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Wiki Education Article in the Boston Globe I talked to a fascinating reporter from the Boston Globe yesterday, Kim-Mai Cutler , as she interviewed me for her article that was published today, " A new high-tech take on a school group project: teachers share lessons learned about wikis ." I was honored to be included in this article. She started our conversation in a way that made me think: Kim began by stating that she was looking at upcoming Wikimania conference (Aug 4-6) in Boston and realized that she had not seen any significant coverage of wikis in education. Good reporters smell a story. She is right! As I've researched to write about wikis in education, I've seen some coverage in college online newspapers but overall the only time the media seems to mention wikis is in reference to the latest Wikipedia scandal. (I have a feeling over the next 20 years there will be many more.) The simple fact that there are Wikipedia scandals is an important reason to t...

I've entered the season of perpetual wakefulness that will only be cured by getting my first day under my belt. I've been working on the wiki and other plans. I've also been reading up on bloglines since I CAN'T SIT STILL! Here are some great blog posts for getting started: Language Art s resources from SEGA Tech. Math - Totally free Math from SEGA Tech. (These guys are good!) --This is a site created by math educators that is totally free! Great lesson plans and even will be adding video and audio lectures. Online whiteboard - Budget strapped folks with Internet access. If you want a whiteboard, Karyn has blogged about an amazing new FREE online white board! Sociology - David McDivitt shares how he is using the Sims in sociology . Video Game innovations - Some innovators are using Second life in education. This great blog entry has the complete rundown. Libraries - Want to get your librarian jumpstarted, share the incoming ALA president's inagural speech ...

This via Will Richardson Seems that Vermont Senator Pat Leahy has agreed to slow DOPA down so to speak and that the bill is now going to the Senate Commerce Committee. Here is a list of members of that group that you might want to contact. Why is this in the Commerce Committee? I know it relates to the FCC, but it seems that it is affecting education significantly! Two Dumptrucks I'm starting to feel like there are two dumptrucks headed in opposite directions down a one way street. One is right and the other is wrong, but unless one turns around both will suffer. Amendments! I have a feeling with the momentum for this bill, even though DOPA is wrong, we're going to have to put efforts into getting amendments in that make more sense. We need local databases and filtering! The bill allows for unblocking when the classroom is supervised. If it is too difficult to unblock, teachers will forget it. (No FCC centralized behemoth!) How about educators getting behind a massive, ...

I am engrossed in planning my school year, with Marzano's "Classroom Management that Works" book as my guide. Meanwhile, Doug Noon has created a great template for writing your letter to your Senators about DOPA. How Senators look at feedback From my days as an aide in Senator Nunn's office, I will tell you that letters and e-mails do count. When I worked there, we kept tally sheets for all house bills and issues. We marked every phone call and contact on these sheets along with any notes and selected the letter that would be returned. We also passed along any letters of significance up "the food chain" to see if there was need for a more customized response. When voting came up, we provided the Senator with a tally sheet on what his constituents were saying. The point is, you need to get people to call, write, and e-mail their senator. Here is the directory of Senators . Distraction I remember in Robin Hood when Kevin Costner jostled a little boy who wa...

Consider the lobster . When it is in warm water, it frequently molts its shell. A new, very soft shell grows underneath its new one. When it is time, the lobster begins to literally shrink as it expels seawater and the old shell begins to split. After going through this gruelling process, a lobster emerges with a new soft shell. With a soft shell, it must literally hid in its borough for one to two weeks or it will be easy prey for fish and other predators. Growth and molting are an important part of the growth process of the lobster with even the eyes of the lobster shedding their covering. Without molting, the old shell would become the lobster's coffin. Growth and change are part of life Change is the only constant in our world. In America, in the warm waters of democracy and prosperity, things change rapidly. It requires us to shed our old modes of thinking and to adopt new methodologies and paradigms in order to understand the new world. We must understand, act, and ad...

There are a lot of folks TALKING about DOPA but not many have read the bill . I want to go on the record and tell you exactly where I have issues. (I feel that I need to do this since CNN and TechCrunch have posted my blogging against DOPA!) Following is the actual text of the Bill and my comments. Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006 (Engrossed as Agreed to or Passed by House) 109th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 5319 AN ACT To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require recipients of universal service support for schools and libraries to protect minors from commercial social networking websites and chat rooms. Acceptable Use policies handle many of these issues. Currently, schools have Acceptable Use policies which detail how they expect school computers to be used. This includes instructions that school computers are not to be used for pornography, commercial enterprise, etc. Every school that I am aware of blocks Instant Messaging, Myspace , Xanga , and Facebook . What ...

DOPA passed in the US House of Representatives last night 410 - 15. Texas Republican Ted Poe says, “social networking sites such as MySpace and chat rooms have allowed sexual predators to sneak into homes and solicit kids.” The DOPA legislation (Deleting Online Predators Act) will not prevent sexual predators from sneaking into homes, it will increase it, in my opinion. In fact, one of my students says it best on her personal blog, "The only way to protect children from online predators is to arm them with the information to protect themselves. In fact, probably the best place for kids to have access to these sites is in school where they can be monitored. Not to mention all the educational benefits that come from these sites these lawmakers are trying to ban. Wikis are the new way to do classroom collaboration. Blogs are the new way to do classroom discussion. So no, DOPA is not protecting the children, in fact, all it is doing is hurting them by continuing to promote the idea...