Rich Sands posts Cluetrain Derailed? I respond here.

Several days ago I posted RIP, Sidekick, which lamented the passing of our favorite section of the Boston Globe. As part of the Globe’s redesign, it got rid of Sidekick and added a new section — a tabloid insert like Sidekick had been — called “G”.

As I had recalled, Sidekick was localized. After reading Ron Newman’s comment to that post, which asked gently “Are you sure…?” I have to say that I’m not. I just checked with my wife, who said that the things she liked best about the Sidekick were its features and format; and that it was not localized, but addressed all of Boston.

Yet I still recall some localization. But again, I don’t know.

A search of Globe archives for “Sidekick” yields results that suggest it was. The first result is titled “News in brief: Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville news in brief“. Most of the stuff that follows, however, is Boston regional, rather than addressed to those of us north of the Charles. Several of the pieces are by Meredith Goldstein, who is still writing for the paper.

So I’m sending her an email to ask the same question I’ll put to the rest of ya’ll who live around Boston and pay attention to these things: What went away with Sidekick? Or did nothing go away, and can the pieces still be found in G or elsewhere in the paper? Also, What has the Globe done to increase or decrease local coverage? By local I mean regions within the paper’s coverage area. As Ron points out, there is still a “Northwest” section that runs twice per week. I don’t believe that’s changed, but I also don’t know.

And, as I re-discover (while wiping egg off my face), knowing beats believing: Journalism 101.

Interesting NY Times piece on the emergence of the blog-based op-ed business, courtesy of Ariana Huffington and Tina Brown.

Even if my recent “Politics Around the Web” posts have turned you off, I hope you noticed that they are a model of a very simple activity for any number of classes - current events, politics, science and math news, more - that want students to read and exhibit critical thinking about what they read. I say “simple” because all it takes is a Google News account, a Diigo account, and a blog.

This screencast shows you how it works, compliments of screencast-o-matic and Blip.tv:

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If you like this post, please spread it: (But don't tag it "education." That will bury it.)

7 Comments

• At October 19, 2008, M. Walker wrote:

  Clay,

  Very nice! I'm speaking to some student bloggers on Tuesday, reading from a blog and sharing my thoughts, and I may have to share this with them. I'm thinking of using some of the Michelle Bachman material coming out of Minnesota...can you say Joe McCarthy?

  Mike

  M. Walkers last blog post..Wordle

• At October 19, 2008, Seadey Says 10/18/2008 « Seadey Says wrote:

  [...] Creating Critical Readers: A Too-Easy Diigo-Google News-Student Blog Assignment | Beyond School - Annotated [...]

• At October 19, 2008, Clay Burell wrote:

  Did you see VandenHeuven's reply / debate after that interview?

  You're right, it's the perfect current event to connect to McCarthyism. Ooh, and she's from your state, isn't she?

• At October 19, 2008, Louise Maine wrote:

  I would never characterize what you present as wacky ideas as you continue to stretch our minds on the possibilities. As my students are working with another class on animal classification and research into an endangered or exotic animal on a wiki, the natural extension would be on threats to biodiversity. Generally, they would prepare a statement as to their thoughts on the subject. Your approach would show reasoning on both sides that led to the students decision and is a great way to show and demonstrate critical thinking. As always, The true gain is in your thoughts and generosity in showing the process despite the issue.

  Louise Maines last blog post..NEBSA Source for Learning challenge

• At October 20, 2008, M. Walker wrote:

  Yes, she came out of our state legislature, where she led the charge against gay marriage and other "anti-American" activities. Famous for molesting Bush after a State of the Union Address...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqSjtIivjnQ

  Mike

  M. Walkers last blog post..Wordle

• At October 21, 2008, Maggie wrote:

  Great idea, Clay! A great way to entice students to stay engaged with current events and cultivate research and critical thinking skills!

• At October 22, 2008, Creating Critical Readers: A Too-Easy Diigo-Google News-Student Blogging Project | Beyond School wrote:

  [...] is a cached version of http://beyond-school.org/2008/10/18/diigo-blogging-current-events. Diigo.com has no relation to the [...]

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On Blogging in the Late Weimar Republic

Crisis? What Crisis?

Reading the headlines of Alltop.com’s “top education” sites‘¹ brings to mind the cover of the old Supertramp album, showing a man sunning himself in a bathing suit on a lounge chair, surrounded by grimy industrial waste. The album’s title? “Crisis? What Crisis?”

Economically, American banking deregulation has dragged the US, and the rest of the world, into a crisis creating comparisons to Depression Year 1937.

Politically, the McCain/Palin campaign is whipping up hatred that makes such sober and respected political commentators as conservative David Gergen openly express fear that civic violence could be the result - and others worry that the unthinkable return to political assassination is now possible.

Meanwhile, the Bush administration continues its assault on the constitution by violating the 200-year-old law of Posse Comitatus, which protects US citizens from being oppressed by their own military, by deploying an Army Brigade to police American streets, and be answerable only to him. Soldiers disobeying, say, an order to arrest members of Congress, or citizens protesting Wall Street, would be court-martialed and serve prison time for serving their democracy instead of their dictator.

And Sarah Palin, the naughty librarian (who can’t name anything she reads, and who may as well gyrate while she winkingly chants “Drill, Baby, Drill”) doesn’t care about the causes of global warming - a position I’m sure would not be shared, could we ask them, by the 25% of mammals now endangered worldwide.

