What Exactly is a Blog, Anyway?

TeacherSource | learning.now . What Exactly is a Blog, Anyway? | PBS
An interesting article by Andy Carvin that discusses bloggin gin the classroom. It's meant to
help teachers who are unfamiliar with blogging, and also as a launching point to talk about things like podcasting and video blogging in the future.
I think that this might help teachers in Trinidad who are afraid to allow their students to blog as part of the course, to get more comfortable with the use of these tools.

Education Podcast Network -- The Landmark Project

Education Podcast Network -- The Landmark Project
Way cool - this is what we are talking about!

Webby awards - educational websites... are they any good

Interesting take by Andy Carvin on the 206 nominees for the Webby awards. BTW - I totally agree with Andy that sites in the education category need at this time to be looking at how to USE the web to get students involved in ONLINE learning, not just using the web in the same old ways. Community sites, tags, collections, multimedia, all these are possibilities.

TeacherSource | learning.now . Should Students be Allowed to Carry Cell Phones? | PBS

TeacherSource | learning.now . Should Students be Allowed to Carry Cell Phones? | PBS
A very interesting discussion about the use of technology in classrooms. Should students be allowed to carry cell phones to school? The parents say YES- it's about safety. The school admins say NO - it's disruptive. But then, what about looking at using the phones in the classroom? Can we not use cellphone techoogy in education as well?

Online Discussion tools

From a mailing list that I subscribe to - a very nice concise explanation of the tools that we have been looking at - written by James Jones

"Discussion Lists --

Great for this is me announcements, What do you think about this type questions, or I'm having issues implementing such and such. If archived online can be indexed by search engines. :-) Check out http://www.mail-archive.com/

Not so good when restricted to a single topic. Or when an online archive isn't present. The list tends to stagnate.

Forums --

Pretty good for how to posts, tips and tricks, and tracking comments. Indexed by search engines :-) Here is an example of a highly used forum - http://forums.gentoo.org/

A royal pain to find useful information, when the base structure is disorganized. Or when the comments on a single post goes on and on for several pages. http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-231506.html that post has 5 pages of comments. Now if that is the absolute only place I can find any information about the topic at hand I'll wade through that but a trip to the dentist would most likely be more interesting.

Twiki / Wiki's --

Really good for how to posts, best practices, editable by a large number of people etc. http://gentoo-wiki.com/Main_Page

Can be over kill for static content. While you can edit the page you can't really place a comment outside of the discussed area. You have to make a new entry in the posted page and anyone can remove your comment.

Blogs

Defiantly fits the news post type role and people can comment. Blogs can also be used to give a recap of the more interesting dialogs that occurred during the week with groups using any of the above methods. Could be a good way to point people to your more user active areas.

Doesn't really foster an active community. Seems to foster a passive community....

MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning

The New Media Consortium and the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education, working in collaboration with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, are soliciting abstracts for chapters to appear in a series of volumes entitled the MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. The MacArthur Foundation Series will explore the intersection of digital media and learning from the perspectives of experts, visionaries, and thought leaders chosen from across the globe.

As many as 60 authors will be selected to write chapters for one of the six volumes that will comprise the first topics in the series. The project enjoys substantial support; authors who are selected to participate will each receive an honorarium of $10,000 US for their chapters.

I write to encourage you to submit an abstract for consideration.

The Call for Abstracts contains considerable information on the project, submission information, and detailed descriptions of each of the topics. That document can be downloaded at http://www.nmc.org/pdf/MacArthur_Series_CFA.pdf

I hope you will also share this announcement with others whom you think may find it of interest -- we hope to reach both the leading thinkers and writers in the world on these topics as well as those whose ideas are significant but less well known.

Dr. Laurence F. Johnson
Chief Executive Officer

___________________________

The New Media Consortium
sparking innovative learning and creativity

2499 S Capital of Texas Hwy
Building A, Suite 202
Austin, TX 78746-7762

tel 512 445-4200
fax 512 445-4205

email johnson@nmc.org
web www.nmc.org

Podcasting: A New Voice on the Net

Podcasting: A New Voice on the Net
This interesting article discusses podcasting and how it can be used.
"If you've ever wanted to speak directly to your audience, here's your chance. While blogs give anyone with something to say a means to publish their views on the Web, podcasting gives those with a computer and Internet access a chance to create and post their own radio broadcasts."

Building Educational Web Sites with Moodle

Building Educational Web Sites with Moodle
An excellent article on the value of using content management systems, and educational systems, such as moodle, for education activities."

Five years ago, Web designers and teachers who wanted to build a site had to code HTML by hand or use an editor like Macromedia Dreamweaver, Microsoft FrontPage, or Adobe GoLive. You then had to upload files to a server. Few busy teachers had the time to acquire these skills. With the advent of content management systems, Web publishing became easy enough for anyone to pick up quickly.

