Weblogg-Ed

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"The survivors will not be defined by the lives they have led until now but by the lives that they will lead from now on." --Michael Berenbaum

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:: Here's an interesting excerpt from Paul Andrews: "Blogs are making it safe for mass media to be more independent and investigative...indeed, blogs may end up saving mass media from themselves, which is their only future." He talks about how weblogs "give established media outlets an identifiable and quantifiable measure of public opinion." If so, if the staffers at CNN and NYT and others are routinely checking the pulse of personal weblogs, what does that mean for the potential of millions of essayists joining the conversation? Frankly, when you get right down to it, weblogs aren't as much journalism as they are a collection of essays. Most are a raw form of exposition (especially my students' weblogs) that reports not so much what is in front of the author's eyes but what is behind them. And as such, they probably do represent a pretty good cross section of public opinion, but I'm less convinced that most are any kind of real, journalism. Kinda how Glenn Fleishman puts it: "... journalism is asking other people why things work the way they do, and trying to ask enough people to paint a picture of the truth; commentary is asking yourself." And what about this from Jason Kottke: "One possible answer is that the collective act of weblogging is producing a basic form of journalism, which you might call "bottom-up journalism" or "peer-to-peer journalism". It works like this: individual webloggers, each acting in their own self-interest (the "simple-minded component parts" Johnson refers to), post bits of information to their weblogs. Then the feedback loop starts. Readers and other webloggers take those initial bits of information, rework them, and feed them back into the system in the form of weblog posts, email feedback, or comments on individual weblog posts. Rinse. Repeat." I love that description. This is what it is about, without question. But it is the comment, the opinion that gets attached that I find so interesting. That's what's making my J1 class weblog so amazing. They read the article, then attach meaning to it, and debate that meaning. Talk about media/news literacy! It's happening before my very eyes! Weblogs could be real journalism, though! And that's why I'd like to hear Pat's ideas on doing school journalism through a cms. The freshness, the potential functionality, the resources that a weblog cum Web site could provide to students could be awesome. Think of individual section weblogs, one for news, one for features, sports, opinion...could be a very organic, dynamic enterprise. Provide interactivity for students, and who knows what might happen. It's a very cool idea...another to add to the list. And finally, how about this from Henry Jenkins at MIT: "Imagine a world where there are two kinds of media power: one comes through media concentration, where any message gains authority simply by being broadcast on network television; the other comes through grass-roots intermediaries, where a message gains visibility only if it is deemed relevant to a loose network of diverse publics. Broadcasting will place issues on the national agenda and define core values; bloggers will reframe those issues for different publics and ensure that everyone has a chance to be heard." Blogging saves the world... Some other links: "Observations from a Weblogger" from Dan Bricklin. Microcontent--A new find. Great content on weblogs, zines, etc. (When am I supposed to read all this stuff?) Ken Layne--Journalist weblog Bloglet--A Blogger subscription site. posted by Will Richardson 4:31 AM Link	Thursday, February 28, 2002
:: A quote from a manager at Cisco about using weblogs (from the NY Times): ""It's been a real solid productivity tool for us," Mr. Junnila said. "It allows us to communicate quickly, and get information to a broader group quickly, in a way that's neatly organized." Another example of what can be done, and what I'd like to bring to our school. Even more reason to get the Department started on it. But a key factor has to be the e-mail update capability, which it seems that Blogger now has in it's $35 per year upgrade (according to Ev. in the same article.) Another quote from the article: ""If you want to communicate with people, e-mail it to them," Mr. Hurst said. "Don't force them to come to your site every day to read what you've written." And that is correct too. But the weblog can serve as a portal for the group. The English Dept. page, so to speak, filled with other resources that can't be communicated simply by e-mail. I really think that is where the greatest potential of the weblog is, as a resource and a space for threaded discussion. Debates carried out by individual e-mails don't create the same fabric. posted by Will Richardson 5:43 AM Link	Wednesday, February 27, 2002