Everything is Political - Except Edubloggers?

So how many education bloggers show the slightest indication, on their blogs, that they find addressing these crises worth “suspending their edublogging campaigns”?

Answer: a whopping 17 - out of the 130 blogs with over 600 posts on Alltop’s education page.

So without further ado,

The “I Didn’t Wordle as Rome Burned” Award

1. The Chancellor’s New Clothes (Our Political Role Models: recommended)
2. Iterating Towards Openness (Scary Sarah: recommended)
3. ODonnell Web (McCain’s hate speech: recommended)
4. History is Elementary (close reading of rescue bailout bill: recommended)
   
5. Borderland (always recommended)
6. Stephen Downes’ OLDaily (economy: recommended)
7. Joanne Jacobs (on Ayers as still-revolutionary)
8. NYC Educator (McCain’s anger issue)
9. Piloted (teaching campaigning)
   
10. My Wonderful World Blog (foreign policy debate)
    
11. Assorted Stuff (on This American Life’s Wall Street podcasts)
    
12. Facing History and Ourselves (educating about campaigning)
    
13. Factchecked (gasoline as political issue)
14. Education Week (Ayers smear)
15. ASCD: In Service (education debate)
16. The Fischbowl (debates 2.0)
17. MindOH Blog (vote)

A Maverick’s Plea for Reform

I’m aware of the many reasons that educators might not openly advocate their political views. I can only hope it’s ye olde self-censoring fear for your jobs that causes this silence, instead of indifference or worse.

All I know is, for this month at least, there are more important things to spend time on than writing about classroom blogging policies, PLNs, global collaborations, Moodles and Nings and Wordles.²

A bit of reading on the Weimar Republic’s failure, and replacement by a famous military dictatorship in the midst of an economic and military crisis - accompanied by extreme racism - might be a good place to start.

I’ve also enabled Diigo to post my daily bookmarks and annotations here. I’m on sabbatical this year, so decided to share what I have time to read. Feel free to check out my Stumbleupon bookmarks too.

I hate feeling like some silly Cassandra.

But I’d hate even more to be one of the Trojans who laughed at her.

~     ~     ~

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1. and we all know what a debatable claim that “top” is
2. Anyway, haven’t they all been written into the ground by now?

33 Comments

• At October 11, 2008, Harold Jarche wrote:

  I've been accused of being too nice on my blog (perhaps it's a Canadian thing), but I strongly agree with you, Clay. It's time to get more subversive.

  Harold Jarches last blog post..The second week of Work Literacy

• At October 11, 2008, Dean Shareski wrote:

  Clay,

  While I admire your passion for politics, I certainly don't feel knowledgeable enough to shed any light on the situation. Certainly as a Canadian, I'd be less qualified than most but even as a federal election in my own country is 5 days away, I'm not even sure who I'd vote for and would only be able to write about my confusion and frustration with the lack of clarity.

  I admit it, I'm not a very good citizen. But what concerns me is that just like I would take an non-educator's writing on education with a grain of salt, I have a hard time finding folks who's opinion's on politics I trust. Those inside politics are rarely able to speak objectively.

  In general, the people whom I most trust are politicians and critics who can see both sides of an issue. No one is all bad and no one is all good. US politics is so polarized that I can't find anyone who can provide a balance. That's not to say people don't have a preference but the discussions are rarely more than a hard slam against the opponent. When a Democrat criticizes Obama, I listen. When a Republic credits Obama, I listen. Same is true for McCain or any other politicians. I'm looking for objective voices. They are hard to find.

  I'm not smart or knowledgeable enough to provide a balanced look at politics. Maybe it's lame but that's my excuse.

  Dean Shareskis last blog post..I’m sure I’m doing it wrong

• At October 11, 2008, avoicein wrote:

  Thanks for mentioning us.

  I can tell you one thing - I'm not going down without a fight.

  avoiceins last blog post..“Hey Sarah Palin” Song

• At October 11, 2008, Clay Burell wrote:

  I get your intent and don't mean to nitpick, Harold, but I'm having trouble with the choice of "subversive" to describe the simple act of voicing your positions on social and political issues. In the 19th century, it was a normal part of citizenship, wasn't it?

• At October 11, 2008, Clay Burell wrote:

  You know I love you, Dean, but I want to agree that for educators who talk about being "lifelong learners," saying "I'm not knowledgeable enough" about politics does seem lame. We're all about critical thinking, reading, learning, communicating.

  That was sort of my point about "suspending the Moodle-talk" to learn about things we should know to be good forces (which simply means informed and critical ones) in bad times. If we're not, then what's the value of our vote?

  As for objectivity, you know that's a myth, right?

  And in the age of YouTube and blogs, we're privy to campaign moments, arguments, evidence, and points of view that the media won't show us, so we really can inform ourselves now better than ever before about political and social issues.

  And for the record, I've criticized Obama on these pages more than once - most strongly for supporting the bailout without being open to other approaches.

  But there is simply nothing in the same universe of egregious shame that Obama is doing to compare with McCain/Palin.

  And so we share our thoughts.

  You're Canadian, though, so it's not as big a problem for you, you lucky dog.

• At October 11, 2008, Clay Burell wrote:

  @A Voice,

  And that's why you're one of maybe three edublogs in my Reader.

  Great Palin song, by the way.

