Blog Juice for Educational Technology

I’ll agree with Clarence…Flock is my new browser of choice, and that just after a few hours of playing.
It took me absolutely zero time to configure it so I can blog right to my Word Press site, save bookmarks in del.icio.us, upload pictures to Flickr and (thunder and lightning) read my feeds all in the […]

David Jakes, who I admire greatly despite his poor taste in Chicago baseball teams, has come to the conclusion that he doesn’t like Tablet PCs. Why? Basically because he thinks they are nothing more than a glorified ink note taking technology. Much like he eschews my Cubbies for the White Sox, he misses the point […]

I’ll say this, putting this machine together the past few days has really made me realize just how appy the Web is getting. Today’s find, care of Tim, is Thinkfree which is basically a Microsoft Office online (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) that uses Java to replicate what used to be on the desktop. (Right now, I […]

Chris Harris pointed to Google’s new Notebook app which at first blush is a bit like OneNote (without the inking) for the Web. In fact, it might even be better simply because of the share-ability and easy publishing. It’s oh-so-easy to snip stuff and to start pages of topical notes. (See Chris’s example.) As he […]

There are thousands (millions?) of new Web tools coming online every day it seems, and thanks to TechCrunch and Tim Lauer, I think I do a fair job of keeping up with the most interesting ones. MyStickies is one of those tools that I think has some cool thinking behind it, and one that I can see immediate application to the classroom.

It’s a Firefox extension that basically allows you to create Sticky Notes on the fly, tag them, and archive them with links back to the original page. So say I’m doing some research on the ways in which schools are trying to control this new Web and I find a salient paragraph in that Wall Street Journal article I referenced yesterday. I just highlight the text, ALT-drag a MyStickies notebox over it, and a sticky pops up with the highlighted text already included. At that point, I can add my own notes/reflections, and then tag the sticky under any number of headings. When I go back to my MyStickies dashboard, all of my notes are displayed along with links back to the original page, sortable by tags or the sites themselves. In the near future, I can add friends to the process…the obligatory pinch of social goodness.

The downsides:

Our Tablet PC pilot keeps rolling along, and we’ve been collecting some regular reflections from our teachers that I thought might be interesting to share. Let me just say that personally, I think the tablet technology is potentially transformative for teachers, and as you’ll see if you read all the quotes, it’s been transformative for many here. Now I know that we are extremely fortunate to be able to test this model (Tablet PC, wireless Internet access, wireless ceiling mounted LCD projectors), and we’re hoping to expand it to most if not all faculty next year should things continue to go well. The creativity that inking allows, the “never have your back to the students” mobility that wireless connectivity allows, the abilty to save and share the work you do on the tablet, and the hand-off-ability of giving it to students to show their work renders a lot of other technologies (i.e Smart Boards) pretty irrelevant. It’s been a treat to watch.

So anyway, here are a few teacher comments, and you can read a bunch more excerpts if you like.

–To tell you the truth, I feel like I am a better teacher since I have acquired such wonderful technology.

–I love this model and canÂ’t wait to get to class each day. It makes each lesson unique, even when I am just creating notes, or showing a PowerPoint.

–IÂ’ve found that one of the best things about the tablet is the increase in student participation.

–I am finding that the tablet has become almost necessary in order for me to complete my lessonsÂ…Finally, I am relieved when I remember that if this model is not implemented next year, we all get to keep these awesome tools that I feel have enhanced my teaching, my organization, and most importantly, student learning in my classroom.

–Still, I am sometimes suspicious that my dear tablet is occasionally possessed by the devil (and I’m not referring to the Regan-like swiveling head)Â… Hall duty is paradise now instead of banishment; I must get 10x the work done. I grade and and enter into GradeQuick immediately, work on PowerPoints, research online, check my email, work with other teachers, etc. Additionally, I feel like a constant tablet commercial: everyone stops by to ask questions and ask where they can get oneÂ…Although the tablet occasionally creaks and moans and rattles, all in all it’s been a treat. I consistently feel empowered.

So, ironically, Userland is building in even more flexibility for teachers and students in it’s 9.6 version due out soon. CEO Scott Young says:

This is an important issue for many educators using blog technology in the classroom and revolves around the ability to protect and insulate the student’s work from criticism - especially the destructive kind - before its released to the class or the school in general. As such the teacher needs the ability to review a students work and comment / advise before its published. This iterative process may require several cycles before the work is ready for prime time. While an editorial oversight process is pretty different from the way most blog software behaves, its crucially important for academic blogging applications.

So for Manila 9.6 we will provide the ability for a Managing Editor to moderate and approve material before its published to a wider audience. On a site with this feature enabled, all items the students create will be “pending” items. Pending items can only be seen and edited by the creator and the Managing Editor. To simplify the process of collecting and reviewing “pending” items, they will be collected for review on a single page by the site’s Managing Editor (the teacher). The “pending items” page will list the author, department/category, date created, date last edited and by whom, a checkbox to delete the item, and a button to “publish” the item to the home page.

Ok, I think I get that. When students are contributing to a teacher-owned site, the teacher can now review what students write before it gets published. But on a student owned site, if the student is a managing editor, there is still no way to do prior review unless the teacher takes the managing editor role on the student’s site and the student is given a lesser editorial role. Get it? I think I’d rather do that a bit differently.

I’m rewriting the Manila documents for my teachers today (if anyone wants a copy of what I come up with, just let me know.) But there is still one thing I won’t be able to add that for a split second when reading Scott’s post today I thought I would:

“And, Manila also allows site owners to moderate comments that are left on the site by approving their publication before they can be seen publically.”

Scott, if you’re listening…

So it’s taken me until now to really start digging into Manila 9.5. I’m starting to set up sites for teachers and students for the news school year, and I’m just realizing how much more Manila can do in terms of determining who sees what and how. It’s going to take some time to play, and I’m already trying to enlist some teacher volunteers to push the envelope a bit for me here, but here are some pretty cool aspects right out of the box:

Is it just me, or is Blogger for Word a pretty big deal? Now would be bloggers don’t even have to open up a blog to post; they can do it all from within a very familiar, spell-checkable environment with just two clicks of a button. Not the most powerful little app, but I think it might just raise the comfort level quite a bit. No? Seems like another step toward the seamless integration of publishing tools into the “normal” work environment.

Pardon the really bad title, but this Skype thing is just way too much fun. Just got off the Skype with Ian Yorston from who Skyped me up from England and sounded like he was just down the road. Earlier today I chatted with Jim Wenzloff in Michigan. And I got contact info for Tim […]