Blog IT

DV for Teachers

Digital video resource blog for educators.

N.J. teacher makes blogs a staple at high school

-by Valerie Strauss The Washington Post
Blogs rule at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington, N.J.  - thanks to Will Richardson. Richardson, 47, was an English teacher for many years, but now he is the school’s supervisor of instructional technology as well as the author of a new book on Web tools for the classroom. Read full article.

Drag and Drop Blog Usage Tool

A few years ago, Scott Leslie created the “Matrix of Some Blog Uses in Education” and now he reports that it had been remixed into an interactive drag an drop tool. This is an interesting conversation starter about the benefits of blogging from an instructor as well as student viewpoint. As Scott says:

…I can see this being a useful tool to use with faculty or others in workshops to brainstorm different uses they can make of blogs and blogging and help them see it as an activity and process, not an end product (which was a main goal of the ‘matrix’).

Word 2007 to feature built-in blogging

-by Jeremy Reimer, ars technica
Joe Friend, a lead program manager (Microsoft's term for a person who creates the specifications for software that programmers implement) has posted an entry on his blog regarding an interesting new feature being implemented for Word 2007: direct publishing of blogs to the web from within the program. Read full article.

A space on the web that we control

-Steve O'Hear, The Guardian
The idea is simple but powerful: give students a personal space online to pose questions, publish work in progress and link to and comment on relevant resources. It also gives them a way to find and link up with other learners with similar interests to create an ad-hoc learning community. Read full article.

College Students to Blog Commodity Classic

- eMedia Wire
Two college students pursuing careers in agricultural communications will receive some on-the-job “new media” training at Commodity Classic, March 1-4 in Anaheim, Calif. The Monsanto Company is sponsoring the students’ trip as a part of its Future Ag Journalist Fellowship. Read full article.

Learners as contributors - the end of the industrial model

"I've just read one of the best posts that shows how the Internet changes everything in education; many just don't realise it yet."

And I could say the same thing about his post. Read his entry here.

Helping teachers keep up with technology

- Sandra Guy, Sun Times
Professors are being challenged as never before by their technologically savvy students. Yet colleges are being squeezed as never before by cuts in federal and state aid. So how do schools keep teachers on the cutting edge? A consortium of private liberal arts colleges in Illinois is using a grant from a charitable arm of SBC, newly renamed AT&T, to ensure that teachers receive technology training they can use in the classroom. Read full article.

Why Blog?

- Frank Catalano, THE Journal
Will your Web log add to the world of knowledge? In 12 days of blogs, our expert demonstrates the myriad benefits this new form of communication holds for teachers, students, and parents alike. WHAT ARE WE BLOGGING ABOUT? The headline from an August 25, 2005, article in the San Francisco Chronicle says it all: “Thanks to new media, we have all become messengers— but what are we saying?” Technology is allowing anyone with a computer, the ability to type, and an Internet connection to become a published author—of sorts. Web logs, or “blogs,” are the latest way that students, businesses, and many others are publishing their musings. Read full article.

Education bloggers vie for national recognition

by Roger Riddell, eSchool News
Got an education-related blog you'd like to share with others? Know of any good education blogs we should be aware of? Then nominate them for consideration in the first-ever eSchool News "Best of the Education Blogs" contest for the chance to be recognized by eSchool News in print and online. Sponsored by Discovery Education, the Best of the Education Blogs program will honor the elite in each of the following four categories: Best Classroom Instruction Blog, Best K-12 Administration Blog, Best Higher-Education Management Blog, and Best Education Theory Blog. Read full article.