• At October 11, 2008, Harold Jarche wrote:

  Not sure if people wore their politics on their sleeve in the 19th C. In Europe and the British Empire it was all about King and Country, and politics were for the rich. Around here, many people voted the way their parents did.

  Also, the simple act of voicing my opinions on social and political issues could be very subversive - to my business and my ability to earn an income.

  Harold Jarches last blog post..The second week of Work Literacy

• At October 11, 2008, Jeff Wasserman wrote:

  Because my blog is also a classroom resource, I'm loathe to express my specific political views on it--my school admins are drowning in complaints that teachers are espousing pro-Obama or pro-McCain views in their classrooms, and I'm not getting into it. The simple fact of the matter is that my students are (mostly) too young to vote, and their parents have made their minds up already--my district is full of high-dollar-amount donors, $1000/plate fundraiser host families, etc.

  I did bring my sophomores to a State Rep debate held in the high school, and they had a lot to say about it. These kids are tuned in to the process, and how it's covered in the media. They're savvy. Some support Obama, some support McCain, and they'll argue their positions as long as I'll let them. It's heartening to see.

  No, I'll keep my personal politics off my blog and save them for my Facebook arguments with my irrationally conservative and xenophobic friend. If it were a personal blog, or if I weren't a public school teacher, perhaps I'd think differently. But since my biggest audience is teenagers, I'm just not gonna do it.

  Jeff Wassermans last blog post..Welcome to the desert of the real

• At October 11, 2008, KarenR wrote:

  My professional blog is about education and like Jeff and some others, I just don't feel comfortable including my personal political views there. Instead, I maintain a personal blog where I put those kinds of things (http://simplykaren.org/wordpress/). There is a link to that site on my professional blog so if people are interested in learning more about me and my views beyond education and technology, they are free to explore but I am not forcing it upon them. I am trying to maintain some separation between a personal and professional life, I suppose.

  I have found myself crossing that line with Twitter, however, and felt a little uncomfortable with doing that but it seems less permanent, I suppose.

  KarenRs last blog post..A Little Freedom and Personal Space, Is That So Bad?

• At October 11, 2008, Michael Doyle wrote:

  Rome's been burning for awhile, now. I'm guessing my last comment suggesting that you keep sharing thoughts on Gilgamesh for me (and Nero) to enjoy did not fly.

  Anyone who pays any attention to history, to politics, to our society can see what's been going on--and it has been going on for several decades now.

  My daughter was beaten by a police officer back in October, 2001. She was jailed. Officers had badge numbers covered up. She was in a peaceable assembly protesting the Bush administration's plan to bomb people who had nothing to do with 9/11.

  Thursday at lunch, one teacher said that voting for a Democrat is akin to inviting terrorists to bomb the US.

  I read Naomi Wolf's words years ago, and they rang true. I kid about my tinfoil hat, but these are troubled times.

  In the classroom, I (attempt to) teach children how to think critically. My own views do not (or should not) matter.

  I have faith that if I teach children how to think, they will reach reasonable, humane, and (dare I say it?) loving answers to the ills around us.

  I hold a position that wields tremendous power over other clans' children (loco parentis is a big deal to me)--if I espouse my positions publicly, it betrays my faith in the rational approach, and undermines what I am trying to do.

  I am not saying we should not be screaming from the rooftops, though it is a shame that we are such a nation of sheep, blind sheep at that, that only the loudest get heard.

  I am saying, though, that once I start screaming from the rooftops in an edublog forum, I am betraying my trust in the ability of a republic to educate its children.

  (Not that I am not almost there already--but if I give up my faith that humans can think and love, and that we can teach humans how to think and love better, then I am not only giving up on my livelihood, I am giving up on life.)

  I do scream and shout, just not in the ed world. If you ever visit my classroom, you'll hear some very interesting things from children once they are allowed to think on their own. You will hear views contrary to my own, but that are on their way to being reasonable.

  I had a very engaging months/years long on-line discussion with a brilliant young man studying at Oxford, a man who held some views obviously pushed on him. We disagreed on just about everything political, but I told him that given his mind, he and I would be much closer to agreeing on things as he got older than he knew.

  And, years later, the transition has been startling to some, but not to me.

  Faith.

• At October 12, 2008, Jose wrote:

  Just FYI, Clay, make that 18. My politics have been more NYC-central, but I feel important nonetheless, and if we know anything NYC, it's that that's really Rome, with the US being Italy.

  With that said, that's a fine list there. I need to add some of these people to my Google Reader. Good read.

  Joses last blog post..The Holiest Redeemers

• At October 12, 2008, Dean Shareski wrote:

  Clay,

  I do hang my head in shame somewhat as to my ignorance and apathy. I'm just not convinced everyone has to use their professional space for this. It's taken me a long time to sort out who's opinions are valid in the world of education.

  I'll also admit to a possible naivety about my beliefs in politics, at least from a Canadian perspective. I'm inclined to believe that the differences between parties are much smaller than anyone would like us to believe. As I said earlier no one is all bad or good but in general, I think most if not all politicians do want what's best. And while their approaches might be slightly different, the ultimate results of their implementations of policies would be negligible when juxtaposed against the entire policy and given many uncontrolled variables, particularly when it comes to economics.

  Naive. Maybe but the emphasis of the media and blogs are designed to polarize,smear and persuade. Not convinced that's the best way to learn.

  Dean Shareskis last blog post..I’m sure I’m doing it wrong

• At October 12, 2008, avoiceinthewilderness wrote:

  Ok, so my conscience is compelling me to say that my co-author and I do blog under pseudonyms.

