Weblogs have PO...I've started finding quite a few edusites that are using blogs, and it seems like there are some resources out there, but not many. Here's one from DeAnza College that has a bit of a tutorial on a Manilla site. I just sent an e-mail to the guy. Anyway, I found one high school that's using a blog on their home page to do daily updates. What a concept! We could do that here too. Easy updating. Imagine the possibilities for the staff. Individual classes. Too cool. Hosting seems pretty easy; found a couple more of those too. Need that comment feature BIG TIME! That's what makes Metafilter so cool. And we need IE since it's such a pain to make links in Netscape. (That may be a big stumbling block.) And, the big question is how do I organize this stuff. Look at Rebecca...maybe it's time to start adding pages...what about a number of blogs linked from the main blog.
posted by Will Richardson5:11 AM Link
So I'm wondering when the language starts to change. When does it get so bad that we stop assigning the same old pat phrases for the so-called certainties in life. "Our parents were just as worried when we were young." Really? "The stock market is a long term investment." Well what if there is no long term? "Your young, the time for risk is now." Well what if tomorrow REALLY sucks and the time for risk is long passed? We keep assuming that today isn't really that different from yesterday, but all I keep seeing is a 737 careening into the Indian Point nuclear power plant and taking out the entire East Coast. Then will the language change? Depressing.
I keep thinking we're sweeping it under the rug, again. We're forgetting already. Go on with your lives, they say, which implies just keep doing what you were doing and things will be okay. Maybe it's ten years of good fortune. Maybe it's having kids. Maybe it's just a scary new world. Somehow, all of it feels hollow and out of control. Like if we pretend it's okay it will be. But it won't. Tomorrow is World AIDS Day. 900,000 Americans have HIV. Eight of ten Eithiopian males will contract it. Islands are sinking. People are starving. There's a drought. It's very, very scary. Which is why I'm not supposed to think about it, I guess.
posted by Will Richardson3:57 PM Link
Here's a course weblog and an idea: What if in journalism this is where they reported the days events with links. Have to get in to the blog every day, or maybe three times a week. Give them some other blogs to monitor.
posted by Will Richardson9:01 AM Link
Here's an interesting discussion on using blogs because of the comments feature. I need to do this. Excerpt:
"Here, at Middlebury, teachers are beginning to actually come around to weblogs because of the comment feature: they like the way stories can be commented on, and they like the way the threads appear, actually."
A pretty interesting discussion of online discussion in the classroom: (need to find some time to read it more fully) Web Teaching Articles: Taking Discussion Online. I've started to look for places where blogs are being used in class and am not having a lot of success. Also had theis idea that it would be cool to start a mediablog of some type for media teachers, or even jteachers. Or even yearbook advisers. Could be an interesting way of sharing ideas and accomplishments. But of course my brain tells me that it's too overwhelming and that no one would come. Maybe I could collaborate with someone? What a concept.
The pist says I need to write about what I am good at instead of focusing on what I want to be. True. Not now, though. Too much else to do. Oh yeah, and that was the other homework...to be in the moment. Hard work.
posted by Will Richardson6:42 PM Link
Just a quick thought on weblogs..."This is where scholarship is happening" I read on one blog, "in the links and correspondence." And as I think about my interactions with MetaFilter and the discussions that take place there, I think there MUST BE some carry over in the relevance and potential application to education. Asking kids to post reactions, to publish to a wider audience, to become a part of the scholarship in ways that aren't limited to the classroom. Not that it would take the place of classroom discussion, but augment it. Think about this in journalism...a mini-metafilter. Where they can discuss the news of the day, how it affects them, the writing. I have to remember that they aren't all going to get into it like I do, but I have to glean the educational aspects of it and make it work for my purposes. Here's the question(s)...what purpose will it serve? How can it best be implemented? What learning will take place?
A beautiful sunrise...appreciating it. Tucker was screaming when I left, and I snuck out...Doh! Why do I do that? Not very considerate to Wen, but I WAS almost in the car when I heard him. He must have the most sensitive ears, I swear. But he screams loudly enough to leave himself deaf. God I can't wait until that stops. Tess is soooo much better. Yesterday I realized what full time job parenting is and how important it is to point out proper behavior when she does it. I asked her to help Tucker untie his shoes, and she came back and said "Daddy, I can't do it by myself...can you help me?" Just a short time ago, she would have collapsed in a sobbing heap. "That is such a grown up way of asking" I said to her. She smiled and gave me a hug. I've gotten in the habit of telling them that they're good kids every night before they go to bed. I just want them to hear it, to know it. Because they are.