:: "Now why do we are about blogging at the IU [Interactive University]? For a good number of reasons. First, blogging is getting a lot of people out there writing about what they are thinking and feeling. Yes, a lot of the stuff out on the Web is not worth reading by many people. But that's ok -- because bloggers are often writing to a very attentive and appreciative audience of two, five, or ten people. Anything that lets people at the university and in the K-12 world reflect on what they know and share what they are thinking is a very promising channel of communication for our two major constituencies at the IU. (One of the most exciting part of blogging is the immediacy of the writing -- one can get really quick and current takes of what's happening by following blogs.)" Raymond Yee posted by Will Richardson 10:25 AM Link	Monday, February 25, 2002
:: Pat wants a blogging teachers retreat! I'm there! posted by Will Richardson 10:24 AM Link
:: One of the added pleasures of this whole undertaking is slowly finding kindered spirits, and I think I have found one in Terry who writes about teaching and electronic portfolios and other dreams in ways that generate that "Exactly!" response. It's good to know that there are others out there who believe in these dreams, who struggle with them mightily, and who might just turn out to be agents of change with all of this. I'm looking forward to developing those relationships. Yesterday, Terry wrote of his frustrations with time and technology and support, and I am reminded again of how fortunate I am to be where I am and to have the resources both in people and equipment to help me along. He even asked how I find the time to do all of this, and it is sacrifice. I don't see my kids as much as I'd like, I can't help Wendy as much as she needs, and I'm getting more and more out of shape. But my brain is buzzing, and much like Peter talks about the real charge being in the doing, this has me pushing myself. It's a good feeling. There are so many applications here and Terry articulates it well when he says "I believe that weblogs will help more writers get to the next step--care and concern for their audience. That reaches beyond ego gratification into something much more interesting." He's right. And as I was thinking about audience even more last night, I wondered how can we teach that concept without writing for audience ourselves? The writing teachers in my department need to be doing this. How can I teach journalism without being a journalist? (That's why I'm writing an article about weblogs in the classroom.) How can we teach literature without being readers? We need to give kids opportunities for real world application of what we too often teach in a vacuum. And we need to find time to provide those applications. Don't tell me my kids aren't thinking more about what they write. Don't tell me I'm not. Like Terry, I have written more in the last few months in this weblog than I have in a long time. And while it's been hard to find the time, and while I've been frustrated by not feeling able to write more personally, this has been a wonderful experience. It has affected my teaching dramatically, forced me to be more prepared, enabled me to share stories and examples and ideas with my students that I never would have been able to do before. Yep, the buzz is right here, at my keyboard, in my classroom, on screen. But it's also with Terry and Pat and Chris and Peter and Sarah who I know are figuring all this stuff out with me in their own ways, finding meaning and their own buzz too. Very cool. posted by Will Richardson 5:53 AM Link
:: And then Chris goes and proves my point about audience. Funny, when I read my writing on his site (or someone else's) I still cringe. But it's flattering too. It do give it purpose, don't it? posted by Will Richardson 5:03 PM Link	Sunday, February 24, 2002
:: So I e-mailed Matt Haughey. Here's his response: I would definitely suggest MovableType (www.movabletype.org). There is a way to post only short excerpts, followed by a [MORE] link and a way to do comments inside a page (it defaults to comments in a popup, but dig around, it's possible to do them in-page). The comments are semi-anonymous, but hopefully the students will stick to posting under the same name (or choose to set a cookie to do that for them). If you wanted to go whole hog, I would suggest the scoop engine, from http://scoop.kuro5hin.org. It's a massive multi-user system that is much like metafilter, but offers much more in terms of ranking, rating, even letting the audience choose what floats to the front page, based on quality rankings. It's a serious application, and I've never tried installing it though. > (ME) Second, (and if you've gotten this far I'll be amazed!) I'm doing and article on weblogs in the classroom for English Journal and I was wondering if I might send you a couple interview questions. I am really juiced by the possibilities of all of this stuff and I want to share the news. Yeah, sure, go ahead and send me some questions. I'd be happy to answer them for your article. Matt Pretty cool! I'll get back to him with some questions tomorrow. I really like moveable type, and when I get some time after the yearbook is done, I want to look into it more carefully. The things that worry me are setting up individual accounts with it and the anonymous comment system. I really need that to be identifiable. posted by Will Richardson 4:34 PM Link
