"First" Blog: Inside the White House

At noon on the 20th of January, a new president was sworn in to office. At about the same time, the White House's website updated to mirror the ideals of the new resident of the most iconic house in government. This, in and of itself, isn't very interesting. However, the blog that takes up a reasonable amount of space on the home page is fascinating. 

I wondered how the Facebook Campainger would adjust his technological style once taking office. Some have commented that his stint online would be stopped, due to security issues and such. I wonder no more. The generation raised online threw their weight behind the candidate who meet them where they were. Now, his office will speak to them where they still are: online. This is the Web 2.0 president. Whether or not he will live up to all of the hopes and dreams of Americans desperate for change or not, he will at least move the White House fully into the Information Age!

A bit of a leap, but related nonetheless

Yesterday, my students read David Foster Wallace's commencement address to the 2005 graduates of Kenyon College. Today, I read a friend's blog entry that happened to be expressing very similar sentiments. While this is neat, it isn't necessarily a "technology in the classroom" topic. Then again, it is. Kenyon College is in Ohio, I'm in Minnesota. The speech was delivered orally in May of 2005, roughly three and a half years ago. Were I teaching ten, fifteen years ago, I would not only lack the transcript-from-a-video-recording, I wouldn't even know the speech had been delivered. The Internet may not be a "latest and greatest" topic, but it is certainly one that brought a relevant, real-world text to my jaded, yearning-for-a-break (we still have two days of classes) seniors. My students had substantive, thought-provoking discussion this morning because the internet brought a college commencement address into their world. Sometimes, it's the "simple" things that enrich the classroom the most.

Wikispaces as storage

I've recently been contemplating the challenges of working without a laptop at school. While the larger screen, separate mouse, and full-size keyboard of a desktop computer is wonderful, it's hard to beat the portability of a laptop. Although I do have a flash drive and the ability to email myself documents, I wish that I had better access to my files. During a discussion about class websites and storage, a friend reminded me that you can upload and download files via a wiki. Her suggestion was to post class materials on the wikispace that I've already created, which led me to think about using the wiki as a way to make my files more accessible. So, I created a "Documents" page, where I post files that I may want at home or elsewhere. There is much refining to be done, as the comment about posting files for students is also valid. We'll see where things lead....

Mind Meister

While brainstorming reading strategies for my lesson cycle on "Civil Disobedience," I tried out Mind Meister. I started a map for Thoreau's ideas about taxes. Now, however, I have a dilemma. How does this help students? Do I simply use it as a glorified organizer on the SMARTBoard? Do I spend the time having the students set up accounts and then working on the map at home? A little bit of column A and a little bit of column B? As with all new technologies and Web 2.0 tools, I struggle with the balance between enhancing student learning and playing with fun, flashy toys....