Another project for the common folks that Adler shepherded was the formation of the Great Books Foundation. The purpose of the Foundation was to produce a series of inexpensive paperback books that contained works that Adler thought were important. Since the sets were inexpensive, everyone in a book group would be able to buy a set, and then get together to discuss the diverse selections therein.
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The Great Books Foundation | Book Notes Plus - 5 views
booknotesplus.wordpress.com/...the-great-books-foundation
great books bestpractices elementary middleschool literature
shared by Mark Gillingham on 28 Aug 13
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Regardless of where you live, there is probably a Great Books Discussion Group nearby. Here in Baton Rouge, Louisiana there has been a Group for over 40 years, and I have been in it, off and on, for many of those years. When our son was in elementary school he was in a Junior Great Books Discussion Group for a while, and my wife was the leader. You will even find Great Books Discussion Groups in prisons. A friend of mine led a group at a state prison for a time, and said that the discussions were among the best he ever took part in.
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Online Predators and Their Victims - 1 views
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adult offenders who meet, develop relationships with, and openly seduce underage teenagers
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The publicity about online"predators" who prey on naive children using trickery and violence is largely inaccurate.
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In the great majority of cases, victims are aware they are conversing online with adults. In the N-JOV Study, only 5% of offenders pretended to be teens when they met potential victims online. (112)
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99% of victims of Internet-initiated sex crimes in the N-JOV Study were 13 to 17 years old, and none were younger than 12. 48% were 13 or 14 years old. (115)
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My (Liz B. Davis ) Summary of Key Points (All are quotes directly from the article): Online "Predators" and Their Victims. Myths, Realities, and Implications for Prevention and Treatment. by: Janis Wolak, David Finkelhor, and Kimberly J. Mitchell - University of New Hampshire and Michele L. Ybarra - Internet Solutions for Kids, Inc.
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it was those 15-17 years of age who were most prone to take risks involving privacy and contact with unknown people. (115)
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This tells us what we need to know about courses on digital citizenship and safety -- discuss these issues probably beginning around 11 -- before soliciation happens -- then have focused programs probably starting age 12-13 -- as with everything -- these ages tend to get lower over time -- what will happen w/ the Webkinz generation is anyone's guess.
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I see this more and more...as the parent of webkinz kids...in the past..you had the "don't talk to strangers" talk with them. Now the strangers are coming into our homes and at much younger ages.
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I think we need to be aware that not all "unknown people" are wanting to commit crimes, fraud, etc. Talking to someone you don't know might be the introduction to your new best friend. The content of discussion is important. Not knowing someone, I would not give them personal information. Friendship is built over time.
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A nice way I've heard to describe this is that even though kids think they're tech savvy, they are not relationship savvy. It's this age group that doesn't recognize the complexity of relationships.
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@David - I think, however, that we should be very careful about teaching HOW to make friendships -- friend of a friend and building relationships OVER TIME is often how these things happen. Children want the romance and don't realize the "gentle" stranger they've met wants to harm them. This is a tricky one -- one of my dearest friends is Julie Lindsay who I met online. But that conversation was totally OK, as youwould guess. Teaching them about this is tricky. We'll have to think on this one AND look at the research.
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take place in isolation and secrecy, outside of oversight by peers, family members, and others in the youth's face-to-face social networks (115)
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Most of the online child molesters described in the N-JOV Study met their victims in chatrooms. In a 2006 study, about one third of youths who received online sexual solicitation had received them in chatrooms. (116)
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Youth internet users with histories of offline sexual or physical abuse appear to be considerably more likely to receive online aggressive sexual solicitations. (117)
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..Although Internet safety advocates worry that posting personal information exposes youths to online molesters, we have not found empirical evidence that supports this concern. It is interactive behaviors, such as conversing online with unknown people about sex, that more clearly create risk. (117)
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Posting personal information is NOT what puts students at risk -- interactive BEHAVIORS! Do! This is one criticism we've had of online projects. At risk behaviors from AT RISK students cause things to happen!!! Listen up!
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and your students are lucky that they have you to guide them. Way too many schools are not involving their students in these activities so they don't have these "appropriate" models
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Exactly, kristin -- MORE SCHOOLS have got to do this. It is a travesty that these kids are being victimized when the schools can do something about it. Completely a travesty. I hope we can all get fired up again about this topic, especially with the good research coming out now!
