Skype Catching On
Topic: Emerging Technologies
A while back I posted something about Skype- a free download for both Windows and Mac that allows you to call computer-to-computer (free) or computer-to-telephone (about 2 cents/minute) anywhere in the world. I've now tried both the Windows and Mac versions and both work well- although if you need help with the Mac version, you're pretty much on your own. The online live help people are good with PCs, but don't know Macs.

Now I see that Will Richardson is also interested in Skype as a classroom tool. You might want to read his postings on Weblogg-ed, How Ex-Skype-ing and Podskyping Solution. As a teacher, I see exciting possibilities. As an administrator, I see some issues that may need to be dealt with before having kids Skyping.

Digital Accents Aren't a Bad Thing!
Topic: Blogging Basics
Last week during a workshop I asked participants to do an activity that I've been using fairly often. After discussing the concept of digital immigrants and digital accents, I had them blog examples of their own digital accent. One person was totally stumped! She got the idea that having a digital accent- even a fairly mild one- was a negative thing. Didn't want to share any ideas about how hers might manifest itself. After reading what past workshop participants have contributed, she did allow as how she prints her online calendar.

I find myself thinking about the barrier this may create for this individual. A digital accent isn't a bad thing- it just is. If we can't recognize that, it will be difficult, I think, to understand why it sometimes gets in our way.

Blogging Principals- Workshop Experience
Topic: Getting Started
Yesterday afternoon I worked with a small group of principals with whom I have worked in the past. I'll be meeting with them several times during the winter and sping and wanted an online tool for staying in touch between meetings. I also wanted to share a new tool with them, so blogging seemed to be the ticket.

Within an hour, not only had they each set up a blog to communicate with me, but they had figured out how to invite other members of the group to subscribe to the blogs and how to upload graphics. Not bad for a group where only one person had heard the term 'blog' prior to the meeting!

It'll be interesting to see how this goes!

Blogs for Reflective Practice
Topic: Personal Blogs
My experiments with having participants blog responses to questions posed during workshops seem to be working well. Tomorrow I'm going to take the next step and ask a group of principals who have never blogged before to create personal blogs to use a tools for reflection during the winter and spring.

This is a group I've worked with previously. Their skill range is quite broad. Last year we used an e-mail list to stay in touch between workshops. I'm curious to see how they will respond to this environment. I think I've planned for most contingencies. It'll be interesting to see what happens. I may have them use my workshop blog to post responses to the initial workshop activity as well...

New Blogging Tool
Topic: Blogging Basics
MSN just released a beta version of a blogging tool called Spaces. I heard a piece about it on NPR yesterday. It seems that Microsoft is trying hard to position this for families and has some built in filtering that, for example, disallows certain words in blog titles.

The reviewer liked the tool overall, but did take exception to the user agreement which apparently states that Microsoft owns (and may use) the content of blogs created using Spaces.

Has anyone tried it?

Teaching Writing Using Blogs
Topic: Blogs for School Leaders
Administrators who are looking for examples of how teachers are using blogs as a teaching tool will want to check this out: nwpHelp Blog.

The blog examples linked here are categorized by grade level and/or program type.

Workshop Blogging
Topic: Blogging Basics
I used my new blog during a workshop yesterday. Click on the link to see the digital immigrant examples people posted. It took just a couple of minutes to explain how to post a comment. Once we finished, we used the comments for a discussion.

I used Blogger.com to set this up because I wanted to model a free tool that was ad-free (Tripod's free blog tool isn't). However, I discovered that to post a comment to this Blogger blog, people either have to sign up for an account or post anonymously. Tripod allows posters to identify themselves without setting up an account. Is there something in the Blogger.com set-up that I missed?

The Committed Sardine Blog
Topic: Blogs for School Leaders
For some time now, Ian Jukes has offered an online newsletter called the Committed Sardine. A couple of months ago, it faded into CyberSpace. Then tonight it reappeared. The Committed Sardine has been reborn as a blog.

Published fairly regularly, Ian collects articles about technology use in schools, writes a commentary on each piece (or invites other tech leaders to do so), and then puts it out there. An interesting read!

Blogging your Brainstorming
Topic: District Communication
Last week I used this blog to gather ideas from participants in a workshop I conducted in Minnesota. It worked really well!

I plan to continue doing this, but decided it might not be such a hot idea to use this blog for that purpose. So I've created a new blog using Blogger.com. The sole purpose of this new blog will be to offer participants an opportunity to share ideas and create an archive they can return to at a later time.

I thought about making a new blog for each group, but I'm not certain that it's a good idea to litter the cyber landscape with a bunch of single purpose blogs. Also, participants can then review not just their own ideas, but also input from folks they've not met or worked with.

I think I see lots of potential here. Particularly in terms of giving a voice to those adults (and students, for that matter) who never speak out in large groups.

Weblogs: The Possibilities are Endless
Topic: Classroom Blogging
Today is Pete and Sandy's last Blog Wednesday in the series. They're finishing up with a
look at a blog resource from Anne Davis. It's called Weblogs: The Possibilities are Endless. This site contains notes from a NECC presentation that she and Sandy Peters did last summer. You'll find great discussion and resources here about teaching with blogs. A great blog to share with teachers!