Announcing the official launch of ThinkTime

Welcome to my new node in the education blogosphere! I can't think of a better time to launch than Blog Day 2007.

As part of a summer-long project to abate my Google addiction, I have moved from Google-owned Blogger to WordPress.com. The fact that another "Analog Girl" had taken up residence at Blogger only hastened my decision. The tenor and tone of her blog is quite different from my own, and, not wanting any room for confusion, I thought it best to pull up stakes and relocate.

While I will miss being "Analog Girl" and sharing association with the wonderful song performed by Texas singer Guy Clark, I am excited about the new title. It was born out of a recent post in which I lamented the loss of "think time" in the sometimes frenetic atmosphere of the read/write web. (Teacher trainers and those who trade in pedagogical catch-phrases will recognize the term.)

The name change also signals a shift in attitude -- a gradual coming to terms as these transformative tools become more and more integrated into my personal and professional practice.

I will end this post in typical blog fashion, by crediting an author who in turn credits another author. Mike John, a graduate student in Wales, posted this insightful description of blogs, which he found at Wired magazine's blog network:

Blogging is not about making friends, it’s about expressing yourself truthfully and in the process providing some hitherto unforeseen insight into an important issue or topic of the day. If you make friends, that's a bonus. Real bogging is about shedding the politics and letting it all hang out. Sometimes that honesty yields less than enjoyable results, but other times the honesty of certain blog posts can inspire us all into action or thinking about important issues in a different light.

What do you think?

technorati tags: blogs edublogs google

Announcing the official launch of ThinkTime

Happy Blog Day 2007!

From the BlogDay web site:

BlogDay was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest. On that day Bloggers will recommend other blogs to their blog visitors. With the goal in mind, on this day every blogger will post a recommendation of 5 new blogs. This way, all blog readers will find themselves leaping around and discovering new, previously unknown blogs.

So, here are five interesting blogs:

1. Mr. Harrington is an IT coordinator in Wales and the author of Ddraig Goch Blog. I have been reading his posts for a few weeks now, and in that short time he's pointed me to some excellent web-based tools and resources. His blog reflects playful exuberance. You gotta love someone whose user name on del.icio.us is "podfather"!


2. I recently stumbled upon Melanie McBride Online while poking around Technorati. Melanie is a Toronto-based writer, producer, and educator. Her thoughtful and well-constructed post titled "Wired students, wired appoaches" caught my eye, as did this 2002 review of a Marshall McLuhan biography, which is also linked to on her site. Her passion for interactive social media shines through. It's good to learn how folks in other cultures and communities are pioneering the tools of the read/write web.


3. News from the Church Down the Street is a collection of memories, musings, reflections, and reviews by my good friend Audrey, who also happens to be a minister. I highlight her blog not to proselytize -- I just want to highlight that young people entering ministry are networking and supporting each other through blogs in the same manner as the education community. It's truly wonderful.


4. Sivacracy is one of the first blogs I started reading regularly, mainly because its author, Siva Vaidhyanathan, is an old college buddy of my husband's. Following his undergrad years at the University of Texas-Austin, Siva went on to earn a reputation as a leading media historian and authority on intellectual property law in the digital age. In his books Copyrights and Copywrongs and The Anarchist in the Library, he explores the technology-fueled tension between grassroots creative production and the big-time digital gatekeepers. His blog is an excellent resource for keeping up with these issues; it also includes a lot of left-leaning political posts and humorous tidbits. If you are interested in popular culture, technology, creative license, and bashing the Bush administration, check out Sivacracy.


5. I found Michael Zimmer's blog via Sivacracy and started subscribing to it because of his decidedly cynical stance regarding all things Google. The tag cloud on Zimmer's home page says it all!

That's what I think. . . happy reading!

technorati tags: blogs BlogDay2007

Happy Blog Day 2007!

Goodbye, Analog Girl!

Dear friends and random readers,

Please visit my new blog, ThinkTime. Thanks!

Goodbye, Analog Girl!

Fantastic!

What a treat to be recognized as a good commenter by Dr. Scott McLeod of the Dangerously Irrelevant blog!

If you would like to recognize someone for fantastic contributions on others' blogs, give him or her a fantastic commenter badge, or design your own.

Thank you, Scott!

technorati tags: blogs edublogs

Fantastic!

Fantastic!

What a treat to be recognized as a good commenter by Dr. Scott McLeod of the Dangerously Irrelevant blog!