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Online molesters do not appear to be stalking unsuspecting victims but rather continuing to seek youths who are susceptible to seduction. (117)
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maintaining online blogs or journals, which are similar to social networking sites in that they often include considerable amounts of personal information and pictures, is not related to receiving aggressive sexual solicitation unless youths also interact online with unknown people. (117)
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Boys constitute 25% of victims in Internet-initiated sex crimes, and virtually all of their offenders are male. (118
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Some gay boys turn to the internet to find answers to questions about sexuality or meet potential romantic partners, and there they may encounter adults who exploit them. (118)
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..child molesters are, in reality, a diverse group that cannot be accurately characterized with one-dimensional labels. (118)
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Online child molesters are generally not pedophiles. (118)Online child molesters are rarely violent. (119)
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Child pornography production is also an aspect of Internet-initiated sex crimes. One in five online child molesters in the N-JOV Study took sexually suggestive or explicit photographs of victims or convinced victims to take such photographs of themselves or friends. (120)
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Youths may be more willing to talk extensively and about more intimate matters with adults online than in face-to-face environments. (121
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it may not be clear to many adolescents and adults that relationships between adults and underage adolescents are criminal. (122)
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Simply urging parents and guardians to control, watch, or educate their children may not be effective in many situations. The adolescents who tend to be the victims of Internet-initiated sex crimes many not themselves be very receptive to the advice and supervision of parents. (122)
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We recommend educating youths frankly about the dynamics of Internet-initiated and other nonforcible sex crimes. Youths need candid, direct discussions about seduction and how some adults deliberately evoke and then exploit the compelling feelings that sexual arousal can induce. (122)
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Youths need candid, direct discussions about seduction
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The hard part is finding comfortable places to have these discussions. Where is the best place?
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I believe that the Http://digiteen.wikispaces.com project is the best thing I've got going in my classroom with 9th graders in Qatar & Austria. We're having great conversations -- third person looking at things happening and working through what they think is a good way to do it, I believe. I truly think that everyone working with students should be educated to watch for the "signs" -- and we should also have individual programs.
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Cool summary of an article by Liz B. Davis -- Liz took the article and extracted the most valuable bits to her using google Docs. This methodology is fascinating, but even moreso the fact we may all begin doing this together with Diigo.
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Cool summary of an article by Liz B. Davis -- Liz took the article and extracted the most valuable bits to her using google Docs. This methodology is fascinating, but even moreso the fact we may all begin doing this together with Diigo.
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Cool summary of an article by Liz B. Davis -- Liz took the article and extracted the most valuable bits to her using google Docs. This methodology is fascinating, but even moreso the fact we may all begin doing this together with Diigo.
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Cool summary of an article by Liz B. Davis -- Liz took the article and extracted the most valuable bits to her using google Docs. This methodology is fascinating, but even moreso the fact we may all begin doing this together with Diigo.
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Cool summary of an article by Liz B. Davis -- Liz took the article and extracted the most valuable bits to her using google Docs. This methodology is fascinating, but even moreso the fact we may all begin doing this together with Diigo.
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What is tagging? - Flat Classrooms - 6 views
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A conversation that we're having about tagging, folksonomy and taxonomy and when to use each. This was posted as an email request on our Flat Classroom certified teacher group, however, we have as a best practice to pull out those discussion items and put them on the Ning so that everyone can benefit from the discussion when it is something others may want to read. Feel free to join in and see the conversations happening and add your thoughts.
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"Book Discussion Group Guidelines" | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 3 views
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Faceless no more: Facebook admits errors | The Australian - 9 views
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Staff reacted with shock and disbelief as they learned of the defacement of tribute pages set up to honour 12-year-old Elliott Fletcher and eight-year-old Trinity Bates.
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"Are people really doing that to a tribute page for a dead child? None of us as a group of people wants to see the product that we built used like that. It's awful."
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If Facebook is subject to the traditional rules of publishing, then it is legally responsible for all the content that it hosts -- a commercially untenable position for a company of just 1000 employees for 400 million users globally.
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But in fact, there was no security breach -- the people who defaced the Bates and Fletcher tribute sites had Facebook accounts and the tribute groups or pages were left open for anyone to join or comment.
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but people who set up tribute sites do not have to wait for the website to remove objectionable material. When a person sets up either a group or fan page on Facebook, they can set controls about who is allowed to join or post content and what types of content -- such as comments, photographs or videos -- are permitted. The person running the tribute page can also delete any content they want without any need for a higher authority to intercede.
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the problem was compounded by the fact the group founder quit and the page was left without an administrator.
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"Staff reacted with shock and disbelief as they learned of the defacement of tribute pages set up to honour 12-year-old Elliott Fletcher and eight-year-old Trinity Bates." This is an important article to discuss with students as the defacement of these pages happened because the group was set up for anyone to join and without moderation. Education Education prevents hurt and harm as happened in this case. Of course, it doesn't change the fact that Facebook, even though it is a global company, seems to have a centralized communications structure.
