have mentioned before) that is run by the parent of one of the students in the kindergarten class it serves. Cool concept. Hmmm…maybe I’ll have to call Mrs. B., Tess’s teacher and see if…
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