  Writing this way affords us a lot more freedom to condemn the system in which we work.

  Less credibility, maybe, but definitely more freedom.

  I don't know if I would be as honest if I were using the blog as a professional outlet and using my name.

  avoiceinthewildernesss last blog post..Will Canada Take Us?

• At October 12, 2008, Clay Burell wrote:

  I hear you, Jeff, and you point to a question that deserves asking: Who is the main audience of each edublog? I suspect that in the great majority of cases, unlike yours, it's other edublogging adults - voters all (at least if they're American)- and not students.

  But maybe I should check out Facebook, which while I have an account, I don't use. But the readership there is less broad.

  Anyway, thanks for weighing in.

• At October 12, 2008, Clay Burell wrote:

  Karen, I've thought about doing the same thing. But I find myself chafing against this cubby-holing that says I'm an "edublogger" - I've always been political, since day one, on these pages, though not to the degree of late, which didn't seem justified until, er, lately.

  It's something to think about. But it's interesting to me that educators shy away from sharing their own critical thinking about the most important issues of the day. It sort of goes in great irony against the grain of what Web 2.0 is all about.

  But I'm aware that I'm ignoring the question of "what 'edublogs' should be allowed to say" - and now we're back to the old debate about whether there are any "rules" at all about our use of this world, and whether there should be.

  Shirky's "publish, then filter" principle seems to apply here. I'll publish, and let the reader decide whether to filter it out, or let it in.

• At October 12, 2008, Michael Doyle wrote:

  Subversion rarely works well, and pseudonyms should be condemned in an open, democratic society.

  On the other hand, not sure any open, democratic societies exist.

  I don’t know if I would be as honest if I were using the blog as a professional outlet and using my name.

  This is the crux--real change requires removing the masks. Real change requires risks.

  And few of us are willing to take off our masks.

  And few folks pay much heed to people behind masks.

• At October 12, 2008, Michael Doyle wrote:

  Dear Clay,

  I am dragging this over to my site: What is our responsibility as teachers as Rome burns.

  It's sort of a blog hijack, but a somewhat different issue than the one you pose.

  (I got a belly full of fresh clams, and saw a rare midday rainbow colered halo bordering the sun--hardly a rational response to the fires around us, but mircles nonetheless.)

  And you got me thinking. I may alter my behavior a tad.

  Michael Doyles last blog post..What I wnat to teach in biology....

• At October 12, 2008, Louise Maine wrote:

  I have been frustrated since I have been in elementary school (even wrote to Pres. Carter) and no one seemed to care and thought I was highly emotional. I may not put it in my blog, but I am highly polarizing at get-togethers, family dinners, and the lunch room, let alone the classroom. Lack of resources and energy, etc. are all coming true. My husband did not understand cheap oil and what I told him in 1990 is now here. Hate to tell them, I told you so, but I am.

  Do you think people listen? Not really. I am focusing on teaching at this point. Watch the blog through the year. I am not so concerned about edublogging and writing what has already been written by others. I am focusing on the journey I am leading my students that infuses issues throughout the year. Currently in my 3 different courses it is global warming (this is the slowest of all my classes), biodiversity (starting with white-tailed deer here and moving outward across the globe), and plants in Academic Biology (humans use 1/3 of all the plant productivity to our use).

  A species with that large an ego will not be here for long. A just god would surely would not have envisioned a planet this way. I do say this to students. Wait until we get to the real problem: human population. There is a firestorm.

  I also do not have hope for the next administration, too much is wrong and no right answers. Am I cynical? - you bet. Many adults do not have the information to really understand the issues. How do you get them to be critical thinkers and search for truth? I am impressed that this year even my lowest students are showing interest in discussion and questioning about such topics.

  I have another blog that I have made one post about oil and what it really represents. I rarely write there and it is a hodgepodge of stuff. Maybe I should split it between the other blogs I have. Your post is giving me pause and rethink this again. I still think chronicling what we do and what we learn may be a much better way to get a message out and get some one to think.

  Louise Maines last blog post..Knee deep in projects

• At October 12, 2008, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience « Living on the Lip of Insanity wrote:

  [...] October 11, 2008 by Kate Tabor Clay Burrell writes a blog that is engaging and literate and that on occasion terrifies me. His recent series of posts raises real questions about the Bush administration and the current election, but also about what we, as teachers, are doing in the face of Rome burning. [...]

• At October 12, 2008, Kate Tabor wrote:

  So, like Michael, I'm posting my response on my blog. Because I teach American Literature I have the luxury and the pleasure of teaching On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau. So, I direct your attention to our American historical radical left - another fine New England transcendentalist.

  Kate Tabors last blog post..On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

• At October 12, 2008, Clay Burell wrote:

  Kate, I hope everybody takes the time to see something from English class actually made - gasp - relevant to citizenship today. Great post. Thanks for brightening my day.

• At October 12, 2008, Clay Burell wrote:

  I've got a reply to your post/comment brewing, Michael. Hope to write it when my wife goes to church.

• At October 12, 2008, Michael Doyle wrote:

  I realized after posting that what happens on a blog is very different from what happens in the classroom.

  Now my brain is spinning around with a different sort of response to your post. Where does the classroom end? I do, after all, buy beer at the local liquor store, figuring students my as well see that I am an adult who drinks beer.