If you would like to recognize someone for their contributions on others' blogs, give them a fantastic commenter badge or design your own.

Thank you, Scott!

technorati tags: blogs edublogs

Fantastic!

Education as process, not endpoint

A friend of mine who is a parent and former educator sent me a link to a New York Times article about efforts in that city to accommodate the needs of potential drop-outs. Using a combination of Gates Foundation grant money and taxpayer dollars, the educational leadership created special "transfer schools" with a menu of services to help older-than-average, at-risk students earn their credits without the stigma that drives many to drop out.

In New York City, that's nearly one quarter of the high school student population.

My friend is intrigued by the concept of making it easy for young people to re-enter high school for a fifth or even sixth year, as am I. More than half of our city's twelve high schools are on the state's high priority list due, in large part, to less than 90 percent graduation rates, and the high school in our neighborhood is just a few years away from a comprehensive overhaul if it cannot demonstrate measurable improvement.

Our local paper recently ran an editorial calling upon school officials to "redouble" their efforts and start "thinking outside the box." Perhaps they should take a look at the reformulated schools in New York, Oregon, Boston, and elsewhere.

But my friend, who is active in local school politics, laments that the current climate created by No Child Left Behind, would make it hard to promote a fifth year of high school, at least in our community.

I agree. As long as arbitrary benchmarks, outcomes, and end-of-course tests are the only officially sanctioned measures of learning, it will be hard to convince the public to bankroll a school that treats learning as a process, not endpoint. Everyone is so brainwashed by the century-old, assembly line model of education.

The assembly-line mentality maintains a tight grip, even on those who benefit from progressive reforms. I was saddened by the story of 21-year-old Camry Petillo in Queens who "finished" her program in June but decided not to attend her graduation: “I didn’t feel like I had a lot to celebrate,” she said. “I knew I should have been up there years ago.”

And what about 19-year-old Sunil Ragoonath, who, after completing coursework this summer, said, "At last, I think I can say I'm done."

It's not him; it's the system that programmed him to think of education as a march toward a finish line.

What do you think?

technorati tags: school reform student engagement

Education as process, not endpoint

Education as process, not endpoint

A friend of mine who is a parent and former educator sent me a link to a New York Times article about efforts in that city to accommodate the needs of potential drop-outs. Using a combination of Gates Foundation grant money and taxpayer dollars, the educational leadership created special "transfer schools" with a menu of services to help older-than-average, at-risk students earn their credits without the stigma that drives many to drop out.

In New York City, that's nearly one quarter of the high school student population.

My friend is intrigued by the concept of making it easy for young people to re-enter high school for a fifth or even sixth year, as am I. More than half of our city's twelve high schools are on the state's high priority list due, in large part, to less than 90 percent graduation rates, and the high school in our neighborhood is just a few years away from a comprehensive overhaul if it cannot demonstrate measurable improvement.

Our local paper recently ran an editorial calling upon school officials to "redouble" their efforts and start "thinking outside the box." Perhaps they should take a look at the reformulated schools in New York, Oregon, Boston, and elsewhere.

But my friend, who is active in local school politics, laments that the current climate created by No Child Left Behind, would make it hard to promote a fifth year of high school, at least in our community.

I agree. As long as arbitrary benchmarks, outcomes, and end-of-course tests are the only officially sanctioned measures of learning, it will be hard to convince the public to bankroll a school that treats learning as a process, not endpoint. Everyone is so brainwashed by the century-old, assembly line model of education.

The assembly-line mentality maintains a tight grip, even on those who benefit from progressive reforms. I was saddened by the story of 21-year-old Camry Petillo in Queens who "finished" her program in June but decided not to attend her graduation: “I didn’t feel like I had a lot to celebrate,” she said. “I knew I should have been up there years ago.”

And what about 19-year-old Sunil Ragoonath, who, after completing coursework this summer, said, "At last, I think I can say I'm done."

It's not him; it's the system that programmed him to think of education as a march toward a finish line.

technorati tags: school reform student engagement

Education as process, not endpoint

Feeling the "disconnect" firsthand

Some illuminating comments followed recent posts by Will Richardson (on managing RSS) and Gary Stager (on posting timely comments). These discussions have helped me frame my thinking on best practices for engaged learning in the edublogosphere, specifically, and in learning communities in general.

Richardson calls the new technology "disruptive" in the way it shakes up the process and places so much responsibility back on the learner.