With a CMS like Moodle, you don't need any Web design skills, all you need is the ability to write and teach your ideas using images, text, or any media on the Internet -- there's no software to buy or install. Just go to any computer, open a Web browser, and make changes to your site. Moodle also works well for those with old computers, slow Internet connections, and older browsers. All you need is PHP -- an HTML scripting language -- installed on your system, and you're ready to go."

Pretty much what I've been trying to say since October. Dreamweaver is useful, but a lot less useful than Moodle or Mambo for non-technical people to develop powerful tools quickly.

Google Web Page Creator

"Google Page Creator <http://pages.google.com/> is a web based application that uses a basic what-you-see is what-you-get style of interface, designed to allow anyone to create and publish web pages, regardless of skill or knowledge level.

"It's as easy to create a page on the web as it is to create one on a word processor," said Justin Rosenstein, product manager for the new tool.

Google Page Creator allows you to arrange text, images or other types of web content and upload the web pages with a single click, without the need to know web programming languages such as HTML or Javascript, or how to configure and transfer pages to a web server."

Read full story at:
Google Introduces Web Page Creator
<http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3586916>

Public Library of Science

Public Library of Science
Excellent resource!

NEW dgSURVEY: Online Education: What Can It Deliver?

Just got this in an email - interesting survey. It would be cool to have responses from the Caribbean.
Jacqueline

Educational resources available via the Internet, from online course materials to virtual classroom videoconferencing, offer some of today?s most cutting-edge applications of cyberspace. However, e-learning has not always lived up to its promise for schools, faculty, and students in developing countries. A Development Gateway Special Report scheduled for March 2006 will examine the challenges and opportunities of online education in the developing world.

We would like to know what Development Gateway members think about online education in developing countries. Please take few moments to answer a short survey at (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=864101622251). Selected responses will appear in the 'From Our Members' section of the Special Report. Thanks for your help!

Wikis in Education - Westwood - a case study

http://westwood.wikispaces.com/

Our Space: We began to use our wikispace as the companion to our Computer Science curriculum but are expanding it for use in Computer Fundamentals, Keyboarding, and Computer Graphic Design.

We started with one page (http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Web+2.0) where I posted words relating to Web 2.0. I divided the students into groups and had them collaboratively research their topic on the Internet, summarize their findings, and link to their sources. I have found that it is the perfect tool to help students summarize and synthesize information! Every student, regardless of ability level was able to contribute in a meaningful way!

We've expanded it considerably and now have links to our student wikispaces (http://westwood.wikispaces.com/Westwood+wikilinks+page). Of particular interest is the 10th grade "study hall" (http://studyhall.wikispaces.com) where the students have created a
listing of homework with links to the pages they have created to study for exams! They update this on their own! It has its own life!
I'm most excited that they have an electronic forum to exchange academic information from home! I like that I can monitor who has added material and can control who contributes to each space.

Our Community: The students and faculty of Westwood Schools.

Our Experience with Wikispaces: The first day, the students started getting excited. The second day, they were thrilled and engrossed in learning about our topic. For their quiz on creating wikipages I had them create their own space on the school topic of their choice. That
is when I found them squealing in the hall talking about their english wikispace or history wikispace. The other faculty, who are always cutting edge, began asking what this "wiki thing" was. Some of them have created their own pages and are creating projects next semester
to move from paper portfolios to wikispaces. I've been asked to do a teacher in service training on January 2nd to bring all middle school and high school teachers up to speed.

I have used countless technological tools -- but I have never found a tool so useful in the educational process. We use blogging, podcasting and all of the other features of Education 2.0. I believe, however, that wikispaces are the thing that will integrate all of these technologies into meaningful experiences.

Read more about about which features work well for us:

http://www.wikispaces.com/Wikispaces+Update+December+2005+More+Westwood

Read a full summary of our Wikispaces experience:

http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/2005/12/wiki-wiki-teaching-art-of-using-wiki.html

Looking for Blogging Mentors

This is a very interesting way to use blogs to stimulate students.
ATTENTION BLOGGERS:

Interested in developing the worldwide blogosphere? Like working with young people?

We are looking for bloggers from around the world to be a blogging mentor for 1 week sometime in February, March, April or May 2006.

The project, Young Caucasus Women, is a group blog for young women from the Caucasus region (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia). The young
women will be given a topic to blog on each week, although they are welcome to blog on any topic throughout the week.

We need bloggers to blog on a specific topic on Sunday, hence inspiring the young women's blog entries. The topic and week need to be determined at least month in advance.
Then throughout the week, the adult mentor blogger would need to comment on the young women's blog postings.

THAT'S IT - simple, yet a project with a lot of impact.

You don't need any background in the region. Just be culturally sensitive, have a topic that would be of interest to international young women and have a blog. We'd love to have English language bloggers from around the world.

Interested or know someone who is? Contact katy (at) katypearce (dot) org for more information.