  I have to be very careful about my motives--it may be that I am avoiding the unfolding catastrophe around us.

  This week, we're talking about the influence of humans on our environment. It's a tough subject to present, not because it's controversial, but because it's so unnerving that some kids may lose hope. The key is to kick their naivete without bruising their hope.

  FWIW, the schiool already got a phone call about the way I handled the Large Hadron Collider. (I didn't say the world was going to end--I asked the class who gets to choose what technologies we pursue when the endgame is unknown. A kid, understandably, only heard half what I was saying and got scared.)

  So I am thinking. Again. A lot. WHich is why, of course, I come here.

  Michael Doyles last blog post..What I want to teach in biology....

• At October 12, 2008, Clay Burell wrote:

  Louise, interesting comments.

  I've changed my approach of late to play political echo chamber of stuff I'm finding elsewhere, in hopes that the viral nature of the web can increase exposure of things like that Palin Debate Flowchart I found elsewhere - and that around 1,000 people have visited from email sharing from earlier readers. The guy who made the flowchart has benefited from so many of us sharing his work. I think he made Digg's hotlist.

  I don't know if it will make a difference, but it's within my sphere of influence to try to create the conditions for that difference. But again, especially in light of recent research I've read on the nature of political belief - that it's emotion-based instead of rational - I have my doubts. But I figure maybe the same people that are the decisive swing voters may be less emotional and more rational.

  There's another aspect of all of this that intrigues me, and that's the role bloggers can play in amping up the news that the mainstream media underplays or ignores. Palin's witch-hunting Pastor Muthee is the best example, or maybe her cozying up with Alaskan secessionists (the opposite of "country first-ers"), both of which the mainstream media ignore, while at the same time heavily covering the Obama/Ayers and Obama/Wright allegations. We in the blogosphere can do our collective part to redress that media imbalance by shining our lights on its blind spots.

  Again, that may be fruitless, but also may not be.

  I have to think there is hope for the next administration - though I'm not convinced Obama is sufficiently free of corporate and lobbying influence to to fulfill that hope - and that there are right answers - energy independence a la Obama's declared ambition to create a Kennedy-esque "man on the moon in ten years" program to fund alternative energy to free us of our bondage to the Middle East, which would also reduce our military adventurism in that region, and open up new diplomatic possibilities to solve problems in that region (or at least stop causing them).

  I've rambled enough. Thanks for your comment.

• At October 12, 2008, Clay Burell wrote:

  Michael, you're getting closer to my point with that distinction between what happens on our blogs and what happens in our classrooms.

  Other adults, who vote, read our blogs - more than students do, I would wager. And those adults are the ones whose votes might benefit from our own reflections on the issues, and our sharing of what we're seeing and discovering and thinking.

  On a shakier note, I'm still scratching my head over the in loco parentis argument. While I get it on the gut level of "nobody should influence my kid's values but me," I get it less when I reflect that a) by definition, your average parent was your average C student as a child, and thus hardly the bastion of wisdom and independent, deep thought we'd like him or her to be - so maybe their kids need to hear the arguments, identified as precisely that, arguments which permit counter-arguments, of other adults who happen to be their teachers; and b) so many less disinterested parties play the role of in loco parentis - the media, preachers, and unthinking ideologues of all sorts - that it's disturbingly ironic that the only authority figure without the prospect of profiting from converts or consumers (and I mean teachers) have to muzzle themselves and cede the field to Bill O'Reilly OR John Stewart OR Rick Warren.

  The rub, of course: those types above are idea-peddlers for profit, totally free to hawk their thoughts, while teachers are employees of the State, and thus in jeopardy if they expose the young to ideas beyond the right answers to the safe and irrelevant test.

  It's mind-boggling, really.

  I'll stop there for now.

  Thanks for the input. Always a pleasure.

• At October 12, 2008, Clay Burell wrote:

  Jose, I stand corrected. I just read the pop-up first paragraphs of the latest posts on Alltop, so if I missed something, my bad :)

• At October 13, 2008, Kate Tabor wrote:

  Hi Clay,

  In today's NY Times Harold Bloom has an op-ed piece that suggests our next president turn to Emerson.

  Out of Panic: Self Reliance

  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/opinion/12bloom.html?ei=5070&emc=eta-1

  -KJT

  Kate Tabors last blog post..On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

• At October 13, 2008, Michael Doyle wrote:

  Just to be clear on the loco parentis--I never said I did not influence a child's values. If I'm not influencing a child's values, I'm in the wrong field.

  I'm not terribly worried about losing my job--my background allows me to make ridiculous amounts of money for less hours than I spend teaching.

  It is not my business to preach. It doesn't work, anyway. I'm not terribly good at muzzling myself for job security (if I were, I wouldn't be dropping the F-bomb as frequently as I do). I am decent, I think, at promoting thinking. If my kids were college students, I'd have no problem with espousing my views in the classroom. They're not. They're still embryos. I need them to trust critical thinking, and to trust their results when they think.

  So, yeah, I want to influence values--but not in the typical my-teacher-beat-up-your-mommy sense. I want my kids to think.

  Michael Doyles last blog post..What I want to teach in biology....

• At October 13, 2008, Clay Burell wrote:

  It's less a question of trying to influence values, in my book, than trying to influence the reasoning through which we all arrive at values.

  A teacher who says "My values are right because I'm the teacher" is not a teacher, but a preacher - appealing to his/her own authority.