:: A quote from: Design for Community: Excerpt: Chapter 2: A conversation with Matt Haughey So this one day, I decided to stop speaking at the community of readers, and start speaking to them, engaging them. I can't remember what the first thing I tried this on was, but it was something like "here's a story of something embarrassing that happened to someone. What's the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you?" This is such a cool thought, and definitely something to try in my class blogs. I've been searching for ways to build community through the weblog, and here it is. Have I mentioned that I love Metafilter? I love the interaction. I need to find out how to make our weblogs work like that. posted by Will Richardson 4:40 AM Link	Saturday, February 23, 2002
:: Sarah is going to do a workshop on weblogs, similar to what I'm thinking of doing here but with Blogger. (Another reason why I don't like Manilla is for the life of me I can't figure out a way to respond to her post on her site. It says discuss, but that just takes me to the unique post. That's what I was talking about before in terms being able to become a part of the conversation being so important. Frustrating!) posted by Will Richardson 11:49 AM Link	Friday, February 22, 2002
:: "We still have not really seen the ultimate offspring of a weblog and a threaded conversation." I think I need to spend some time thinking about what that ultimate blogging tool might look like in the classroom. It would definitely have a comment tool, one that you needed to log in for...I guess, however, that we could make the individual logs by invite only, so that would limit the number of people who could respond. And they would not be able to do so anonymously.That would be the key in building community, and it goes back to the Metafilter set up like I've said so many times before. I just really think that interfact is more effective for threaded discussions. That way a student could post a piece and we could thread the analysis. Gives me chills, really. I know that can be done with Manilla, but I just don't like the separate post interface. posted by Will Richardson 11:46 AM Link
:: An interesting thought from Adam Curry: "Weblogging is changing our view of the world. Mainly because we are now writing about our own views. Instead of watching the editied for tv version we are taking the time to collect, rearrange, codify and publish our own version of what we see. We are exercizing our brains, making them stronger, linking them with others who are also emerging from the hypnotic depths of mass-media." I agree. The one thing I keep thinking about my J2 and J1 class blogs is that even though they may be off topic, they are thinking in words. How often do they get the chance to write mini-essays communicating their thoughts like that IN WRITING? And that distinction is important because the thought process is so different when you write. You are able to revise and edit your thoughts until they come out just the way you want them. And when you write for an audience, it's even more important. posted by Will Richardson 11:39 AM Link
:: Interesting post by Pat Delaney, who I'm going to have to contact since our concerns and questions are so similar concerning organization. I'll have to have her check out Tinderbox. She writes about the collaborative potential of weblogging, and that's where my mind is too. Especially on a staff development level. We meet once a month for 30 minutes, and we share questions, etc. through e-mail from time to time. But there is no shared intellectual space where we can talk, debate, interact on a regular basis. I just think a weblog could be a great solution for that. I go back once again to the need to "sell" it, to do some training, and to make it a comfortable, useful space. And I wonder how many would buy into it and MAKE the time to go to it regularly for answers, inspiration, whatever. Might be a worthwhile project for this summer. posted by Will Richardson 8:58 AM Link	Thursday, February 21, 2002
