Wes Fryer shared a great slideshare tutorial today that helps answer the question: Why Twitter?
Since I seem to get the question all the time, I thought I would share it here, too!
Month: September 2008
Another blog to nowhere…..
That was the comment one of our history teachers relayed to me from one of her students after she introduced blogging to them.
Yes, we've been trying to get the students to blog, to share their thoughts online. For good reasons, I believe. But the student's concern is valid. If no one reads the blog or comments, why bother? In this teacher's case, the blogs are political, and the students would benefit from having others participate.
Yet, my colleague Jennifer uses blogs for different purposes–one is to create a year-long record of a student's thoughts about what he or she has read. I use blogs for sharing within a class, to extend our classroom conversations. But at this point, I'm not sure I want "outsiders" commenting on my ninth-graders blogs. Both reasons are valid, yet I have heard others argue absolutes: blogs should never be used in a closed environment or without the ability to comment.
So how do we create community and audience for beginning bloggers? I'm not the first to talk about this. And I don't necessarily have any innovative ideas.
In both cases above, students within a class are able to read and discuss each others ideas. I do know that if we treat the blog like homework that gets turned in
and checked off in the gradebook, where only the teacher sees it, then
students probably won't see any value.
What makes a class blog a success? Any ideas? And what about students who express real discomfort with having to put their ideas out there?
Choices
What a day. Today was our kick-off, the first face-to-face meeting with school teams in our Powerful Learning Practice, led by Sheryl Nussbaum Beach and Will Richardson.
Actually some of us began last night with dinner at the Kenmore Inn, and it was a fun opportunity to meet, chat, and think about what this year would bring.
This morning began with Will's keynote (with Skype calls from friends in Australia) and then Sheryl's explanation of the year's plan and process. The afternoon brought us RSS, Ning, and Eluminate.
As I arrived home today exhausted but excited about all that we had shared, I had dinner to make, a dog to walk, mail to sort, and appointments to set.
What did I do? Login to Google Reader and start checking my lastest RSS feeds instead.
Why?
Because I can. Well, my dog wasn't thrilled, but I could make the choice because I don't have children at home, I"m not coaching this year, and I love what I do.
As I said to Sheryl as I was leaving, I am passionate about the research, the sharing, and the learning. So today was an amazing day for me.
I do recognize that many teachers there have other obligations. And their passion may show in other areas: cooking, gardening, or woodworking. I want to take care this year to protect people's time (and my own) and maintain a balance so we don't lose this enthusiastic start to the year.
But tonight, I'm staying online.
Sorry, Beau. There's always the backyard!!
Uploaded on July 31, 2008
by ♥Sage
Zonbu? No thanks…
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 …
"works for you — there's nothing to install, no software to configure,
and nothing to update — ever. Your computer is always up-to-date with
the latest software releases and always free of malicious viruses,
spyware and malware."
and nothing to update — ever. Your computer is always up-to-date with
the latest software releases and always free of malicious viruses,
spyware and malware."
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.
Not a lone voice
We are in week two of the new school year, and I don't feel like I'm hitting my stride yet. Oh, I'm enjoying my classes, and most of the kids are responding positively. They are blogging, and I'm reading. We are sharing ideas, and they are politely taking notes and following my directions.
But I want more.
I haven't been able to step aside yet. I am so used to leading, pointing, asking, questioning…and waiting for a response. In this Introduction to Genres course, we have been reading and
discussing short stories with the goal of each student writing one
himself. Yet, I am eager for them to find a reason this matters beyond the requirements of the syllabus. I want to find a way to make this process more meaningful for them…to help them understand the value in a good story, the value in knowing how to tell a good story.
Tonight, I was having trouble falling asleep, so I decided to catch up on my RSS feeds. With my new teaching position, I just haven't had much time for anything other than my classes lately.
I was zipping through the feeds when suddenly Presentation Zen caught my eye:"Obama delivers a speech like a symphony." Could it be? A Dan Pink reference?
But wait, there's more.
"What makes a good story?" Garr Reynolds asks. Story? As in "how to tell?" I read on.
"In a great story — and in a great speech — there is ebb and flow, there is silence and there may be thunder."
He references Bruce Block's book, "The Visual Story," writing:
"the author
uses these three basics of story — Exposition, Climax, Resolution — to
show the link between visual structure and story structure. To
illustrate this link in terms of intensity he shows a story-structure
graph; the story intensity refers to the amount of conflict that builds
in the middle. Generally, a good story grows in intensity as it
progresses. Block draws a line that is jagged because a story's
intensity will rise and fall even though the overall direction of the
intensity is building up and toward a climax. The resolution, says
Block, "…is a place for the story to finish…the audience needs time
to recover from the intensity of the climax and reflect on the story's
conflict."
See, that's what we're doing in class right now. Reading short stories and learning about the form and structure because we–that is, the students–will each write their own stories, based on a common theme and characters."
uses these three basics of story — Exposition, Climax, Resolution — to
show the link between visual structure and story structure. To
illustrate this link in terms of intensity he shows a story-structure
graph; the story intensity refers to the amount of conflict that builds
in the middle. Generally, a good story grows in intensity as it
progresses. Block draws a line that is jagged because a story's
intensity will rise and fall even though the overall direction of the
intensity is building up and toward a climax. The resolution, says
Block, "…is a place for the story to finish…the audience needs time
to recover from the intensity of the climax and reflect on the story's
conflict."
See, that's what we're doing in class right now. Reading short stories and learning about the form and structure because we–that is, the students–will each write their own stories, based on a common theme and characters."
In his post, Reynolds dissects Obama's speech and explains how it much like a good story–of the best kind. Here, he jots down his ideas:
And there they are. The terms we have been using in class.
In real life. Used to talk about a powerful story.
So, I will be sharing this with them, and I'll play some of the acceptance speech in class, too–not for political reasons, but so they know their teacher isn't the ONLY one talking about exposition and conflict these days.
What do you think? Will it matter to them?