Thanks for the additions to my learning network

I had a pleasant surprise in my inbox the other day - I was added to a top-50 list! Teaching Tips.com put me in the Technology section of their Top 50 Must-Read Up and Coming Blogs by Teachers. I would very much like to think that the ideas and information I share are of "must-read" quality, so thank you to Teaching Tips.com for including me!

I've also been added to another educational directory - the International Edubloggers Directory is a directory of other educational bloggers. If you are an educational blogger, you too can request to be added to the list. It's just one more resource you can use to expand your learning network. I've found some of the folks on my blogroll, such as Stephanie Sandifer at Change Agency, David Warlick at 2¢, Clay Burell at Beyond School, and Patrick Higgins at Chalkdust 101, to name a few. I've added the Edubloggers badge to my blog - if you're interested in joining, visit the Directory and click on the Add tab at the top.

Teaching internet use instead of forbidding it

I recently conducted a training on creating and usings blogs and wikis for instructional purposes. It was somewhat sparsely attended, but those teachers that did attend were very excited about the prospect of using them in the classroom. One foreign language teacher who teaches Advanced Placement German - I'll call her Michelle - wanted to create a blog in German for her students to engage in regular free-writing and topic-based writing exercises.

Rather than create a blog on our network course management system (ANGEL Learning), Michelle wanted to create an internet-based blog. This would allow her to invite other students, teachers of German, and even native Germans and German-language speakers to visit the class blog and comment on the students' work. What we had talked about in the blog training was that this "instant global exposure" can cause students to take much more seriously what previously might have been just a classroom exercise - because only the teacher (and perhaps the students in class) would read it, it wasn't a very "real-world" exercise.

We started to set up the blog on Blogger, only to find that just beyond the sign-in page, the website was blocked by our district's internet filtering software. We tried a different service - Edublogs - to find the same problem arising. It's not the entire blog service that's blocked; I know some specific blogs have been passed through the filter (this one, for instance). Instead, it's the blog management page that's blocked.

What that means is for some of these third-party internet tools, if teachers in my district want to use them, they need to use them primarily from home. This means setting up and posting to blogs, managing comments (probably from students), etc. While I have many tech-savvy teachers at my school that would be fine with this, that's not really the point of my job - I'm trying to help the ones that aren't quite that tech-savvy get there, and that's tough to do if they have to do it themselves all from home.

This issue is actually secondary to my point in this post. My district is very forward-thinking towards classroom technology. Every permanent classroom in the entire district has a Promethean interactive whiteboard; every portable has ActivSlate technology. We have computer labs, a bevy of professional and educational software for teachers and students, and the district has been recognized for its efforts in implementing classroom technology. (A couple of articles about it are on my district's website.)

And while the hardware and software is great, there's more to it. I've always understood the term "instructional technology" to mean the application of currently available tools in new and innovative ways. When websites become accessible to the "common man" through programs like Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia Dreamweaver, teachers can start using them with students. When the development of JavaScript and then AJAX allows internet sites to update themselves in real time, spawning the birth of "Web 2.0," a plethora of new communication, writing, and information tools is at teachers' disposal.

With so many tools emerging every year for teachers and students to use, I think the crucial missing piece is showing teachers how to manage the technology in their classrooms. Students are using these tools much more than teachers are - shouldn't teachers be able to at least relate to the software and show how students can use it effectively, even if they aren't using it as much as their students?

I've been reviewing training topics for next year, and I want to include some professional development that's not just "how-to's." I'd like to share with teachers how to teach students to use these tools properly. This new generation of interconnected, interpersonal information is going to take entirely different mental tools to use properly - tools that today's teachers probably and for the most part aren't yet teaching. It's one of the most exciting and frustrating things about education - always getting to be, and at the same time having to be on the cutting edge.

Tracing a blog

Whether you're a blogger or a reader, this is an interesting interactive image - a blog road map, if you will - from Wired magazine. Trace the route of a blog from writer to reader - and everything in between. If you've ever wondered just what a text scrapper, ping server, or aggregator is, get a little explanation and see where they fit into the information superhighway.

I wonder how many of these elements student bloggers (or teacher bloggers) are aware of? How would their writing be affected by a greater understanding of this map? My initial reaction is that if students really knew that the online words they write would find their way to search engines, or that depending on the content their words might be seen by corporate representatives - for good or for ill - how much more care would they take in writing and proof-reading their own work and the work of their peers?

Legal Ramifications of Blogging

I found this blogger's guide published by the Electronic Frontier Foundation discussing some of the legal ramifications about blogging. A couple of interesting points are raised:

1. "Common-man publishing" like blogs, wikis, and webpages do not provide any checks and balances that a professional writer, reporter, or journalist might have. Other than your own resources, you may not know if you're doing something wrong - illegal, defamatory, etc.
2. The legal system is always at least one step behind the cutting edge of society - while there might be laws in place to stop journalists from publishing certain material, but do those same laws apply to electronic media?
   

While some people blog to create online journals or stream-of-consciousness writings, those bloggers who write more informational articles should become more familiar with these guidelines. It makes a very good resource for teachers to use with students, as the behavior that the guide describes tends to start in school. How many students have "cut-and-pasted" a report together from the internet?

There is a separate page for concerns about student blogging - there, the issues get cloudier because of the fact that schools serve in loco parentis, and occasionally need to take additional action against students who publish improper material.

How to Start a Blog

So in considering what my first blog would be, I thought it would be appropriate to write about just that - why would someone start a blog? What reason would someone have for wanting to put their ideas, opinions, thoughts, comments, critiques, and so forth on the web for anyone to see?

Well, let me start with started me. I am an instructional technology specialist for a large high school north of Atlanta, GA. Part of my job involves training teachers on using various technology tools in the classroom - that includes co-teaching in the classroom, conducting professional development sessions, researching new tools and developing classroom applications, etc. And while I love my job and enjoy working with the faculty at my school, I can't help but acknowledge that not every single teacher is receptive to everything I have to teach them. Why not get more out of my efforts by sharing what I've learned and developed with a larger audience?

I think it also can serve as - if you, dear reader, will forgive the guttural imagery - a "brain dump." I stumble across various articles, conversations, ideas, etc. that don't necessarily fit into a training or a tutorial, but are still worthy of sharing.

I am by no means the authority on everything educationally technological, but that's part of the wonder of tools like blogs. I can share what I know, and my readers can learn from it. In return, readers can leave comments which can direct me to additional resources, tools, and so forth. I have a list (to the right) of other blogs, wikis, and such that I've been checking out to see what others have learned before me.

So, enough for this first post - before I lose what few readers I might have left. This blog is just one element of my additional technological resources. If you are so inclined, check out techieteacher, my educational technology website.

And if you have something to share with me, please do. The more, the merrier...