EduBlog Insights

via <Moreover>

“Newspaper editors from around the world will soon be contributing to a co-operative blog run by the World Editors’ Forum, designed to help editors address practical issues of newsroom management and editorial quality.”

This pilot project blog will launch March 1.  The New York Times editors and other newspapers will contribute. The goal is to encourage brain-storming sessions among editors around the world.

One of the topics will be “Is blogging journalism?”

It should be interesting to see how this community develops. The article points to other interesting links.

Joe posts about a developing Internship Weblog at his former school. (Don’t you know they miss him?)  Students are writing in their weblogs about their preferences for internship sites and getting feedback from those who have been through the process.  What a great use of weblogs!  The really neat part was seeing comments by several of his former students who graduated last year.  It doesn’t get much better than that.  The other day one of my former students was commenting on one of my current students weblogs.  That is exciting! 

via <Blogger Blog>

I’m working late tonight and just saw something that made my evening! Former president Jimmy Carter has started a blog to follow his current trip in Africa.

From Jimmy Carter’s weblog:

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, are traveling in West Africa Feb. 2-7, 2004, on behalf of The Carter Center. The purpose of their trip is two-fold: to call international attention to the need to eliminate the last 1 percent of Guinea worm disease remaining in the world and to launch the Development and Cooperation Initiative, a multiyear effort to help reduce poverty in Mali.

Members of the general public can accompany President Carter virtually as President Carter “blogs,” or publishes regular journal entries from the field. Reports will be posted as they are received from President Carter, who will share his thoughts and feelings during his journey in West Africa.

This blog is one I will faithfully follow!  Jimmy Carter is quite a role model and one of my heroes! He never ceases to amaze me with all the good he had done and continues to do…….

The “ups”……..

• offers a writing space full of possibilities

• gives us an audience much wider than our classrooms

• empowers many voices, not just a few

• provides ownership

• creates an element of anticipation and excitement

• allows for sharing and growth of thoughts and ideas

• adds new voices to the mix throughout the process 

• builds a strong sense of community

• makes publishing to the web easy and fast

The “downs”……

• it is time-consuming

• takes a while before the benefit is realized

• issues of privacy

• constraints of public education

• state of technology in many of our classrooms hampers its best use

I am sure there are more of the “ups” and “downs” but that’s just a quick list.  Interesting though, to see how many more ups there are than downs!  Maybe some of you could add to the list!

Now the “ups” as relates to students are not going to happen unless we have educators willing to take the time to make sure that weblogs are used to make authentic and exciting connections to the “established curriculum in schools.”  Maybe one day formal learning will take a turn where time for students to reflect, think, talk, make connections and yes WRITE about what they are learning will be considered absolutely crucial but for now our tightly packed curriculum agendas and testing regime don’t foster that. I know I’m probably in a dream world but wouldn’t it be nice if we as educators were asked to use a tool such a weblogs to foster a love of learning? Think of creative ways to do just that. Then maybe even be given the time to nurture the process. One can always hope…..

Why we should hang in there…..

• gives a voice to students and educators

• fosters needed change in education

• opens up communication flowing in many directions rather than top to bottom

• makes technology relevant and applicable to the twenty-first century

• empowers educators  and students to speak out on things they care about 

And no, I don’t think blogging will save the world of education but I do see it as a way that education could be affected in oh so many good ways. All innovation comes from people willing to take risks, try new things, think outside the box. We also need to take the time to teach students wise and appropriate use of their voices.  Talk to them about how they are representatives of their school and yes, even the world. Weblogs in education can be many different things to each of us but oh the possbilities we can explore.  The potential is huge.  Let’s hang in there!

Tara Calishain of Research Buzz points to Blogarama, a searchable subject index of over 6800 Weblogs sorted by category. Tara’s site always contains good information.  I enjoy reading it.

Have you ever noticed how many of these directories never even have an education category?

Pullen Library at Georgia State now has some blogs!  Library News delivers information about library related news and events to the Georgia State University community. Subject specific blogs, maintained by librarians, are also available They even have a little section entitled About our library blogs. Here’s an excerpt:

Why does Pullen Library have a blog?
The library‚s home page has included a news section for several years. Blog technology enables us to post news online more quickly. We also have a Science News Blog for the science faculty and students at Georgia State University.

Besides the Science News Blog they have a scholarly communication blog, a public health blog, and a social sciences blog.

Plus, they have included a comprehensive list of library blogs. There are lots of interesting links here but one I really like is Bloggers Book Club, a book discussion for 4th through 6th grade patrons of the Roselle (IL) Public Library

Ah, the blog beat goes on!  Nice to see it showing up in more arenas here at Georgia State University.