September, 2008

Melissa recently asked me some questions about blogging with students, so I thought I would answer them here. Thanks for asking and giving me an opportunity to share what I do!

-What tool do you use for your
student blogs? Is it secure? I am up against admin that want to make
sure that our kids are safe using blogs and I have to battle with them
not understanding the richness of a read/write web.

It depends upon what you mean by secure, Melissa. I use 21 Classes, which allows me to set up a teacher's blog with links to all the students' blogs. No one but students may leave comments, but anyone may read what they say. I am beginning to see some dialogue back and forth between the students, but this mostly happens when I give them time in class to respond. Also, their blogging to date has been assignment driven. For example, I ask them to respond to a reading or answer a question.

I hope to move to a different form of blogging second semester, when I will give them more leeway. In fact, I hope they will begin using the blog as a place to reflect on class or school issues.

Our entire English department has embraced NCTE's literacy standards that encourage us to use the technology tools that allow us to collaborate, create, and publish in a connected environment. Of course, we do try to protect students' online profile by not using last names or pictures on the site.

- What type of lesson do you do with your students prior to launching the blog? Blog etiquette…etc.?

We typically do at least one session with all Upper School students on "developing a positive online presence," where we talk about the trail of footprints they can leave behind. Before we begin blogging in class, we talk about not using first and last names in ninth grade. (Older students are obviously taught/treated differently.) We also spend time talking about how we respond to one another–and discussing how writing online is different from communicating face to face.

I don't know that I have protected my students from any possible scenario they might face. But I also believe this is the time to use these experiences to teach them how to handle being online. Most are there anyway; whatever we can do to guide them in managing information, connecting and networking with friends and others, and thinking about the kinds of images they are creating for themselves will benefit them down the road.

Common Craft does it again. Check out this video on web search strategies:

When my parents started having trouble with their PC, I found myself  spending quite a bit of time on the phone with them answering questions. Not that I minded. But as you know, it's very difficult to trouble-shoot when you don't see the screen.
"It's asking me to do something," my mother would say.
"Well, what's it saying?" I would ask.
"I don't know, I already clicked and it's gone."
Sigh.
So when I saw Zonbu, the machine that claims to …

What could be better, I thought. Plus, the reviews were strong. The package was this: buy a box for $100 and pay $15 month. The service fee would support the software updates, virus protection, and backups automatically. The biggest benefit, I thought, was that it would all happen seamlessly. No more questions from my parents!

No such luck. Because it is a linux-based machine, the interface was confusing. And there were "questions" because my mother kept calling to ask me why it wasn't "just working" as I claimed it would or what did it mean " to do such and such." She wondered why it didn't "look like" her old machine.

 Finally, after several months, the machine kept freezing, which would prompt a, "it won't let me in!"

 I determined long-distance that it must be a bad wireless router, so I had my parents purchase another. That wasn't it.

Finally I contact Zonbu for support. I was surprised to learn there was no phone support at all–surprised since they were paying $15 month for SUPPORT. We played email tag for a few weeks, but help was not forthcoming. My emails were answered quickly, which was positive, but the advice was not.

"Go buy a PS2 keyboard connector to see if that helps."
What? I have a USB keyboard. I need to buy something else?

No thanks, I responded via email. I cancelled my mother's account, paid the $200 fee, and bought her a Dell. At least I can try to speak "Windows" long distance.

Nothing is easy these days.

Lesson learned.