The Connective Writing Project
I've been keen to get more of our staff blogging, since I know from first hand experience what a powerfully reflective process it can be. I've always found that taking the time to write causes me to think more deeply about what I do, it makes me more aware of the ideas and approaches that I'm using with those I teach, and it's also made me a much better writer than I once was. I'd argue that blogging really helps improve your communication skills on many levels while building a stronger foundation for understanding your own beliefs and convictions. There is something both magical and affirming about putting your thoughts down in words, and even moreso when you decide to publicly share those words with others. As you can probably tell, I'm a bit of a fan of blogging (or connective writing, to borrow a phrase from Will Richardson)
During 2011, our school had the opportunity to apply for an AGQTP grant. This grant program is funded by the Australian government's DEEWR as part of the NSW Quality Teaching Program and, in the case of our school, administered by the AIS. Its goal is to help teachers develop their own professional learning through the creation of action research projects. Our principal asked me to put a proposal together, which turned out to be about creating a blogging project for our Year 6 teachers and students. It was quite successful, and as well as a complete written report, we also produced this 7 minute video to summarise what we learned.
I remember tweeting about the fact that we were applying for a grant to get our teachers blogging, and getting a reply back from my kiwi mate Allanah King asking why on earth you'd need a grant for that. Allanah, who is not just a fabulous blogger herself but a real pioneer in the ways she has used blogs and other social technologies with her students, found it difficult to understand why blogging had to be a complicated and beaurocratic process. She quite rightly pointed out that you don't need a government grant to blog, you just need to open one of the many free blogging tools available and start writing! And she is correct. But what the AGQTP grant process bought us was the time to do that. By providing the funding to get our Year 6 teachers released from class, we could set aside the time to learn this new skill in a far more focused and somewhat systematic and committed way. While it would be nice to think that teachers would just go and learn new skills in their own time for their own motivations, sometimes that just isn't realistic, so getting some financial assistance to help build teacher capacity was seen as a very welcome thing.
As a follow up, I was also interviewed about this by Selena Woodward from CEGSA in Adelaide after she saw the video. Selena was intrigued by the deliberately open and public nature of our blogging project, a feature that I was insistent was critically important to the project. Blogging behind closed doors, without the potential for writing to an authentic audience, seems completely pointless to me. The South Australian DECS attitude to blogging is somewhat less open-minded. Some people refer to this reluctance as "the Upton effect" because of the shitstorm that DECS created a few years ago when they very publicly showed their cyber-ignorance by closing down teacher Al Upton's very popular class blog, the MiniLegends. The regrettable fallout from what happened to Al seems to have caused many South Australian teachers to be overly gun-shy of any online use that might be vaguely interpreted as "social". It's such a shame.
Back in 2008, I had the pleasure of giving the keynote address at the CEGSA conference, where my topic focused on how important it is to be a connected educator, to form PLNs, to get both ourselves and our students connected and functioning safely in this highly networked world we live in. I blogged my thoughts about that keynote at the time, and looking back at that post now, and hearing that so many educators are still just as wary and frightened of the online world as they were in 2008, makes me sad and disappointed for the kids in their care. It is disappointing that in the last 3 years, during which I believe we are finally starting to see far more educators beginning to understand the really significant shifts in the way technology is affecting the process of education, that there are still such outdated attitudes to learning online.
Overall though, I'm happy with the progress we made with our own blogging this year. It was progress. It wasn't perfect, and there is lots that I'd change next year, but it's a good start.
Popularity: 9% [?]
Season’s Greetings
This wonderful little video, 'The Christmas Story' as told by the children of St Paul's Church, Auckland, New Zealand is a beautiful expression of the pure joy we all deserve to feel at Christmas time. Thanks to those who made it.
To all the subscribers, readers and friends of Betchablog, thanks for being part of my world. It means a great deal to me. As you gather with your families and friends, have a safe and happy Christmas season, and I'll see you in 2012!
Love, Chris
Popularity: 7% [?]
Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam.
I've never understood why people send spam mail or leave spam comments on blog posts (in the same way I don't understand why people scribble graffiti tags on trains and walls), but I know that for spammers who really take it seriously there is big money to be made. I suppose in that sense, I DO understand why people create spam if there is the opportunity to make money from it... I guess what I don't understand is how there continues to be constant stream of people who are gullible enough to take action on the messages and, in doing so, continue to generate an income for the spammers.
