31 Day Comment Challenge Draws to a Close

I loved njtechteacher's reflections on the 31 day comment challenge started by Sue Waters (see their amazing wiki)

Ann says:

"This is something I tend to do as I read blogs and post comments. Blog comments fall into three categories for me: I respond with my feelings on a post, I write to congratulate someone on something they are doing, I am uncertain about what was written about and I leave a question. The use of Cocomment and co.mment both help me see when people respond. This had not always been my practice. It was, looking back, more of a hit and run process."

Commenting is something important to me and I believe has been essential to my own blog. (See How to comment like a King (or Queen)).

Commenting and realizing that you have a voice is so very important. So, as a tribute to Sue today and these amazing women who have coordinated the 31 Day comment challenge (Sue Waters, Silvia Tolisano, Michele Martin and Kim Cofino) -- I ask everyone leaving this post to find a blog (other than mine) and comment right now!

Let's end this well! (oh and mention that you're commenting b/c of the challenge -- it will help people to understand how far reaching this effort has been at building conversation in the edublogosphere.)

tag: comment challenge, blogging, Sue Waters, Silvia Tolisano, Michele Martin, Kim Cofino

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8 Reasons Bloggers Hide Their Blog: A Call for You to share a link to your blog

I love making new friends but for some reason it seems very challenging to find new teacher blogs. As I've talked to teacher bloggers, these are some of the reasons I hear for teachers not sharing their links more openly.

Why I think More Teachers Don't Share Their Blog with Others

1. Humility. I think many teachers are naturally humble and perhaps don't share their blogs outright. They don't want to be misconstrued as just another teacher who is looking for a "ticket out" of the classroom. (I'm happy in the classroom but enjoy a few excursions a year.)
   
   
2. Inferiority. Or, teachers might just feel like their blog isn't good enough. "I'll wait until I'm better at it."
   
   No, you're fine now, jump in! Don't have an inferiority complex. I've gotten in trouble many a time for saying, "I'm just a teacher" and don't you make my mistake. You're not just a teacher -- you're a teacher, for goodness sakes and more teachers need to be heard. We need Science, History, Literature, and more teachers coming on. This needs to move past edtech and into mainstream education, now. Will you be THE blogger for literature or THE blogger for science. You could be... but ultimately I do this not to be THE blogger of anything but to be a blogger who makes a difference and helps other teachers.
   
   
3. Paranoia. Teachers organizations have come out against blogging. Somehow we are pariah's. Why? Be a professional, don't share confidential information and focus on best practices and you should be OK. Sort of a "I"ll dip my toe in the water and maybe no one will catch me."
   
   I've been open since day one with my administration, going so far as to set up an e-mail subscription and subscribing them to my blog! I want my school to read my blog. And we've gotten grants and opportunities for my classroom over the last year because of it!
   
   
4. Fear. Sort of like #3, but sometimes we're afraid of success. Success brings with it a lot of things... pressure to keep posting. Sometimes it will get one into unhealthy contemplations that make the blog overimportant. (Like being up at night trying to come up with THE post of the century.)
   
   
5. A Feeling of Being overwhelmed - When I started, I often wondered, "what can I add?" There's too much. I cannot do this. I don't have the time.
   
   Follow principles of good blogging, good commenting, and just add your thoughts. No blogger can replace the Wall Street Journal or professional media outlet. You're not the single-handed newsbreaker of education, you're adding your opinion.
   
   
6. Not wanting to be microanalyzed - This is a tough one. There are always those "Drive by commenters" who drive in, unload a few clips, and drive off. They have killed not a few great bloggers in the beginning.
   
   Early on I had people bug me about spelling, grammar, and all the mistakes I make naturally. Maybe I should hire an editor. Or maybe I should just be me and live with the fact I'm human. I love reading blogs because they are human.
   
   I appreciate the person who privately e-mails me about my mistakes so that I may correct it. I don't appreciate people who act unkindly and mean about a mistake. They seem to forget that what we dish out has a habit of being passed back around to us.
   
   
7. Not wanting to become embroiled in debate. This took some getting used to. Sometimes I'm drug into debates that I simply don't have time for and didn't ask for. I used to let them bother me. I guess two years has given me a thicker skin somewhat.
   
   Debates are part of life and really, your blog is as controversial as you make it. I've always found, however, that treating people on both sides of every disagreement with respect and modeling for our future leaders how to disagree is very important.
   
