Blurts

Here is content hosted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation providing legal advice for student bloggers.

Cindy received a copy of the new iLife immediately after the announcement (she is an ADE). We have yet to install. I watched the announcement and noticed that iWeb was not discussed. I did wonder whether any enhancements were made to this authoring tool. Here is an analysis related to iWeb from GigaOM (looks like nothing was done). Have we given up on tools that reside on our computers and assume everything will now happen online?

I have long been a fan of coffee shops as a work space. Typically, I can find Internet access and, of course, coffee. Starbuck recognizes this combination and is creating a Starbuck network the company feels will enhance the customer experience. What if schools would think in this fashion? What would a “insert your school here” experience here look like? Would it have educational value?

I have pretty much given up on finding a sensible way to manage comments. I am constantly dealing with comment spam and I have decided to turn off comments for a while. It appears most readers simply locate posts by way of search and few leave legitimate comments. If b2 comes up with a different way to deal with comment spam, I will give it a try. Hope everyone who visits will continue to check in. Mark

Perhaps you have become a fan of TED talks (I just downloaded the app for the iPad). These are short topical talks to an all star crowd. Being invited to offer a TED talk is evidently a great honor.

The DO Lectures seems to take a similar approach. Try Craig Mod’s talk onthe future of books in an iPad era. The nice thing about TED and DO is that we all can listen.

The recent attention brought to the plight of poor students attending poor inner-city schools seems largely to have focused on poor quality teachers, unions, and lack of accountability. The notion that there are many poor teachers being protected by unions or unmotivated administrators has been planted in the collective mind of the public. I do not like the generalizations and assumptions.

Here is a recent Washington Post article describing the change that occurs when poor students from poor schools are integrated into suburban schools. Performance improves. So what might be assumed about the problem. Does it seem reasonable that poor teachers purposefully congretate in schools filled with poor students? How would this make sense? Perhaps it might be that expectations and support are provided by peers as well as teachers. Maybe it is not about charter schools after all. Maybe it is about everyday public schools with an integrated population of students.