Blog Juice for Educational Technology

Sometimes you’re a victim of ennui.

You’ve read all about this and all about that. You’ve enjoyed the ravings of various radio madmen. You’re debating with yourself the merits of hating Islamic jihadists. You’ve watched one too many crime procedurals on television starring men with carrot red hair that so cleverly out the criminal. Luckily there is some eye candy designed to satisfy the male gaze. You wonder whatever happened to the acoustic mirror, Lacanian analysis, Derrida’s essay that worked as a forward to a book on the Wolf Man, why Wittgenstein was so eager to fight for the Austrians. You notice how the rain has ruined your neglected patio furniture. You wonder why you have a patio.

Remember my jots to del.icio.us dilemma? Well thanks to Tom Hoffman, my jots bookmarks are migrating to my del.icio.us account as I write this. (Up to 189…probably a few hundred more to go.) I IM’d him this morning asking where to go for help, and after unsuccessfully trying to guide me through the process (I was hacking with Python, oh yeah, uh huh…) he generously just ended up doing it for me. It’s nice to know that though he tires of my “blogvangelism” from time to time (at least I think that was directed at me) he’s willing to help out a fellow blogger in need. (And get me thinking.) I know I’ve said this before, but to a person, the people who I have connected with and met face to face through blogging over the past few years have all been just really good people. (224 and counting…) And I really feel like I’m part of a smart, creative, respectful community which is not always the case in the blogosphere. (243…244…245) So, while there is still something to be said for Jots, the community over at del.icio.us is too strong to ignore. And so part 1A of my information transformation is complete.

Sincere thanks, Tom.

So I’ve been giving a lot of thought as to how best to organize my info life and make it more manageable. Let me first say that the hardest part about all of this is trying to ignore the “I WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING THAT’S GOING ON” voice in my head, the one that says every deleted Bloglines subscription is surely going to have all sorts of interesting nuggets tomorrow that I’ll never see. (I’m an info hoarder, what can I say.)

Step 1 was to chop out 50 feeds at Bloglines just now. (Ouch!) Step 2 is to come up with some really focused search feeds that will let me chop out about 25 more. Now’s when the fun starts… I’ll let you know what I come up with.

Secretary Spellings spoke at the National Congress of American Indians in Tulsa and at the convention of Texas school boards and administrators.

Excerpts from an article that appeared in the Topeka Capital-Journal (Kansas).

Big news today is President Bush’s nomination of Judge Samuel Alito of the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals to serve on the Supreme Court. AP write-up on Newsday.com, here. New York Times, here and MSNBC here. Lots of NPR coverage here.

Unlike John Roberts or Harriet Miers, Judge Alito has a long judicial record, one that will provide lots of grist for the confirmation mill. Here are a few NSBA summaries of Alito opinions in school law cases: this one striking down a district’s policy against harassing speech; this one striking down a district’s decision not to distribute materials from religious groups to students; and this one finding that a district court failed to accord “due weight” to a special ed hearing officer’s decision that a district should have approved the transfer of a student who had been badly bullied to another school district.

Alito has taken a strong interest in cases involving free speech and religion, and his rulings will be of comfort to social conservatives who had misgivings about Miers. Look for discussion of his decisions in employment cases, too. These will be of interest to public school boards and administrators, who (for now at least) collectively employ and manage more Americans than even Walmart.

Employees at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill seem to be making use of a fledgling program that makes laptop computers available for loan. The project started earlier this year, when the university’s chancellor used money from a…

Employees at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill seem to be making use of a fledgling program that makes laptop computers available for loan. The project started earlier this year, when the university’s chancellor used money from a…

The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to intervene in a legal dispute between the University of California system and Microsoft. Microsoft had petitioned the court to explain how patent law affects software code on the hard drives of computers that…

The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to intervene in a legal dispute between the University of California system and Microsoft. Microsoft had petitioned the court to explain how patent law affects software code on the hard drives of computers that…

A new survey by the Michigan Association of School Boards points to a public who believes school board member training should be mandatory, and further, who is more likely to vote for a candidate if he or she receives training. A sizable 80 percent believes that training is necessary once board members are elected so they can fulfill their responsibilities under the law.

Many new school board members start their service with the best intentions but soon find out that educational issues are extremely complex. But not all states recognize the need for mandatory training. A review last year by NSBA found that only 18 states required training for local board members.

“Without effective training, it is difficult for boards to focus on student achievement issues, let alone adopting a balanced budget, hiring a superintendent, approving policies, and keeping up with the ever-changing legislation and school law,” said Kathy Hayes, MASB’s co-director of leadership development.

Life without a laptop isn’t easy when you’re an undergraduate at Columbia University. But according to the Columbia Daily Spectator, between 10 percent and 20 percent of students at the institution don’t own computers — and for some students, the…

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about Blogmeister, so I thought I’d just mention some statistics. There are currently almost 1500 teachers using blogmeister, managing more than 11,500 student accounts. There are users in 46 states of the U.S. and 37 countries. So far, more than 22,000 articles have been posted […]