Confession: some days I long to be a passive, mouth-breathing student again!

It's a juggling act between reading my feeds, trying to compose thoughtful and timely responses to others' great ideas, documenting insights and "a-ha's" on my own blog, and managing the demands of a full-time graduate course load at a bricks-and-mortar university.

What is troubling (and ironic) is my "linking" and "lurking" in the blogosphere is a totally self-driven, self-directed effort that runs parallel to my "formal" education within an IT master's program. Maybe I wouldn't be so scattered if these two endeavors intersected more often instead of existing on separate planes.

Seldom, if ever, the twain shall meet.

I am gradually finding ways to integrate the two, such as the independent study I described here in this blog a few days ago. But other than some notable exceptions in my core area where the professors effectively utilized Moodle and TappedIn to stimulate student engagement and raise accountability, my classes have largely mirrored my undergraduate experience nearly (gulp) 20 years ago. Even with universal availability of Blackboard on our campus, this very expensive course management platform is grossly underutilized by most instructors, from what I have witnessed.

In "Wired students need wired approaches," Melanie McBride writes that ". . . today’s students are disengaged because teacher training programs and schools are invested in traditional instructional and curriculum paradigms that are deeply disconnected from a web 2.0 generation."

I am a reasonably confident, self-aware adult learner.

If I am feeling the disconnect, imagine how the "wired" youth in our elementary and secondary schools must feel!

That's what I think.

technorati tags: blogs edublogs student engagement instructional technology

Feeling the "disconnect" firsthand

Feeling the "disconnect" firsthand

Some illuminating comments followed recent posts by Will Richardson (on managing RSS) and Gary Stager (on posting timely comments). These discussions have helped me frame my thinking on best practices for engaged learning in the edublogosphere, specifically, and in learning communities in general.

Richardson calls the new technology "disruptive" in the way it shakes up the process and places so much responsibility back on the learner.

Confession: some days I long to be a passive, mouth-breathing student again!

It's a juggling act between reading my feeds, trying to compose thoughtful and timely responses to others' great ideas, documenting insights and "a-ha's" on my own blog, and managing the demands of a full-time graduate course load at a bricks-and-mortar university.

What is troubling (and ironic) is my "linking" and "lurking" in the blogosphere is a totally self-driven, self-directed effort that runs parallel to my "formal" education within an IT master's program. Maybe I wouldn't be so scattered if these two endeavors intersected more often instead of existing on separate planes.

Seldom, if ever, the twain shall meet.

I am gradually finding ways to integrate the two, such as the independent study I described here in this blog a few days ago. But other than some notable exceptions in my core area where the professors effectively utilized Moodle and TappedIn to stimulate student engagement and raise accountability, my classes have largely mirrored my undergraduate experience nearly (gulp) 20 years ago. Even with universal availability of Blackboard on our campus, this very expensive course management platform is grossly underutilized by most instructors, from what I have witnessed.

In "Wired students need wired approaches," Melanie McBride writes that ". . . today’s students are disengaged because teacher training programs and schools are invested in traditional instructional and curriculum paradigms that are deeply disconnected from a web 2.0 generation."

I am a reasonably confident, self-aware adult learner.

If I am feeling the disconnect, imagine how the "wired" youth in our elementary and secondary schools must feel!

technorati tags: blogs edublogs student engagement instructional technology

Feeling the "disconnect" firsthand

The peril of posting ploddingly

Sorry, sometimes I revert to my past life as a freshman English teacher, and I just can't resist a cheap alliteration.

My brain has been occupied these last several days -- with a culminating project for an independent study I undertook this summer, with a new inquiry I am about to begin this semester, and with the onset of a new fall schedule.

I've been quietly ruminating and collecting my thoughts on some issues and subjects (some of which, incidentally, surfaced in my readings of others' blogs).

Consequently, I've been writing, responding, commenting less. It's indeed a balancing act; a vital intellectual life depends on both silent contemplation and active engagement with other thinkers.

But sometimes it seems the prevailing attitude in the blogosphere regarding posts and comments is: "Ready, fire, aim!" What happened to "think time"?

Gary Stager touched on this phenomenon recently in "What I Hate About Blogging, Part I." I gained a number of insights, particularly from the comments that follow his prickly post. (There I go again!)

technorati tags: blogs edublogs

The peril of posting ploddingly

The peril of posting ploddingly

Sorry, sometimes I revert to my past life as a freshman English teacher, and I just can't resist a cheap alliteration.

