Two words: Will Richardson
I saw Will’s lecture RSS: The New Killer App for Educators at the 2004 NYSAIS Conference for IT Managers, and he just killed. I saw all the potential he was talking about and more. He got me totally hooked to Bloglines, a free web-based RSS reader. Right away I started a blog, and right away it crashed and burned. I learned how hard it was to write for public consumption, and how essential a purpose was. Jeff Utrecht talked about this today in his post, myspace and xanga not so cool. He argues that kids are leaving myspace and xanga because they couldn’t keep up with the blogs. The pressure to write, without a purpose, left them unmotivated. The returned to the land of instant messenger. I understand this, because I have been there.
The Washington Post wrote an article about blogging in Will’s school (now former school) in New Jersey. The piece was slightly light on substance, so if you can, go and hear Will speak in person, or read his book. His calendar is on the right side of his website, and he is all over the place. Will has been so successful blogging and his so into it (he is a self-proclaimed “blogevangelist”), that he quit his job to blog full time.
Alex Ragone over at Learning Blog tipped me on to both of the articles listed above, so while you’re at it, grab Alex’s RSS feed.
Will’s original lecture was about RSS. I am an RSS believer, and at my school, we are trying to do all sorts of things with RSS from community calendars, to teacher blogs, to online student newspapers, to podcasts, to homework assignments and more. I will be writing the how-to’s here soon, so stay posted. And I don’t just mean the technical how-to’s, I mean the pedagogical ones…the good stuff.
update: Washington Post did another article about teachers with blogs called Blackboard Blogging
Technorati Tags: Alex Ragone, blog, conference, education, future, Internet, Jeff Utrecht, MySpace, news, RSS, schools, students, teachers, teaching, technology, U.S.A., Washington Post, web, web2.0, Will Richardson, Xanga