   When some bloggers treat others with disrespect or make mistakes and do not correct them, they go down a notch in my book. I'm so glad we're not carbon copies of one another... we are beautifully, wonderfully different.
   
   Every person on this planet deserves respect. I don't care if they are mowing your grass or sitting behind the desk in your mayor's office. People deserve respect because they are people and this is something that the blogosphere needs to work on.
   
   We can be part of the problem or part of the solution. I know few people better than teachers at mediating disputes! You can be part of the problem or part of the solution and apathy too is a problem. Learning how to disagree respectfully online is part of life, don't let that deter you from blogging or sharing your blog URL.
   
   
8. They don't see the point. "Why share my blog? Vicki or any of the other bloggers already have enough people vying for their attention."
   
   I disagree.. we have enough of the WRONG people vying for our attention. I WANT to hear from teachers... always. I want to hear from educators. I want to learn from people in the "trenches."
   
   I want to be an early encourager to newcomers like David Warlick, Jennifer Wagner, Wes Fryer, Miguel Guhlin, Ewan McIntosh, Darren Kuropatwa, Stephen Downes, and others did for me.
   
   I want to be the first commenter on new blogs. (Which is why I try to comment on those who link to me that I can tell are newcomers.) We all need some encouragement.
   

The point of sharing your link is to let others know that you're there and engage in conversation. Just do it. I'm asking you to share your blog.

Share Away
So, this summer, I would like to spend some time finding cool teacher blogs. I'd like to hear and find a few new voices and I'm sure others would too.

I know there are lots of places that list edubloggers, but I'm asking you to share your link here and share a few more things - use this template.

Share your link
-- unfortunately, in blogger comments, you must do this manually, but if you share your link, make it into a "live link." (Don't worry, if it doesn't work the first time, try again -- I won't be bothered by multiple entries.)

This graphic from my post 10 habits of bloggers that win, shares it.


Tell us a little bit about yourself
Who are you? Why do you teach? What do you teach? Where are you located? Not a complete bio, but the blurb you would tell someone if you had 20 seconds to introduce yourself.

Who are you writing for?
Who is your audience? Do you know? (If you don't, think about it.)

Why are you blogging?
What are your reasons for blogging? We all have reasons!

I'm ready to meet you! (Even if I already know your blog, feel free to share, others may want to meet you too.)

Here is my intro.

I'm Vicki Davis and I write the Cool Cat Teacher blog. I am a teacher at a small K12 private school in south Georgia USA and I believe passionately that teachers need encouragement, practical best practices in the classroom, and should be treated with nobility as the world's greatest calling! I believe that global collaborative projects are an essential part of learning. I believe that we all need to laugh and be inspired if we're going to make it through this high burnout profession.

I have two children of my three children with Learning disabilities who must be accommodated with technology and so I adamantly know and believe in the results I've seen with technology with my own children. I believe that children are amazing gifts from God and each one has something that they can do best. (I also know that LD often means children are wired more artistically and creatively and believe wholeheartedly in differentiated learning.) Children aren't production items in a manufacturing plant, but individualized, amazing packages of hope and opportunity and teachers have the ability to treat them well or do great harm.

My audience is educators and other teachers, however, I'm really geek too, so I find that technical type people read my blog too. I love dreaming and coming up with ideas but more importantly, reflecting practically on what I SEE in my classroom to be true based upon what people are saying.

I see a great disconnect sometimes between what experts SAY and what is really happening in the classroom (at least mine.) So, I blog to share my own perspectives and to learn from others. (I learn more than I give.)

I started blogging to learn "how to blog" so that I could teach it. I am still blogging because it has become part of who I am.

I don't know how many of these will come in, but I'll do my best to follow the links and say "hi." If you like, share your best blog post!

tag: blogging, David Warlick, Wes Fryer, Miguel Guhlin, Jennifer Wagner, Stephen Downes, Ewan McIntosh, Darren Kuropatwa

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Is the edublogosphere a closed, elite cocktail party?

I noticed Jon Becker's post responding to Scott's post about Comment Intensity. I really try to stay out of the contest of measuring the "biggest blog" -- I think it is a waste of time.. and in 5 years it will change anyway.

