Stop the Digital Media Robber Barons Salon: "The Eldred decision, in the words of University of Buffalo law professor Shubha Gosh, 'deconstitutionalizes' copyright, pushing it father into the realm of policy and power battles and away from the principles that have anchored the system for two centuries. That means public interest advocates and activists must take their battles to the public sphere and the halls of Congress." [Scripting News]

Time is slipping by and the digital media robber barons will have complete monopolistic control unless................ something is done...... we can't say that we haven't heard about this... Tim Merritt has been sounding the alarm on his blog for the longest.

Visit infoanarchy. This may be a good place to start. http://www.infoanarchy.org/
10:22:14 PM  #  comment []

Why or Why Educators do not Blog in the Education Sphere

I start to wonder what it really takes to turn someone into an active Weblogger of some sort. .....

Actually, I am not sure if I should buy into this. What about the lack of a clear purpose? What about the lack of quick rewards? What about the lack of immediate gratification? What about the necessary self-discipline? What about the necessary risk taking? What about the joy of new encounters and unpredictable developments? What about the willingness to put your thoughts out in the open? As a novice to personal Webpublishing you certainly have to deal with a good number of these issues before you even start to experience the wonderful side effects personal Webpublishing can produce. It takes time, effort, persistence, and quite a bit of behavioral change before adequate skills and habits are built up. Learning to use specific software tools often isn't the hardest part.

All this leads me to the following thought: Do we encounter a very specific brand or somewhat special selection of people in the blogosphere? ... take a look at the considerable number of Webpublishing spaces that live and die in a matter of weeks. Are all these personal experiments abandoned because of a lack of time? Some probably are, I would say... but there are certainly a lot of other reasons why people do not feel inclined to continue their project. So, sometimes I am pretty sceptical that we will see this massive growth of personal Webpublishing that some people seem to predict... [Sebastian Fiedler]

[Seblogging News]

Why or Why not blog? It would be interesting to do an inquiry in to Seb's question regarding blogging in education. ( It is a question for anyone working with blogs in education) After reading his post, I would have to say that it may require us to look at this question from a variety of angles. From the I perspective: What's in it for me? What's the hook? From the educator perspective: What is in it for me as a teacher? What's in it for my students. (I contend teachers, for the most part think pragmatically) The pioneers will jump on this. There will be the group, that no matter what, will not want to jump on board, and there is the silent majority sitting on the fence, watching which way the winds will blow. Anyone who has been teaching for a while and understands education history in the states, can tell you all the fads that get pushed down on the educational professionals by political hacks. First districts want to push technology, and now that there are less dollars, they are pulling back on technology support and equipment (unless you have the juice) More mixed messages are sent to teachers.

For each case we can lay out what makes it happen or not happen. Lets look at what can help us start and stick with blogging.

Administrator support (this is big if they start to blog and gives support publicly)

Parent support (parent support can be a blessing for any inquiry and engaging project that doesn't follow either the dumb down the curriculum atmosphere in some schools or the "teach to the test" synddrom.

A Buddy on staff can be what gets you through it.

Virtual Buddies, who do the same with IM, Chat, email and phone, etc

Technical Support within a school is golden. ( even bigger if they begin to blog)

The students using and getting into the technology makes it worth it.

It is a people question. It is a political question in that we see where folks place their priorities and focus in education. Is there justice or not? ----
1:35:33 PM  #  comment []