Thus ends Week One and Begins Week Two

It's been a great morning reading blogs and stretching, not too far, my creative juices to comment on some of them.

So the picture is forming. We've met most of our classmates, we've checked what others are doing with blogs, we've exchanged some ideas and reflections, we've gone beyond the "this is my first blog." We're ready to dig deeper into this media and technology.

That's the challenge for the next several days. When you're logged into your blog (in blogger.com) select Design and add some gadgets. You have opportunities to create links to other blogs and I would strongly recommend links to all your classmates or more easily a link to my blog which has links to the blogs of all the responding classmates. Yes, I'm still missing a couple responses.

Explore the gadgets. Try different ones. What do they do? How can they help me? How can I manage my students, my peers, my interests and my life better using some of these gadgets? Are you using "tags?" How could they simplify my complex interesting life (meaning your life is interesting, not mine)?

Enjoy you weekend. I'm about to shift gears and go bake chocolate chip cookies and clean the house for our Chinese guests these next three weeks.

Sample of how WOU TRI uses blogs

Take a look at how Teacher Research Institute uses blogs at WOU. I don't expect you to read all these, but sample a few to see how many persons can share and cross reference information is a very easy way. This came to me as an email.

Just a reminder that external grant opportunities are posted regularly on
one of several Sponsored Research Funding Opportunity webpages. These can
be subscribed to so that updates come directly to your email inbox.

WOU Sponsored Research Updates ( http://wousponsoredresearch.blogspot.com/ )
Business & Economics ( http://wouspbusinessecon.blogspot.com/ )
Computer Sciences ( http://wouspcomputerscience.blogspot.com/ )
Creative Arts ( http://wouspcreativearts.blogspot.com/ )
Criminal Justice ( http://wouspcrimjustice.blogspot.com/ )
Health & Physical Education ( http://wousphealthpe.blogspot.com/ )
Humanities ( http://wousphumanities.blogspot.com/ )
International Opportunities across Disciplines (
http://wouspinternational.blogspot.com/ )
Natural Sciences and Mathematics ( http://wouspnaturalsciences.blogspot.com/
)
Psychology ( http://wousppsychology.blogspot.com/ )
Social Sciences ( http://wouspsocialsciences.blogspot.com/ )
Special Education ( http://wouspspecialed.blogspot.com/ )
Student Services ( http://wouspstudentservices.blogspot.com/ )
Teacher Education ( http://wouspteachered.blogspot.com/ )

What the World says about Blogs

Maybe we're on the stoop of a big world of blogs and we're not certain what it's all about. We've heard rumors and maybe even had a taste one way or another. But what to the pros say about this media. Let's not sit on our thumbs and wonder or hope for one opinion from the instructor, let's hit the journals in the virtual library of Hamersley or others around the world, read some articles and report back in each of our blogs.

Simply put: find some professional journal with articles, at least two, on blogging in education and write a summary and brief reaction on the articles. Then read each other's articles (they linked on the left of this blog, and comment on them, at least three other blogs.

Focus to get this done by the weekend, January 12.

Starting Simple

The last blog posting was "Why Blog?" This one is "What to write?" Let's start simple, something we can all handle very easily: an introduction of ourselves.

For the first blog just write something about yourself. Tell us about your connection to education, are you a teacher; why you're taking this class, what are your expectation and goals; and some thoughts about how you might use a blog. You can also add something about your garden or last weekend's adventure or not.

Gabriel will be five weeks old Wednesday. We spent his second and third weeks of his life while visiting our daughter and her family in North Dakota. Angelmary, our honorary daughter, will be starting her first class at WOU Monday. Those are the highlights.

I actually am a mathematician turned toymaker turned educator; a North Dakotan turned Alaskan living in Oregon. Although my birth date is long enough ago that I might consider retirement, but every time I walk into a classroom or exchanged ideas with students, I hope never to retire. Somewhere in my being is a story which may never be written so I write a blog. Blogs may be an great tool for teaching, learning and sharing knowledge, so I write a blog. Many days in my life have been routine but some have offered me great experiences which I hope to share, so I blog.

