Month: August 2006

A regular reader of my blog, one who is not an educator and who does not always agree with my ideas, has posted a comment on one of my DOPA entries that I suspect bares some consideration — probably more than I can give at the moment.

He points to a law that was signed on July 27, The Adam Walsh Child Protection Action of 2006. This reader says…

I’m curious why bloggers aren’t drawing attention to The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 which was signed into law on July 27. Among its many provisions are some intiatives aimed at protecting kids online. One is staffing up Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces across the country to go after online predators, increased penatlies for offenders, and a grant program to that instructs:
The Attorney General, in consultation with the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children, is authorized to develop and carry out a public
awareness campaign to demonstrate, explain, and encourage children, parents, and
community leaders to better protect children when such children are on the Internet. Similar grants could be made to state governments and potentially schools as well.

http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/documents/AdamWalshAct.pdf

The commentor continues with…

It strikes me that this at least provides the arguement that DOPA is not needed due to a bill that was just signed with child saftey protections. Plus it includes the educational campaign that some are calling for.

Are there any aspects of DOPA, besides the appeal of the title that are not already covered in the Adam Walsh law?

Technorati Tags: dopa, stupidlaw, warlick

AOL recently released the search histories of more than 650,000 of its users. There were no identities revealed, but it was possible to track what an individual person (many individual people) was searching for on AOL Search.

The company has apologized for a researcher’s disclosure of the massive database, and has removed it from their web site. However, the database had already been mirrored and is available for continued examination.

The profiles range ” from the mundane to the illicit and bizarre.” You can read about some of the search profiles in an article at cnet News.com, AOL offers glimpse into users’ lives. Bazaar & scary!

Aside from the titillating glimpses, what does this mean? It’s going to happen again. What is privacy? What are our privacy rights? What is the difference between privacy in the U.S., The Netherlands, an aboriginal village in Southeast Asia, or most typical business endeavors?

There are some pretty important conversations going on, and teachers, as much as (if not more than) anyone else, should be engaged in these conversations. Blogging, wikis, and other new web applications seem ready-made for these conversations — but what do teachers talk about in your teacher’s lounge?

I know that a lot of teachers are engaged in book-reading clubs. Is there some way that we might expand this?

What do you think?

2¢ Worth!

Technorati Tags: blogging, newstory, warlick

At the workshop in Southeast Texas this week, the question came up several times about how to get readership on your blog? How do you get your blog out there? How do you become a part of the conversation that I keep talking about? I talked through a number of strategies with the group, but realized that I have probably never written this down. So here goes, some tips on getting your voice out there.

• Write and write and write. This was the advice that I received, and it worked. Even though people aren’t reading initially, just keep writing — and they will come.
• Read and comment. Find bloggers who are talking about the same issues you are, and comment on their ideas. In most blogs, you are asked to type your URL when you post a comment, and that URL is linked to your name. Use your blog address for the URL, and it provides a link to your blog.
• Read and blog. If what you have to say about another blogger’s ideas is more involved or dramatic, then write it in your blog. Be sure to link to the entry you are commenting on. Then post a comment on the entry you read with an introduction, and point (link) readers back to your blog for the complete story.
• Register your blog on Technorati. It is a bit of a technical endeavor, but probably worth an afternoon of self-teaching.
• Put your blog address on your business card, and hand it out. Add your blog address on your e-mail signature file.
• Attend blogger meetups. Chances are there is a group of area bloggers in your local who meet monthly. Attend some of the meetings. They probably do not blog the same issues that you do, but there is much to learn from people who are looking in other directions.
• Think of your blog as your magazine, your company, publishing house. When you talk with people you do not know, introduce yourself as Bob Snodgrasse of Snodgrasse News. Or, I’m Bob Snodgrasse, and I publish a blog called Snodgrasse News.

Other tips?

Technorati Tags: blogging, warlick, web2.0, web20

Ared Den, suggested an interesting analogy for the new Web in his (her) cleverly titled blog, “Clever Title Goes Here.” In Web 2.0 and The Curies, Den writes:

I was sitting on one of my new rocking chairs this afternoon reading a biography of Marie Curie in search of an excerpt to share with my students tomorrow when I was reminded of David Warlick and Web 2.0. Here is what I read,

Marie and Pierre could have become rich by claiming all rights to working with radium. But instead they shared their information, telling how they purified the element, and more. They believed scientific research should benefit everyone. Marie and Pierre may also never have dreamed how valuable radium would become.

Does anyone else see any connections?

I comment on the blog with something like this:

What Marie and Pierre did, in sharing what they were learning with others, certainly exemplifies elements of Web 2.0. In a Web 2 environment, worked by people who have adopted a read/write information attitude, this is how people learn and work — in conversation. They share, build, and grow knowledge and value.

Additionally, what the Curies and other collaborators learned and shared could be mixed and remixed in a variety of ways by virtue of the fact that the information stays out there, in the network, able to be attracted together in many ways, based on many combinations of idea tags. The network of ideas can be reshaped into new conclusions and new knowledge, arranged by talented information artisans.

The important question is, “How do we help students to become information artisans, within an education governance that seems interested only in making students information sponges, who merely recite what they’ve learned, when squeezed?”

Thanks for the “conversation” 😉

Technorati Tags: web2.0, dopa, web20, warlick

It’s early morning, in a hotel in Houston, and on my way back home for a week in the office. Glorious.

Yesterday, I posted an off-the-top-of-my-head list of barriers that still prevent many educators from integrating Web 2.0 technologies into their teaching and learning practices. The one that seemed to take traction was the over-filtering of school and district networks.

I like the analogy that Neil Winton shared, that we are facing the same problems that occurred with the rise of the printing press, that the elite power factions in society did not want the masses to have the power that information enables. It took me back to pre-gutenberg, when they chained books to the walls of the libraries. Network filters and other “policies” prevent us from making full use of the technology, crippling the opportunities and resulting in a HUGE waste of money.

Travis, makes the point that the digital domain is here to stay, and its where our children go to communicate. Social networks are their future, and to ignore this is down right arrogant. What do schools look like to their students, when they block learners from the information they need, rather than provide it?

How do you loosen the networks? I think that you have to get together as a team of teachers and administrators, and write a plan for exactly how you want to implement it. You want to have your teachers write a weekly blog about their classroom activities. You want students to start turning in their assignment in blogs so that not only do teachers assess them, but their fellow classmates do as well. You want to set up a network where students in your classes communicate with students in other parts of the world to exchange culture information and impressions.

Then you meet with the technology department. Make sure that it is the entire department, not just the network/filter person, including the director of that department. Go in their understanding and express politely in every way that you appreciate the enormous opportunities that have been provided for you and your students by new technologies and that you appreciate their work in making these technologies reliable. Then describe as passionately as you can these things that you want to do and the sites you need unblocked and that you need to have better response on unblocking future sites. Actually, teachers should be able to unblock sites on their end.

I think that it is also important to UNDERSTAND that these people work for you. Their job is to support your instructional practices. Be polite, because they are your partners. But they work for you. If that doesn’t work, then you work your way up. It’s worth the fight. But always treat everyone you work with as your partner. Be as persistent as you are in the classroom. But don’t burn bridges.

2¢ worth!