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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My List(s) :: Well, still hoping for some input here, but on the way to hot and humid Ga. (where I am watching the Kudzu eat steadily toward the house) I composed my list of what I'd like to see in an education-specific weblog software: - A metafilter-like comment system that opens a new page for discussion with each post to the front page. Now I know that Manilla does this to a certain extent, but as I've said here before, I love the MF interface. - An e-mail list update feature, so that people will know when changes are made to the page. - A registration process to limit access (pretty standard, I know). - Easy file uploads for graphics and such (much like what Blogger Pro offers). - Easy linking of text (again, like Blogger). - Multi-column use to create either a newspaper effect a la p-machine or to do side by side posts etc. - Some type of table of contents feature that is organizable. - Easy set up on servers and usable on whatever most schools currently run. (Just curious as to what percentage of schools are now networked with Internet servers.) - Some type of local-run feature for privacy issues. I also made a short list of ways that weblogs can be used in an educational setting. Some of these I have found examples for: - Four-year perfromance portfolios - Reader response logs - Writing feedback logs - Professional portfolios (which will be something I will be trying in my teacher portfolio seminars next year.) - Departmental portfolios (wouldn't it be cool to do a Best Practices weblog by department or school?) - Staff weblog for the discussion of schoolwide issues - Community weblogs involving parents and residents - Student newspapers, potentially for each class - Learning journals - Classroom management/homepages - Student/mentor collaborations - I-search projects - Team problem solving - Class/group magazine - Content area portal (say Sports Talk) etc. - News filters for particular content areas - Book chats (group/class) - Collaborations with professionals I'm sure there are many more, and I would really like to grow this list as we move forward. My school is on the verge of making some BIG decisions concerning technology and the direction we take in terms of using the Internet and network to facilitate communication, create community and make teachers jobs simpler. Our Director of Tech will be retiring in Feb., and I've been asked to be part of a discussion on where we go from here. We are very wired and have the technology in place. But what has been missing, I think, is a long-term vision of how to make the technology work more effectively for the classroom teacher. Most of our teachers use the Internet and the technology in very cursory ways. (The old 80% using 20% of the capabilities situation.) Most of those who run the Internet and the network are very skilled and supportive, but they have no right brains, and for the most part, they have no classroom experience. They can't make it practical, and they don't have the design sense to make it attractive and intuitive for both staff and community. I guess I'm seeing this HUGE opportunity to do something with weblogs on a pretty large scale; it's a pretty unique situation, actually. I want to nail the research that I know I'll be presenting. That's why I'm looking for Best Practice ideas, and why I'm so interested in the idea of creating something just for schools. A few quick links to take a look at: IBM Tech Ed Grants...I'm sure they would be interested in this work. Tech Learning magazine. It has some pretty useful case studies for grants. And, check out what Apple's come up with for schools. Wow. posted by Will Richardson 5:27 PM Link	Sunday, June 30, 2002
Developing Education Specific Weblog Software--Comments Wanted! :: Got a great e-mail from Michael Brewster in Las Vegas who seems as if not more psyched about weblogs in schools than I, and he mentioned that he's getting some developer friends to create weblog software for his classes this fall (newspaper weblogs too!) It got me to thinking about the conversation that we've been having off an on in our "community" here about the plusses and minuses of Blogger and Manilla and p-machine and others. We all seem to like some aspects of what we use and dislike others. As Peter said at some point, we use what we use...the important thing is to get to it. And I agree to some point. But what if WE created our own software, specific to education and to the classroom teacher? What if WE incorporated the best of all of what's out there for our specific purposes, with some room for tweaking to our individual needs and tastes? What if WE designed something easy to use, easy to implement (for the vast majority of schools that don't have the technical support or resources we have, which, let's face it, is probably what has brought most of us together in the first place...)