blogging

Students blogging

Just a snippet of the post in Spanish below...

Today I met with Camilo, the student who has been helping me with the school website. By the end of the meeting he asked me if he could have a blog in the school website. I didn't doubt. Yes! Of course! I said. I immediately granted permissions for him to blog. He posted his first entry tonight... and some unforeseen problems came through... Today I also told him about the Sites teachers will be making, some changes in the school curriculum and the laptops we're getting for students. He blogged about that, of course, and some of it, especially the curriculum change is something the Principal and Academic Director should inform the students of, not a blog post froma peer that still has some incomplete information... possibly confusing. News fly in the blogosphere, doesn't it? The post was up for about two and half hours before I read it, and I could see some people got the chance to read it... some 15 visitors to the site. The decision wasn't easy, but I put it in the moderation queue and modified the settings so blog posts submitted by students will always be moderated before publication. Teachers and administrators will be able to override this setting, but students' posts won't be immediately publised. I feel like somewhat of a fascist, but can't see a way out. I don't think I'll have to censor students (only extreme cases would merit this), but this taught me something I should have known... I won't be able to predict or control what is published in student blogs (or any other for that matter)... sure, that is the point... I'll have to be more careful with the things I tell students before they are "officially released" and think a little more about how to manage student blogs. I don't like the hypercontrolling scheme I put up with every post requiring moderation. It think I'll have to discuss this with the principal. Students should have blogs. That's my standing. They should be allowed to talk about whatever they want... they should be able to leak information (as "real" journalists do)... but just for now, before school begins, I can't priviledge one student, however hard he has been working to get the website up and running. I guess I'm saying I'll allow unmoderated blog posts once school starts. I feel really fascist by unpublishing Camilo's post.

 

Blogs y más en el colegio

Esta semana empezó como una carrera. Así suelen ser las primeras semanas en los colegios. En dos días he corrido como hacía tiempo no lo hacía (literalmente, corrido de un lado para otro). Profesores nuevos necesitan que sus usuarios para la Intranet y el correo electrónico funcionen y algunos de ellos son bastante novatos en el uso de computadores. Además, hemos tenido algunos problemas preparando los sistemas que deben usar para la planeación anual y esto ha complicado las agendas. Hoy tuvimos que mover toda la agenda de dos días por esas demoras, en parte culpa mía (del mi departamento) y en parte de procesos que no están funcionando bien entre distintas áreas. Espero que mañana a primera hora pueda estar listo, pero estoy temiendo que no lo esté, pues no me han llamdo a confirmar y todavía no puedo entrar al sistema... cruzo los dedos.

Entre los cambios a las agendas, hoy hice la presentación del Plan de Tecnología que estaba preparando para mañana. Le faltaban detalles, pero estaba casi lista y pude hacerla. No funcionó perfectamente, más que nada porque el video beam no tiene demasiada luz ni el salón donde se presentó demasiada oscuridad, pero funcionó bastante bien. Recibí unos cuantos buenos comentarios. Los profesores quedaron muy contentos con la idea de que les paguemos alguiler por los portátiles personales que usan para su trabajo y con poder comprar un computador a través del proveedor que nos venda los que compraremos para los estudiantes. Creo que así les podemos conseguir muy buenos precios.

FInalmente... el tema del título... hoy estuve reunido con Camilo, el estudiante que me ha estado ayudando con la página web del colegio y me preguntó si le podía dar permiso de crear su blog en la página del colegio. No lo pensé dos veces y le di permisos de crear entradas de blog. Hace un rato vi su primera entrada, ¡qué pilera! Aunque excelente, me generó algunos problemas... en su post cuenta chismes que aún no queremos divulgar a los estudiantes sobre cambios en el colegio y algunas de las nuevas consas tecnológicas. Son noticias que deben oir de la rectora y directora académica y no como un chisme... Las maravillas del mundo de los blogs. Las noticias vuelan en la bogosfera. Para evitar problemas puse su blog en la cola de moderación mientras empieza todo y puede soltar las "chivas"... no fue una decisión fácil y me siente un poco facho.

Blogging at GLM

One of the strategies I am putting together as part of the schools ed. tech. plan, is to have a few people blog. I am sure this will improve communication with parents and students, and withing the staff. The bloggers will initially be the principal, vice-principals and academic director. Aweome people to accept doing this in the first place. I will, of course, also keep a blog in the school website.

My first blog post welcomed the department heads last week and I have just posted my second entry. I used the chance to point everyone to Randy Pausch's last lecture. I just recently read he died two weeks ago. It is an awesome lecture if you haven't had the change to check it out. You can find it in my blog at the school website.

Wordpress broken

My dad's blog, www.reflexionesdsi.org, broke today. It has all updates and was fine yesterday. I had to completely reinstall. Thankfully fue database was intact. Dunno what happened. -Posted from iPhone via Wordpress app.

Good and Bad Bloggers -> me

I'm not a good blogger.  A good blogger writes daily or close to that. At least once a week. I come and go, posting a lot sometimes, and disappearing for weeks. However I do try to blog, and have made a decision. It probably won't make me a better blogger, but I'm gonna split up my blog into two different ones. Vita-cora (this one) will continue as my personal blog, and I'll install another for everything that would fall under education. I still don't know what I'm gonna call that blog, but I'll get onto it soon. I'll start moving old posts as soon as I get it installed.

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