Blogging About Blogging

My wife doesn't understand why people blog. She's an intelligent, educated woman of the world but doesn't understand why people feel the need to post stuff to the web "that most people don't care about."

My explanation is:
You know how you text me with a story because I think it's funny, or you feel the need to call Boss because she'll "get it." That's what people are doing. Just because people are reading blogs doesn't mean they are reading them all. I read Scooby Doo Mansion because he's a friend and posts really funny stuff. I read The Blue Skunk Blog to learn tech stuff. The point is, I read what's useful to me and don't care about the rest.

I know this isn't good enough for her, but she has a point. The web is a public space, searchable, with vast amounts of information that can help or hurt any of us at any time. Why would I want strangers "listening in" on a conversation? Despite the fact that as I write this, I know of only a few people that even know I HAVE a blog, much less what the URL is. When I say a few, I literally mean four. I still have reservations about having this info "out there" for all to read.

Knowing that I am currently questioning why I am. I don't know that anyone has read this or even care is anyone has.

Blogging is an outlet. It's a way to get opinions, thoughts, and clutter out of my head. Some people will eventually read some of the crap I have put down (or up) and I'm fine with that.

Smokey on My Tail

So, my friend Adam called one day and said, "hey what can you tell me about Smokey and the Bandit?"

Great start to any conversation.

He explained that the friend of a friend has entered a contest to win a Bandit Trans Am that Burt Reynold rebuilt on the DIY Network. He needed to make a three minute video "commercial" for why he should win.

A couple weeks later, Adam called and said:
"Hey what are you doing from 11-1 tomorrow?"
"Nothing," says I.
"Do you want to help with the Bandit video?"

You're damn right I did.

Here are the results: Click and learn, you'll feel your mustache grow.

Jing

I can't get enough Jing. Let me nutshell what it does:
1. Take screenshot - video (swf) or still (png)
2. Instantly uploads the image or video
to website.
3. Copies the URL to the new upload to your clipboard so you can immediately share it in an email or message.

Here's what I love about it (click the link to see me using it)... it's ridiculously simple, flash video format, F'IN FREE. Check it out, it taps the mic in the computer to record myself talking. OMG! What am I gonna do with this...?

Other than pure sweetness, why is it useful? From the perspective of an educator, the idea of making short recordings of instructions is pretty sweet. I already made a How-To video for logging into the TIES Moodle server. Easy as pie. I like the collaborative nature of it,
that it's designed for people to be working on their systems at the same time and communicating and can demo what's on one screen and send it to another quick as a snap.

Think of applying classic Bloom's taxonomy, the second highest level of understanding is evaluate, the highest is creation. Having students create demonstrations as a class project and evaluating each other's instructional technique is a fantastic way of learning. They learn the content as well as how to best communicate the message to others.

Yes, it's a project that could be done in a multitude of ways. Technology integration in education is the application of technology not to learn the technology, but to make the lesson/learning easier, faster, or more comprehensive. Jing can make the content the focus, not trying to figure out how to record, how to save, where to send, how do I get it to my teacher... all the garbage that makes integrating technology difficult for teachers. Jing fits this definition perfectly.

Jing me.

New favorite web site

I have a new favorite web site. It's for geeks, by geeks. Think Geek is all the stuff that I am too ashamed to admit that I would love to have. The USB remote rocket launcher, for example, would fit the bill.

We, at TIES, are preparing for the December conference feverishly. One duty of the equipment team is to ensure that there is adequate wireless internet access throughout the conference rooms. To achieve this end, I found something at my new favorite web site that, I'm not ashamed to say, tickled a few tech dorks on that team.

Behold, the wi-fi detector shirt. It reads and measure the wi-fi signal strength in a given area and DISPLAYS IT ON YOUR CHEST! Brilliant.
Really, the cost of two conference registrations could pay for the whole team. I can't think of a better way to spend conference funds, can you?

Your blogs

Please comment with your blog addresses

Social Web Class

Ideas that I've heard for using this in class:

• partner with a class around the country - ask questions, journal
• WRITE - get students journaling, answer questions from the teacher
• Extra Credit - students post news links related to class
• The Very Important Social Studies Club - students who miss the meeting can post questions, read notes from others
  

Web 2.0 Fears

What scares you about these Web 2.0 resources?