Background:

There are almost NO blogs written by national individuals living IN-COUNTRY in the Caucasus. Generally blogs are written by ex-pats or diasporas. The students participating in this project are high school aged foreign exchange students currently in the US. The hope is that they will continue blogging once they return home in the summer of 2006.

The immediate aims of the project are:

To highlight the similarities and learn about the differences between young women in these neighboring countries.

To promote citizen journalism in developing countries as an alternative to mainstream media.

To promote weblogs as a method of democratic expression.

To expose young women to journalism and technology.

Gmail - [DDN] Making Computers Useful in Education

Quoting from an email on the Digital Divide Network mailing list:

Take a look at this meta-study of 59 computer-assisted instruction
(CAI) reports. http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/5/cu10.html
It indicates that:

* The use of CAI as a supplement to conventional instruction produces higher achievement than the use of onventional instruction alone.
* Research is inconclusive regarding the comparative effectiveness of conventional instruction alone and CAI alone.
* Computer-based education (CAI and other computer applications) produce higher achievement than conventional instruction alone.
* Student use of word processors to develop writing skills leads to higher-quality written work than other writing methods (paper and pencil, conventional typewriters).
* Students learn material faster with CAI than with conventional instruction alone.
* Students retain what they have learned better with CAI than with conventional instruction alone.
* The use of CAI leads to more positive attitudes toward computers, course content, quality of instruction, school in general, and self- as-learner than the use of conventional instruction alone.
* The use of CAI is associated with other beneficial outcomes,
including greater internal locus of control, school attendance,
motivation/time-on-task, and student-student cooperation and collaboration than the use of conventional instruction alone.
* CAI is more beneficial for younger students than older ones.
* CAI is more beneficial with lower-achieving students than with
higher-achieving ones.
* Economically disadvantaged students benefit more from CAI than
students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds.
* CAI is more effective for teaching lower-cognitive material than
higher-cognitive material.
* Most handicapped students, including learning disabled, mentally
retarded, hearing impaired, emotionally disturbed, and language
disordered, achieve at higher levels with CAI than with conventional instruction alone.
* There are no significant differences in the effectiveness of CAI
with male and female students.
* Students' fondness for CAI activities centers around the
immediate, objective, and positive feedback provided by these
activities.
* CAI activities appear to be at least as cost effective as--and
sometimes more cost-effective than-- other instructional methods,
such as teacher-directed instruction and tutoring.

Educational Weblogs:

http://educational.blogs.com/instructional_technology_/
Technology resource blog for educators - Disruptive Technology Resource for Educators using Weblogs, Blogware, Collaborative tools, RSS & Podcasting, web services and digital tools at home, school, university and community.

NSW Open Source :: Open Source for Education

NSW Open Source :: Open Source for Education
useful document (pdf format) that discusses the use of FLOSS in education (free and open source software - makes sense for impoverished schools in developing countries)

Mambo Server up and all your base websites created.

Please check with Mr. Paddington or email me directly for the information. I have finally received all the information necessary from the Department to set this up, and I apologise again on behalf of the Department for the length of time it has taken to get this done.
You can find the site at www.educationuwitt.com.
Note - you can also register on the main site to be able to post and stuff... it'smoderated, so I will need to finalise all registrations - this is to reduce SP@M on the site.

Teaching, Learning, and Other Uses for Wikis in Academia

Teaching, Learning, and Other Uses for Wikis in Academia
All Users Are Not Necessarily Created Equal
By Jude Higdon, Project Manager
The Center for Scholarly Technology
University of Southern California
Complete story at Campus Technology:


______________________________


A Learning is For Everyone, Inc. article recommendation.


______________________________


Like many academic technology groups at campuses around the country, the Center for Scholarly Technology (CST) at USC has been wrestling with how to implement various types of social software, such as blogs and wikis, in the classroom. Over the past few years we have found some very good uses for blogs, including peer-reviewed journaling, Just-in-Time Teaching (Novak, et al, 1999), and meta-cognitive reflective practice. While we hit a few stumbling blocks early on, we seemed to be coming to some level of sophistication and adoption with the use of blogs as tools for enhancing teaching and learning as we entered into the 2005-2006 school year.

Use of wikis in the classroom has proved more elusive. While we never like to advocate the use of technology as an end of itself, our group saw great potential in the affordances of the wiki for teaching and learning. Students co-constructing meaning in a democratized digital space has a certain social constructivist (Bandura, 1976) elegance. And yet we struggled to impart this sense of potential to our faculty collaborators. By and large, people didn't seem ready for the freewheeling, uncontrolled wiki environment.

_________________________________________


Learning is For Everyone, Inc. is a nonprofit 501 C(3) organization whose goal is to provide information resources on the web and assistance through its activities in all aspects of education from cradle to nursing home!

More HTML references

HTML reference online
http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/tut/lessons.html

Class Blog List

You should also post links to your own blogs - if you email me I'll put them in the sidebar.
Jacqueline