Tuesday, March 4, 2003

Photoblogging. Tim Lauer shows the way to an excellent photoblog tutorial for MT. Check out Tim's photoblog. 2:03:28 PM

edblogger.net?. Did anyone else notice Al's new experiment with Text Pattern at edblogger.net? 2:03:28 PM

New NYCWP Manila Weblog. Thanks to Karen and Pat for helping us get started on the new NWP hosted Manila site for the New York City Writing Project. We're hoping to give members who are new to blogging an introduction to weblogs and how they can be used in educational settings. Visit the new NYCWP Weblog. 2:03:28 PM

eBN's First Bartender: Terry Elliot. Terry is pouring the drinks over at eBN's Guest Bar as the first guest blogger in the prestigious right hand column (it will be someday) and there's even a face to match the name. Keep an eye on Terry's Taking the Plunge - the first EBN hosted site. 2:03:27 PM

Weblogs for ESL Students. Anne Davis posted a link to the first article I've seen about ESL students using weblogs in this article is written by an EFL instructor in Japan. From the abstract of Weblogs for Use with ESL Classes in The Internet TESL Journal: The purpose of this paper is to introduce three ways that weblogs can be used to support ESL classroom learning. After defining what a weblog is, I will proceed to show how weblogs can be put into immediate use in the ESL classroom by means of three distinct types: the tutor weblog, learner weblog, and class weblog. Using the author's framework, my own work with weblogs has been a combination of tutor and class weblogs along with learner weblogs. I don't see a clear distinction between the author's definitions of tutor and class weblogs. Much of what is described in the first category, the tutor weblog, such as online exchange of comments, resources for self-study, exploration of English language sites are all part of what should happen on a class weblog. The author also comments that Class blogs could also be used as a virtual space for an international classroom language exchange.  In this scenario, learners from different countries would have joint access and publishing rights to the blog. The entire exchange would then be transparent to all readers and could be followed and commented on by other learners, tutors, parents and friends. Content classes for English language learners in an urban classroom obviously differs from an ESL or EFL class dedicated to language instruction but this is something about weblogs that I find very powerful. My students' families generally don't speak English so family participation is unlikely. However, most of my students have indicated that they have shown their weblogs to others outside of school - even in some cases people who may not be able to read their words. In some cases this meant family members here in the U.S. and for others it meant friends in their native countries. Hopefully, in the next month or so, we will be working on another class weblog with an outside historical expert much like our Spanish-American War project. With eBN starting to pick up steam, I think we'll be seeing much more opportunities for k-U collaborative work in coming months. 2:03:27 PM

Schools and communities. From a NY Times Book Review of a new book about the school voucher debate, All Else Equal, by Luis Benveniste, Martin Carnoy and Richard Rothstein: It turns out that what shapes a school's culture most powerfully is the community around it. We needed a book to figure that out? 2:03:27 PM

Relative Paths in Manila. Thanks to "Karen" who via the "eBN" site explains the use of relative paths for stories created in Manila. Even though I understood the concept, I didn't really connect it to the need until I read her explanation. I know that Barbara Ganley does the same thing with her students at Middlebury, and I guess I've had some vauge idea of how to use it with my own students bouncing around in my head. But now I have to think about it more. There is so much potential here, and I find my problem is that I want to do it all. "Terry" mentions a multi-author Web log with one managing editor, and my mind races with the idea of what editorial responsibility could teach my students and how to work it in and set it up. "Tim" is photoblogging and "Pam" is audioblogging and everyone is moblogging. The more I know, the more I want to try. I find my thinking comes in sporadic bits that either coalesce in writing here or on bits of real paper while I'm driving or in meetings or wherever. Hard to focus...I really need to get a life, I think. 2:03:24 PM

Now Here's a Rec. The members of educational Bloggers Network ("eBN") are working to instill several generations of young people with the values and concepts of narrating the work, sharing their knowledge, and thinking out loud. By the time these young people enter the workforce such ideas will no longer seem foreign, outlandish, or wasteful. Rather, they will be seen as ways to do more, learn more, and earn more. We won't have to spend 90 percent of our effort just convincing people to share. The change won't happen immediately, and it won't happen soon enough to help some of us at all. But it will happen. And because it will happen we need to support efforts like eBN in whatever ways we can. These people are on to something that matters. We should help. This is definitely the kind of thinking that will bring all of this to more and more teachers and educators. Well said! 2:03:24 PM

Adding to the List (Con't). Laura Rebecca at Garden City High School on Long Island has a Web log started for her Film classes. I think it's pretty interesting that many of us if not most of us took the same route that she is, starting with Blogger. On the "eBN" site, (which is looking mighty fine) "Terry" recounts the same route. It really is a very painless intro to the concept, and it really helped develop my understanding and thinking of the whole concept. I might have given up had I started with Manila! I'm wondering what, if anything, Google will be doing with Blogger in the future. 2:03:23 PM

Tech Support HELP. In the last week I've lost two sites to the error message that says "Sorry! There was an error: Can't evaluate the expression because the name "department" hasn't been defined." I can get to the sites by typing in the URL of a subpage, but the homepages all come up with the error. And all of the departments when clicked, produce the same error. Ken experienced the same message but was unable to get a fix. I'm going to post to Newbies, but if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. 2:03:23 PM

Web Logs as Marketing. Short article in Newsweek on Dr. Pepper's attempts to launch a new drink by using Web logs as viral marketing tools. Sounds kinda bizarre to me, but it's just another indication of the mainstreaming of the technology. 2:03:23 PM

We Want Web Logs!. Got an e-mail from a former colleague who is now the district tech supervisor for Asbury Park Schools. She writes that "the Asbury Park Schools are very interested in doing a web based online magazine and I would like to piggy back on your idea of blogging in English classes." Obviously a great and doable idea, and an opportunity to extend the use of collaboration through Web logs (even though she doesn't know it yet.) The kids in our two districts come from two very different places, and in fact, our two schools did a number of collaborations about 7-8 years ago that have since fizzled out. I'm hoping maybe we can do more modeling of how Web logs can bring different audiences and students together. 2:03:23 PM

Adding to the List. Andrew Cline pointed me to this class Web log that he's using with his freshman English class at Park Univeristy in Missouri. Makes me wonder (again) how many other professors and teachers are out there using these things that we don't know about. (Note: On his personal page, Andrew has a list of other professors who blog.) 2:03:22 PM