  A teacher who says, "Let's examine positions A, B, and C," and their foundations in evidence, facts, and reasoning, is not beating anybody up, but instead helping learners question everything - hopefully as a scaffold to them having "justified true beliefs," in IBO language, for their worldview.

  A teacher who does neither is just a test-prep professional who probably hasn't him/herself wrestled with questions of citizenship and intellectual/social responsibility. (And that's not aimed at you, Doyle, which by now I hope you know.)

  The best teachers know that they can set up units of enquiry that create the conditions for students to examine the foundations of conventional beliefs across the spectrum, and help students discover they have no good reasons to back up what they think.

• At October 13, 2008, John Larkin wrote:

  Well, If I was a US resident I would be voting for Barack Obama. That's my position. In fact I would encourage people to get off their fat arses and vote. For anyone. As long as they utilise their right to vote. I wonder if there are US citizens that have never voted? I believe voting is not compulsory in the USA. It is compulsory here in Australia.

  I have not blogged about the US Presidential election. In the past I have blogged about our previous Prime Minister John Howard and the detrimental effect his party and its policies were having on our society. he was such a complete anal retentive ignoramus. He sullied the reputation of my country. I had blogged about Bush on my older blog.

• At October 13, 2008, Michael Doyle wrote:

  Alas, the teachers who feel the need to endorse ideas without truly going through the reasoning far outnumber those who take time to examine premises and reasoning.

  I frequently remind the class that while most of them won't remember a lick of content (and even if they do, it will be outdated in a few decades), they will keep their ability to think critically. (It does not help that as a culture we pretend to believe that learning "science" in high school is our ticket to economic success against the big, bad Asians. It helps even less that for many of those in charge, they're not pretending.)

  Now this may sound silly here, and I hope it didn't sound to silly in class (I had an administrator in the room at the time), but I asked a child who had no idea how to change a tire to imagine what she would do if her phone broke and she got a flat tire miles from help.

  She looked startled, but we broke down the problem together, and without getting into details, developed a way to solve it. If my administrator questions it, I'll tell her it falls under NJ Standard 9.3: promote critical thinking skills.

  By the time one is finished with public education, you should know how to approach common, simple problems. It's clear we are failing that.

  A thinking citizenry could not have possibly allowed the 2000 election to be as close as it was, nor would it have allowed it to be swiped as it was.

  Michael Doyles last blog post..What I want to teach in biology....

• At October 14, 2008, diane wrote:

  I wrestled with this "challenge" and finally posted the result: I feel I have a professional obligation to use my influence responsibly, to refrain from promoting a specific candidate.

  That said, my horror at the McCain/Palin ticket, and all that it represents, is probably evident to my more astute students.

  I don't feel there is any real choice in this election. It's possibilities or disaster.

  dianes last blog post..Politics in the Classroom

• At October 14, 2008, Sometimes I Cringe | Metanoia wrote:

  [...] http://beyond-school.org/2008/10/11/wordling-as-rome-burns/ [...]

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It’s hard to feel shitty when the Steve Miller Band is playing Jet Airliner in the middle of your head. Or smart, either — at least in my case.

Jeebus, all these decades I’ve been thinking the chorus was

Turns out “had a light on” is “airliner”. Well, duh. Of course. That’s the freaking title. But phonetically, Steve is singing “biggo jed adda line oh”. I say this with confidence because I just replayed it about ten times to make sure. That’s the audible, as they say in football.

Who knows what the hell Steve’s saying, anyway? Well, some of us do, and to explain, we have the Internet. For example, The Joker begins,

Or is that pomitus? Hell, The Pompatus of Love is a whole movie devoted to the question. The Straight Dope sez that “pompatus” (that’s how it sounds) actually goes way back:

Anyway, I’ve had a bad cold the last few days, and right now I’m sitting on the couch with a fever, trying to think and write while a vacuum cleaner roars in the next room. But now I’ve also got these Etymotic ER6i earphones jacked deep into my head, muting the noise and substituting ol’ Steve, singing about getting on “that 707″ — a plane nobody outside of Iran still flies. And it’s getting me high, just from the driving energy of the song.

Beats thinking about death, which comes easy when you’re 61 with a fever, a gut, and a history of exercise that consists mostly of getting dressed. But music helps. Music is the best evidence of immortality that we have.

Music is life. And vice versa. Listening to three-decade old Steve Miller on good earphones is life transfusion.

So is listening to an even older song: The Doors’ When the Music’s Over, from Strange Days, a brilliant, beautiful piece of work. To me Strange Days ranks among a handful of perfect albums, first song to last.

Which is When the Music’s Over, of course.

Strange Days came out in late ‘67. I bought it in the summer of ‘68 after Ken Rathyen, a guy on my ice cream route (he was a lifeguard at PV Beach in Pompton Plains, NJ) told me to get it. “Every song is a gem,” he said. He was right. (Kenny, if you’re out there, Yo!)

That fall I shared an apartment in an old house on Spring Garden Street in Greensboro, near Tate Street. Next door was a big Victorian, already boarded up. On Halloween night, a bunch of turned off all the lights and listened to Strange Days. After When the Music’s Over was over, we were deep in a creepy Halloween mood, and decided it would be fun to break into the “haunted house” next door. So we got a flashlight out, sneaked over, and found a way in.

There was no furniture, just empty rooms, with a coating of dust on everything… except for the footprints on the stairs. They were barefoot and small for an adult. We followed them up to the second floor, where they stopped. No other footprints went down.