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Best College Newspapers: 2013 Ranking Released by Princeton Review : College Media Matters - 0 views
www.collegemediamatters.com/...g-released-by-princeton-review
education news newspaper journalism bestpractices
shared by Vicki Davis on 31 Oct 13
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As you review the best of the best, peruse the best college newspapers of 2013 as ranked by the Princeton review. Have students and prospective journalists review these sites and look at the articles that are the most engaging and active. Online media is often about the reshare - what type of stories are people willing to share and discuss. Online papers are sort of a focus group for what interests people. Hope this list gives you some discussion points for your newspaper organization.
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Under Eleven? - Flat Classrooms - 0 views
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Another group of teachers is forming to talk about flattening the classrooms w/ their students who are under age 11. This discussion is open to anyone who joins in. Feel free to join and discuss here. Grassroots movements to connect such as these are cropping up everywhere in many places, not just here. But this is a model example of how it is happening. These are "teacherpreneurs" in action!
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"0" As a Grade | Edutopia Group Discussions by and for Educators - 3 views
www.edutopia.org/...54771
teaching edutopia education tools grade discussions educators administrator curriculum all_teachers edu_trends middleschool elementary professionaldevelopment
shared by edutopia .org on 10 Jun 11
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How to Change People's Attitudes - 0 views
blogs.openforum.com/...ow-to-change-peoples-attitudes
education learning psychology researcher_thoughtleader professionaldevelopment
shared by Vicki Davis on 08 Nov 08
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You sure you sure?” It turns out, we’re not sure we’re sure according to the classic 1973 study by Goethals and Reckman.In the study, researchers invited high schoolers to discuss their opinions on an issue—in this case, school segregation and whether bussing would help racial integration. Some time later, study participants returned for another discussion. This time, however, they were divided into pro and con groups. Inside each separated groups, Goethals and Reckman placed a “confederate,” a person armed with arguments for the opposing viewpoint. The goal was to reverse the groups’ outlook.In the end, both confederates successfully reversed the groups’ opinions.
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groups couldn’t accurately recall their original position. Many claimed their previous beliefs were less definite than researchers originally observed.
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Messaging Shakespeare | Classroom Examples | - 0 views
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Brown's class was discussing some of the whaling calculations in Moby Dick. When one student asked a question involving a complex computation, three students quickly pulled out their cell phones and did the math. Brown was surprised to learn that most cell phones have a built-in calculator. She was even more surprised at how literate her students were with the many functions included in their phones. She took a quick poll and found that all her students either had a cell phone or easy access to one. In fact, students became genuinely engaged in a class discussion about phone features. This got Brown thinking about how she might incorporate this technology into learning activities.
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Brown noticed that many students used text messaging to communicate, and considered how she might use cell phones in summarizing and analyzing text to help her students better understand Richard III. Effective summarizing is one of the most powerful skills students can cultivate. It provides students with tools for identifying the most important aspects of what they are learning, especially when teachers use a frame of reference (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001). Summarizing helps students identify critical information. Research shows gains in reading comprehension when students learn how to incorporate isummary framesi (series of questions designed to highlight critical passages) as a tool for summarizing (Meyer & Freedle, 1984). When students use this strategy, they are better able to understand what they are reading, identify key information, and provide a summary that helps them retain the information (Armbruster, Anderson, & Ostertag, 1987).
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To manage the learning project, Brown asked a tech-savvy colleague to help her build a simple weblog. Once it was set up, it took Brown and her students 10 minutes in the school's computer lab to learn how to post entries. The weblog was intentionally basic. The only entries were selected passages from text of Richard III and Brown's six narrative-framing questions. Her questions deliberately focused students' attention on key passages. If students could understand these passages well enough to summarize them, Brown knew that their comprehension of the play would increase.
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Text messaging is a real-world example of summarizing—to communicate information in a few words the user must identify key ideas. Brown saw that she could use a technique students had already mastered, within the context of literature study.
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Brown told students to use their phones or e-mail to send text messages to fellow group members of their responses to the first six questions of the narrative frame. Once this was completed, groups met to discuss the seventh question, regarding the resolution for each section of the text. Brown told them to post this group answer on the weblog.
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ASCD - 0 views
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first 60 seconds of your presentation is
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Summers and other leaders from various companies were not necessarily complaining about young people's poor grammar, punctuation, or spelling—the things we spend so much time teaching and testing in our schools
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the complaints I heard most frequently were about fuzzy thinking and young people not knowing how to write with a real voice.
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There is so much information available that it is almost too much, and if people aren't prepared to process the information effectively it almost freezes them in their steps.”
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half-life of knowledge in the humanities is 10 years, and in math and science, it's only two or three years
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“People who've learned to ask great questions and have learned to be inquisitive are the ones who move the fastest in our environment because they solve the biggest problems in ways that have the most impact on innovation.”
