Who I Aggregate

Who Aggregates Me (and has shared their OPML)

& on Bloglines

Education
Technology

[alterego]
autounfocus
Bill Brandon
Blog.IT
Brooklyn BloggEd
cogdogblog
Collaborative Learning
Dale Pike
David Davies
Disruptive Technology
EdBlogger Praxis
EduResources
EdTechPost
EduBlog Insights
Edu-blog News
elearningpost
elearnspace
Headshift Moments
HomoLudens
Jim Flowers
Learning Circuits
Many 2 Many
Mark Roseman
Online Learning
open-education
Seblogging
Stephen Downes
teachnology
Ten Reasons Why
Tim Lauer
SiT
Weblogg-ed
X-Plana

Internet

A Networked World
headshift moments
mamamusings
tmt, tlt
McGee's Musings
Micah Alpern
Microdoc News
Powazek
Scripting News

Other

Connectivity
Library Stuff
Mathemagenic
Open Access News
Seb's Open Research
The Shifted Librarian
Unbound Spiral


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Saturday, May 24, 2003

Now what do I do? Now what do I do?. David Carter-Tod raises that age-old question: now that I have a blog, what do I do with it? [OLDaily] 11:29:20 AM    comments   trackback

More reflections on using weblogs in schools Anne Davis does it again... great reflections by her fifth graders on using weblogs. 'Twas this kinda thing that got me into all this trouble :o) 10:59:44 AM    comments   trackback

Student publishing Greg (this is getting to be a greg day!) responds to my comments on his 'Student Publishing & Privacy' post. He makes some good points about the ethical implications here which I think anyone who's doing this kinda thing would do well to think about! More of interest to me is his argument that this could be pedagogically unsound "Students who receive poor evaluations, or even feedback that makes it apparent their writing skills are not strong, may suffer more and feel shame if those evaluations are posted for anyone in the world to see" "In my classes, I always endeavored to provide a "safe" environment in which the students can explore their writing skills. Part of creating that sense of safety is the understanding that "drafts don't count." No one but your teacher and your peer review group sees them" I agree, students do need 'safe' environments... but at the same time I think the question has to be 'safe from what?' For example, if I'm going to be 'scathing' then, for sure, noone is going to want to share that kinda disapproval with the world. However, if comments are going to be constructive, if the class is going to be directed to 'help out each other' and if the dynamics are right (believe me, I've had plenty of classes that you would not encourage to constructively peer-criticize at all!) I don't see the harm at all. Part of this 'student - teacher' thing is, I think, driven by the 'I'm the teacher, I'm who they need to turn to' mentality which is not always (or even often) true. Let 'em go (with you as a 'guide') and they'll surprise you... but having said that, you do need to offer multiple channels & approaches. Hmmm... perhaps I should be a little more dogmatic :o) 10:54:51 AM    comments   trackback

Tools for the job Bonnie B carries on the discussion with Greg re: using weblogs for multiple purposes which I've been rambling on about for ages but put forward a little more clearly in 'Education Weblogs: Whats & Whys' (latest draft). Bonnie says: "A "specific solution" is an excellent idea when you want to do one specific thing; but when you have a community of faculty, staff and students looking to do dozens of different specific things, why wouldn't you want to find one tool that's flexible enough to do several of them?" And Greg responds: "It's not about price or purpose; it's about application. When you misapply a technology, the users' frustration and resignation occurs whether the institution has spent six figures on the software or downloaded an open source app for free." Good points all round. I think what really distinguishes weblogs (more specifically, some weblogging software & the principles it's set up on) is that they adapt for the users (as Bonnie said, they've gotta be flexible). Any software that caters for this individual expression & pamphleteering :o) has to, or people won't use it. Perhaps this is causing a realisation amongst the likes of me that I can tailor my experience working online and put in place tools which allow my fellow users to do the same... a kinda 'we don't have to adapt to your system anymore, we can make our own systems which suit us' approach. I reckon that VLEs, knowledge sharing tools and personal publishing devices that allow this are gonna lead the field (this is where the innovation and success is at) although at the same time our ol' corporate systems aren't going to go away... a shame that education finds itself little removed from fast food... sigh. Either way, this is a huge issue, will ruminate over the weekend a bit more. (by the by... why doesn't ieSpell recognise the word 'online' :o) 10:40:53 AM    comments   trackback

Nothing to do with the great civil rights leader, James Farmer, but here are some links that are:

Greensboro sit-ins
Reflections
Family (with pictures)


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