So I know I have to keep writing about the "man I want to be." The guy who doesn't drink (hmmm..interesting that that is first out of my fingertips) so he can write every night and create a weblog for media teachers to exchange ideas and to make it the most comprehensive such site on the web, and so he can read a variety of literature and remember it, and stay awake for sex. The kind of guy who can fix and build stuff around the house. Who runs three miles a day. Who wins Teacher of the Year. Who produces quality like his wife. Who plays guitar, sings in the choir (or somewhere), sleeps four hours a night 'cause he's so passionate and in shape to do all that other stuff. BMOLife. Plays with his kids and makes them creative (at least I was the one who helped Tess with her homework last night.) Etc. That's not too much to ask, is it?
"Tuvalu is the first country where people are trying to evacuate because of rising seas, but it almost certainly will not be the last. It is seeking a home for 11,000 people, but what about the 311,000 who may be forced to leave the Maldives?"
Found a couple of more cool blogs thanks to MetaFilter links. First is NewsTrolls which is pretty comprehensive about world, eco, etc. Also a pretty interesting four column design which I wonder how she/he updates. Evolt.org is primarily for web designers, but it has an interesting design. I swear I could spend days just looking at these things. There must be something I can do with this passion, huh? Maybe write a column for Wendy? What a good husband I would be.
Here is a really interesting article comparing the burqa to the bikini. An excerpt:
"Taliban rule has dictated that women be fully covered whenever they enter the public realm, while a recent US television commercial for ''Temptation Island 2'' features near naked women. Although we seem to be winning the war against the Taliban, it is important to gain a better understanding of the Taliban's hatred of American culture and how women's behavior in our society is a particular locus of this hatred. The irony is that the images of sleek, bare women in our popular media that offend the Taliban also represent a major offensive against the health of American women and girls."
So what am I thankful for? I talented, gracious, intelligent, beautiful wife, nice, precious kids, a beautiful, warm home. Those are definitely the big three. A job I really love. Jeannie and Nate living so close by. Computers. Weblogs (which really turn me on.) My health. Food on the table. Somehow I need to remember the basics that I take for granted. I need to write about the person I want to be. At some point, not now. I want to do this more often, even if it's just a few lines a day. And make it public? Maybe I should make it ravenrock.com...
Hmmm...amazing how time flies. Read an interesting article on the SAT in the Times on Saturday, then another yesterday. Could it be the beginning of the end? I was talking to Dave this weekend about exit portfolios...wonder if anyone else is doing that stuff. Here's an overview of what one school does.
posted by Will Richardson4:53 AM Link
Got the first signature of the yearbook out today. Thank God. Thought we were going to go with a pretty sucky design for the dividers, but we came up with a much better alternative. I'd actually give the sig a B+, which considering where we started is a great grade. Need to keep looking at cool design ideas to implement.
posted by Will Richardson4:17 PM Link
More and more, this is how I am beginning to feel about this "war". I'm not sure how much is wrapped up in my general dislike of conflict and how much of it is a sincere belief in the power of passivism a la King and Ghandi. Either way, the whole war scenario ends (and, actually lives) badly.
Some highlights:
"This war amounts to a gross violation of human rights, and it will produce the exact opposite of what is wanted: It will not end terrorism; it will proliferate terrorism."
"To get at the roots of terrorism is complicated. Dropping bombs is simple."
"One-third of our military budget would annually provide clean water and sanitation facilities for the billion people in the world who have none."
"Change will come, as at other times in our history, only when American citizens-- becoming better informed, having second thoughts after the first instinctive support for official policy--demand it."
Great site that provides a lot of resources to weblogs as a form of journalism. Still think it would be cool to present about this at JEA next year.
posted by Will Richardson6:20 PM Link
Article that I linked about weblogs as journalism. I think it would be really interesting to research how weblogs are used in class and see if there might be an article to write. Just seems like a very cool way to introduce publishing, writing, page creation. Would be a great class to teach...hmmm. Definitely want to introduce the concept with my Wp&P kids, maybe as extra effort.
posted by Will Richardson12:39 PM Link
"This much is true: It really is possible to love your country and value your freedoms and still believe the government is full of fools and prevaricators and BS artists and Dick Cheney. Really."
posted by Will Richardson10:17 AM Link
Another version of the Bill Moyers speech turned article, this one with a few more ideas on how to clean up the electoral mess we've gotten ourselves into. Think about Clean Elections systems and a Citizens Channel. That might really be something to work toward.
posted by Will Richardson8:56 AM Link
Heard at the 7/11 this morning: "I was about to throw something through the t.v. if Brenly had put that Jap into pitch again." This is what makes me scared about the future of the country. I'd love to know how Bill Moyers makes that guy support renewable energy sources and publicly financed campaigns.
posted by Will Richardson3:39 AM Link
"...the threat of terrorism is casting a spotlight on industry after industry, from mail delivery to air travel, exposing vulnerabilities that were often known but never taken seriously." Might this be a good thing?
posted by Will Richardson3:31 AM Link
Required Reading Dept: Bill Moyer's great speech about the state of the world, and Salman Rushdie's essay about the state of Islam.
posted by Will Richardson7:19 PM Link
