Intel has been running some tech workshops with teachers and they’re using an MT Web log to chronicle their efforts. Looks like the Tulsa workshop is just starting, but the Plymouth one has some interesting content to click through. There are some really interesting ideas for Web log use in the 7/10 entries. Some excerpts:

The BloggerCon Local Host Committee met last night to dicuss the October panel, and here are their notes on the education section:

Education

We need to make it uplifting
Ideas for speakers
–Professor from Wellesley who’s been working with Biz
–Jessica’s friend at library school using blogs
–Dan Gillmor’s students
Different aspects of education, students and teachers - why use blogs?
In this generation, it’s not just “I went to class and had a blog” - they have blogs anyway
Should we use under-18 bloggers? Under-21?
People don’t realize they need blogs, and people who want them don’t realize they can get them (MIT)
It takes courage to blog!!
Homeschoolers & blogs - blogs will be the new way for us to be educated?
Use technography - how will we know blogs are a success in education?
How about librarians on the educ panel? Instead of educ panel?
How do we get people excited about librarians?
Liz Donovan of Miami Herald, NPR librarian, etc

I don’t know if the details include any k-12 panelists, but aren’t there enough Best Practice examples of Web logs in high school and elementary schools to justify a piece of the program? I know there is a lot to be discussed concerning theory and such, but if people want to see the real potential of Web logs in education, show them in action.
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I’ll be sitting down with our Social Studies supervisor and a teacher in the department next week to discuss an expansive collaboration between our Holocaust and Human Behavior classes and student groups in Cracow and Prague. The project will run from September through May and will feature teleconferencing and other technologies, and has ties to Rutgers University as well. But the focus point for the project will be a Web log that we set up and serve here at my school. Right now, I’m thinking it could model some of the really great project Web logs that Middlebury has run, most notably the 9/11 Web log that Eric Davis put together last year. It’s such an extensive compilation and study of the event, which is probably close to what these students will be aiming toward.

I know I’ve said this before, but this is where I see a real power of Web logs in schools. They provide such and easy and, in most cases, cost effective way of breaking down the geographic barriers that we have and allowing many more people into the conversation. Anne was thinking out loud some similar thoughts yesterday in working with ESL kids. (BTW, Anne, I have the ESL teacher in my Web log workshop next week…) She says “I do know that I want to make sure that they have an audience who will respond to what they are writing - another class or a group of volunteers that I can gather together.” Because of the Web log, she may have one here if she wants it.

At any rate, I can’t wait to see how this U.S.-European collaboration will turn out.
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