My brain has been occupied these last several days -- with a culminating project for an independent study I undertook this summer, with a new inquiry I am about to begin this semester, and with the onset of a new fall schedule.

I've been quietly ruminating and collecting my thoughts on some issues and subjects (some of which, incidentally, surfaced in my readings of others' blogs).

Consequently, I've been writing, responding, commenting less. It's indeed a balancing act; a vital intellectual life depends on both silent contemplation and active engagement with other thinkers.

But sometimes it seems the prevailing attitude in the blogosphere regarding posts and comments is: "Ready, fire, aim!" What happened to "think time"?

Gary Stager touched on this phenomenon recently in "What I Hate About Blogging, Part I." I gained a number of insights, particularly from the comments that follow his prickly post. (There I go again!)

technorati tags: blogs edublogs

The peril of posting ploddingly

Tracking blog readership

Yesterday I received an email with "computer nerd" in the subject line. It was from a good friend and fellow blog author, who incidentally is also a minister.

Namecalling is hardly an attribute I would ascribe to the open, collaborative venue that is the read/write web, nor, for that matter, is it a behavior I would associate with someone whose sworn mission in life is Christian outreach. But I digress. . . .

Within my friend's email was this question: Can you tell me how to track my readership, who follows my blog through an RSS feed?

A true "nerd" would have known the answer; I did not. What is totally cool and decidedly un-nerdy is I sort of had an idea how to find the answer. (Just a few months ago I wouldn't have had a clue what she was talking about.)

For privacy reasons, I am not sure you can ever really know exactly who is lurking on your blog. I recently read somewhere that "really simple syndication" got its name because it's easy and unintrusive -- you shouldn't have to forsake personally identifiable information just to tune into someone's blog.

Anyone reading this post who can speak knowledgeably on the issue of blogs and privacy, please chime in!

My advice to my friend is to check out these free services: MyBlogLog, Technorati, and FeedBurner. Membership with these sites is free and once you've registered your blog with them, you can start receiving almost instantaneous data on your blog traffic.

MyBlogLog provides a cool widget that allows you to see who is visiting your page, but it only works with visitors who are themselves registered with the MyBlogLog community.

Technorati is a giant blog search engine and a good way to build traffic on your blog if you tag and ping. I don't believe you can track RSS subscribers with it, but once you claim your blog on Technorati, you will know who is linking to your pages. Technorati tracks links and uses them to assign authority ratings and ranks. I currently have an authority of 3 and am ranked 1,803,855, thankyouverymuch!

FeedBurner is a quick registration process, but it takes a while for the service to generate data about your blog. (On the Internet, "a while" means more than one hour.) Once FeedBurner is done doing its thing, you log in, click the "analyze" tab, and see feed stats. I currently don't have any subscribers, so I can't tell you what these stats look like. Of course, that can all change if you click on the handy little widget I just installed to the left. Do it now! You know you want to. . . .

technorati tags: blogs RSS

Tracking blog readership

Tracking blog readership

Yesterday I received an email with "computer nerd" in the subject line. It was from a good friend and fellow blog author, who incidentally is also a minister.

Namecalling is hardly an attribute I would ascribe to the open, collaborative venue that is the read/write web, nor, for that matter, is it a behavior I would associate with someone whose sworn mission in life is Christian outreach. But I digress. . . .

Within my friend's email was this question: Can you tell me how to track my readership, who follows my blog through an RSS feed?

A true "nerd" would have known the answer; I did not. What is totally cool and decidedly un-nerdy is I sort of had an idea how to find the answer. (Just a few months ago I wouldn't have had a clue what she was talking about.)

For privacy reasons, I am not sure you can ever really know exactly who is lurking on your blog. I recently read somewhere that "really simple syndication" got its name because it's easy and unintrusive -- you shouldn't have to forsake personally identifiable information just to tune into someone's blog.

Anyone reading this post who can speak knowledgeably on the issue of blogs and privacy, please chime in!

My advice to my friend is to check out these free services: MyBlogLog, Technorati, and FeedBurner. Membership with these sites is free and once you've registered your blog with them, you can start receiving almost instantaneous data on your blog traffic.

MyBlogLog provides a cool widget that allows you to see who is visiting your page, but it only works with visitors who are themselves registered with the MyBlogLog community.