? I'm really interested to see what that education specific weblog software would look like. And WE are the ones to design it, the classroom teachers. I would venture to guess that Blogger or Manilla or whatever other program you want to name was not developed with solely the classroom teacher in mind. I think we should have at it. So, I'm on the road for a couple of days, and I'll be hoping for a growing wish list of comments about what our dream software could do when I check in again. To keep it all together, I'll start with the first comment. posted by Will Richardson 10:20 AM Link	Friday, June 28, 2002
Upgrades! Upgrades! :: So I finally plunked down my $35 for Blogger Pro and even if I don't like it much more than Blogger Lite I still don't mind giving these guys my money. The one obvious omission is still a built in comment system. YACCS has been ok, but I want something a bit more Manilla. Off to Georgia for a week or so, but should be able to post from time to time. Will be adding more elements as I go along. posted by Will Richardson 1:10 PM Link	Thursday, June 27, 2002
:: Some really great ideas for journalism weblogs from Steve Outing at E&P including community weblogs, newspapers hosting local business weblogs, reporter and photographer weblogs, and group or department weblogs (say all the sports writers or crime reporters have their own). Would work in high school too, you know... And an article from the Christian Science Monitor with some interesting sample weblogs. I like this comparison of webloggers to DJs: ""DJs play other people's songs all day long, but a great DJ teaches you something about the songs, introduces you to new music you might never have found on your own, and puts it all together in this seamless, intelligent way that only enhances the music." One cool idea I got while reading was a character weblog that my lit students could create for the protagonists in our books. What would Will in Lords of Discipline have to say? Could even double as a reader response tool. I've just decided that we need to start collecting these great ideas...watch this space for a Call for Entries to the Weblogg-ed Compendium of great classroom uses for weblogs. We need to get these in one place. (Feel free to add some ideas right now if you like!) And, another nice list of journalist webloggers and general resource sites. (All of the above via Uber Blogs.) Finally, another class weblog in action at Laura Shefler's site Dreamcatcher , which seems to be evolving into a collaboration with Peter's classes. I really admire those who can put new ideas to such good use...as I've said before, the ideas are easy for me, the implementation is tougher. Here's another great example of a Best Practice from Karen. More to come, I'm sure. posted by Will Richardson 6:45 PM Link	Wednesday, June 26, 2002
:: Spent yesterday and will spend today manning the Nerdy Books booth at PC Expo in NYC (exhibiting with Smallbiztechnology). The show isn't great, but I'm going gaga over the new tablets that are showing up. The Microsoft demonstration of their new XP for tablets software was really incredible, and last night I was dreaming about what schools might be like someday with students carrying these around instead of real notebooks. I thought it was really interesting how they were talking about how hard they tried to replicate basic hand and arm movements that we all have with paper and pen. And it is almost just like using paper and pen. Except you can file it, send it, edit it, whatever, right from the tablet. The one I was using was the Acer flip-screen model...now I can't wait for Christmas. The other gadget that I love is the USB memory can. 16 MB about the size of a pack of gum that you can hang around your neck and just plug into any computer (with USB) as a drive. Easy, portable, very cool. posted by Will Richardson 3:41 AM Link
:: Back from a couple of days in Nature...highlight was the way my kids played with our neighbor campers and the magnificent Bald Eagle that soared across Promised Land Lake. I wish Tess was old enough to understand the rarity of what she had witnessed. It was very cool to see one out East for once. Lots more links to add to the mix (many of which I organized on the site today), and I know that I'm going to have to get a couple of days free here pretty soon to get this coallated. I really want to read from Day 1 and just collect all the links and highlights into a documnet and go from there. First, via Sarah, Sebastian Fiedler has some interesting things to say about weblogs in education, and he seems to have a similar model of how they can be used. "Will is again very