Final Blog... About Blogging

As far as my class assignment goes, this blog can be considered "complete," but the cool thing about the internet is that information never has to be "finished." Years later, this blog will still exist, and I can choose to pick up where I left off. And between now and then, anyone can stumble across this blog, comment, and inspire other potential readers to consider using blogs for whatever reason.

For instance, I think as a teacher, I'll use blogs with my students the way I've seen other teachers do it. I'll ask my students to pick a beat to follow and blog about. It will let them build their writing skills and they can interact with other bloggers, who will in turn give tips to my students and could link them to related, interesting articles or information sources.

The best tip I have for those who wish to blog: be consistent and original. Try to come up with a topic that applies to a lot of people but not many consider to put in print. Try to stay close to that topic. Think of it as a theme, and align all blogposts to it.

Technology Penalty

In case you've never heard of it, a thing called a "technology penalty" exists in today's culture. It's a term referring to "the price you pay" for using technology when doing it the old-fashioned way is easier, quicker, or more efficient. For instance, some people use their phones or PDAs as a personal organizer, scheduling events on a hand-held electronic. Some people prefer to use calenders.

For me, using technology just to use technology is rarely an option. I always prefer to watch my TV offline - commercials are just part of the experience, and you're forced to stay put and not multi-task, giving you a real sense of enjoyment. The internet is great for getting a hold of someone, but if picking up the phone will make it happen faster, I'm going to dial that number instead of shooting an e-mail.

A recent advancement in technology that really makes me scratch my brain is ordering food online. I'm sorry, why is this needed? Sure, if you're inebriated, watching the virtual pizza get delivered to your house might be amusing, but do you really need resort to the internet to order take out? Calling a restaurant has got to drastically reduce the risk of your credit card being charged more than once - or of the information being stolen in the first place. Plus, you know your order is in, and not just assumed to be in, because the website forwards you to a "order placed!" window.

I'm trying to think of a way I use technology where it would be easier to forgo the wires, but I'm coming up short. Oh, I play Guitar Hero - should I maybe just be learning the real thing??

Twitter in the Second Grade

This week, I was assigned a few articles for reading and was asked to respond to one of them for my (sort of) weekly blogpost. If you'd like to follow along with the class, the article can be found here. Apparently, two second grade classes have been twittering back and forth across Maine: One class is located in Bangor, and the other is in Greene.

I don't mean to sound like a snob or anything... but the article reads more like a plug for twitter than an expose on the creative teaching some educators are doing. "There are lessons in grammar, spelling, math," the article says, but what exactly are these lessons?? I'd be really interested in hearing how a teacher conducts a math lesson through twitter, which you can only use 140 characters in a single update. Are they sharing links to math lessons? Doing multiple updates with single steps in each new "tweet"?

The teacher makes a valid point about teaching writing being hard. It is hard, and it is necessary to try a variety of ways to transfer these skills to students, because so much of communication is done through writing. I wish the reporter had said more about what kind of lessons are being taught using twitter. I'd be interested in adapting those lessons for a high school age. But as it is, I can't think of how I'd get my English classes online with this site... Maybe if their twitter was a place to record links they've found? But then, isn't that what a blog is for??

Hmm...

Blogcasting?

In case you live under a rock or in outer space maybe, technology has created these really cool easy-to-make internet radio shows called podcasts. Basically, any one with sound editing software and a microphone can create a podcast about whatever topics they want. Some people discuss Harry Potter; some people teach foreign languages; and some people give grammar lessons. Really, the sky's the limit when coming up with an idea for discussion.

So I wonder... how many of these podcasts are blogs? Is there anyone out there keeping a log in audio format? Are there people narrating their personal thoughts like a radio show soap opera?

LiveJournal, another blogging website, provides an option for its users to record their posts. Simply call a telephone number on any line, and you can talk for as long as you like. A recording of your monologue will then appear in your journal for any followers to listen to. LiveJournal is more of a social networking site, where people treat their blogs as diaries and make friends through the internet, but if they've thought about audio posts, someone else must have too... right?