Technorati is a giant blog search engine and a good way to build traffic on your blog if you tag and ping. I don't believe you can track RSS subscribers with it, but once you claim your blog on Technorati, you will know who is linking to your pages. Technorati tracks links and uses them to assign authority ratings and ranks. I currently have an authority of 3 and am ranked 1,803,855, thankyouverymuch!

FeedBurner is a quick registration process, but it takes a while for the service to generate data about your blog. (On the Internet, "a while" means more than one hour.) Once FeedBurner is done doing its thing, you log in, click the "analyze" tab, and see feed stats. I currently don't have any subscribers, so I can't tell you what these stats look like. Of course, that can all change if you click on the handy little widget I just installed to the left. Do it now! You know you want to. . . .

technorati tags: blogs RSS

Tracking blog readership

My new "textbook"

One of my delights as an undergrad was the twice annual visit to the campus bookstore to buy my texts. My fellow English majors probably have similar fond memories: armloads of paperbacks with a few Norton anthologies thrown in for good measure. As a financial aid recipient, my checking account was always fat at the beginning of each new semester, and money seemed to be no object as I piled blue books, spiral-topped notebooks, and highlighters onto the checkout counter along with the semester's readings.

Now, as a graduate student with a kid and a mortgage, the book-buying ritual isn't nearly as fun, but thanks to a recent post at Weblogg-ed, I have a new way of thinking about my required reading for this semester and beyond.

To borrow Will Richardson's metaphor, one of my "textbooks" this fall will be my RSS aggregator.

As described in my previous post, I will soon begin an independent study on best practices for computer-mediated, peer-to-peer mentoring for new and novice teachers. In addition to poring over traditional, "scholarly" resources, I plan to use RSS to channel the best-of-the-best blog posts on the subject. The aggregate is indeed a text to be studied, with the added benefits of being totally topical, customizable, and (the best part) free.

This means tweaking my RSS aggregator to regain some much needed focus. I'm in the process of dropping some feeds (if only temporarily) to make room for others that may be more fruitful.

For example, I've recently added subscriptions to blogs by Christopher D. Sessums and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach.

Who/what am I missing?

technorati tags: RSS blogs mentoring research web2.0 professional development

My new "textbook"

My new "textbook"

One of my delights as an undergrad was the twice annual visit to the campus bookstore to buy my texts. My fellow English majors probably have similar fond memories: armloads of paperbacks with a few Norton anthologies thrown in for good measure. As a financial aid recipient, my checking account was always fat at the beginning of each new semester, and money seemed to be no object as I piled blue books, spiral-topped notebooks, and highlighters onto the checkout counter along with the semester's readings.

Now, as a graduate student with a kid and a mortgage, the book-buying ritual isn't nearly as fun, but thanks to a recent post at Weblogg-ed, I have a new way of thinking about my required reading for this semester and beyond.

To borrow Will Richardson's metaphor, one of my "textbooks" this fall will be my RSS aggregator.

As described in my previous post, I will soon begin an independent study on best practices for computer-mediated, peer-to-peer mentoring for new and novice teachers. In addition to poring over traditional, "scholarly" resources, I plan to use RSS to channel the best-of-the-best blog posts on the subject. The aggregate is indeed a text to be studied, with the added benefits of being totally topical, customizable, and (the best part) free.

This means tweaking my RSS aggregator to regain some much needed focus. I'm in the process of dropping some feeds (if only temporarily) to make room for others that may be more fruitful.

For example, I've recently added subscriptions to blogs by Christopher D. Sessums and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach.

Who/what am I missing?

technorati tags: RSS blogs mentoring research web2.0 professional development

My new "textbook"

Independent study, fall 2007

This fall I will begin an independent study/inquiry under the supervision of Dr. Mary Anne Blank in the department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education, University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

The topic of inquiry is how to use 21st century skills and applications to support/enhance/facilitate Knox County Schools' new teacher induction and mentoring program here in East Tennessee. The program, which just completed its first full year of systemwide implementation, has received resounding endorsement from participants as well as suggestions and feedback for growth and improvement in 2007-08.

What follows is a statement of the problem with questions, arranged using the classic K-W-L format.

What is Known or Agreed Upon:

• On mid-year and end-of-year program assessments, some novice teachers in special areas (such as art, music, etc.) indicated that their mentoring experience would have been more meaningful had they been matched with an experienced teacher in that same area. However, some campuses simply do not have building-level staff to support one-on-one mentoring in special areas. When mentors and novices cannot be in close proximity to one another, e-Mentoring may be a possible solution, such as the ENDAPT model used for interns and alumnae of the William and Mary teacher preparation program.
  