:: What a week! And it's still not over. In between classes and yearbook, I've been checking into the ongoing weblog conversations and looking at my own kids work. Started surveying them informally about the blog idea, and most seem to be very receptive. I'm intruigued by the different ways they have used them, which is one good thing about giving license...you never know what you'll find. The most acute observation is my J2 class weblog where the kids are talking politics in a fairly IM sort of way. Rapid response, which is something I didn't think would happen and something I'm not sure I like. I don't think I like the chat room look because it says they are spending too much time on it in class (when most of the posts happen) and they tend to get somewhat brusque (I had to edit out a post yesterday in which one girl made a crude reference to a particular Bill Clinton body part). But I'm willing to let it go for now with some gentle steering toward more helpful, journalistic, well-developed posts in an attempt to nurture a writing community through the blog. Posts like this one. My J1 kids are doing the opposite. They're discussing wrestling and music and some really great stuff, almost all in well-thought albeit mistake-laden posts. Still, I think that more kids should be joining the conversation. I need to do more to nurture that as well. Bottom line is that I'm pretty happy with both, and many kids are using their personal spaces well also. (The best news is that my J2 kids are doing some incredible work on their stories, interviewing authors and professors and experts from all over the place. I can't wait to see the articles!) I'm wondering if any of them have started their own blogs on the side (again...need to immerse them in more examples.) posted by Will Richardson 8:51 AM Link
:: NPR piece on weblogging and journalism...need a transcript. posted by Will Richardson 9:20 AM Link	Tuesday, February 19, 2002
:: Interesting post about the ups and downs of using weblogs in the classroom. If I had the time I would comment ;). posted by Will Richardson 7:45 AM Link
:: Peter writes: "However, the most important factor for me is the fact that my students have benefited from their exposure to weblogs. They are accomplishing educational goals far beyond what is expected of children their age. This has always been the driving force in my involvement with SchoolBlogs in particular, and weblogs in general. If students are not directly impacted in a positive way then weblogs are mere pretty ornaments in an already cluttered classroom. However, my experience is that weblogs have not only benefited my students but the whole climate of expectation within my school. Ask any parent, teacher, school governor or student and they will have a positive weblog story to tell." That's a great summary of the potential of weblogs. Now to make it happen here... posted by Will Richardson 5:04 AM Link	Friday, February 15, 2002
:: Drowning in yearbook deadlines and finding time short right now. Sometimes I'm amazed at everything I have to get done, and at how much I actually do get done. Quick update/braindump on the blogs: the class blogs are great, although I still need to think about ways to get more kids involved. The class homepage blogs are great too, although as I go through it the first time, it's more time consuming than it looks to find the links. But I love being able to give kids great articles to read every day without spewing paper all over the place. The personal weblogs are still as yet not what I expected for the most part. Today I'm going to focus on them, really take inventory on what's going on with them and how I can motivate my students to use them more effectively. No one has really started a personal weblog, I don't think, which is fine. I was just wondering if there would be any carry over. Still very pleased in general, though. posted by Will Richardson 4:56 AM Link
:: Peter posted this example as a useful school weblog. I agree that the content is useful and well planned, but I'm wondering what Ms. Dillard has done to "sell" this site to her staff and community. That's something we (all the web folks at my school) seem to struggle with is how to make the content valuable and usable to the audience, in this case the staff. I've thought about building a department website around a blogger type weblog that all 30 of us could contribute to, but I wonder how to get my colleagues genuinely involved in the discussion. (Tangent: Which, by the way, is why I think I like the blogger-type interface so much, because of the fluidity of the discussion. Most of the Manilla weblogs I see just don't look that discussion-friendly. There may be options for that that I'm missing or don't understand, but I find myself always searching for where the comments are. The blogger issue is, however, that the comments aren't threaded. I want a Metafilter type setup, which I think allows for the best of both.) Time is an issue with all of us, and some are more comfortable with the technology than others. But like anything else, if the product is valuable, and I think it could be, then we should be able to make the sale. posted by Will Richardson 4:03 AM Link	Tuesday, February 12, 2002