But I had to respond to this note from Jon. He says:

"I think where I’m going with this is that I worry that the ed. tech. blogosphere is reasonably saturated. Related to Darren Draper’s post on Twitter Set Theory, I feel like there are some central figures whose spheres overlap considerably and a whole lot of us outsiders trying to penetrate that inner circle. It’s as if folks like Will Richardson, David Warlick, Wes Fryer, Vicki Davis, Dean Shareski, Stephen Downes, Chris Lehmann…(and, yes, you Scott) are having an awesome cocktail party conversation and I’m standing on the outside staring over their shoulders and listening in, trying to get a word in, but not penetrating that conversation at all. I know there are LOTS of us on the outside looking in."

This was my reply:

The "perception" of some sort of "cocktail party conversation" is just that a perception. I rarely even chat with those guys and although they are awesome, only a few of them make my weekly MUST READ list.

I FEEL out of it ALL THE TIME. I feel like an outsider ALL OF THE TIME. I don't feel in the know. I feel left out a lot. And supposedly everyone THINKS -- I'm in.

The fact is that NO ONE is in. This is a big, massive microcosm that no one controls and few of us even understand. We struggle with having time to do it all and coming to grips on all of this blogging and global audience thing.

So, how would you take this personally? I went for a week with no comments -- did that mean no one was reading? I left and didn't blog for a week -- does that mean I'm suddenly irrelevant.

We are all relevant but the emotions you're feeling with all of this are something I very often feel and I believe most people struggle with. I LOVE it when I get links and I Live for comments.

It is never enough, though, and I find that I have to focus on my real life in order to achieve satisfaction. Most people here don't know cool cat teacher exists.

Keep perspective and know why you blog... if you blog to make a difference and inspire... you will. If you blog for some sort of validation... you're not going to get it on an Internet that likes this person today and moves on to another tomorrow. If you want to be loved, pet the cat, hug the spouse, enjoy the kids. And you might want to take a read at the poem I shared today.

You are an excellent blogger. Just remember, people post most often on emotional issues, not on the technology issues that they actually use.

Scott's post on comment intensity was a real downer for me -- I mean I must be worthless if I have a low comment intensity!? But hey, we can talk all day about who is important and who isn't. But if one person reads our blog and get something out of it.. it is important.

I'm to the point that I could care less about my technorati rating, my comment intensity or link count -- I might check them every two weeks. I care more now (hopefully it is maturity) about connecting with people and doing things that make a difference.

But, I'm not perfect, the comment intensity post really got me down and made me want to quit blogging. And remember this, Jon -- AFTER 3.5 months -- I HAD 7 READERS!

7 READERS!

It takes time. Time and doing it for the right reasons. If I had a blog that looks like yours after 3.5 months, I'd count myself very proud... but I didn't. I didn't know what I was doing and was completely lost!

You've come a long way... don't be so hard on yourself!

There are a lot of us on the outside looking in. But, the outside is the inside. This blogosphere is like nothing else we've ever seen. Crowdsourcing and mass collaboration is a new thing and we all have new emotions to deal with

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Listen to the words of Al Upton's students

Thanks to my friend in Australia, Graham Wegner, for pointing out the student comments on Al Upton's blog post. (See my earlier post about Black Monday.) I literally almost cried as I read these comments from the fifth graders.

"hi Al I was almost in tears when i heard my blog was shut-down.i was so sad and dissenpointed. i realy enjoyed bloging. i absoulutly loved my cluster-map. i somtimes might say all that work for nothing. The vokis are cool. i start thinking that we wouldent be able to talk to our mentors. it uset to be fun cheers mini17"

".Hi al iwas abit sad when I heard that the blogs were closed.
Blogs are good becase you can couminicate with people in the world."

"I would be safe if mr apton is in charg.

It is fun to have a blog."

"When I first herd my blog was shut down I felt sad,upset and woryed about my blog and what would happen to my blog.How I cant look at my comment’s and how I cant look at ather people’s blog’s.And how I cant see my cluster map.The best is the comunicating with people I dont know.I get freind’s. You can put on pictuer’s and poster’s. I learn faster on the computer’s and blog’s.Our new form is called Article 13. I love bloging."

"When I found out that our blogs were closing down, I felt confused, sad and angry. I felt really sad because I felt that all Al had taught us had gone to waste. We had a vote on a name for our new forum. The new name for our forum is Article 13. It means Rights for the Child.I felt better with my blog in many ways.
>Writing and reciving comments.
>Cammunicating with other people.
and lots of other reasons. By mini22"

"

When i found out my blog was shutdown.