close to my own thinking. A 'metacognitive thought log' is an excellent description of what can also be achieved with a personal Webpublishing tool in an educational context (and no, I am not only talking about the institutionalized forms of education here). I believe, we could and should also talk about potentials for alternative assessment approaches in this area." I know I'm strange, but the thought of using a four-year weblog/portfolio as an exit requirement where kids not only chronicle their own work but their own thinking and then are asked to write about their experiences makes the hair on my neck stand up. That would be so cool! Not graded, per se, but just presented. Ah, to dream! Sarah and her colleagues are also very generous to share their thoughts on using weblogs in the Creative Writing classroom, and I have to say again how impressed I was and am by what Barbara Ganley did in her classroom...amazing stuff, and definitely a best practice model. Also, an interesting idea for shared reading between high schoolers and younger kids from, where else, Middlebury. posted by Will Richardson 10:03 AM Link	Monday, June 24, 2002
:: Some random thoughts and notes before we hit the woods for a few days: Here's a cool site on Educational Technology which was pointed to by Kairosnews (a very substantive site on edu tech and weblogs) which I heard about in an e-mail from Charlie Lowe of Florida State University. I like the site, and it uses something called PostNuke which he seems to like because of it's wide ranging collaborative capabilities. (My discussion on software choices spurred him to write.) My brain is getting heavy from what is an ever-expanding menu of choices here. We're going to need some real tech minds to help us sort all of this out and make it easy, which again is THE most important thing for edu-blogging (I hate that term) to really find acceptance. (I'm always reminded that pretty is nice but not essential...ease of use, ease of use, ease of use...) The other very cool contact comes from Janet Coulon at McGraw-Hill who wants to sit in on my workshop this summer! She's the executive producer for all Glencoe and SRA's Web sites. She's pestering her higher-ups that it's time for them to start doing something with weblogs, and she's looking for some help in explaining just what the potentials are here. The time is approaching for Chapter 1...who wants to help get this tome started? posted by Will Richardson 5:10 AM Link	Friday, June 21, 2002
:: School's out! Now a summer with the kids...this one ought to be really interesting what with everything else going on. One day at a time. From the They're out There; We Just Gotta Find 'Em Dept: Joe Luft of Brooklyn International School's comment on the previous post proves what I've been thinking, that there are more teachers out there using weblogs. We just have to connect with them. When Pat asks if I can come to SF, I'm thinking that while this summer may not be opportune, we should seriously think about some type of group event in the near future. As the technology gets more and more accessible, more and more teachers will sign on, and it would be great if we could organize into a real think tank/resource for all of this. Another thing that kind of strikes me from Joe's note is his pointer to Chris Lehmann at the Beacon School (nice page, again!) and his php open source project to facilitate weblogs for schools. (His school newspaper system is too easy!) It goes back to what program or platform is best, and it's becoming more and more apparent that the answer is more about what's available to you and what shore you land on first rather than a "best" practice. (Remember Pat's history.) As much as this blows my socks off, I landed with Blogger first. It's going to take more time and effort than I can give it (I think) to switch, until someone does it for me. posted by Will Richardson 4:46 AM Link	Wednesday, June 19, 2002
:: Ya know, I'm still wondering why our school can't have a homepage like this one. Shoot, my journalism kids could write cover articles and it would be another great way of getting published. Or the newspaper kids. Why does our homepage have to be such useless crud? Just another idea to add to the list. There is no reason why we can't start using the site as more of an informational, community building tool. posted by Will Richardson 5:59 AM Link	Tuesday, June 18, 2002
:: Another cool sample site to check out that is part of Pat's program. Note all of the teacher weblogs linked at left. At some point I'm going to need to start sifting through all of this stuff and organizing for the summer and fall presentations I'm doing... posted by Will Richardson 4:50 AM Link