:: Weblog learning in action....I love this: Tony found Dvorak's article on weblogs and posted it to the class weblog (have I mentioned I love hypertext) with the note "that really sucks huh, mr r?" thinking that my own freelance idea for a story about weblogs had been stolen out from under me. What a great teaching moment to help Tony understand a) the difference in styles (opinion vs. feature article), b) the difference in markets (PC Mag vs. English Journal) and, c) difference in audience (computer users vs. teachers). Now would that have happened without the blog? posted by Will Richardson 5:19 AM Link	Monday, February 11, 2002
:: Terry Elliot's weblog talks about meeting with Ralph Fletcher, who I've read extensively, and Terry is sending him a note to ask him what he thinks about weblogs. Great idea. Terry says: "'Weblogs' have gotten me to write more in the last six months than in the two years prior. But I miss the tactile world of the physical notebook." I couldn't agree more. I look back with pride on the four years when I kept a notebook almost religiously because it served as such a good friend then and such a great history now. I wish I could have kept it up. But there just seems to be more connection with me to the keyboard, even though I do love the feel of the notebook itself. I rarely pick up a pen or pencil and really write these days. I actually hand wrote a letter this weekend for the first time in I don't know how long, and it felt almost strange. Seems like my thoughts just flow more smoothly on the 'puter. I have felt the urge lately to get into my personal webspace more often, however. This is for professional thoughts, I think. But I don't seem to have as much connection to the personal one yet, and maybe it's because I feel like I have some audience here, small though it may be. Maybe that motivates me more, I don't know. Still, I do miss that feeling of having a confidant and friend on paper or online. But the thing I love more than anything else with weblogs is the hypertext. That's just something you can't do with paper and pen, and I really think it adds so much to the discussion. Now, as I've complained before, the only problem is keeping track of it all. That's why Mark's Tinderbox technology is so intruiging. It seems like it might actually be a way of organizing some of these posts for easy retrieval and reference. posted by Will Richardson 4:49 AM Link
:: Some pretty interesting ideas for a classroom website from posting homework to creating student electronic portfolios to discussion threads. This is a pretty good example of what I think could be done with class websites for semester courses. Blogs are probably fine for quarter courses. But I also think I need to continue to experiment in the structure of the blog. Think about a more fluid design for the page so that the daily entries take a little less space and there is more room for basic resource stuff. Also annotated links. It would be cool if I could get the class to create their own resource page too. posted by Will Richardson 6:22 AM Link	Sunday, February 10, 2002
:: Interesting to watch the class weblog of my J1 kids just kind of branch out into all sorts of spaces. I continue to be impressed by the depth of their posts (as opposed to my J2 kids) and for now am just kind of going along for the ride. Just the fact that they are writing and thinking and publishing is cool in itself. 13 kids in the last few days, which is pretty good, but I need to pull the others in as well. Makes me certain that this can work well as an adjunct to classroom discussion in just about any class, and I'm definitely going to have my Media kids do it as well. The only aspect that limits it is the kids online access at home and what we can do to provide it to them if they need it. Out of 61 kids that I have done blogs with this year, only two haven't had access at home. That's a pretty small percentage, but it's still significant. Chris struggled a bit in my Web class because of it. And I think Jen might be held back a bit too this quarter. Still, I think the kids have taken to it and are getting some good use out of it. Updated to IE 6.0 Wednesday and now I can't "Blog This!" without doing a fix to the registry which I don't have access to here at school. And that has noticeably slowed down my posting. May uninstall back to 5.0. posted by Will Richardson 10:18 AM Link	Friday, February 08, 2002
:: Another app for Blogger: Bloggar posted by Will Richardson 10:34 AM Link	Tuesday, February 05, 2002
:: Something to check out in terms of managing my sites...and also, could there be some Metafilter-ish stuff here? posted by Will Richardson 7:20 AM Link