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developing young people's capacities for imagination, creativity, and empathy will be increasingly important for maintaining the United States' competitive advantage in the future.
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The three look at one another blankly, and the student who has been doing all the speaking looks at me and shrugs.
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The test contains 80 multiple-choice questions related to the functions and branches of the federal government.
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Let me tell you how to answer this one
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Each group will try to develop at least two different ways to solve this problem. After all the groups have finished, I'll randomly choose someone from each group who will write one of your proofs on the board, and I'll ask that person to explain the process your group used.”
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a lesson in which students are learning a number of the seven survival skills while also mastering academic content?
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students are given a complex, multi-step problem that is different from any they've seen in the past
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ncreasingly, there is only one curriculum: test prep. Of the hundreds of classes that I've observed in recent years, fewer than 1 in 20 were engaged in instruction designed to teach students to think instead of merely drilling for the test.
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. It is working with colleagues to ensure that all students master the skills they need to succeed as lifelong learners, workers, and citizens.
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I have yet to talk to a recent graduate, college teacher, community leader, or business leader who said that not knowing enough academic content was a problem.
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College and Work Readiness Assessment (www.cae.org)—that measure students' analytic-reasoning, critical-thinking, problem-solving, and writing skills.
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I conducted research beginning with conversations with several hundred business, nonprofit, philanthropic, and education leaders. With a clearer picture of the skills young people need, I then set out to learn whether U.S. schools are teaching and testing the skills that matter most.
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“First and foremost, I look for someone who asks good questions,” Parker responded. “We can teach them the technical stuff, but we can't teach them how to ask good questions—how to think.”
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This is a great aspect of project based learning. Although when we allow students to have individual research topics, some teachers are frustrated because they cannot "can" their approach (especially tough if the class sizes are TOO LARGE,) students in this environment CAN and MUST ask individualized questions. This is TOUGH to do as the students who haven't developed critical thinking skills, whether because their parents have done their tough work for them (like writing their papers) or teachers have always given answers because they couldn't stand to see the student struggle -- sometimes tough love means the teacher DOESN'T give the child the answer -- as long as they are encouraged just enough to keep them going.
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“I want people who can engage in good discussion—who can look me in the eye and have a give and take. All of our work is done in teams. You have to know how to work well with other
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Last Saturday, my son met Bill Curry, a football coach and player that he respects. Just before meeting him, my husband reviewed with my son how to meet people. HE told my son, "Look the man in his eyes and let him know your hand is there!" After shaking his hand, as Mr. Curry was signing my son's book, he said, "That is quite a handshake, son, someone has taught you well." Yes -- shaking hands and looking a person in the eye are important and must be taught. This is an essential thing to come from parents AND teachers -- I teach this with my juniors and seniors when we write resumes.
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how to engage customers
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Engagi ng customers requires that a person stops thinking about their own selfish needs and looks at things through the eyes of the customer!!! The classic issue in marketing is that people think they are marketing to themselves. This happens over and over. Role playing, virtual worlds, and many other experiences can give people a chance to look at things through the eyes of others. I see this happen on the Ning of our projects all the time.
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the world of work has changed profoundly.
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Over and over, executives told me that the heart of critical thinking and problem solving is the ability to ask the right questions. As one senior executive from Dell said, “Yesterday's answers won't solve today's problems.”
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I say to my employees, if you try five things and get all five of them right, you may be failing. If you try 10 things, and get eight of them right, you're a hero. You'll never be blamed for failing to reach a stretch goal, but you will be blamed for not trying.
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risk aversion
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He says risk aversion is a problem in companies -- YES it is. Although upper management SAYS they want people willing to take risks -- from my experience in the corporate world, what they SAY and what they REWARD are two different things, just ask a wall street broker who took a risky investment and lost money.
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Recommendation for this group membership setting - 105 views
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The Progressive Stack and Standing for Inclusive Teaching - The Tattooed Professor - 2 views
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There are two fundamental truths about Inclusive Pedagogy: it is an eminently desirable set of practices for teaching in higher ed, and it is an eminently difficult set of practices for teaching in higher ed
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Put simply, the Progressive Stack is a method of ensuring that voices that are often submerged, discounted, or excluded from traditional classroom discussions get a chance to be heard
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There are personal, cultural, learning, and social reasons people don’t speak up in class. Students of color and women of all races, introverts, the non-conventional thinkers, those from poor previous educational backgrounds, returning or “nontraditional students,” and those from cultures where speaking out is considered rude not participatory are all likely to be silent in a class where collaboration by difference is not structured as a principle of pedagogy and organization and design. Who loses? Everyone. Arguments that are smart and valuable and can change a whole conversation get lost in silence and, sometimes, shame. When that happens, we don’t really have discussion or collaboration. We have group think–and that is why we all lose.