:: Ken Tompkins at Richard Stockton College just down the road from here contacted Sarah and I about his use of weblogs. Looks very cool. I've added some of his links to the list. I'm intruigued by the annotations he includes on some sites...seems like it wouldn't be that hard to do. He's also done a lot with e-zines, which could be a cool application for journalism classes, collaborative fiction, for creative writing. One thing that seems easier to facilitate in Manilla is the creation of a website that goes into some depth on a topic (portfolio-like). Very interesting to find more applications to play with. My English department better watch out... School's out on Tuesday. Starting to feel sad as I say goodbye to some great future adults. Just a kind of melancholy about the end of what has been my best year of teaching, without doubt. For the first time, I'm in no hurry to leave. I want to keep chatting with Katie before school every morning, picking Mike's brain about music, and helping Leanna get through her not-as-traumatic-as-she-thinks-it-is life. This was a special, special bunch. I am going to miss them dearly. posted by Will Richardson 5:05 AM Link	Friday, June 14, 2002
:: Always amazed at how quickly time can pass from here. Too much to do. But some more good news...contract settled! Thank God. None of us wanted that hanging over our heads for the summer. I'm pretty impressed with the work Pat is doing. Much more steeped in analysis and theory than I (I admire people who can do that work...I'll blame my two toddlers again). Seriously, a part of me desperately wishes I was more into the planning, nuts and bolts, thinking designing stuff...it's a weakness in my teaching too, I know. My brain just works a different way, I guess, more dreamy, the "let's see how this works" method and then tweak and tune for the next time. No master plan. But I gotta say, this is one of the coolest applications I have seen, and it's definitely going to be in my workshops this summer. I know it's a little elementary for high school, but the concept is the key. The log, the finished, hyperlinked product with pics...all very cool, very teachable, and very doable. More and more I think that's what is drawing me to weblogs, in my own teaching and for our students. Just the ability to chronicle our thoughts, our learning. I know I've said all of this a dozen times, but it's the metacognitive stuff that I find so interesting, and I'm proving it here (which, as an aside, I continue to be very proud of...it's the most extended, thoughtful writing I've ever done.) What I have to do, I know, is do more of the Pat and Terry and Sarah thinking, to make sure I'm structuring it in a way that maximizes the learning potential for my kids. posted by Will Richardson 6:58 AM Link	Wednesday, June 12, 2002
:: GOOD NEWS! The Journalism Education Association (JEA) accepted my conference proposal on "Weblogs in the Journalism Classroom" for Dallas in November! Very psyched. Now I've really got some work ahead in planning my fall J class to use as a model. And Pat, let's not forget some potential collaboration. I would love to show that off too. posted by Will Richardson 7:28 AM Link	Saturday, June 08, 2002
:: A couple of more edu-bloggers have checked in, probably due to the Wired article. Bryan Alexander from Centenary in La. uses student weblogs in his Lit classes, which, since I have a section of Mod Am Lit in the Fall, might be a good model. I still wonder, and this is a conversation I would really like all of us to have either here or at k-12, is how to ask a class of 11/12 kids who don't meet in a lab and who may not all have access at home (even though they would have plenty of access around school) to keep weblogs about their reading. Just not sure about it, which is why I pretty much let the Media weblog slide on that issue. Yet I know that my journalism kids were active on it, and most if not all posted from home at some point. I really like the way Bryan not only asked his kids to talk about their own reading experience but also asked them to connect that reading to the outside world via Internet links. That connection is something I don't think a lot of kids make without some effort. The other is Mark Rauterkus in Pittsburgh who plans to use weblogs in his community learning programs. Looks interesting. posted by Will Richardson 7:25 AM Link
:: A pretty depressing NPR report on state education budgets. (Click on the "Listen to Segment" link.) posted by Will Richardson 2:31 PM Link	Thursday, June 06, 2002
:: Blogging Goes Legit, Sort Of. Hey Sarah, at least I got a full quote in there! ;) Are thanks appropriate for steering him to me? (Or did I steer him to you?) This quote bothers me a bit: "But efforts to get students to participate in classroom blogs have, for the most part, fallen flat." Not the case here, and he really doesn't give a lot of space to success stories. We all have some. Might be interesting to contact the UC Berkeley guys and at least ask to view the weblog if not possibly get some kid interaction. Pat, if you're reading, let's talk about same for next year. posted by Will Richardson 1:57 PM Link
