Archive for November, 2007
One of my favorite blog posts recently was an interview about technology with a 14-year old boy who goes by the pseudonym Arthus. The way I see it, it’s about time that we started asking kids about technology in schools. After all, they’re our customers!
Unfortunately, Arthus isn’t impressed. The way he sees it, we’re cutting off our kids’ tentacles every time they come to school.
So what do you think? Are your teachers doing anything exciting with technology? What would you like to see them doing? Why do you think that technology is almost always absent from school? How would you change things if you were in charge?
Let’s see if we can get some interesting posts about technology right here on our blog. Here are a list of questions that might prompt your thinking:
Handout_Blog_Topics (download from Screencast.com)
And here’s a list of directions about how to make a post in Edublogs:
Handout_Blog_Posting (download from Screencast.com)
Signed,
Bam Bam Bigelow
November 4th, 2007
One of the most challenging struggles that digital junkies face in today’s world is keeping up with the massive amount of content being generated online. Thousands of new posts are made on thousands of new (and old!) websites every day. Even if you spent thousands of hours sitting in front of your computer, you’d probably lose track of what was happening on your favorite sites.
The solution? Get yourself a really good RSS feed reader!
What’s an RSS feed reader? Check out this Commoncraft tutorial to learn more:
http://www.blip.tv/file/205570/
Plug Me In members are going to be experimenting a bit with a feed reader known as Pageflakes. Pageflakes is actually a pretty neat feed reader that I’m sure you’re going to like. It will become the first website that you visit each day, and it is bound to save you tons of time. Instead of having to go to nineteen different websites, you’ll head to Pageflakes to see what’s new.
Here’s a set of directions about how to create and manage your Pageflakes page:
Handout_Pageflakes
Specifically, you’ll be following websites that teach you something new about the region of the world that you are studying in Social Studies. Here are a bunch of web feeds that you may want to start with:
Pageflakes_Seeds
Rock on, Bam Bam Bigelow
November 4th, 2007
Recently, we began exploring one of the most interesting new tools available online—Trailfire—which allows users to begin to organize their online content. Trails—the end product created by Trailfire users—are collections of annotated websites on a single topic. Knowing how important teaching Internet safety is, I used Trailfire to introduce the characteristics of safe and unsafe websites to the digital junkies in Plug Me In.
My heart was a bit broken, then, when our school district decided to block Trailfire completely because of inappropriate content. “What!” I screamed after getting the email from our school’s tech contact, “How am I supposed to teach kids to use Web 2.0 tools if every good tool ends up blocked. I haven’t seen any inappropriate content—If it’s there, it must be hidden pretty good.”
Curious, I stopped by Trailfire to do a bit of in-depth exploration. After about five minutes, I stumbled across some pretty serious pornography. Turns out that not all Trailfire users are interested in using the tool for good—-or in following the Trailfire terms of service! I immediately “turned off” our Plug Me In Trailfire account and sent an email to the Trailfire tech contacts asking for their help in making their site safer. I’m currently waiting for their answer and will keep you posted about what I find out.
This experience is one that any teacher working with Web 2.0 tools can probably relate to. You see, any time that you’re forced to rely on free tools, you’re also forced to accept the reality that the Web is a dangerous place—and that inappropriate content can be found around nearly every corner. Creators of free services are generally well-intentioned—they’d love their tools to be useful for students and schools—but monitoring every piece of content created by users is simply impossible.
The balance between promoting their tools and limiting their uses is a delicate balancing act to say the least!
Our challenge, then, is to determine what level of tolerance we’re comfortable with as parents and as teachers. Can we really keep our kids completely safe online—in a perfect bubble where they’ll be shielded from any inappropriate content at all?
If we try, what do we lose? Will students be prevented from using highly motivating tools appropriately? Will they lose the opportunity to learn about what responsible students do when they encounter inappropriate content?
This is a question that has to be answered before Web 2.0 tools can really become common teaching tools in our schools.
Signed,
Bam Bam Bigelow
November 4th, 2007
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