I've yet to come across such a blogcast. Perhaps my next post will be in MP3 format!

Blog about anything!

While contemplating the possibilities for today's post, I wandered through blogs online. I googled "cool blogs" and was linked to one blogger's top 10 humor blogs. It occurred to me that you really can blog about anything, when I found this gem: The Clothes that Got Me Laid.

Though updated infrequently, the blogger "betoma" writes a Sex and the City like column about her fashion and dating life. I'm not sure if it's complete satire - though her comment on the pull-out method of birth controls being effective makes me wish desperately that it is - but it's an easy read. It's smart funny, something I don't always see these days. I'll share with you this particular commentary on dating:

“Why is it the man’s job to make the first move? If the woman is interested, shouldn’t she be liberated enough to pursue her desires? Shouldn’t men and women share the burden of risking rejection?” I say no. I say that, all other things being equal, it’s the man’s job, for the following reasons:

(1) Being seduced makes the woman feel sexy and desirable

(2) She already acted kind of forward by inviting you over to her house; the ball’s in your court, dude

(3) It’s less confusing when there’s a protocol

(4) Because, ummmmmm… it just is. I dunno why. It’s a manly skill, like changing the oil in a car, or pounding a nail into a board or something.

I'm not saying this girl is a brilliant philosopher, who ever she is, but she certainly that you can make a blog out of any topic. And I'm sure that if what you're really passionate about is dental care, there's a blog out there for you. And if there isn't, maybe all of the other tooth enthusiasts will follow a blog you write about proper oral hygiene. You could be the JK Rowling of oral health literature.

Do's and Don'ts!

Cyberstalking is a very serious issue, meaning that it's not a form of assault to be taken lightly. Your blog could be an instrumental tool in someone finding you out there in the real world - and it could be someone you don't want finding you.

Here is a list of blogging "dos" and "don'ts" meant to help keep bloggers safe. The list is compiled by Sharon Housely, the managing marketer of FeedForAll (an RSS feed software). She reminds all blog authors that they should have aliases, to be careful of personal content, and to avoid posting pictures. She doesn't want bloggers to disclose where they will be (at Comic-Con this weekend in LA, for example). And she wants us to keep in mind that there are readers who don't show themselves on our blogs. (Hello, all of you lurkers! How you doin'?)

What I do right: I've created an alias to post under. Well, Woody is my real live nickname, but it could be a lot of people's nickname. I've refrained from sharing too many personal details about myself. Only a few of my likes and dislikes in pop culture have made it to my "about me", and other than the school I attend, there isn't much else that would indicate where I am in the world.

What I do wrong: I posted a picture of myself. Oops. The picture might not be the most detailing photo, though; my giants sunglasses and Minnie Mouse ears sort of detract from revealing who I really am. And of course, I also revealed my school. I feel, however, that "UMaine" is ambigious enough of an area that no one would be able to come to my school and track me down. But, maybe I'm wrong. Please, no one try this!!

Plain and simple, our bloggers need to remember to blog smart. We know what's appropriate for the Internet and what isn't, and we need to remember that age does not make us immune to such dangers as being kidnapped by someone following our online activity. And being female? Makes me totally more likely to be a victim. So be careful what you say about you and your community in your blogs. Maybe the key to staying safe is pretending you're still 13, and everyone is out to get you.

"Why

In this article in The Atlantic, Andrew Sullivan writes about why he blogs - literally taking us on a journey through time and over seas. He discusses the importance of blogging in the journalism world. There's little retroactive editing or retractions. It's quicker; it reaches a greater number of people. And it makes for more effective journalism.

We blog now—as news reaches us, as facts emerge. This is partly true for all journalism, which is, as its etymology suggests, daily writing, always subject to subsequent revision. And a good columnist will adjust position and judgment and even political loyalty over time, depending on events. But a blog is not so much daily writing as hourly writing. And with that level of timeliness, the provisionality of every word is even more pressing—and the risk of error or the thrill of prescience that much greater.