:: Ok, so I just spent an hour and a half trying to set up this RSS feed and I still don't know if I did it right because the code won't "validate" and I don't really get the whole deal at Newsisfree even though I know they mean to make my life simpler it just seems to make it more overwhelming when I realize how much there is to know and read and how little time I have for it when I have 45 essays staring me in the face and six seniors who are on the verge of not graduating (whose parents I have to call again, by the way) and I need a vacation really, really, badly. posted by Will Richardson 4:39 AM Link
:: A great link to RSS for non-techies via Pat. I should be able to install this on Blogger, it seems, through Voidstar. posted by Will Richardson 9:16 AM Link	Wednesday, June 05, 2002
:: Was interviewed yesterday about weblogs in education by Noah Shachtman of Wired News . Cool. Looking forward to seeing what he writes. He told me the UC Berkeley is adding a weblogs component to their journalism degree...I'll need to look into that. posted by Will Richardson 5:00 AM Link
:: Pat is pissed, and I don't blame him. But it happens everywhere, here too, only instead of laptops it's AstroTurf for a football field that was deemed unplayable by the state after we spent $250,000 to fix drainage problems (which obviously didn't) and forced our homecoming game to be played on our arch-rival's field. A quarter of our department is leaving this year (seven teachers, only one retirement) as they go to other schools for more money. Good teachers, too. Keepers. We've worked all year without a contract, yet we bleat like lambs at anything the board asks of us. They throw money at all sorts of extra-curricular stuff like it's play money, but when we ask for our measly 4%... We haven't had a budget pass in five years, and New Jersey has such a smart way of funding all of that stuff anyway. And Terry's back and sounding surly too. "The need to make every click and pencil push count has never been more apparent. The need for blogs as a tool to be more 'efficient' has never been more necessary. I would like to show that weblogs can be thought of as schools both within and outside of schools." That last part is definitely worth exploring... Maybe we're all just a bit tired. Yesterday at the department meeting we started talking about curriculum changes, about the idea of moving toward a full-year junior year English basically so that we can make sure kids pass the HSPA. (One of the things I love about our school is the electives that we can offer, but I'm thinking we're about ready to kiss those suckers goodbye.) What it really is is an attempt to standardize instruction, reduce the need for staff as section sizes can be controlled, and dumb us down. Anyway, since the committee that had been exploring the ideas wanted to meet interested parties in the summer, I thought, "hey, perfect opportunity to start the department weblog." So I am, I think, going to try to crank it out before the end of the year. Might be a good time to investigate Blogger Pro with a separate account. Ah, it's June. posted by Will Richardson 6:36 AM Link	Tuesday, June 04, 2002
:: Here's a cool idea for putting ideas up next to one another. (via Pat) posted by Will Richardson 4:11 AM Link	Monday, June 03, 2002
:: How quickly a week passes...yearbooks got here on Thursday, and they look GREAT! I am so proud of my kids, and I'm already looking forward to seeing what we can do next year. Meetings with the new group tomorrow and Thursday, then we give them out on Friday and Monday. Finals start next week, graduation two weeks from tomorrow. We're pretty much done. Things seem kind of slow all over. Summer has a way of doing that. Pat has a pretty good list of potential uses for weblogs here. Am I ever going to get my act together on this? My schedule for next year has J1 classes during Qs 1, 3 and 4. (Newsblogs, here we come.) And I still wonder about ways to run weblogs with classes that aren't in computer labs. It just seems so much easier for kids to buy into the idea when they have easy access. I know that if I did it with my Mod Am and Media kids, if I assigned it, that they would get into it. Just didn't have the time or org to do it this Q. But what a cool idea to ask my Lit kids to carry on conversations about the text online for others to see. Or about outside reading. The ideas are easy, as always. It's the implementation that's the tough part. posted by Will Richardson 4:03 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