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Taking “stack” just means keeping a list of people who wish to participate—offer a question or comment—during the Q & A. Rather than anxiously waving your hand around and wondering if you’ll be called on, if you would like to participate, signal to me in some way (a gesture, a dance move, a traditional hand-in-the-air, meaningful eye contact, etc.) and I will add you to the list. However, we’re not just going to take stack, we are going to take progressive stack in an effort to foreground voices that are typically silenced in dominant culture. According to Justine and Zoë, two self-identified transwomen who were active in the movement, progressive stack means that “if you self-identify as trans, queer, a person of color, female, or as a member of any marginalized group you’re given priority on the list of people who want to speak – the stack. The most oppressed get to speak first.” As I take stack, I will also do my best to bump marginalized voices and those who haven’t yet had a chance to participate to the top.
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As with any tool that confronts the effects of privilege and power head-on, the Progressive Stack makes some people uncomfortable
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In a complete social and historical vacuum, level-playing-field equality is an excellent proposition. But in the actual lived world of our history, experiences, and interactions the idea of treating everyone uniformly “regardless of gender” or without “seeing color” simply strengthens already-entrenched inequalities
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As the increasing number of targeted online harassment campaigns has shown us, once a concept or issue has traveled through the right-wing Outrage-Distortion Complex, there is little hope of reclaiming rational discussion. It’s been permanently stained. One might dismiss the frothing lamentations of white-genocide-via-classroom-pedagogy that bubble up from a subreddit, but the insidious trope of “reverse racism” has put its thumb on the scale enough to have distorted the conversation around the Progressive Stack
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because the Progressive Stack calls attention to existing structures of inequality by replacing them with another structure entirely, it forces those of us who identify as white (and, particularly, male) to confront the ways in which we have been complicit in maintaining inequality
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google “progressive stack.” Almost every result you get will take you to the fever swamps of right-wing Reddit and warmed-over piles of gamergate droppings. The common denominator is that “Progressive Stack” is simply anti-white “racism” dressed in fancy intellectual clothes
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Giving up power, it turns out, is hard for some people. Especially when that power has been historically-constructed to be so pervasive as to render it unquestioned and indeed unseen in its hegemonic sway. Pierre Bourdieu calls this symbolic power: “For symbolic power is that invisible power which can be exercised only with the complicity of those who do not want to know that they are subject to it or even that they themselves exercise it”
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It means there will be times when people who are not accustomed to their identity being a source of discomfort and exclusion will have to learn–in a managed and intentional space–what that feels like.
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there will be friction and messiness and uncomfortable adjustments, because any education worth the name involves friction and messiness and uncomfortable adjustments
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Many Complaints of Faculty Bias Stem From Students' Poor Communicating, Study Finds - F... - 4 views
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some perceptions of classroom bias would decline, and students would benefit more from exposure to opposing viewpoints, if colleges did more to teach argumentation and debate skills. Teaching undergraduates such skills "can help them deal with ideological questions in the classroom and elsewhere in a civil way, and in a way that can discriminate between when professors are expressing a bias and when they are expressing a perspective that they may, or may not, actually be advocating,"
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The study's findings, however, were criticized as ideologically biased themselves by Peter W. Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars, a group that has frequently accused colleges of liberal or leftist indoctrination. The article summarizing the study, Mr. Wood said on Friday, "seems to me to have a flavor of 'blaming the victim,'" and appears "intended to marginalize the complaints of students who have encountered bias in the classroom."
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Students need to learn how to argue as a workplace skill. If they understood this as a key workplace strategy that will affect their ability to advance they may be more willing to pay attention. They are there-- regardless of what we may believe-- to get jobs at the end. Discussion and dealing with disputes or differences is key to professional advancement
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It's one thing to be closed to students' arguments or to insist on conformity with a prof's views. It is another altogether when students do not know how to argue their own points, especially points that are not political. At some point, isn't it the case that the prof does know even a little bit more about their subjects than their students?
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Several studies (post 1998) seem to indicate that the capacity to understand and engage in logical argumentation has diminished (at least in the 'Western' world). These studies seem to have encouraged the state education boards (committees) of several states to entertain making a "critical thinking" or "Introductory logic" course part of the required core.