• Teachers of color have also indicated an interest in mentoring activities adjusted to meet their needs. Again, this may be a problem addressed through some sort of computer-mediated communication, such as a networked learning community that transcends classroom walls and even campus borders.
  
• Through my own experience as a mentor and mentoring team leader at Fulton High School, I know that our meetings were critical for successful implementation of our building-level action plan. I also recall that our busy schedules did not permit numerous after-school meetings, so we limited ourselves to monthly face-to-face sessions, which were not always sufficient for effective administration of the program on a day-to-day basis. In between meetings, we stayed connected with email. Email, however, does not afford the level of connectivity currently available through networking sites like Classroom 2.0 and TappedIn. In these online communities multiple users form special interest groups that collaborate and problem solve through threaded discussions, forums, and virtual "meeting rooms."

What I Want to Know:

• Clearly, there is much potential for enhancing Knox County Schools' mentoring and induction program with the integration of 21st century tools and applications. Each of the aforementioned groups might benefit from a computer-mediated intervention. Which group would be a good starting point?
• Once a focus group of mentors and/or novices is identified, what tools, applications, resources/best practices will best suit their needs?
  
• What issues, in terms of technical support and buy-in, have to be addressed before a viable prototype can be developed and piloted?
• What issues can be addressed through training? What will the training component look like?
• How will my own virtual professional development activities (TappedIn, Classroom 2.0, EdTechTalk, EdubloggerWorld) inform this inquiry?
  

What I Learned:
This section of the inquiry will become more transparent as I begin my research. Look for more installments in the coming weeks and months!

technorati tags: instructional technology research professional development web2.0 networking mentoring

Independent study, fall 2007

Independent study, fall 2007

This fall I will begin an independent study/inquiry under the supervision of Dr. Mary Anne Blank in the department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education, University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

The topic of inquiry is how to use 21st century skills and applications to support/enhance/facilitate Knox County Schools' new teacher induction and mentoring program here in East Tennessee. The program, which just completed its first full year of systemwide implementation, has received resounding endorsement from participants as well as suggestions and feedback for growth and improvement in 2007-08.

What follows is a statement of the problem with questions, arranged using the classic K-W-L format.

What is Known or Agreed Upon:

• On mid-year and end-of-year program assessments, some novice teachers in special areas (such as art, music, etc.) indicated that their mentoring experience would have been more meaningful had they been matched with an experienced teacher in that same area. However, some campuses simply do not have building-level staff to support one-on-one mentoring in special areas. When mentors and novices cannot be in close proximity to one another, e-Mentoring may be a possible solution, such as the ENDAPT model used for interns and alumnae of the William and Mary teacher preparation program.
  
• Teachers of color have also indicated an interest in mentoring activities adjusted to meet their needs. Again, this may be a problem addressed through some sort of computer-mediated communication, such as a networked learning community that transcends classroom walls and even campus borders.
  
• Through my own experience as a mentor and mentoring team leader at Fulton High School, I know that our meetings were critical for successful implementation of our building-level action plan. I also recall that our busy schedules did not permit numerous after-school meetings, so we limited ourselves to monthly face-to-face sessions, which were not always sufficient for effective administration of the program on a day-to-day basis. In between meetings, we stayed connected with email. Email, however, does not afford the level of connectivity currently available through networking sites like Classroom 2.0 and TappedIn. In these online communities multiple users form special interest groups that collaborate and problem solve through threaded discussions, forums, and virtual "meeting rooms."

What I Want to Know:

• Clearly, there is much potential for enhancing Knox County Schools' mentoring and induction program with the integration of 21st century tools and applications. Each of the aforementioned groups might benefit from a computer-mediated intervention. Which group would be a good starting point?
• Once a focus group of mentors and/or novices is identified, what tools, applications, resources/best practices will best suit their needs?
  
• What issues, in terms of technical support and buy-in, have to be addressed before a viable prototype can be developed and piloted?
• What issues can be addressed through training? What will the training component look like?
• How will my own virtual professional development activities (TappedIn, Classroom 2.0, EdTechTalk, EdubloggerWorld) inform this inquiry?
  

