Blake: Work Priorities

UPDATE: 12 people complete their survey of Connections 2006.

You can access and view these survey comments by clicking here...

A comprehensive look at performance of online schools in Colorado that finds very serious problems and asks for an immediate moratorium.

This report raises issues that should be raised in other states.

Generally there is shockingly little oversight or planning with these schools. This might be useful background for legislators in other states.

[Read Report]

[By Peter Sayer, IDG News Service]

Wikia Inc. plans to offer a free online application hosting service in the near future, but has no idea how it will make money from it.

The company will launch openserving.com with one hosted application, an open-source content-management platform that it acquired when it bought sports fan-site ArmchairGM LLC last week.

As blogging becomes more pervasive, schools have begun establishing ground rules for teachers who blog.

TECHNORATI.COM, THE GOOGLE OF THE BLOGOSPHERE is now tracking more than 50 million bloggers, who, at little or no expense, publish to a global readership ranging from a handful of devotees to thousands.

The word “blog” is a shortening of the term Web log or Web-based log. People blog for many reasons: to vent, to share a hobby or some other passion, such as sports, or the daily minutiae of their lives. Some people blog to teach, and some of those bloggers might teach or practice information technology in your school or school district.

For the sake of this article, we will look at three categories of blogging teachers:

• independent teacher bloggers, whose writing is completely unrelated to their job with your school or district;
• professional teacher bloggers, who write in their capacity as teachers in your school or district; and
• instructional teacher bloggers, who blog as an instructional strategy, usually encouraging their students to blog, too.

If you deal with any of these types of bloggers, you’ll want to understand what they’re communicating and set guidelines.

WROE program was established to develop the capacity of state affiliates to build skills among staff and leaders to create and sustain strong affiliate structures. (This aligns with NEA Operational Services Goal Areas 1 and 4)

As part of the faculty, I have designed a technology module that I will be presenting and modeling throughout all modules of this program.

The first, a series of WROE blogs can be viewd here.

The second is a knowledge management structure to support faculty throughout the life of this program. It can be viewed here.

Finally, each participant will, as part of their practicum and journaling needs, be required to build and manage their own blog. The faculty will monitor blogs for content and use throughout the life of the program. Each particpants blog will be linked to WROE main knowledge management system in an effort to create a "community" of learners.

In 2006, the World Wide Web became a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter

The "Great Man" theory of history is usually attributed to the Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle, who wrote that "the history of the world is but the biography of great men." He believed that it is the few, the powerful and the famous who shape our collective destiny as a species. That theory took a serious beating this year.

What’s New?

NEA and your state affiliate recognize that great public schools are the result of motivated students, involved parents, and well-prepared, innovative educators. The Gateway is a great opportunity for educators to expand their professional repertoire, exchange ideas, and individualize instruction.