Let's face it, the thing that keeps spam propagating and growing (and therefore making it worthwhile for the spammers to keep sending it) is the fact that there are enough gullible, stupid people in the world who keep responding to it. If we all were much better at identifying and recognising spam as soon as we saw it, then the spammers would eventually go away because the financial incentive to do so would also disappear. Fortunately for them - and unfortunately for the rest of us - human gullibility (or stupidity) will probably ensure them an income for a while yet.
Having said that, the spam filtering in Gmail is pretty darn good. I currently have a few hundred spam messages sitting in my Gmail's spam folder which have thankfully been identified and filtered before they get to me, so I don't ever need to see them. They just disappear from the system after 30 days. Thanks to Matt Cutts and his team at Google, Gmail does a great job keeping the spam away. Thanks Matt!
One of things that happens to any blog as it grows is a substantial increase in the amount of spam comments it receives. Most spam comments are just plain annoying, and many are quite laughable, but it's a good idea to deal with them before they have a chance to be published. For example, this blog receives many comments that are never published thanks to the powerful Akismet spam filter running on the backend. This WordPress plugin tracks my spam statistics, and in the two years that this blog has been running on its current server, the Akismet spam filter has trapped almost 11,000 spam comments with an accuracy rate of 99.8%. That's an awful lot of comments that never see the light of day!
I wanted to share some of the most recent spam comments because they are kind of insidious. On the surface they look harmless, perhaps even positive. For example...
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On the surface it looks like people are leaving positive comments in response to something I'd written. However, aside from the extremely poor grammar, often a reliable indicator of spam, these comments are so generic as to be completely meaningless. By constructing comments in this way, spammers can spray them across thousands of posts on thousands of blogs in the hope that some will get posted. Unsuspecting bloggers, especially newer bloggers who are often keen to receive any sort of comments, sometimes fail to see these comments for what they are. Not surprising really, since the whole point is to trick you into publishing them.
I'm still not really sure what the point of these generic spam comments is. They don't contain links to click, so they don't appear to be able to lead you to an outright scam or scheme. They generally aren't asking for money, or have any real call-to-action. They are just annoying. They gum up the Internet, clutter our email and clog up our blog feeds, but for no apparent purpose.
Let's all be more vigilant about spam. If you don't already, using Gmail is a good first step. Installing Akismet on your blog helps a great deal too. But mostly, stay aware of what spam looks like, and never, ever respond to it. Ever.
CC Photo by trustypicshttp://www.flickr.com/photos/trustypics/5423704576/in/photostream/
Popularity: 7% [?]
My Edublog Award Nominations 2011
2011 has been an interesting year for blogging.
I feel like my own personal blogging has been really suffering lately, not just from being really busy at work, but also from the endless distractions of Twitter and Google+ which, if I let them, could easily become my sole places for sharing stuff online. Certainly, there are some people, like Mike Elgan, who use Google as their sole online presence and funnel all their other online stuff into G+. It's a potentially intriguing strategy, as the engagement factor on G+ is certainly very high. You could also argue that Twitter has replaced a great deal of sharing that was one done via blogs, and there's little doubt that between the "Big Three" of Facebook, Twitter and Google+, the nature of blogs and blogging has shifted considerably since I first started using them back in 2005. I'm blogging less, for sure, and it definitely leaves a void that I miss filling.
However, this was also the year when I introduced a whole bunch of new bloggers to the wonders of blogging. At my school, I encouraged the teachers of Reception, Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 to give class blogs a try. It's been resoundingly successful, with the Reception and Year 2 classes in particular really running with it.
Then, our Year 6 teachers, librarian and kids took part in a well-structured blogging project as part of an AIS-funded AGQTP Action Research project. The Year 6 teachers got time away from classes to learn about the culture and skills of blogging, and then they shared it with their students, who each got a blog and used it quite extensively during the latter part of the year.
Our junior school librarian also jumped on the blogging bandwagon too, and created both a Junior School Library blog which she regularly updates with library news and information, as well as a Book Review blog that is growing in popularity.
All in all, it's been a busy year of blogging for many people I work with!
My Nominations
I would love to recognise some of these school-based blogging efforts that have emerged this year by nominating some of them for an Edublogs Award. Bear in mind that these are all brand new bloggers, people that have never done it before and were willing to get in and give it a go. I really admire their willingness to try something new and learn some new skills. I'd love to see their efforts rewarded with some recognition, and of course some additional traffic. I think they really deserve it.
So, my nominations are...
Best Class Blog: From Little Things Big Things Grow: The PLC Reception Class Blog, by Sophie McKendry and Jaclyn Casella - In their simplest form, blogs make brilliant journals, and this Posterous blog has been a fabulous journal of the year's activities for this class of 4 and 5 year olds. With 39 posts over the course of the year, they have added photos, audio recordings and writing to document the many important classroom events from 2011. The reaction from parents has been overwhelmingly positive.