Feeling creeped out, we pressed on, exploring this big old house. Still, other than the footprints, there was nothing.

Then we found the door to the attic. It was narrow, and opened to a narrow staircase. At the top was a camped room where there were a few items of furniture and some boxes. In one box was a diary by a girl who had lived there. She reported daily on what she saw out the window at the front of the attic, looking down on Spring Garden Street. She also gave weekly summaries of her favorite TV show, Whirlybirds, which last ran in 1960.

One name that appeared often in the diary was Jan Speas, who lived next door. I wondered if this was the same Jan Speas who taught creative writing at Guilford College, where I was a Senior at the time. (Jan, whose maiden name was Jan Cox and wrote as Jan Cox Speas, was best known as a writer of historical romances. More here.)

So we took the diary with us, and I brought it to Jan. Yes, Jan said, she remembered the girl well. They were good friends, and the diary was touching because the girl had later died.

Three years later Jan died too, of an unexpected heart attack. She was 46.

In August, 2004, Ed Cone’s Piedmont Bloggers Conference was held in the same exact spot as the condemned houses: the one I lived in, the haunted Victorian next door, and Jan Speas’ house on the other side of that one. I wrote about it here, and told the same creepy story here (but it doesn’t come up now, which is why I’m repeating myself).

But I’m still here. Dancing on fire. And getting back to real work, now that the vacuum cleaner is off.

Mike Taht is actually reading the entire 451 page (yes, as in Fahrenheit) bailout bill (amended and revised), which he calls porkolicious. I read the first few dozen pages, and what sticks out for me is that it gives the Treasury Secretary a whole buncha power, further advancing the concentration of power in the executive branch of the government.

But, we need it, right?

And we get a new government, one way or another, in February.

Traditional journalism is static. Its basic units are the article, the story, the piece. The new journalism is live. It doesn’t have a basic unit any more than a river or a storm have a basic unit. It’s process, not product. Even these things we call posts, texts, tweets and wikis are less unitary than contributory. They add to a flow, which in turn adds to what we know.

In 1959 Peter Drucker coined the term “knowledge worker” and compared managing in business (a subject about which he remains the canonical authority) to leading a jazz band. You surround yourself with skilled folks who only get better at what they do. Drucker lived a long time, but it’s too bad he’s not around to see what the Live Web is doing both for knowledge and the work that increases it constantly.

To bring this into focus, dig Jeff Jarvis’ Replacing the Article. Specifically, Jeff is looking for a new “unit of coverage” that includes at least three subunitary components: 1) “Curated aggreagtion”, 2) “A blog that treats the story as a process, not a product”, and 3) “A wiki that give us a snapshot of current knowledge”. He’s looking for discussion as well (as he must, else all he’s got is another article, no?). “Where do you think the best - most intelligent and illuminating - discussion is going on?” he asks.

Problem is, the Live Web is getting more and more flowy and decentralized. The unit Jeff wants may be all of the above and a lot more that isn’t here yet. Somebodies have to go invent them. And they will. When they do, it’ll be in the river, not alongside it.

I found my way to Jeff’s piece through my FriendFeed, which I visited after scanning Twitter Search; and from Jeff’s post I pivoted off to MoneyMeltDown, Calculated Risk, Monitor Credit Crisis Blog and Inman blog, all off Jeff’s links. None, he says, do the job he wants. “Can anyone point me to a reporter or expert who is using a blog to both report and discover?” he asks?

Well, there’s Scoble and his FriendFeed top 165 list, about which Paul Boutin says,

Jeff’s point exactly. (Aside: I once had lunch with Jeff at a cafeteria in the Condé Nast building, where Jeff worked at the time and that our kid called “The Candy Ass building”.)

Here’s what’s even more new: Scoble isn’t managing the people who inform him. It’s the other way around. He’s being managed by the jazz in his band. Scobleization is more like what happens in Being John Malkovitch, where all these people take trips down a portal into Malkovitch’s head. Those of us being FriendFed are all being Scobleized, but (as Dame Edna says) in a nice way. That is, we’re being fed knowledge even as we flow with the river as well. Process, not product.

Yet we aren’t subordinating ourselves to the process, unless all we want to do is SEO and AdSense fishing. We’re increasing the worth of ourselves as the sovereign and independent units we call human beings.

To be Scobleized is to be human, and to grow. Because that’s what we do at our best.

The other day I was hanging with Scoble when he said “Isn’t this a great world?” Louis Armstrong, the great jazz player, couldn’t have sung it better.

Shawn Miller from Duke’s Center for Instructional Technology re-published my post “The UMW Blogs Story,” that chronicles the work we have been doing over the last several years. I am pretty excited that the approach of UMW’s Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies is providing others with fodder for thought. The group here at UMW is second to none in my mind, and we play just as hard as we work. But I’m not sure this post is about the people I work with, though I love them each and every one of them.

But the work on UMW Blogs is just one example amongst many. So as a follow-up I wanted to take a moment to point out some of the work other people at other institutions have been doing with publishing platforms (often called “blogging” platforms ).

There’s Mario Nùñez-Molina’s RUM Edublogs (who was the first person I started collaborating with while doing ELS Blogs back in Winter 2007). His advice, guidance, and help was (and continues to be) invaluable to the work we were doing at UMW, and his own publishing platform at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez has an attractive new front page, and is doing some great things with syndication in the “planeta” blogs.

