Long Live the Blog

“Blogs will fill every niche in the ecology of public writing. They'll be good examples of blogs and a far larger range of sites that are sort-of, kind-of blogs. This is as it should be. It's also as it already is.”
David Weinberger
Fellow, Harvard Berkman Center
johotheblog.com

Recently, there have been numerous pronouncements that blogging is dead, or at least not what it used to be. The Economist and Wired magazines both published articles questioning the relevance of blogging in the face of the ever changing nature of blogging and the increasing corporate dominance of the once thriving amateur blogosphere. It is apparent that the cutting edge nature of blogging has become mainstream as nearly every media outlet and corporation has implemented some form of blogging to reach new online markets. In addition, various forms of blogging, from Twitter to Facebook, have taken over our conversational media adding new ways to share, network, and learn. This is all evidence that blogging in various forms is here to stay.

Educational blogging, or edublogging, has never been more relevant for teachers and students. Blogging is one tool that can improve the quality of teacher reflection and networking. In an age where technology has made it free and easy to connect with other professionals and experts around the world it would almost be professional neglect to shun such powerful teacher development tools. In the year since I have been actively blogging I have reflected and learned more about teaching and learning than in all of the professional development courses I have attended in 15 years as a teacher. In the past year I have had online conversations with teachers, professors, and administrators  in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Tennessee, Iowa, Connecticut,  Washington, California, and New Zealand! How could I have connected to these amazing resources without being a part of the edublogging conversation? It simply wouldn't have happened, and I would be less knowledgeable as a consequence.

If I am able to learn so much from being a part of a blogging network then why not teach students to be a valuable contributor to the online conversation. Students are already having online conversations on Myspace, Facebook, and interactive video games, so why not use similar tools to teach students how to effectively communicate with an online audience? Why not use these tools to teach students digital citizenship so they understand the larger context within which they participate online? Why not use these tools to simply teach students in a relevant and authentic way?

Various forms of blogging has become and will continue to become a ubiquitous feature of our online life. As educators, we need to recognize this and embrace it to improve how we learn, but more importantly, we need to use this knowledge to improve how students learn and make our classrooms relevant to a 21st century reality.

“The word blog is irrelevant, what's important is that it is now common, and will soon be expected, that every intelligent person (and quite a few unintelligent ones) will have a media platform where they share what they care about with the world.”
Seth Godin
author
sethgodin.typepad.com

I got the Weinberger and Godin quotes from Technorati's State of the Blogophere/2008 report. 

21st Century Literacy Video

I found this video from a post on the Brevity is the Soul of Wit blog via a tweet from Angela Maiers. Anyway, the video is a pretty good supplement to my previous blog post.

A Revolution in Learning

I have learned more in the past year than in any year of my life.

One year ago today:

• I did not blog...I just thought about a bunch of stuff
  
• I did not use Google Reader...I used my computer's bookmarks to read a few websites
  
• I did not use Delicious...I saved everything for my eyes only
  
• I did not use rss feeds...I didn't even know what they were???
• I did not have an online professional learning network...I learned from only a few teachers I worked with on a daily basis

Today:

• I use blogs to reflect, share, and simply to think
• I use Google Reader as a continuously updated and personalized magazine
• I use Delicious to organize, share, and view websites tailored to my interests
• I use rss feeds to passively search for topics of interest to me
• I use my blogroll, Delicious, Classroom2.o Ning, HarrisburgU Ning, MiddleTrojan Ning, Diigo, LinkedIn, and Twitter as engines that connect me to passionate learners from around the world

I do find myself on the computer more, but most of the time it is either replacing or supplementing the boobtube. It is also obvious to me that I am more restless when I have to be a passive observer. This restlessness is most apparent when I sense my time is being wasted and my input is not valued.

• Are we wasting our students' time?
• Do we value their input?

This revolution in learning is driven by technology, but is only realized by curious individuals who value knowledge.

• Are we teaching students to be curious?
• Are we teaching students to value knowledge?

If so, great!!!
If not, why not?

Class Discussion at 10:00 pm???

Why not?  During the Vice Presidential and 3rd Presidential debates over 40 of my students watched while almost 20 students took part in a live blogging session hosted by me using Coveritlive.  I embedded the Coveritlive  session in my Moodle course to provide a bit more security and to monitor who showed up to watch.  

The quality of the dialogue was impressive for 8th graders discussing serious national issues. Having nearly half of all my students  show up at night to voluntarily discuss political debates illustrates the power of technology to foster learning.  It also reaffirms my faith and optimism in this generation that barely remembers 9/11, and doesn't remember a time before the Clinton's, the internet, or cell phones.  

Next up--live blogging election night with 8th graders!   

The Power of One

Last week I attended the K12 Open Minds Conference in Indianapolis.  On my way home, waiting for my flight at the Indy airport, I purchased a copy of the 75th Anniversay edition of Esquire magazine.  Now understand something--I don't typically read Esquire (I'm not that sophisticated), but a fact that keynote speaker and futurist Dr. David Thornburg stated piqued my interest in the magazine.  A limited number of the 75th Anniversary edition was printed with electronic ink on the front cover enabling the printed words to change and images to flash--ON THE FRONT COVER. 

The reason I bring up electronic ink in Esquire magazine is that it poses some essential questions related to k12 education. Are we doing enough to get technology into the hands of our students and teach them ways to creativly solve problems in a world where new innovations are changing the way we live at a faster pace than at any time in world history? When ink becomes electronic and paper becomes the circuit board isn't that a sign that students working on paper and pencil tasks may be going the way of monks writing on scrolls?  Alternatively, and just as important, what are we doing to teach students how to live a good, balanced life in an ever increasingly fast paced and stressed out world?   In my opinion these are the questions we NEED to be asking and  answering. 

Part of the answer seems obvious to me.  Students need to be at least working on computers on a regular basis in school.  One-to-One computing, where every student has access to a computer throughout the school day, should be a basic goal of schools.  This can happen soon with the price of laptops decreasing and availability of open source and free software increasing.  School Districts and parents need to do what they can to provide access to computers for all students, while teachers need to be flexible enough to change how they teach to maximize student learning through the use of computers and other newer technologies.  

Now the only question is will the money for one-to-one computer initiatives dry up in the current state of our economy?