web2

Students blogging

in blogging, edtech, education, web2

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.

 

Video

in education, students, video, web2

I got to this video thanks to Vickie Davis' blog. She is putting together a list of videos that show some of the things we technology advocates-enthusiasts preach. This video seems to be inspired in the M. Wesch's "A vision of students today". Here's the video: (thanks Vickie, I'm looking forward to the full collection).

 

 

A Vision of K-12 Students Today, by bjnesbitt, on Youtube

Twitter

in education, twitter, web2

Hmmm... ¿cómo se expica qué es Twitter? Es un sitio donde la gente manda y lee mensajitos de texto sencillos y cortos. Nancy lo describe así en su Wiki. Aún estoy descifrando qué tipo de mensajes son "apropiados" y "relevantes", pero en general veo que son mensajes cortos. Si fuera sólo una página más para visitar no le vería mucho sentido. ¡Otro sitio de la "red social" de la web 2.0 donde toca inscribirse y estar pendiente... otra comunidad! Ya es suficiente con mantener dos blogs, leer otros cuantos, leer listas de correo, leer blogs de amigos, revisar las últimas fotos de Flickr. He leído gente quejándose porque nadie está haciendo el pegante que pega todo eso junto. Twitter no lo es, pero se deja pegar más fácilmente. Puedo ver, en una barrita en mi Firefox gracias a un programita llamado TwitterFox (gracias Diego!). Se ve así: Twitter window Es medianamente interesante. Según el wiki citado es algo así como mantenerse al día de amigos y seres queridos, mantener comunicación permanente con colegas... Veo lo que la gente que decido "seguir" (¿un poco big brotheresco?) escribe. Para que tenga mayor sentido debe seguir más gente. Desconocidos me están siguiendo. ¿Un poco miedoso no?