Going Mobile

This morning I updated the mobile blogging feature on this blog thanks to Richard Bryne's tip in Free Technology for Teachers. If you use Blogger, Blogger in Draft makes this task super easy (just two clicks, then test it on a mobile device).

From the Web:: A Blogger's Code of Ethics

Vicki Davis' post on selling advertisements on her blog made me hopping mad. She describes three instances where companies have contacted her to purchase advertising, two of which were mind-boggling. One company asked her to change old posts for context ads and another suggested that she change STUDENT work for context ads. I agree with Vicki that those two cases are reprehensible.

The decision to sell ads on a blog is up to the individual blogger, but should be clearly disclosed. Furthermore, I don't believe there is ever a case where a previous post (or the work of another person) should be changed to include advertising.

Here is Vicki's post and the Blogger's Code of Ethics which she references. These are important ideas to think about.

• 
  
  Cool Cat Teacher Blog: The Context of Character: Are the Links in Your Blog Posts for Sale?
  tags: blog ethics blogging journalism
  
  
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  A Bloggers' Code of Ethics - CyberJournalist.net - Online News Association - Ethics and Credibility
   tags: ethics blogging code bloggers journalism

From the Web:: Even more Edubloggers!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33624275@N00/313251515/

This seems to be the season of edublogger lists. I imagine that's because now that school is out, we have time to reflect on those blogs that have made a difference in our classrooms. Here are two more lists of edubloggers:

• Scholastic's Top 20 Teacher Blogs has a variety of topics. Some of the bloggers here are new to me and definitely worth checking out. Check out Tales from the School Bus for a different perspective on working with kids.
• Bright Hub's Best Blogs for Tech Savvy Teachers is another list to check out. Some of the first blogs I read are here. You don't have to be super tech savvy to find these blogs useful, just keep an open mind and go exploring!

Recording devices and the modern classroom

Last week, I saw this post from @coolcatteacher, Vicki Davis, referenced on Twitter. Even though "Spies Like Us" is three years old, it is still relevant and I'm sure there are many, many additional cases of teachers and students being called out by surreptitious video and audio recordings.

It is a reality of our modern life that video cameras are everywhere. Just do a YouTube search on your school. Even though many schools ban recording devices, you will most likely find video that has been uploaded.

I certainly don't have a solution to this problem, other than the advice to be mindful that you could be recorded at any time. One the one hand I find this thought to be an invasion of privacy, but on the other I wonder if this knowledge will help us become better teachers because we know that people could be watching. Even if it did make us better teachers, is this the right way to improve practice? We live in strange times, indeed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brian_ford/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Must. Write. More. Part III

Much to my dismay, I discovered that many of my younger students are totally unfamiliar with blogging. They don't know what blogs are nor do they know what to do with them. To get the students comfortable with blogs and to get them writing more, I started MyGeographyNews last fall. I post content and have students leave comments. As you can see, I haven't used the blog in awhile (I know, a very bad thing). Students aren't at the point where they are leaving comments on comments, nor are they writing their own posts yet.

My next step is to get students writing some reflections that can be posted at the blog, then getting their classmates to leave comments. It is slow, but steady work.

photo by: Trinitas Imaging / Udit Kulshrestha