Category: Blogs
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Blogging vs. Writing
I’ve been mulling over distinctions that Will Richardson makes between blogging and writing in his chapter on weblog pedagogy and practice (pp. 29ff). He suggests that blogs can facilitate a new form of genre called “connective writing” that encourages bloggers to read carefully and critically, write clearly and cogently, and link to the sources of…
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Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, etc. in schools
I’m about halfway through Will Richardson’s (2006) Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms and enjoying reading about how educators can use these new tools in creative ways to motivate students to learn more deeply. This book provides some context to Web 2.0 technologies, challenges teachers to reconsider how they think about…
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QuickPost Bookmarklet
I just discovered the QuickPost bookmarklet feature in Movable Type 3.31 that lets me compose an entry directly from a website that I’m on and would like to blog about (and link to) by clicking on a bookmark. For browsing, I generally use Mozilla Firefox or Safari, both of which can display bookmarks on the…
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Before and after
Just in time for the new school year, my blog has had a makeover. Before, it looked thus: In the current Movable Type (MT) 3.31 version of my weblog, the Zoomclouds tag cloud and Flickr flash button that were formerly on the right toolbar are no longer. This may change, but I’m presently distracted by…
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Deterring spam on my weblog
Recently, I started getting spam on my weblog, and I decided to take some measures to deter their senders while still enabling comments from legitimate commenters. First, I banned the IP address that left 79 unwelcome comments over 2 days on the entry Tagging life goals . Second, I changed my weblog config preferences so…
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Why Blog?
I had an inauspicious beginning for a blogger. I’m generally quite skeptical about new technologies–simply introducing new technology doesn’t transform educational practice–and I tend to adopt new technologies later than some in my field. Further, I didn’t think blogs afforded a better kind of collaborative online discourse. I think a discourse database like Knowledge Forum…
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Blogging Anniversary
I’ve now been blogging for one year. With encouragement from Wendy and Clare, I tentatively began with 3 entries using Blogger, then switched to the current Movable Type (MT) platform, where I’ve written 53 notes (47 published, 6 draft) and accumulated 12 comments. My original intention in keeping a weblog was to procrastinate from thesis…
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Contradictions
I liked the Alfred North Whitehead quote in the Social Studies section in Globe and Mail today: In formal logic, a contradiction is a signal of defeat: but in the evolution of real knowledge it marks the first step in progress toward a victory I’m not very familiar with Whitehead’s work, but I know Carl…
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Finding new blogs to read
I’ve gotten into the habit of regularly scanning many blogs aggregated through Bloglines and GRAIL over the past few months. The process is not as onerous as it sounds. Not every blogger writes everyday, and I tend to read fast. I’ve also tailored the feeds down to the ones that I personally find most insightful…
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Blogs as artifacts of inquiry
Brian set up this Moveable Type based blog for me to test out from Clare’s license, based on Wendy’s recommendations for me to evaluate this. I like that I can – add and organize the entries using categories – make entended entries, making more discursive interaction possible – use icons at top right of the…