I loved my blog.
I was disopointed because i put so mutch work into it.
I realy like having a clustermap.
I like comiticating with people i do no and people i dont no.
I like my fake on my blog.
I realy wont my blog back.
It is fun to go on my blog.
I like it when i get red dots on my clustermap.
My blog was cool because i could comiticate with people."

I believe that in the near future we will hear more about this. And remember that this can happen to any of us and all of us. Parents who sign permission forms could change their minds. They could say they didn't understand what you were going to do. They could decide they don't like you. They could just not like the grade you gave their child.

Now all of this is conjecture and I DO NOT know the circumstances of Al's situation... I'm just saying things that we as teachers know. As airtight as we make it, when you're blazing the trail, issues like this arise. Many people will have Al to thank as he sets a precedent for how to handle this situation.

As teacher's, we've seen it all. From what I've seen, Al is going about handling this the right way.

As my Mom always says "Keep your chins up!"

And I say, "We're watching. Let us know how you work it out and teach us."

tag: Al Upton, blogging, education, Australia, teaching

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Black Monday: Bloggers on Trial

I cannot have a funday Monday today because my heart is heavy.

• Al Upton's project with 8 and 9 year olds has been ordered to close by the Department of Education and Children Services in Southern Australia.
• Intrepid Teacher, Jabiz Raisdana has resigned because of parental complaints about some copies of Flickr artwork that was created by him.

While these are two totally different issues, my heart is still heavy. I would like to address my thoughts on both of them.

A) Al Upton
Al has distinguished himself as a safe, effective teacher who models best practices with 8 and 9 year olds.

I can see parent concerns as well with this age and it is a balance. As Al says, parental concerns and SAFETY must be handled first!!! We cannot ever put children at risk and sometimes to parents PERCEIVED risk is far greater than the actual risk.

We have to always err on the side of caution as Al did with taking the site down.

WE also have to remember that parents have a general distrust of the Internet. Most of them just do.

What I do:
This is what I do with my publicly blogging 9th graders (15 year olds):

1. I sent home a permission form for EXPLICIT permission to blog publicly. Those students whose parents wouldn't consent to a public blog were given a semi private alternative on youthvoices.net.
2. The students who blog publicly use pseudonyms.

This is what I do with the horizon and flat classroom projects (16 year olds):

1. We use permission forms. (http://horizonproject2008.wikispaces.com/Getting+Started+Checklist)
2. Students can only use first name and last initial.
3. The spaces we use ARE public.

For my 8th grader and younger we use private spaces on either Ning or classblogmeister. That is the age my school has set and 10th grade is when we allow the projects to go completely public. The wiki is public for 9th and 10th graders.

What we should do:
We should clearly state to parents our policies on public and private spaces and inform them about those spaces by age. They also need to understand that if it is private... that means the teacher and students ONLY (and administrator should they choose to be a part.)

We should monitor public spaces closely via RSS.

My hope for Al:
My hope for Al is that they will allow him to have a private space for his 8 and 9 year olds (at a minimum) -- if he is able to restore the mentors project, then we could do background checks or something...

OPEN EDUCATOR ID PROGRAM
I believe that we're going to need some sort of "open ID" or "universal check" for educators. This would allow us to facilitate educators who can move around to various projects who meet a certain standard level or background check.

How could we do this? What can we do?

I don't know... but it sounds like a great thing for ISTE or another organization to establish... a criteria for approving an educator and their practices and they understand and have completed a level of training for interacting on global projects.

This would ensure safety and ubiquity, but also that we can collaborate and work together at all grade levels. This is something we need to discuss and do.

Let's talk about an Open Educator ID system. It just makes sense.

Intrepid Teacher's issue
This one is a bit more troubling. I'll let Jabiz speak for himself:

Let me clarify that Intrepid Teacher is Jabiz' personal blog. These were links from the personal blog NOT from the classroom blog:

"A member of the parent community at my school followed the link I had supplied here at Intrepid Teacher and found some material on my blog that they considered objectionable and took the issue to the school board. I was immediately asked to resign. The administration felt that I had given students direct access to material, which they felt was inappropriate. This material was a series of works of art I had done as part of an independent online art group last year. In order to avoid further trouble, I have since removed the prints in question.

The dilemma my director faced was not whether the material was inappropriate, but the fact that I had consciously made a link, which in their eyes encouraged students to view the prints.
I have to reiterate that I never made a direct link from my student site or invited or encouraged them to view my personal or professional sites at any time. I think this fact warrants repeating, because this perceived link was the main issue for which I was asked to resign. As a matter of fact the image itself was not even on my personal blog, but on a Flickr page."