Best Class Blog: The PLC Year 2 Blog by Catherine O'Doherty, Lisa Case and Katrina Avery - This blog has been used to connect, collaborate and communicate with our parent body and the world, and has generated an enormously enthusiastic response from the teachers, parents and students alike. It contains student work samples, photos, audio recordings, scans, and writing. It also documents the adventures of Cocoa, the class mascot. The blog has had 147 posts during the year and over 11,000 views. It's an amazing first attempt at blogging and deserves some recognition.
Best Library Blog: Library Matters by Sandra McMullan - I think this brilliant new library blog deserves lots of recognition. It was started by our junior school librarian, Sandra McMullan, as a way to showcase the many great things that happen there. It contains posts, photos, stories and booklists, all designed to encourage greater dialog and exposure to what goes on in the library. It's a stellar first effort at blogging, and really think it deserves some recognition. In addition, Sandra started a second blog for book reviews which links of the front page of her main blog.
After a fairly full-on year of introducing blogging here at PLC Sydney, there are lots more blogs floating around (including a blog for every student in Year 6). While they are all interesting, I think the ones listed above have been the real standouts, and deserve to be nominated for a 2011 Eddie.
Now please go vote for them!
Popularity: 11% [?]
Happy Snappy
I post them all to a Posterous site I set up called 365 Days of Light, which in turn crossposts to Twitter, Identica, Flickr. and PicasaWeb (which is really Google+). It also used to post to Facebook until I quit my account there). Here is a link to the collection so far... (minus the first few days of January which I forgot to include back then)
Part of the challenge for me was that I didn't want to take a photo of just anything, but rather to try and find something of real visual interest each day. I wanted it become to a collection of interesting artistic images, not just a bunch of point-and-click happy-snaps. Whether I've actually achieved that aesthetic goal is probably debatable and certainly not every photo has been a winner, but I must say that there are quite a few photos in the collection that I'm very, very happy with. It really has forced me to try and be both disciplined and creative every day. Trying to find a new angle, to not be too cliche or derivative, and to still find something interesting each day has been a real challenge, but I'm pleased with how it's gone so far.
I'm looking forward to the final month ahead, and to get to the end of the 365 days. My plan is to turn them into a printed coffee table book as soon as I finish taking all 365 photos, and publish a few copies for family and friends. In the meantime, feel free to +1 any you like... I know which photos I'm happy with but I'd be curious to know which ones you like.
Popularity: 7% [?]
The Ron in Toronto
I'm in Toronto, Canada, at the moment, which is somewhat of a second home for me. My lovely partner Linda is a born and bred Torontonian, and although we both now live in Sydney, Australia, we try to travel back here at least once a year to visit friends and family. Our current visit was unplanned and not for the usual reasons we like to be here though... Linda's father Ron passed away a few days ago. He'd had a number of health challenges for quite a while, and although he always maintained a positive outlook and a cheery disposition, things had been getting increasingly difficult for him over the last few months. Early on Wednesday morning Toronto time, the day before his 82nd birthday, Ron decided enough was enough and passed away quietly in his sleep. May he rest in peace.
Although I never got to spend as much time with Ron as I would have liked, he was a lovely gentle man, and every time I met him he was always smiling, always taking an interest in those around him. He was always curious and interested in the world around him - I used to say to Linda he was like an excited little kid trapped in an older person's body. We spoke on the phone every so often, and apart from always asking about the weather (he was, after all, a Canadian!) he always took a great interest in what was going on with Linda and I, where we were travelling to and what was happening in our world. As we Aussies would say, he was a genuinely good bloke.
I found this timelapse video of Toronto called Toronto Tempo, and I think it's rather beautiful. I'm posting it here as a bit of a tribute to Ron. We'll miss you mate.
Toronto Tempo from Ryan Emond on Vimeo.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Enough is Enough
I just posted my final status update on Facebook...
Dear Friends,
As some of you know, I have been wary about the direction Facebook has been taking for quite a while. Their everchanging and confusing privacy settings, the dubious way they treat your personal information, the sneaky way they phrase things in their terms of service... the list goes on... in short, I have gotten to the point where I simply no longer trust Facebook with my information. The recent (and soon to be released) changes like the Timeline View and the "frictionless sharing" that Zuckerberg talked about at the recent f8 conference have started to change Facebook into a service that I'm no longer willing to use. Articles like this one (http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2114059/Your-Facebook-Data-File-Everything-You-Never-Wanted-Anyone-to-Know) make me feel entirely distrustful of the whole thing.