:: Interesting site about Learning Theory (via Chris Ashley): Research on Learning and Performance "Weblogs are a personal writing space. Easy, sharable, automatically archived. Weblogs are easily linked and cross-linked to form learning communities. The school logs projects are examples. The school logs also enable a teacher to evaluate a student's thinking, by reading explanations and assignments. Weblogs can become digital portfolios of students' assignments and achievements. Weblogs are a novice's web authoring tool. Accumulated weblogs become a content management system. Via digital storytelling, weblogs play a role in professional development." I really like that concept of digital learning portfolio. That's what I need to focus on, even for nine-week classes. For instance in media, if each kid keeps one up on his own, from home. Depends on Internet access, again. I know we have PC Anywhere, but it would be so much easier if we could just do it through dial-up networking for those few kids. posted by Will Richardson 5:48 AM Link
:: So the weblogs are up and running and working very well. I was surprised that a number of my kids actually took the time over the weekend to further the conversation in my J1 class. Their comments are really high quality and thoughtful. Another way for kids to articulate themselves. Will be talking about this work with the department today, and I keep thinking about what Rebecca said in terms of getting other people interested in the process. It would be nice to collaborate with someone here, or "there" for that matter. Thinking of proposing a workshop at JEA this fall on weblogs in the journalism classroom. One thing I'm realizing is the uses of hypertext that can happen here. That is the coolest part of this for me, to be able to link to ideas and kind of follow those links around. I need to do more with the kids on how to do this. But the biggest limitation is still the organizational part, which is why I'm getting more and more interested in what Mark Bernstein and others are doing. There must be some way to thread the comments more clearly, like Metafilter does. How hard would it be to do that, to have kids post a starting thought and then follow that thread with a comments page. I like that format so much better than anything else I've seen. Anyone out there know how to do that? posted by Will Richardson 5:42 AM Link	Monday, February 04, 2002
:: How silly to think that a team named the Patriots wouldn't win this year's Super Bowl! There was enough red, white, and blue to cover Rhode Island at that game. Two of the last three Bowls have been great...could be a trend! posted by Will Richardson 5:29 AM Link
:: A project use for weblogs: Frederic Chopin : Chopin Project Headlines posted by Will Richardson 1:36 PM Link	Friday, February 01, 2002
:: Machine : my funny motto "I just wanted to say that this whole Blog thing shoudl be a lot of fun. I love the discussion already, and it is just getting started. It is really cool how we are all sitting in a quiet room but voicing our opinions in the blog. Some things that I wouldn't usually say, I am able to voice." Blair Alber posted by Will Richardson 11:02 AM Link

Links
Weblog Resources:
Weblogs Compendium*
Weblogs for Educators
Chris Lehmann
pMachine
Antville
UpSaid
History of Weblogs
Pitas (Blog Host)
Weblog Power
Pitas (Blog Host)
Moveable Type(Blog Host)
Weblogs as News
GreyMatter (Blog Host)
Weblogger(Blog Host)
Xanga(Blog Host)
Onclave
Weblog Articles
Swiss Army Website
Weblog Awards
Weblog Madness
Bloggar
Tinderbox
Targeted Serendipity

Weblogs I Read:
k-12 blogWrite
Pat Delaney
Sarah Lohnes
Joe Luft
Sebastian Fiedler
Seb's SOL Project
Terry ElLiot
David Walker
Educare
Greg Hanek
Ray Schroeder
Brian Fitzgerald
Chris Ashley
Stephen Downes
Lloyd Nebres
Schoolblogs.com
Peter Ford
SITech.
Rebecca's Pocket
Media Minded
Corante
Josh Marshall
Keep Trying
J.D. Lasica
Poynter Media Blog
News Trolls
Microcontent
Mark Bernstein
Kairosnews
Jay Cross

Weblogs in Schools/Best Practices:
Delano High School
Karen McComas
Barbara Ganley
Student Weblogs
Lincoln Pub. Schools
Beacon School
Dreamcatcher
Brit. Sch. of Amst.
Adv. Int. Class.
Coop. Reading Proj.
Kern County
Lloyd Nebres
SFEd Access
Centenary (La.)
I-Search (Pat)
Richard Stockton C
Emerson College
U. of Iowa
New School
Redwood City Library
Teachers LiveJournal
Internet Journalism
Esperero Canyon
EP
Dan Mitchell

Weblogs/Journalism:
Disaster Weblogs
Dan Bricklin
Weblogs & News
Blogging as J
Cyberjournalist
Media Weblogs
Glenn Fleischman
E&P Weblog Bandwagon
Journal. Pivot Points
Medill Sch. of J.
Weblogs & News

Weblogs/Teaching:
Online Discussions
Online Classroom
Weblogs as Community

Weblogs/Literature:
Dreamcatcher

Manila Related:
My Caxton Manila
Pat's Newspaper
Themes
Manila Home
Pat on Discussions
U. of S. Aust.
Hector's Tutorial
Bryan Bell
Ken Dow
RSC Space
Kern
Lincoln Tutorials

©2001/2 Will Richardson