I think students need to be able to create, post, and comment on blogs. They should have a basic understanding of wikis. I think they should be able to use a digital camera, get the pictures (and video) onto the computer, and do simple editing. I also think they should be able to explain how to be safe online.

Way more sophisticated than you need, and not even the right data, but I saw it yesterday and thought of it when you posted this.

This worked!

Uploading my converted video to youtube right now if you want to see – my username is Thaipulsedotcom and the video is the Malay Pit Viper eating a Mouse… lol – well, that’s what I do here…

Thanks again SO much for helping me out on this conversion issue.

Imagine what classrooms will be like when EVERY teacher not only has the ABILITY but the KNOWLEDGE and DESIRE to respond to situations like these on their own, almost instantaneously (and, of course, have had all the proper approvals…) They will be because they’ve built their personal learning network and have Skype installed. Epic win! Congrats!

-kj-

My concern with student blogging is that the task has been made “schooly.” Are kids doing it to be “strategically compliant” meaning they have a high attention, but low commitment (they do it for a good grade and no real other reason; or is the classes’ participation “ritualistically compliant.” meaning they have low attention and low commitment, and do it because that is simply the assignment, and they are jumping through a hoop–playing a game called school. I suppose if students were allowed to blog on their interest areas, and were able to cultivate a network of like minded readers, then it could be considered a success. But with our heavy emphasis on scores, performance, and standardized tests, I can see teachers using it as an avenue to address those standards that must be taught, thus removing the students’ freedom to explore their interests in favor of using blogs as a means to an end–>addressing tested standards.

I have not seen that many student/classrom blogs that I thought were really all that good. Of course the recent “Alice Project” just goes to show it can be successful. Of course Christian solicited his network to join in the project, making it a global project that was far more than just students blogging too. Perhaps the key is to find an audience for the students’ blogs so that when commenting ensues, the desire to continue based on this intrinsic and motivating feature will continue.

For the reasons above, I have never tried to implement a class of student bloggers, although in my defense, I am not in a classroom, but rather in the school library. I would gladly introduce the idea to teachers and even assist with implementing such a project. I am anxious to see what kind of feedback you get on this. Best of luck. Kudos for getting to present to the PLP. (sorry didnt mean to get so wordy)

That seems very reasonable. Thanks for commenting.

If I am out of town at a conference, I don’t mind tweeting or mentioning my attendance on Facebook or my blog; I have family at home and my husband is well equipped to deal with any and all would be burglars. I do protect my tweets and updates but know that it is not foolproof (or should I say hacker proof?).

However, if we are out of town on a family vacation, I will not mention the vacation until we return (if at all). I don’t want to invite trouble.

Yes, I am using Thinktank.

However, I use a seperate database for thinktank to avoid possibly messing up my WP database due to my own novice tendencies.

Chris