Blogs

Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read
$29.99
For all this book was hyped about to me by other reviews, etc., I found it to be lacking in some serious ways.

First, there are some crucial points in setting up a wordpress blog that you need to know, part of the initial steps of setting up files on your computer, downloading, zip files, etc. These are only BRIEFLY covered at best...the author really misses the point that most people are going to require instructions on the basics of file and computer knowledge, not just getting around wordpress knowledge.

Second, the author jumps around too much. Every other paragraph is something about "this is covered later on" or "see another chapter for advice on this subject". I found myself skipping ahead, then trying to go back, losing my place. He often piles too much knowledge at once on a certain step, then fails to follow through with the rest of the knowledge needed to actually complete the task.

I hope someone will create a "comprehensive" wordpress book, that covers all the angles, every step from absolute start to finish, and that'll be a 5 star book.

Blog Schmog: The Truth About What Blogs Can (and Can't) Do for Your Business
$19.99
Also hilarious, but I've learned a lot in this book and will consider it one of my references. Thanks.

The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging
$15.00
There is a decent amount of helpful information in this book about how to start and run a potentially successful blog. It is hard, however, to not get the impression that the how and why of blogging is secondary. The primary focus of the book seems to be a paean to Arianna Huffington and all her friends. One could be led to believe that she and her circle of friends just about invented blogging, although they don't claim it. Her blog was a joint effort of already well-established pundits, including Ms. Huffington, who, by the time she started her phenomenally successful blog, was already a well-known talking head and book author. With the talent and resources at her and her friends disposal, it's hard to imagine how her blog could have failed. Yet, the tone of the writing encourages the reader to see the Huffington Post as another Microsoft-type creation out of someone's garage, and there is a sense that Huffington is almost laughing at you; while she and her buddies get millions of readers, there is no reason why you can't just go ahead and start a blog about your cat or your kids, even if you are the only one who ever reads about it.

This book is clearly an opportunity for Huffington and all her "posters" to express their liberal views, not only in the form of sample posts from the blog, but also in the general story-line about how the blog came to be. I suppose that's almost inevitable, given that liberal is the party line of the Huffington Post, but one would expect some toning down in a how-to presumably for a general audience. A specific example of this bias is in the mention of the Dan Rather/George Bush National Guard Service memo incident as a mere "flap", compared to the more detailed discussion regarding a Republican politician. The Dan Rather case is, in fact, perhaps the best example of the new media David bringing down the old media Goliath.

The other sad and disturbing thing about the Huffington Post and its posters is the level of rhetoric expressed in these supposedly model posts. Vulgarity and lack of respect delivered in an infantile and catty manner appear to be the signature strengths of Huffington Post authors. There are other blogs where this is not the case, where the discourse is reasoned and respectful.

So, if you want to get a few pointers on how to start a potentially successful blog, while at the same time reading about the wonders of Arianna Huffington and her band of merry posters, this is definitely the book to get.

Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms
$28.95
I'm at the end of my teaching career and feeling envy towards young people who have been in for just a short while. You have "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms" and I didn't!! What an amazing agenda Will Richardson lays out, what fantastic uses the internet is capable of, and what yet unimagined ways will be conceived in the future!

I just finished this book--an easy read, an easy-to-follow instruction book, a book of magic, a play book, a cookbook filled with recipes for successful communication, collaboration, connection, and more. You may ask: "Judy, do you like this book?" I would have to answer: "No, I am THRILLED by this book--at the potential for connecting students with immediate and ongoing learning. That's what Richardson shows us, gives examples of. When he cites the old way of individual learning with a test as the measurement and a dead end to that chunk of learning, I nodded. "Oh yes." How many times did I want to show a particular student's special answers. "Look what this student wrote! Isn't it amazing? Isn't she showing Gardner's upper echelon level of synthesizing and evaluating."

So what do blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools do for students and classrooms? They require active learning, collaboration, hooking up with the world at large, expanding consciousness, conscience--all the things that education truly does or should do. We want our children to learn to think for themselves, to think critically (means evaluate both sides), to imagine possibilities for themselves, their families, and their world. The internet and all its component parts do these things. Until I read this book, I did not know how much was "out there" and already being used by thousands and thousands of teachers across the globe.

As a teacher of broadcast journalism for four years (this some four and one-half years ago), with the class producing a weekly 12-minute news and feature cast, I saw then the power of that medium and the use of technology to make it viable. What the internet does is now competing with television and radio for not only informing, but also entertaining its audience. Teachers can use these same principles in teaching. Besides, using the internet is inevitably cheaper than sophisticated cameras and studios and "the talent (the television personality, anchor, or whatever role the lead person has).

Besides innovation, students learn to read critically (must be taught not only critical reading skills but ethics as well), learn how to save, retrieve, and store information, then use it in a multitude of ways. This is the new way of doing things, the new world. Is it better? Yes, infinitely! Teachers and students should not be so isolated in their little boxes, but become part of that HUGE world of information! Do we need all that information? That is a question I will leave for the philosophers. Right now, it is what it is.

Here is an example of a creative use of the internet, yet still retaining basic information. Using the free software program Flickr, a teacher can upload a photograph of a pig's organs, create word boxes connected to various organs, which the student then identifies and explains their functions. Or in music, the student can label parts of a musical score. A literature teacher could assign a photo-image assignment. The student would use his aggregator account to collect a specific poem, then use Flickr to find images that "explain" or interpret the poem. Then put all of this as his completed assigment into his blog account which feeds by RSS into the teacher's account.

It all sounds complicated but I opened up accounts, started subscribing to feeds which are collecting into my aggregator, and soon I will read and synthesize some of the information into my blog. This kind of information gathering and the technology that ushers it is such a high for me, resulting in the creation of such highly creative, energy-driven, imaginative products which truly test a student's knowledge and real-world application.

Then there are wikis. Let's say the fourth grade teacher wants to create a collaborative lesson on modern art. She could assign one artist to a group of two students who then start collecting information about that artist, including images of his work. Typically, they might find something in a reference book which they cannot take from the library. They can photocopy it if they find what they want. On the internet they will find it, especially using subcriptions (free), feeds, and their aggregator. Then they synthesize their material into their blog about the artist and send it to the class wiki. By the time each group has submitted its work, the class has a mini encylopedia about modern art. The thing about a wiki is that it can always be added to or edited. A wiki is unlike a print encyclopedia or even online encyclopedia without an editing add-on.

This technology world is truly a wondrous thing. Except for some negatives such as landing on inappropriate material, limited by filters, and intentional malice, which can be deleted, these new uses just make me want to buy a copy of this book for every teacher in my school, starting with my principal. Look what you can do! Look what your students can do! Look at the potential! Dream the impossible. OK, got carried away...

(Note: Some of the teachers at my school already use some technology, including teacher blogs. I can't wait to show them this book! In fact, I'm ordering a couple for the professional library!))