EduBlog Insights

Next generation web - the future’s closer than you think… or is it? by Sali Earls is an article in i.t.wales. It’s an interesting read but this paragraph caught my eye:

Whatever your business, be aware that amongst today’s users of MySpace, Flickr and YouTube are the consumers and developers of tomorrow, who will come to expect an evolving and dynamic web experience. If you can’t offer that to them they will find someone who can.

This article had a focus on business. Our business is the school. Are we aware? Are we providing an evolving and dynamic educational web experience? Will our Senators let us?

I’m still busy emailing Senators. Sigh….

I got a response from Senator Johnny Isakson in reference to the letter I had sent about DOPA. While I appreciate that he did respond (I only got an automated response so far from my other Senator, Saxby Chambliss), I wish he had responded to some of my concerns. The gist of his letter:

I am pleased that this bill has passed the House of Representatives and look forward to supporting it on the Senate floor. 

Depressing…. So I am once again back at the drawing board. I plan to write many more Senators. I hope you will do the same. Contact Senators by Sept. 5th. Check out YALSA president Judy Nelson ’s reminder of what we can continue to do to help let Senators “get educated” about the troublings parts of DOPA.

I can’t believe that Miguel and I have the same idea popping around in our heads but glory be, it is so! His post, “eduflicks.org”, made me soar! It’s funny because I was talking to Lani earlier this week about this very same thing. I was bemoaning the fact that publishers were not thinking of students and the use of the great social networking tools in our classrooms. I told her how I wished I had the know-how or connection to create some of these tools. Of course I don’t but it is possible and just thinking about it makes me soar!

If we educators spend time blogging about the fact that we need help and elaborate on what a difference it could make in our schools, that could be the first step! So let’s have at it!

There’s much to think about. I think if Flickr appealed to their users to consider sharing some images with educator tags we would have access to some wonderful pictures. Perhaps even a special license could be created simply for educational use. Maybe we could have tags that started with a capital E and the Flickr folks could set it up so only those tags could be used for searches. We would not want it to be so controlled that it lost its effectiveness. We just would want the inappropriate pictures NOT available. How to do this? What could make it happen? Would it still be free? As I said, lots to think about!

I don’t think we need a poll. We need posts – blog it! Let’s hear it for the kids! Let’s try to get their attention! I just have to believe that some of these smart software publishers will rise to the occasion!

Following up on my previous post, here is my first rough draft for justifying Flickr. I’m moving on to Furl but wanted to post this for any reactions. I am so thankful for Derek Baird’s article on “The Promise of Social Networks.” I borrowed many, many of his well-written ideas. Thank-you Derek!

Flickr is an easy to use site that supports constructivist-based learning. It gives students the ability to access photographs of extraordinary quality. We plan to create photosets (albums) for class use. Notes can be placed directly on photos. This lends itself to a myriad of curriculum objectives that can be taught and reinforced. Tagging can be used and students ‘tag’ each photo with a label or keyword, thus learning a relevant skill that is so important in today’s world. Students learn organizing and categorizing skills, as well as more efficient and time-saving ways to search for information. Slide shows can be created. All of these subsets can be designated as public or private. Students can clearly learn copyright issues and it will be more relevant to them as the learning will be first-hand and applicable to them. It gives us a way to share our classroom work with parents and others. Projects can be worked on that simultaneously develop writing, technology and most importantly collaborative learning skills.

Another key feature is the integration of Flickr with most of the major Weblog services. As you know we have been exploring the use of weblogs with students for the past four years. Students have been recognized in national magazines and articles. Students and instructors would be able upload photographs into their Weblog with a click of the “Blog This” button. Flickr also provides RSS feeds so that students and teachers alike can syndicate their photos into their course Web logs,. RSS feeds also allow the teachers to have the student’s projects delivered directly to their aggregator, saving the teacher the time-consuming task of having to enter each student’s URL in order to view his/her work.