As you can imagine, it also creates more competition in journalism. Blogging makes getting "scooped" that much easier. And because my entire class is using this blogging site for free, I know that "internet journalism" will likely be cheaper than print journalism. Several of my peers are getting four year degrees here at the University of Maine in journalism; I bet very few of them are preparing for a digital career.

It's a bitter thought, but if anyone can be read on the internet, why are my peers wasting their money on this technical education? How soon before blogs overtake newspapers completely? I guess the silver lining is that a lot more people will be able to work from home nowadays...

Pro blogging?

As part of this blogging assignment, I'm supposed to list three "professional" blogs somewhere on this site. And it got me thinking - what exactly is a professional blog?

We all know what a professional is: an expert in their field. Generally we equate degrees with professionals. But no one is getting a degree in blogging at this university, and on the Internet, anyone can claim to be an expert.

For instance, in Alan November's book "Web Literacy for Educators," he tells the story of the 14-year-old "lawyer" who gave free legal advice to anyone who e-mailed him to ask for it. Maybe this kid was really smart. Maybe he'd watched a lot of "Judge Judy" and picked up enough legal mumbo jumbo to navigate the court systems. He was even smart enough to make up a degree to give him seemingly legitimate credentials. Dozens of people fell for his joke.

Sure, we can investigate to see who owns a blog, but really, what degree gives you right to be "more of an expert" at something than anyone else? Some doctor graduated last in his class. Just because you're a teacher, that doesn't mean you're any good at teaching.

Blogs are also meant to be accessible to everyone, so that every person can publish his or her own voice. If you only listen to the professional blogger voices, aren't you sort of dishonoring the system?

I'm not saying listen to every post that every person creates. Certainly some ideas have more merit than others. I'm just saying, "professional" is a term that has no place in the blogging world.

Edutopia: A week in the life...

For class, I was asked to read this article. It discusses an alternative teaching style where students stay after school to continue learning skill sets they'll need for life (like language skills), but also to experience the "real world". Citizen Schools gives students in the middle school a chance to intern at local businesses, potentially seeing what it's like to be a doctor, lawyer, an engineer, etc.

The program gives pre-teens the self confidence they need to do well in school and fosters an academic mindset, reducing a student's risk for dropping out. Last year in a communications class, I learned that recent studies have given teachers a better chance of predicting which students will drop out by the age of 9. This means that we can target students at risk of not completing their education and help them however possible to stay in school. The Citizen Schools program is helping to do just that.

It's clearly a valuable way to to be spending our schools' resources. So why aren't more schools doing it? Or, more radically, where are the schools that teach only in this style of learning? If we make learning more hands on and a more welcoming environment, maybe we can eliminate students dropping out all together.

I know there are those who need the structure of traditional schooling, but what's wrong with mixing and matching? Why can't during three days of the week, our students be taught as per usual, and then during the remaining two, make room for internships and hands on learning? There's got to be a compromise somewhere. We don't need to cater to one learning style or the other.

Introductions

There's no real interesting way to do these things, unless you're exceptionally witty or creative. Which I have my moments, but let's face it; introductions are always fairly stale. I can't splash as much as I'd like to.

So real simply, I go by Woody. Like in Toy Story. Not in a dirty way. I'm a student at the University of Maine, majoring in secondary education and concentrating in English. So, one day, I'll be a high school English teacher. This does not you give you permission to correct my grammar. I am always right. Always.

This particular blog was created for an Education and Technology class. We've been asked to respond to articles and concepts within a blog to help us become more familiar with what they're like. My teacher is rather obsessed with Will Richardson's book "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms." I can see why. It's an interesting, easy read and comes from real-life examples.

Most likely, this space will be used to review other blogs and blogging techniques and uses. For instance, look forward to hearing about Clay Burrell's blog Beyond School. It will also have some class assignments within, because that is really the purpose for this blog. No doubt, my readers will mostly be students within the class and family members who are so obsessed that they follow just to feel closer to me. However, if you do not fall into either category, please leave me comments! I'd love to hear your suggestions and insight to my writings.