Educational Bloggers Network
Topic: Classroom Blogging
It?s Blog-Wednesday again! This week, Sandra Gluth points us to the
Educational Bloggers Network.

"EBN is a collaborative of teachers and organizations using weblogs in
education. Its purpose is to help its members, kindergarten through
university, to access and use weblog technology for the teaching of writing
and reading across the disciplines. The network provides a forum for
educational professionals who use weblogs, an array of opportunities for
teachers to continue their professional growth, and a framework for
cooperation to deal with issues that affect the integration of weblog and
other digital technologies into teaching and learning."

Update on Blog Spam
Topic: Blogging Basics
I've learned a bit more from Will Richardson about the blog spamming issue. Apparently the spam takes the form of comments posted to something already on the blog. Will tells me that it seems to primarily hitting high profile blogs and that he hasn't seen any on his students' blogs. One fix is to turn off the comments feature, but that's the reason many people want to blog- to hear from others. How sad...

Blogging Glossary for Educators
Topic: Classroom Blogging
Well, it's Blog-Wednesday. Sandra continues to learn more about blogging
with this blogging glossary. "Have you ever wondered what 'blogstipation'
is? or been in fear of the 'blogerati'?" she asks...

Blog Spam
Topic: Blogging Basics
A while ago I mentioned that I am trying an RSS Reader to easily get updates from several other blogs. It's working like a charm (when I remember to open it).

As a result of checking Will Richardson's Weblogg-Ed today, I saw he had posted a couple of messages about his blog being spammed. The text of his message didn't explain how this is happening (if it's in the form of comments on his messages or what). I've posted a comment to his blog asking him to explain how this is being done. If I get a reply, I'll post a link here. Spam would be a real issue if schools are going to use blogs.

Rhetoric, Community, and Culture of Weblogs
Topic: Blogging Basics
The University of Minnesota is blogging an online collection of essays related to blogging in education. It's called Into the Blogosphere. The current listings all seem to be the work of university researchers and may be helpful for educators looking for information about what does, or doesn't work in this form of communication.

With Apologies to Jeff Foxworthy...
Topic: Getting Started
Getting back to thinking about digital natives and digital immigrants. At a recent workshop, I spent some time with the participants talking about the concept and how a digital 'accent' manifests itself. One thing led to another, and we ended up having a little fun with behaviors that identify a digital immigrant. Like the old Jeff Foxworthy jokes about being a redneck, we launched into "If you..., then you might be a digital immigrant."

Here are a few they came up with:

If you know how to make and receive a call on your cell phone, but can't use any programming features, you might be a digital immigrant.

If you know how to view a VHS tape or DVD, but can't set the clock on the player, you might be a digital immigrant.

If you send an e-mail and then call the recipient to make sure s/he received it, you might be a digital immigrant.

If you remember when your modem had a cradle for the telephone receiver, you might be a digital immigrant.

If you have a collection of 5 1/4" diskettes you can't bear to throw away, you might be a digital immigrant.

Although this was not planned, I think I'll use this as an activity in future workshops. Folks had a good laugh, relaxed, and were not so worried about making mistakes!

I'd like to collect more of these to share.

Responding to Literature through Blogging
Topic: Classroom Blogging
Sandra Gluth and Pete MacKay are teaming up to spotlight classroom blogs on a weekly basis. Since I think it's important for administrators to review this type of blog and also for them to be able to refer teachers to sample blogs, I've invited Sandra to post her 'finds' here as well. Either she or I will add one each week.

Today, Sandra sends us a web site all set up for students to respond to
literature through blogging. A nice jumping off point for teachers unsure of
how to get started. The blog is called School Blogs for Kids.

More ruminations about teachers, students, and technology use...
Topic: Getting Started
Last Saturday, Will Richardson posted the following message on his blog, Weblogg-ed:

"And another thing...

"At yesterday's workshop, only three of the 20 teachers had even heard of a Weblog when we started. I was pretty amazed. That's not a slap a the teachers who were there; it's just that the difference between my online educator blogging world and the reality of the classroom teacher world is becoming more and more acute. Online, things seem to be going in all sorts of directions. In the classroom, well...it's just a different story. Try as I might, I still have yet to find more than a couple of dozen K-12 teachers who are using Weblogs in ways that can potentially enhance their students' learning. It just feels like a big disconnect, somehow.

"One of the gems that I found this morning was from Darren Cannell who has a pretty interesting post titled "Are we entering a dark age of information?" In it, he paints a picture of the potential changes that these technologies are creating and the lack of recognition by schools.


"-Too much information.
-Students who understand how to navigate the web.
-Teachers who do not.
-Students who have no one to show them what is good and what is bad.
-A system of education in which students and teachers do not connect.

"I'm wondering to what extent students are passing their teachers in their ability to manipulate the Internet and information, and to what extent teachers will be willing to learn how to model the skills that students are going to need to manage all of this in effective ways. If I'm struggling, I can't imagine what it must be like for teachers who are just seeing the landscape for the first time."

I think there's a direct link here between what Will is seeing and Prensky's idea about digital immigrants teaching digital natives. Maybe what we need to be doing is looking at how our digital 'accents' manifest themselves and how we can compensate for that...

Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants
Topic: Getting Started
I've spent a lot of time thinking about why it seems to be so difficult for educators to effectively incorporate technology use into instruction- not just blogs, although that's had my attention recently, but all kinds of technologies.

For a long time I've thought that much of it has to do with the findings from the Apple Classrooms or Tomorrow research which identified various stages of use people experience when learning to use a new technology. And I still think that the stages are important. But I couldn't figure out why so many people get stuck at Adoption and/or Adaptation. A few weeks ago I read Marc Prensky's articles Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, Part II. While I'm not certain I believe that today's kids brains are wired differently, the rest of what he has to say makes a lot of sense.

I shared the information with some principals I'm working with and it was as if a light was turned on for them as well. Heads were nodding and people began to come up with all kinds of examples of their own digital 'accents.'

Have any of you read these articles? What do you think? Do you see the tie to ACOT and the lack of serious tech integration?

Classroom Blogs
Topic: Classroom Blogging
Whew! Where did that week go?

Actually, part of it was spent with a group of administrators in California. During the meeting I showed them this blog and mentioned some of the links that are available through different postings. A couple of people were immediately interested in the idea of teachers being able to use a blog rather than a Web site. I directed them to sites linked in this blog, but would really like to be able to point them to other examples as well.

Is anyone out there aware of additional good examples of teachers using blogs for home/school communication. I would really appreciate the information and so would the folks I met with. They're planning to check out the blog this week, so it would be great to have more leads for them.