Blogging
Blogging presents an exceptional opportunity to connect and communicate with students and parents. It's also a great tool for students to express their learning.
However, this opportunity is not without risk. Blogging has introduced a new and very interesting window into the life and minds of todays teens.
In the past, teenagers ability to express themselves was limited to diaries, friends, and small community events. Now they are able to instantly reach a global audience.
The Finnish
Friday, February 29, 2008
Good article in the Wall Street Journal today entitled, What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?.
The article discusses some reasons the Finish students scored so highly:
Strong reading ethic (apparently, the government sends new babies a free book!)
Very low funding disparity between schools
Free universities
No gifted education
In-class freedom for teachers - check out this quote:
Finnish teachers pick books and customize lessons as they shape students to national standards. “In most countries, education feels like a car factory. In Finland, the teachers are the entrepreneurs,”
Lack of technology - here’s another quote:
In November, a U.S. delegation visited, hoping to learn how Scandinavian educators used technology. Officials from the Education Department, the National Education Association and the American Association of School Librarians saw Finnish teachers with chalkboards instead of whiteboards, and lessons shown on overhead projectors instead of PowerPoint. Keith Krueger was less impressed by the technology than by the good teaching he saw. “You kind of wonder how could our country get to that?” says Mr. Krueger, CEO of the Consortium for School Networking, an association of school technology officers that organized the trip.
This comes back to my series of blog posts asking “Is technology worth it?” (part 1, part 2 and part 3). I think technology is worth it, of course, as long as we think about it. But what I like about this article is the simple message: it’s the teaching the counts.
Posted by Bill on 02/29 at 08:00 AM in
Blogging,
Educational Tech
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So you want to blog, eh?
Saturday, August 25, 2007
I’m often asked about blogging. What is it? How do I do it? What does it do? How does it work? And other beginning questions.
In the spirit of helping others, and not having to repeat myself often, I’d like to offer some answers:
There are basically 3 types of blogs:
1) Personal diaries (for an outstanding example of one, check out Richard Bartles daily blog)
2) Topical blogs (Terra Nova, Huffington Post)
3) Reflective experiential blogs (mine is an example in this category, Terry Real, Confused of Calcutta and of course, Dave McDivitt).
1) Please understand this: blogging is a commitment. You can’t blog for 6 months and then stop - it doesn’t work that way. Commit to 2 years minimum, at least 2 to 3 times a week of writing. One of things blogs do well is build community and become a place where people come and visit to read things they are interested in. They are visiting your blog because you are talking about something important, in a novel / unique / smart way. So write frequently and for a long time. Or else don’t blog.
2) It’s ok to put links up as blog entries, but your ratio of links to great original stories should be 1:6. So for every one link you post as a blog entry, you should write at least 6 really good posts. If you must post a link, perhaps it could be as a response (like here) to an interesting story. Remember the mantra: people come to visit your blog because it’s updated frequently with really interesting stuff.
3) Start out with typepad or maybe blogger. They are easy to get started with and free. Once you have been blogging for a year, upgrade your typepad account, or switch to Expression Engine. These services offer expanded tools and fine-comb adjustments to your site. Make sure whatever you use has good comment moderation tools.
4) Put links to other sites that are relevant and interesting on your site. This is often called a “blogroll”, and it’s polite.
5) You must write original, topical, relevant, and focused material! You are blogging because you have something to say
6) Make sure your site Validates and make sure your ATOM / RSS validates
7) Install google analytics (or some other cool visitor statistic program) on your blog.
8) If ANYONE leaves a meaningful comment on your blog ALWAYS respond quickly and fully. If someone cares enough to comment, chances are other people do as well. This builds community.
9) I often re-task emails and questions and post them as blog questions/answers. I always strip out the identifying details, and write long answers to questions. If you regularly visit a forum or newsgroup you should keep this in mind - anything you write is potential blog material.
Finally, Look at this post it has 10 ideas for making a great blog, and I’ve gotten quite a few comments and questions about the post.
Posted by Bill on 08/25 at 10:24 AM in
Blogging
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Changing and tweaking!
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Hi!
I’m ripping apart / upgrading my blog and site, so please bear with me as the site looks MIGHTY FUNKY.
Posted by Bill on 06/05 at 11:24 AM in
Blogging
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Some nice press attention
Thursday, September 07, 2006
I recently had the opportunity to write an article for the School Library Journal (PDF here) concerning games and education. The editors at School Library Journal were really quite delightful.
...and then a few days ago, the Boston Globe called with a few questions about blogging in the classroom (see my articles here). The Globe article is here (PDF here).
Pretty cool opportunity to reach out and connect with other teachers and educators.
If you are interested in blogging, or games in the classroom, please contact me!
Posted by Bill on 09/07 at 09:48 AM in
Blogging,
Educational Tech,
Personal
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State of the blogosphere
Monday, April 17, 2006
Leave it to good ole technorati to come up with some fantastic statistics for their regular state of the blogosphere!
From the post…
# Technorati now tracks over 35.3 Million blogs
# The blogosphere is doubling in size every 6 months
# It is now over 60 times bigger than it was 3 years ago
# On average, a new weblog is created every second of every day
# 19.4 million bloggers (55%) are still posting 3 months after their blogs are created
# Technorati tracks about 1.2 Million new blog posts each day, about 50,000 per hour
Posted by Bill on 04/17 at 09:13 PM in
Blogging
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Monday, April 03, 2006
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