Blogs in the classroom

Landmarks Class Blogmeister  Annotated

• An interesting comment on educational use of blogs
  
   - post by ictrambling

Perhaps one of the most fascinating tools that has emerged from the Internet cloud in recent years is the Blog. A shortening of the term Web log, the Blog is an online publishing tool that enables people to easily publish their loves, passions, dislikes, peeves, discoveries, and insights.



Blogging came into its own during the 2004 presidential campaign where all of the major candidates sported their own blogs, and every political pundit daily trashed their opponent candidate with blog articles.



But blogging is also showing up in schools, where teachers have known for a long time that students develop better communication skills when they are authentically communicating. A number of educators are helping their students developing their writing skills by having them publish their work as blogs, and then invite comments from people in the outside.



There are many freely available tools that facilitate blogging, but none seem especially suited for the classroom. That is the reason for BlogMeister. This online blogging tool is explicitly designed with teachers and students in mind, where the teacher can evaluate, comment on, and finally publish students' blog articles in a controlled environment.

I blog ....

ICTRamblings - Home

Well that's what it says in the footer of my e-mail accounts. In reality, work and family life seems to leave all the potential posting locked up in my head at the minute. I have now fou

Legal Compliance in Email Monitoring & Email Filtering

Legal & Regulatory Compliance - Email Monitoring & Email Filtering  Annotated

Maintaining Legal Compliance & Reducing Liability Risk

Legal compliance and regulatory compliance issues are quickly becoming a major focus for businesses. UK workplace monitoring laws have now made company executives personally liable for any failings to provide a safe working environment for employees.

Failing to provide a safe working environment can lead to considerable legal liability risk. This requirement covers a wide range of responsibilities.

Employees should be protected from:

• Inappropriate or offensive content – such as pornography, profanity, and lewd language


• Discrimination – by age, race, nationality, or economic status


• Harassment – whether sexual, religious, or bullying

Employees also have legal obligations towards their employers:

• To not defame the organisation or bring the company into disrepute


• To not use company resources illegally, for instance by sending spam or storing illegal images


• To safeguard company security


• To protect confidential data and intellectual property


• To always treat email messages as if they were written on a corporate letterhead - acting in the best interests of the company and upholding company standards

Emerging technologies for learning

Becta Government and Partners - Research - All publications - Emerging technologies for learning  Annotated

Emerging technologies for learning

 

These publications consider how emerging technologies may impact on education in the medium term.

They are not intended to be a comprehensive review of educational technologies, but offer some highlights across the broad spectrum of developments and trends. They highlight some of the possibilities that are developing and the potential for technology to transform our ways of working, learning and interacting over the next three to five years.

Emerging technologies for learning

Volume 2 (2007)

Download the publication Emerging technologies for learning volume 2 (please note this PDF is 3MB and may take some time to download).

This publication includes:

• Emerging trends in social software for education (PDF 470KB, Lee Bryant, Headshift)


• Learning networks in practice (PDF 508KB, Stephen Downes, NRC)


• The challenge of new digital literacies and the ‘hidden curriculum’ (PDF 385KB, Jo Twist, ippr)


• How to teach with technology: keeping both teachers and students comfortable in an era of exponential change (PDF 311KB, Marc Prensky)


• Games in education (PDF 596KB, Keri Facer, Futurelab; Tim Dumbleton, Becta)


• Ubiquitous computing (PDF 866KB, David Ley, Becta)

Summaries of each article are available.

Children film sex on their mobiles

Children film sex on their mobiles-News-Tech & Web-Personal Tech-TimesOnline Annotated

• This again highlights the need for teaching pupils about acceptable use and the need to preserve their digital identity
  - post by ictrambling

CHILDREN are using mobile phones to film each other having sex and are then sending the images to classmates.

Experts say the trend is growing and draw comparisons to the “happy slapping” craze in which children use mobile phone cameras to film assaults on members of the public.
...

Gill Mullinar, co-ordinator of the Sex Education Forum, part of the National Children’s Bureau, said children were computer literate at a young age, increasing the risk they would see graphic images they did not understand.

“What young people consistently tell us is they get too little sex education too late and it’s only about the biology of sex rather than the nature of relationships,” she said.