Cole Camplese’s thoughts about re-imagining a blogging platform as far more has been immensely useful for us here at UMW. His team’s work is always about pushing the limits of these tools to be far more than just a blog, and PSU Blogs is probably one of the best examples of this, I highly recommend Cole’s posts on thinking about campus-wide blogging platforms as publishing spaces/portfolios here and here, as well as a syndicated publishing framework here –important conceptual stuff.

Barbara Sawhill and Ryan Brazell’s work at Oberlin College with blogging and the languages (though a quick look at the “Class Sites” tab suggests many more departments) frames one of the most important conversations in my mind: how can language departments all of the country (if not the world) be tapping a publishing platform like this to harness the unbelievably rich archive for language learning that is the open web?

Mikhail Gershovich and Luke Waltzer have launched Baruch Blogs this semester and it is a beauty. I particularly love the Baruch Teaching blog they have created which features a number of professors sharing their thoughts and opinions about the best approaches for teaching in a variety of scenarios. What an excellent idea for a blog! You can see it here or read Luke’s post about it here.

D’Arcy Norman’s stealth launch of U. Calgary Blogs has quickly been delivering the goods. I’m jealous already at how slick and pimped his WPMu install is –those folks at UCalgary are spoiled with this guy! He has also been thinking honestly through the value of a campus blogging platform, and what it might mean as a learning community publishing platform as well as a vehicle for Open Education. Plus, once D’Arcy gets started on something, you know the tips, tweaks, and general tech goodness is soon to follow, making him the Reverend’s most strategic convert

I recently peaked over at Laura Blankenship’s Blogs at Bryn Mawr, I love the new theme, but more than that I am amazed at how they seem to be planning on using this space as a way of bringing together their campus community as well as the alumni from all over the country, if the “Who’s Blogging at Bryn Mawr” sidebar widget is any indicator. Using a blogging platform as a space for allowing the students, faculty, and staff to create quick and easy club and organizations spaces is a huge. This is a space to watch in my mind, we are finding much of the same activity here at UMW and I think it marks a changing tide in just how popular and powerful a user-friendly and open publishing platform will be on campus.

Esther White’s recent work on Smith College Blogs is opening up some interesting ways to both think creating a dynamic front page for a campus blogging platform as well as using blogs as sites for faculty to create there own personal sites.

And then there is Tony Hirst at the Open University who is developing ways of turning a such a blogging platform as WPMu into an automated publishing platform fueled RSS from the course sites created at Open Learn. In short, a way for other institutions with flexible publishing platforms to pull in these resources as re-arrange, edit, and re-contextualize as they see fit. A mashup engine for educational resource that can be pulled in in a matters of seconds, that is one potential road we can imagine in our quest for simple, syndicated publishing platforms.

In short , “what we have here is the non-failure to communicate.” Above is a distributed group of people doing awesome work at their respective institutions and sharing it widely. What comes out of this is a loosely formed community of folks that have together framed one way of thinking about the future of sharing the work done online quickly and easily with very little overhead. What we have here is a community dedicated to sharing and openness, a model for open education that is firmly embedded in the an institution’s community, yet always already within the community of the open web. Feeds from other campus blogs, online resources, etc. can be brought in easily and shared readily, but that’s the subject of my next post….

t's a little late to try to circulate this ad (deadline is tomorrow), but I'm going to do it anyway. CCCC is looking for a web editor:

The Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) is seeking applications from CCCC members for a new position as CCCC Web Editor (to be distinguished from CCC Online Archivist). The CCCC Web Editor’s term will be three years (non-renewable) beginning as soon as possible after the application deadline and ending in December of 2011. This is a volunteer position.

Actual programming or Web building is not required. Instead, the CCCC Web Editor will have the responsibility of orchestrating uses of new Web building structures made available in the coming months (e.g., blogs, Wikis, Face Book and so on), moderating new community spaces, publishing relevant information, and working with NCTE/CCCC to develop a stronger Website with new features. We anticipate that after the initial restructuring period, no more than 5 to 10 hours per month will be required of the Web Editor's time.

Persons interested in applying for the CCCC Web Editor position should send a cover letter of application to be received no later than October 1, 2008. The applicant letter should be accompanied by the applicant's CV, one sample of published writing, and a one-page statement of the applicant's vision for transforming the CCCC Website into an active community space. Two reference letters from CCCC members attesting to the applicant's qualifications can be sent under separate cover. Please do not send books, monographs, or other materials that cannot be easily copied for the Search Committee.

Applications should be mailed to Kristen Suchor, CCCC Web Editor Search Committee, NCTE, 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinois 61801-1096; faxed to (217) 328-0977; or emailed to cccc@ncte.org.

I originally intended to post this as a "be part of the solution" exhortation, as several of us have expressed criticism of how CCCC has used the web in the past. For example, when they started a blog, some of us weren't impressed. I took a look at the CCCC blog right before writing this post, though, and I was very impressed. The blog had lain fallow throughout late 2006, all of 2007, and the first half of 2008, but now Joyce Middleton has started a series of posts titled Conversations on Diversity. She's featuring essay-length posts by -- so far -- Victor Villanueva, Krista Ratcliffe, Malea Powell, Paul Kei Matsuda, Haivan Hoang, Jonathan Alexander, and Mike Rose. Check it out; I will very likely be assigning this series of posts in my pedagogy classes.

Cross-posted at CultureCat.

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