Despite reservations I've had about it, I've really tried to like Facebook. I've enjoyed making and maintaining connections with people here, but Facebook's cavalier attitude to my personal information makes it impossible for me to continue being a user of the service. While I certainly have nothing to hide, in principle I simply no longer wish to support Facebook and its services.
I have disabled my account over the last few days and have realised that I really don't need Facebook. Soon after I post this message I will be deleting my account completely. Unfortunately, I realise that even after I delete my account, I still have no real idea about how much of my information Facebook will continue to retain and use. That's pretty appalling don't you think?
I still think the basic ideas of social networking online are wonderful, and I've been really enjoying what's going on over at Google+. To me, Google+ feels like a far more vibrant, interesting (and trustworthy!) place than Facebook. I like the way Google have been upfront and open about what they do with my information. To be clear, it's not the giving of the information that concerns me at Facebook, it's the sneaky, convoluted ways that they miscommunicate their intentions about it. I feel like Facebook have crossed the line with my trust.
There are lots of people I'm going to miss being in contact with here on Facebook. But I hope you understand that I just can't continue to support a service that acts so sneakily, so unethically, and treats me and my information with so little respect.
Chris
It's a bit of a shame really, as I have a lot of friends on Facebook, but I just can't do it any more. At the heart of it, I think Facebook is ultimately bad for the future of the open Internet. It gives the impression of being all warm and fuzzy and connecting you with your friends and family, but the motives of the company are entirely Facebook-centric. Facebook cares only about Facebook. As I watch it grow bigger and stronger it feels to me like what Germany must have felt like in the mid 1930s. There was a time when people were great supporters of Adolf Hitler too. We all know how that turned out.
Oh, and take a moment to read that article linked above. Scary! Seig Heil indeed.
Image: 'DSC_0076.JPG'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24095119@N06/2324843973
Popularity: 18% [?]
Lessons from the Yamanote Line
Last weekend, I was in Yokohama doing some workshops with Kim Cofino for various groups of teachers in the Tokyo/Yokohama area, including the current COETAIL cohort. It was a heap of fun, and I'll write more about that later.
On Monday, I spent the day running PD for staff of Yokohama International School, and I was asked to do a short presentation to get things started. The brief was just to present "something inspirational", whatever that meant. To be honest, my mind was drawing a complete blank and was quite lost for an idea. I went back to the hotel room on Sunday night - my last night before returning home to Australia - and started working on my presentation. I was really quite stuck for an idea, but I was also keen to get it done so I could go out exploring some of the Japanese sights on my last night there.
I got to the point where if I stayed in the hotel room working I knew I wouldn't see anything so I just decided to go out exploring anyway and hopefully something would come to me before tomorrow morning.
This slideshow is what I came up with. As I stood there at a Japanese railway ticket machine with absolutely no idea how to use it, unable to read the instructions, feeling quite anxious about heading off to explore a strange city I didn't understand, it occurred to me that this is what all learners must feel like as they launch into unknown territory. I reasoned that I would be talking to many teachers the next day who perhaps felt equally anxious and unsure about exploring the world of technology. Maybe there were lessons I could learn from my night out on the trains of Tokyo that might serve as a useful metaphor for my talk the next morning.
I took a collection of photos from my travels on my iPhone, and then used Keynote on my phone to put this slideshow together whilst on the train. By the time I got back to the hotel (an adventure in itself!) the slideshow was 95% done. I did end up importing it to my Mac to add the finishing touches, but it was essentially produced almost entirely on the iPhone.
I don't claim it's a perfect metaphor, but hopefully there are a few lessons in here that might be useful to anyone moving into a world where they feel strange and uncomfortable.
Popularity: 21% [?]
Things I said recently…
- The Connective Writing Project
- Season’s Greetings
- Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam.
- My Edublog Award Nominations 2011
- Happy Snappy
- The Ron in Toronto
- Steve
- Enough is Enough
- Lessons from the Yamanote Line
- G’day from Yokohama
Things you said recently…
- Graham Wegner on The Connective Writing Project
- Chris on The Connective Writing Project
- Day 4: Are You Ready to Be a 21st Century Teacher? « EDIT 2000 Spring 2012 on The Myth of the Digital Native
- Graham Wegner on The Connective Writing Project
- Graham Wegner on The Connective Writing Project
- Day 3: e-Portfolio and More about Learners « EDIT 2000 Spring 2012 on The Myth of the Digital Native
- Allanah King on The Connective Writing Project
- Peter Price on Season’s Greetings
- Joseph on Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam.
- Rick on Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam.
Ah, Nostalgia!
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