Bud the Teacher

    Spent some time tonight cleaning up the links on the main page to more accurately reflect what I’m trying to read right now.  Also returned to some good old blogging 101 practice by spending some time commenting on the work of others. 
    I find that usually, if I can’t formulate my own thoughts, the best thing I can do as a writer and as a thinker is to respond or react to the ideas of others.  Not only does such an investment in the blogging community help me to get my thinking straight — but I think that it helps to strengthen the loose ties that bind all of us together.
    Thanks to all of you who spend some of your precious time here reading, thinking, and responding.  Know that you’re constantly making me think.

    So just saying MySpace might be a censorable offense in some school districts.  (MySpace.  MySpace.  MySpace.  There.)   Such a ridiculous action is what happens when we let technology do the work that we should be doing in the first place — paying attention to what our students are doing online at school.
    Miguel, I’m somewhere between you and Tom on this one.  How about we name names?
     Andy Carvin has.  (Speaking of Andy’s blog, take a look at the really interesting and somewhat sad first comment to this post to see the rationale behind this anonymously maintained collection of edublogs.)
    Who is that masked librarian?  Will sneaking RSS feeds into a school really accomplish anything?  And has it really come to this?

    (UPDATE:  Will’s started this wiki to collect known instances of blog blocking.  Please contribute if you know of any.    Thanks!)

    I attended my first Discovery Education Ed Tech Connect Webinar this afternoon.  Steve Dembo was presenting on mobile technology — between the topic and the presenter, I knew there’d be good stuff to, ahem, discover.
    I was right.
    Mobile Internet tools and devices are everywhere and I’ve got some learning to do.  I really dislike Internet access via the cell phone — but that’s my problem.  Tools like cell phones and portable gaming systems seem really handy for linking students to information via tools that they already have.  Steve mentioned a ton of handy resources for mobile users and for teachers wanting to create content for a mobile audience. 
    One idea that is making my head spin is the concept of semacodes.  I’ve got some thinking to do about those.  Are any of you using them?  Please tell us about what you’re up to if you are.  (Here’s a link to one project that Steve mentioned that I think could be a great reason for students create informational websites about local sites of interest.)
    Head on over and check out the recorded presentation.  It’ll be posted at Discovery’s Ed Tech Connect site soon.