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I have found Susan Wolcott's teaching materials, which are informed by research by K.S. Kitchener and P. M. King, to be the most helpful in addressing student accusations of bias. I had long been puzzled by why my colleagues in philosophy are so often accused of bias when, in my own observation of their teaching, they take care to keep their own views of a philosophical topic hidden from students. Indeed, they spend a great deal of time playing devil's advocate and championing the philosophical position that is getting the least airtime in class discussion, readily switching sides if another perspective begins to be neglected. Wolcott's developmental analysis, which explains how students arrive at college as "confused fact finders" and often get stuck in learning critical thinking skills at the "biased jumper" stage, helps me to understand how students attribute bias to professors when the students lack skills to maneuver around arguments. The most helpful part of Wolcott's analysis is her suggestion that, if one gives students an assignment that is more than one level above their current abilities in critical thinking, they will completely ignore the assignment task. This failing is particularly visible when students are asked to compare strengths/weaknesses in two arguments but instead write essays in which they juxtrapose two arguments and ignore the task of forging comparisons. In Wolcott's workbooks (available by request on her website), she describes assignments that are specifically designed to help students build a scaffolding for critical thinking so that, over four years, they can actually leave the "biased jumper" stage and move on to more advanced levels of critical thinking. One need not be a slavish adherent to the developmental theory behind Wolcott's work to find her practical suggestions extremely helpful in the classroom. Her chart on stages of critical thinking is the first link below; her website is the second link. http://www.wolcottlynch.com/Do... http://www.wolcottlynch.com/Ed...
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The classroom and campus are not divorced from the polarized language in the greater society wherein people are entrenched in their own views and arguments become heated, hateful, and accusatory. The focus of this study on political bias is not helpful under the circumstances. The greater argument is that students need to be taught how to argue effectively, with facts, logic and reasoning not just in the classroom but beyond.
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What happened to the 'Sage on the Stage' as the 'provacatuer-in-chief'? Some of my best classroom experiences came from faculty that prompted critical thinking and discussion by speaking from all sides of an issue. They were sufficiently informed to deflate weak arguments from students with probing questions. They also defended an issue from every side with factual information. In the best instances, I truly did not know the personal position of a faculty member. It was more important to them to fully and fairly cover an issue than it was to espouse a personal preference. That spoke volumes to me about the love of learning, critical examination of strongly held personal beliefs, and assertive but fair-minded discourse. Do those faculty still exist?
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The study suggests that those faculty do exist and in fact are numerous, but that students' ever-diminishing skills in critical thinking and argumentation lead them to misunderstand the questioning, challenging Socratic dialogue and "devil's advocate" work of the professor as simple bias.
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When I was teaching controversial subjects the advice from the Administration was, "Teach the debate." Its pretty hard to "teach the debate" without actually having some of those debates. When students "checked out" during those debates I always wondered if they were the ones who were going to report on their teaching evaluations that, "the professor was biased." Of course when the student intellectually "checks out," i.e., remains quiet, only says what they think I want to hear, etc., they are not doing A work in the class. This reinforces their view that "the professor is biased."
WiZiQ free Virtual Classroom - 127 views
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Google Digital Literacy Tour - iKeepSafe - 9 views
www.ikeepsafe.org/...google-digital-literacy-tour
education teaching digiteen all_teachers digitalcitizenship
shared by Vicki Davis on 05 Jan 12
- No Cached
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Google Digital Literacy Tour along with videos. Here are some great lessons and videos and a full curriculum. Just realize that you should involve students in discussions and activities, this is a pretty poor candidate for lecture-based delivery because it is changing so quickly. I use Digiteen but these are great resources. (Hat tip to Theresa Allen for sending this through the Digiteen google group.)
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The Civil War Augmented Reality Project - 20 views
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Civil War Augmented Reality project -- just in my inbox. You civil war buffs and history teachers may really get a "kick" out of this. Speaking of "kick" they are trying to get a grant that requires people to vote for them. Take a look: "This message is from a group of educators in Pennsylvania who have developed a Social Studies project that is in the process of raising a modest amount of money to build prototypes for gathering additional partners. Our project, the Civil War Augmented Reality Project, is intended to enhance the experiences of students visiting Civil War sites. It is also intended to increase attendance and revenue for historic sites by offering both "high" and "low" tech experiences to best reach the majority of the population. We feel that our project is fulfilling a need that educators, park workers, technology enthusiasts, and Civil War enthusiasts have discussed in the past: How can historic sites both raise educational value and public interest in their institutions though technology, while not alienating the non-technical history fans? We have worked hard on the answer, and are interested in promoting our creative solutions. We would like to make clear that the project is not intended solely for Pennsylvania. It is our hope that the project will expand to other venues, as we feel that we have the ability to use our ideas to enhance the experiences of all students at historic sites."
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Blogger: Cool Cat Teacher Blog - Post a Comment - 0 views
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I don't feel that any of the names mentioned act or feel like they are better than me and have even included me on many conversations
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I do love when you say, "if one person reads our blog and get something out of it.. it is important." I try to keep that in mind all the time. Numbers don't matter..people do.