What I Learned:
This section of the inquiry will become more transparent as I begin my research. Look for more installments in the coming weeks and months!

technorati tags: instructional technology research professional development web2.0 networking mentoring

Independent study, fall 2007

Convergence cabin

I am almost finished reading Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins. I know, I know, it was on everyone's reading list last year, but I am a latecomer to all of this!

The book is an exploration of the rapid change in our media landscape brought about by two competing and hopelessly intertwined forces, what Jenkins calls "the top-down force of corporate convergence and the bottom-up force of grassroots convergence" (p. 169). If you read my earlier post on Dewey, you might recall the phrase: "the times are out of joint."

Anyway, as I am reading this book each night, I am telling my husband Ron, "You really need to read this!" I sense that Jenkins' thesis will have some relevance to Ron's line of work as a director of a major branded network web site.

Well, while I only read about convergence culture, Ron is living it. He just sent me the link to his site's newly launched section, DIY Blog Cabin 2007. While perhaps not as sexy as the American Idol, Survivor, and The Matrix examples presented in Convergence Culture, Blog Cabin truly is a study in media convergence down to the series' tagline, "Watch DIY Network build what you blogged."

Henry Jenkins, take note!

technorati tags: Henry Jenkins media convergence blogs

Convergence cabin

Convergence cabin

I am almost finished reading Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins. I know, I know, it was on everyone's reading list last year, but I am a latecomer to all of this!

The book is an exploration of the rapid change in our media landscape brought about by two competing and hopelessly intertwined forces, what Jenkins calls "the top-down force of corporate convergence and the bottom-up force of grassroots convergence" (p. 169). If you read my earlier post on Dewey, you might recall the phrase: "the times are out of joint."

Anyway, as I am reading this book each night, I am telling my husband Ron, "You really need to read this!" I sense that Jenkins' thesis will have some relevance to Ron's line of work as a director of a major branded network web site.

Well, while I only read about convergence culture, Ron is living it. He just sent me the link to his site's newly launched section, DIY Blog Cabin 2007. While perhaps not as sexy as the American Idol, Survivor, and The Matrix examples presented in Convergence Culture, Blog Cabin truly is a study in media convergence down to the series' tagline, "Watch DIY Network build what you blogged."

Henry Jenkins, take note!

technorati tags: Henry Jenkins media convergence blogs

Convergence cabin

"Circuits of Cool/Digital Playground"

MTV, Nickelodeon, and Microsoft commissioned an international study of youth and technology, and with 18,000 surveyed, it is being heralded as the largest study of its kind. The report is titled "Circuits of Cool/Digital Playground."

I haven't seen or read the actual study. I learned about it through a United Business Media wire story posted at CNNMoney.com and elsewhere. Judging by the companies involved with the study and the general tenor of the wire article (big emphasis on data's marketing value), I am surprised more folks in the edtech arena haven't picked it up.

The statistics and cultural insights generated by the study are really interesting, but it's a little discomforting when big business and media giants are the ones generating the data for their own use.

There is one quote by an MTV veep that I keep turning over and over in my head: "For kids and young people, 'tech' isn't a separate entity now, it's organic to their lives," said Fahey Rush. "They are completely focused on functionality."

Is this just a carefully crafted way of commercializing "web 2.0"? Does that diminish the value of the study's findings?

technorati tags: kid culture, youth, research, commercialism, technology, web2.0

"Circuits of Cool/Digital Playground"

"Circuits of Cool/Digital Playground"

MTV, Nickelodeon, and Microsoft commissioned an international study of youth and technology, and with 18,000 surveyed, it is being heralded as the largest study of its kind. The report is titled "Circuits of Cool/Digital Playground."

I haven't seen or read the actual study. I learned about it through a United Business Media wire story posted at CNNMoney.com and elsewhere. Judging by the companies involved with the study and the general tenor of the wire article (big emphasis on data's marketing value), I am surprised more folks in the edtech arena haven't picked it up.

The statistics and cultural insights generated by the study are really interesting, but it's a little discomforting when big business and media giants are the ones generating the data for their own use.

There is one quote by an MTV veep that I keep turning over and over in my head: "For kids and young people, 'tech' isn't a separate entity now, it's organic to their lives," said Fahey Rush. "They are completely focused on functionality."

Is this just a carefully crafted way of commercializing "web 2.0"? Does that diminish the value of the study's findings?

technorati tags: kid culture, youth, research, commercialism, technology, web2.0

"Circuits of Cool/Digital Playground"