Blake: Work Priorities

Podcasts Provide Teachers Up-to-Date Information – Free

New multimedia series expands popular CA training options

NORTH BILLERICA, Mass., November 15, 2006 –Educators are very busy with their day-to-day schedule and rarely have the opportunity to stay current on trends and current happenings in education. Curriculum Associates, a leading publisher of research-based supplemental curriculum materials and tools for today’s diverse classrooms, is making those opportunities more readily available with the launch of monthly podcasts. Accessible via www.catraining.com, the podcasts will provide educators with hot topics on up-to-date information, as well as ideas on incorporating Curriculum Associates’ products with current events training.

Program creates IEPs for all students
State's internet site helps students plan their studies and careers

From eSchool News staff and wire service reports
November 15, 2006

You could call it "MySpace" meets "Monster": Kentucky has introduced a web-based program that will help students map out their academic careers and give them an idea of what career path they'd like to explore--all while teaching them how to write a resume and apply for financial aid.

From eSchool News staff reports

November 20, 2006

At least half of school systems in a recent poll do not have policies to address students' use of MySpace, Facebook, and other such sites.

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.

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.

Judy Woodruff and the Generation Next crew finished its tour of the United States to gauge the views of 16-to-25 year olds in August. They listened to the politically active in the Northeast, the hardworking in the Midwest, the entrepreneurial in the West, the benevolent in the South, the traditional in the Great Plains -- and others in between, such as a gang member in L.A. and a farmer in Kansas.

The hour-long documentary is set to air this Friday, January 12 at 9:30 pm.

I'm working with BS to record this piece and plan to use portions of it in my upcoming "Generational Issues" workshop at the 2007 UniServ Manager's meeting in Portland, Oregon the end of February.

College students, from left, Katie Ehlert, Lacey McMullen, Jessica Tobelmann and Amy Divine cheer for Sen. Barack Obama at a Facebook.com event.


Photo Credit: By Linda Davidson -- The Washington Post
Related Article: Young Voters Find Voice on Facebook, page A01

Site's Candidate Groups Are Grass-Roots Politics for the Web Generation

By Jose Antonio Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 17, 2007; A01

Late on the day that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) announced he was forming a presidential exploratory committee, Farouk Olu Aregbe logged on to Facebook.com, the popular online community where college students post profiles, share photos and blog. On a whim he created a group called "One Million Strong for Barack."

"I remember thinking, there's got to be more supporters out there," said Farouk, 26, who advises student government at the University at Missouri at Columbia.

Students, others use the internet as a means to grieve

From eSchool News staff and wire service reports; April 19, 2007

Almost immediately after the deadly shootings at Virginia Tech University on April 16, Virginia Tech students created an "I'm OK" page on Facebook to let one another and their loved ones know that they survived. Other students posted photos and cell phone videos on their own sites, or shared them just hours after the shootings with news organizations.

Thanks to the portability and speed of today's technology, the students' shots are likely to become some of the "defining images" of the tragedy, says Amanda Lenhart, a senior researcher at the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which monitors high-tech culture.

And nowhere, she says, has the impact of the internet been seen more than on social networking sites, most often frequented by young people.

MILLERSVILLE, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A woman denied a teaching degree on the eve of graduation because of a MySpace photo has sued the university.

Millersville University instead granted Stacy Snyder a degree in English last year after learning of her Web-published picture, which bore the caption "Drunken Pirate."

"I dreamed about being a teacher for a long time," said Snyder, 27, who now works as a nanny. (Watch Snyder describe how she cried for a week over decision )

The photo, taken at a 2005 Halloween party, shows Snyder wearing a pirate hat while drinking from a plastic "Mr. Goodbar" cup. It was posted on her own MySpace site.

Although Snyder apologized, she learned the day before graduation that she would not be awarded an education degree or teaching certificate.

Jane S. Bray, dean of the School of Education, accused Snyder of promoting underage drinking, the suit states.

The federal lawsuit seeks at least $75,000 in damages. Millersville spokeswoman Janet Kacskos referred questions to a state System of Higher Education spokesman, who declined comment.