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As far as the ego thing goes who cares. Your blog's this mine is that. Whoopdy do! If you're learning and growing your PLN that is what counts.
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I feel similar frustration. If the point is about learning than reading and commenting is a great way to add to our own creative potential.
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Great response to a burning question/statement that most of us (well probably all of us)feel at one time or another.
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Many of the people that I have learned the most from are not the ones involved in the "cocktail party" but rather those in the trenches doing what I love to do each and every day, just like you!
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He has an important point -- if you're only reading the uber-popular bloggers -- you're missing the point of the blogosphere. I make it a point to find some newcomers. To me, it is like a game, I want to find new people doing great things and encourage them like so many greats like David Warlick, Darren Kuropatwa, Ewan McIntosh, and more did for me when I started.
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agree that developing a readership takes time.
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Re: the depressing aspects of 'comment intensity,' I actually meant it to be an affirming post rather than a depressing one
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I think that the comment intensity idea is important in this respect: I often see laments from bloggers that they don't get many comments on their posts. What the table above shows is that even those of us who are fortunate enough to have large readerships often don't get many comments. My personal median over the past 20 posts, even WITH the big spike of 89, is still only 2.5. Ewan, your blog and Vicki Davis' are similar. The point is that many, many posts don't get a lot of comments, even those by the more widely read bloggers.
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Thanks for bringing this up. This has been an issue for me personally as well. OK, so nobody's IN, but the (pseudo?) community nature of blogging makes it feel that way.
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But, like other artists, we have to work a little every day whether we feel like it or not, and whether we get validation that day or not.
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I think many of us are working at blogging because there's an element of self improvement, which implies self evaluation. Without feedback from others it's easy to be hard on ourselves.
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For me, the conversation is hardly closed; it is simply a matter of having something to say, something to share.The emotional commitment is another aspect of the conversation that is easily glossed over.
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I've found (both with myself and those educators I've worked with in their blogging starts) that the edublogosphere is open and welcoming -- but as we engage in any cultural group (even offline), patience really is a key.Still, we sometimes measure our success by the interaction from those we look up to (esp. teachers - many of whom were probably the best students in their class, yes?)
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Sometimes we don't see the comments -- because the talk happens offline.
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I get very few comments on my blog but see through the clustermaps that I have readers each and every day, so continue to feel that the blog is benefiting me through reflection and may even be benefiting others as well.
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I NEVER get to share tools I discover because someone ALWAYS beats me to the punch...but I am ok with that.
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I truly connect with what you write even though I am one of "those" people who reads but rarely comments. YOU do make a difference and so do I!
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the whole cocktail party analogy is just a grown up version of the kickball line-up in elementary school.
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I was always picked last there -- whew this analogy hits me close to home. I was always picked last b/c I was the worst. Even the worst kickball player needs to feel encouraged and not destroyed for getting up and kicking the ball. Even the "worst" blogger - if there is such a thing -- needs to feel encouraged sometimes too just for blogging.
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In the blog world, change is effected by good content, and while good content isn't always noticed at first, it does eventually get a respectable position--sometimes because the cocktail group points them out.
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How could I think to be in the same boat as John Scalzi who started in 1998 if I've only been blogging since 2007?
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I found your blog, Vicki, because a project you do for Atomic Learning mentioned you, and your name is on the movies they use.
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2005 - you were the only ones out there to follow
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Oh yes, I have felt the cocktail chill at times. I'm a norwegian edublogger, that have been following your brunks (blogdrunks) for a while. To start with - in
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Wes told me once I twittered, that nobody should twitter alone and I could not agree more - so I don't.
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So, from the outer side looking in: Anybody stopping by in Second Life tonight (which is today for you) for a virtual edu cocktail?I'm aka Kita Coage at Eduisland II, waiting to cocktail connect with you c",)
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I suspect that we all have a deep desire to be heard and to be accepted. The longer I'm involved in the edublogosphere, however, the more impressed and encouraged I am by the level of acceptance that there is here. It is a good thing that we don't always agree with each other. Disagreement is often at the heart of constructive conversation
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At the same time, we are no different than the kids in our classrooms. We educators need to know that we will be accepted, no matter what we have to say and no matter how well we are able to express it. I think we help to make the edublogosphere a "safe place" for each other as we try to keep it positive and as we take advantage of the numerous opportunities to be affirming.
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I don't at all feel excluded from the blog "cocktail party", because just like a real cocktail party, I am drawn to the people who have something important, and engaging to say and I am content to listen and learn from them. I have seen a few of the "big names" at conferences, and even met a few of them in person. I have emailed several of them and others, or left an occasional comment, and I have been very pleasantly surprised at the thoughtful responses I have received.
