http://openedweb.com/blog Education and Technology Tue, 27 Dec 2011 22:47:04 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/07/26/making-more-posh-widgets/ http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/07/26/making-more-posh-widgets/#comments Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:39:05 +0000 Steve http://openedweb.com/blog/?p=122 Posh, the open source portal page resembling PageFlakes, comes with a few widgets in its default installation. A handful of other widgets can be found on the Portaneo website. In order to make this software as appealing and as functional as PageFlakes for student, class, or school use, it would be great to have more [...]]]> http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/07/26/making-more-posh-widgets/feed/ 0 http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/07/14/physical-schools-technology-and-childcare/ http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/07/14/physical-schools-technology-and-childcare/#comments Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:35:52 +0000 Steve http://openedweb.com/blog/?p=63 “What would happen if there was no public education?” asked Will Richardson of Clay Shirky in a video interview. (Transcripts available here) Beyond technology, there would a a huge child care crisis. I spoke with a motivational speaker that came to our school to present to teachers in our part of a sparsely populated county. [...]]]> http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/07/14/physical-schools-technology-and-childcare/feed/ 2 http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/07/02/pligg-an-overview/ http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/07/02/pligg-an-overview/#comments Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:28:09 +0000 Steve http://openedweb.com/blog/?p=45 Having installed Pligg, I’ve had an opportunity to give it a trial run as a user. Pligg is an open source social bookmarking application that imitates Digg. Users are able to submit stories or links to share with others with tags and descriptions. Submissions are approved by an admin, then users can vote or comment [...]]]> http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/07/02/pligg-an-overview/feed/ 1 http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/04/30/mediawiki-for-elementary-students/ http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/04/30/mediawiki-for-elementary-students/#comments Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:20:52 +0000 Steve http://openedweb.com/blog/?p=37 I was considering a number of wiki engines for my classroom. Having a strong bias as state in this article, I was looking for a self hosted wiki. I put a call out for suggestions on Classroom20.com. PmWiki and Docuwiki were suggested as well as MediaWiki. Ultimately I chose MediaWiki for a number of reasons. [...]]]> http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/04/30/mediawiki-for-elementary-students/feed/ 0 http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/26/why-not-run-your-own-school-web-20-sites/ http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/26/why-not-run-your-own-school-web-20-sites/#comments Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:23:44 +0000 Steve http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/26/why-not-run-your-own-school-web-20-sites/ As I have begun to immerse myself in Web 2.0 for education, I have been struck by the prevalence of using “free” hosted services such as Flickr, YouTube, Ning, and other such sites. I don’t have anything against them for individual use, but I do have concerns about using such services with students–particularly elementary grade [...]]]> http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/26/why-not-run-your-own-school-web-20-sites/feed/ 5 http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/19/distance-collaboration/ http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/19/distance-collaboration/#comments Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:06:55 +0000 Steve http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/19/distance-collaboration/ I teach in a remote Adirondack school in which elementary classes typically have 10-12 students. While this may seem ideal, there are benefits to having larger groups with which to collaborate. With such small groups relations can become static. The same students have the same classmates year after year. Hopefully on-line interaction will lead to [...]]]> http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/19/distance-collaboration/feed/ 0 http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/14/experimental-prologue-microblog/ http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/14/experimental-prologue-microblog/#comments Thu, 14 Feb 2008 15:05:34 +0000 Steve http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/14/experimental-prologue-microblog/ My students now have a Prologue microblog that they are using actively. I thought that I would also set up a microblog as a companion to this regular blog site for my own use and that of others. Unlike the student microblog, this one is open for public viewing and comment. In addition, I set [...]]]> http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/14/experimental-prologue-microblog/feed/ 0 http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/08/prologue-and-wp-hacks-for-school-microblogging/ http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/08/prologue-and-wp-hacks-for-school-microblogging/#comments Fri, 08 Feb 2008 22:14:45 +0000 Steve http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/08/prologue-and-wp-hacks-for-school-microblogging/ I remain enthusiastic about using Prologue for school “twittering.” I was disappointed when it came to my attention that a regular self hosted version of WordPress did not have the option to keep the blog private by requiring a login to read. This is an important function for privacy of students in a school setting. [...]]]> http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/08/prologue-and-wp-hacks-for-school-microblogging/feed/ 2 http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/06/prologue-and-student-twittering/ http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/06/prologue-and-student-twittering/#comments Wed, 06 Feb 2008 21:38:35 +0000 Steve http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/06/prologue-and-student-twittering/ I got my students to try out the Prologue installation today. They really enjoyed it and took to it instantly. Conversation was wild and somewhat unfocused at first. Before I knew it, there were twenty odd posts. I directed them to feel free to socialize, but I’d want them to avoid totally frivolous posts that [...]]]> http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/06/prologue-and-student-twittering/feed/ 2 http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/06/prologue-and-microblogging/ http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/06/prologue-and-microblogging/#comments Wed, 06 Feb 2008 19:15:00 +0000 Steve http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/06/prologue-and-microblogging/ I have been intrigued by Twitter since going to our state Educational Technology conference. I know it has potential and I’ve been eager to give it a try. When Will Richardson blogged about the WordPress theme Prologue, I was excited. First, I am reluctant to use “hosted solutions” especially with elementary students. Secondly, we already [...]]]> http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/02/06/prologue-and-microblogging/feed/ 0 http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/01/23/blogging-the-haves-and-have-nots-and-the-do-and-do-nots/ http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/01/23/blogging-the-haves-and-have-nots-and-the-do-and-do-nots/#comments Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:16:46 +0000 Steve http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/01/23/blogging-the-haves-and-have-nots-and-the-do-and-do-nots/ I have had the blogs set up for my students for a bit over a week. While I posted a question for the students to respond to on my class blog, I have left them to their own devices for a little while. Some have really taken to it. One student, Blue Butterfly, has made [...]]]> http://openedweb.com/blog/2008/01/23/blogging-the-haves-and-have-nots-and-the-do-and-do-nots/feed/ 2 http://openedweb.com/blog/2007/12/26/first-impressions-wordpressmu/ http://openedweb.com/blog/2007/12/26/first-impressions-wordpressmu/#comments Wed, 26 Dec 2007 21:13:30 +0000 Steve http://openedweb.com/blog/2007/12/26/first-impressions-wordpressmu/ Our school tech committee approved student blogs on a limited basis, so I have installed WordPressMU on our school’s shared server space. WordPressMU is a multi-user blog platform based upon the popular WordPress. Hopefully this will meet our needs for blogging at our school. Like Elgg, there are no automatic installers for WordPressMU, so it [...]]]> http://openedweb.com/blog/2007/12/26/first-impressions-wordpressmu/feed/ 0