After you have created your blog, introduce yourself.

Why Blog?

Living in the foothills of the coastal range has a major drawback for computer and gadget geeks. Cell phone reception is poor at best, satellite connections to the Internet are limited in speed and volume and television is limited, especially when the user doesn't subscribe to DirectTV. This of course doesn't outweigh the beauty of nature and the privacy this location provides and the unconditional affection shown by the livestock and pets.

Monday, when one of the Oregon football teams was playing a famous game, we back-country folks had to wait for the evening news to hear what had happened. Or jump online to catch the score from time to time. The top hit on the Google search for the Rase Bowl score actually was a blog. Someone decided to blog about the game as it proceeded, or maybe it was a legitimate news media with a reporter writing a play by play article. Either way it had the opportunity for me to comment on the writing.

This got me to thinking about how are blogs used these days and are any of these uses valid for education? Some writers are reporting an event like in a news column; others are expressing an opinion or promoting an idea or cause; while some just like writing and do a darn good job at

that. Some bloggers are actually journaling or keeping a diary for everyone to see and others are sharing information they think might interest others even if it's a select group. All invite comments and feedback.

So how can educators, teachers and students jump into this maze and make it beneficial for teaching and learning? Yes, I am inviting your comments, suggestions and thought. What do you think?

Starting your First Blog for Education

It's not the first time I've read Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts by Will Richardson and it probably won't be the last. I've seen the chapter titles before and the ideas are familiar, but with this reading new ideas have come to my mind. For example, I realized how much I enjoy learning and discovering new concepts.

I also was struck by the idea that the best way to get involved in blogging is reading other blogs. So I hope to be an example for this class and find and read blogs that interest me. Then I will add my comments and organize my life so that I access these blogs on a regular basis.

So far I've started four blogs for the past several years each with a different purpose. First was a personal one (denvygail.blogspot.com) as an experiment to report what I do and think. It hasn't had a great past but I hope it's future will be better.

The next was my professional one that I use for this class, related classes and for any thoughts about technology. It's called Digital Inklings.

In the undergraduate technology class each student creates a blog to track the lessons, programs and what they have learned each week. So a third blog connects to this process at fourtwentyoners.

Finally I realized from my siblings emails and questions about our past and life as children that a better way of communications these stories would be through a blog. My audience is not into blogging so this failed miserably so far. I called it Binders and Draft Horses.

Hindsight tells me that I could have created one general blog and used tags. I guess that a part of trying something, making mistakes and life-long learning.

The most difficult step of almost any project is the first step, in this case coming up with a purpose for a blog and hence a name or title. That's your first challenge. Good luck!

Everyone Needs a Smartphone

A comment that hit home while reads comps this week is that many students, typically teenagers, have smart phones which also serve as cameras, camcorders, gaming machines, calculators, music players, pictures albums, Internet connections as well as texting and email devices. Face it, it is their entire life wrapped up in one device. The power of this is both amazing and frustrating. They have the world as they know it or create it at their finger tips at all times. It is both a beautiful world and a scary world.

When I was young, and that's a bit ago, it is said that one learned about sex behind the barn. now there is no barn and we marginally have something we call sex education in the schools. Where do students now learn about the proper use of smart phones or other electronic devices? It must be behind the virtual barn because we prohibit the use of phones in the classrooms instead of teaching the proper use of them. Turn on the phones and get connected with them.

Besides technology is leaping forward faster than ever with new options and features. I have seen QR code bars on some products but had no idea what they could do. Skip typing the URL of a website or YouTube video. Just snap a picture on it on your smart phone which has a QR decoder program and up comes the site encoded site. This code could be on the back of a calling card or on a 75-foot billboard on the side of a building or embedded in a art project or on the side of a box with a consumer product.

Bring on the smart phone. By the way, I haven't had a cell phone until 5 months ago and I just buy a couple minutes a month as I need them. I guess I need a smart phone. With Internet and camera and QR decoder!