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I read many blogs, but comment rarely, and I suspect that those who read my blog do the same. So I don't feel at all excluded. I'm just happy to occasionally be part of the conversation.
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When I was at EduBloggerCon last spring I felt quite the outsider. There were famous people there and I was unknown. I still feel that way in the broad edublogsphere. But honestly the broad sphere is not who I am blogging for. I blog for a niche - computer science teachers. The event for that niche is SIGCSE and there I (blush) feel a bit like a star. Few of the people there know the edubloggers with much larger readership or Technorati ranks. And really reaching the CS teachers is my goal not reaching everyone who teaches general subjects.
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There is, I believe, room for more at the top if only because the number of teachers reading blogs is still very small but we all hope it is growing. We are still at the ground floor. That makes edublogging different from tech blogging I think.
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I think we need to all remember our focus for blogging. Mine is for reflection. I use my blog as a tool to improve my teaching. If others start to read and can learn from it, great. To my knowledge I am the only one seeing my blog right now. Which is fine with me. I don't think blogging should be a popularity contest and having a large number of readers is great, it must mean that you, and others, have something to offer that others want to emulate.
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I think you could have added three additional points. First, a suggestion on how to increase readership. I think new bloggers (myself included) are still trying to figure out how to make the connections that allow for conversations within blogs. I go back to your list of 10 tips for successful blogging, and still find things I never noticed before
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would love to see an updated list that perhaps would include how to make sure your blog is part of an RSS feed and how to set up subscriptions for potential readers to make it easy for them to subscribe to your blog.
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I think even you have realized that it is more difficult to break into the edublogger field as there is now so many new bloggers (just in the last two years).
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Finally, I am surprised that you did not point out how you have helped new bloggers by both asking for new voices and then publishing them in your own blog. I think this is an indication that you are trying to open up the "party".
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Isn't the whole point of web 2.0 is that it exudes democracy and equality? Those that get all concerned about rankings and ratings are, as you've suggested missing the point.
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We often quickly want to find ways of ranking. Reminds me of the evils of current assessment practices. We tell kids to do their best and work on improving performance and yet continue to use ranking systems that is clearly a mixed message.
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I'm new to this world as of Monday...yes, 4 days of immersing myself in as much ed. tech, web 2.0, online collaboration "stuff" that I can. (thanks to Lisa Thumman at Rutgers U.) Cocktail party or not, your blog and the comments people have left have increased my list of people to follow. Even a discussion about "being on the outside" has led me to the "inside". I'm thrilled to be in the company of such great minds and promise to start contributing once I wrap my brain around it all! Thanks to everyone for sharing! cmtvarok
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thanks for coaxing me out of my blogger drought!
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I believe that this "post" has been made stronger by the comments, which have added to the post greater depth of meaning.
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All over this conversation I see the change in society. We are all going through the emotions of becoming accustomed to something new... kind of like I first experienced when the Internet first came out.
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And while, when I began blogging, I didn't really set my sights or aim for a large readership... now that it is here, I will seriously consider and appreciate each individual reader and take my job seriously
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@tennessee -- Those in the trenches are my most important reads... I just wish there were more of us. It seems as if many teachers view blogging as a way out of the classroom when they should see it as a way to improve the classroom!
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@scottmcleod - I believe the comment intensity is highly correlated to controversiality AND immediacy. If a lot of people SAW someone recently, they want to interact and comment (immediacy.) If someone says something very emotional or controversial, people want to comment and interact (controversiality.) While I guess looking at these stats are fine, I've found in my very short time blogging that looking too much at numbers of any kind removes my focus from what is important. When I focus intently on conversation, my blog traffic and numbers just grow. I always say "whatever is watered, grows." If I water my investigation of stats, I become a good statistician... if I water my blog but also commenting and participating in the blogosphere as a WHOLE, I become a good blogger. I'd rather be the latter. And while the post was meant to be encouraging... I have to admit I'm a competitive perfectionist and always have to reign in that aspect of my nature.
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@christophersessums - I think the emotional nature of something is like the proverbial elephant in the Net -- it is there. It always stuns me the number of people who discuss their feelings on this when it comes up... it means that many of us are experiencing the same thing.
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An example of Flowgram from sirexkat who discusses Adventures in Microblogging Flowgram is building a new multimedia-empowered way to communicate. The Flowgram product has captured the imagination of a prestigious group of individuals with exceptional track records. Flowgram investors include Reid Hoffman (Paypal, LinkedIn), Josh Kopelman (Firstround Capital, Half.com), the founders of Flickr, Bud Colligan (founding CEO of Macromedia), Rajeev Motwani (Stanford) and members of the founding team of WebEx and Tibco Software.