The bottom line is that unfortunately Jabiz does not have freedom of speech and we are seeing this in many places... not just the Middle East.

We and our students must understand that we cannot post ANYTHING unless we are content that ANYONE can view it.

However, I will say that it bothers me to think of a parent ferreting something out on his personal blog and calling him into question. The truth be known that every single one of us writing could have something found about us that someone doesn't like and we could be called into question for.

What I do:
My blog is rated "G." G for the comments, G for the content. My opinions are that of my own, however, I NEVER blog about individuals here at the school and remain a professional about it.

I'm careful about my flickr photos -- but really I just have them for the school only.

I will not add my students to my facebook page... I connect with other educators there.

I won't add my own children to my facebook page... it could lead people to them... I have a private account with another e-mail address for linking with family (particularly my own children.)

I understand that if someone really doesn't like me that they will find something here that they don't like. They will. I don't know what Intrepid Teacher could have done to change things. I really don't.

What we should do:
Make sure that we are careful about telling students about our online "identities" and personal blogging spaces UNLESS we are completely OK with them viewing everything we write to or link to on that page.

My hope for Jabiz
A school who will understand his talent and desire to be more and will respect freedom of speech.

Separate Accounts / Separate Identities
I think that this is leading to totally separate accounts for school work and private social-time work. We're going to have to have "split personalities," I'm afraid and have two identities... one for all school accounts and one for all personal accounts.

So, I'm going to need two blogger accounts (what a mess that would be), I guess. And Ning ID's for school and personal.

A blur
And yet, the lines blur. I'm a part of Classroom 2.0 and apply that in my classroom, however, I participate there in my personal time. I twitter on my own time and yet pull things from there into my classroom.

I truly feel that the lines between school and work are blurring incredibly and the idea of a "split" personality is one that I cannot really comprehend.

However, if You are a teacher and you want to have anything "PG" rated on any of your "personal" work... you should definitely get another ID for those activities and consider using a pseudonym.

Transparency or keeping your job?
I know we all like transparency, however, the truth is that freedom of speech seems to becoming more of an illusion... especially for teachers.

And with our kids documenting everything they are doing... here in the US ... we're going to have a hard time finding anyone who could run for president in 30 years... with all of the "dirt" on youtube.

We have a lot of issues to think through and discuss.

My applause!
This is why I applaud Al and Jabiz.

They are up front and open and willing to allow themselves to be scrutinized, knowing that many will throw stones and many will offer support.

What we need here is to learn from their openness so that their pain and heartache is not wasted.

We need to determine:

• What are the practices we need to put into place to facilitate the movement of teachers as mentors and advisors on global projects at all grade levels? What organizations can help us? (That is what we have them for, after all!)
• What practices can we put in place to have personal lives and be able to "live" on the Internet as human beings while again knowing that as teachers, our students look up to us and our parents often look at us with a harsh eye?

So, I hope we will discuss and add our thoughts to this. We must get past the fact that we like them and would trust them with our own children to see the issues at hand!

And remember this... it is not about "blogging." The safety of our children COMES FIRST! Doing the right thing by them COMES FIRST! We as teachers have administrators to report to and we must be under their authority (or we are fired or quit and find a place where we fit better and that happens too!)

However... we must understand that we MUST create safe, effective spaces to effectively EDUCATE our students for their FUTURE and for their CURRENT SAFETY.

It is not an option to just cordon ourselves off from one another and pretend that we are not interconnected. For, many of these students by age 10-12 are online together in a melting pot of cultures and societies with no guidance at all in a place called myspace and to leave schools out of the picture in the educational process is IRRESPONSIBLE.

What do you think? What are your ideas?

tag: Al Upton, Jabiz Raisdana, blogging, education, teaching, learning, safety, cyber safety, digital citizenship, online safety

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Top 10 Reasons to Blog from Frieda Foxworth

I came across this twitter from @kolson29 -- a great video from an elementary teacher.

This great video from a fifth grade teacher, Frieda Foxworth (Teacher Tube profile) ffoxworth )in South Carolina is a wonderful reminder of the power of using blogs in the classroom:



This is a great video! Kudos, kudos!

Frieda totally rocks! Wow!

tag: Frieda Foxworth, blogging, education, learning, teaching, innovation

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