The Impossibility of Always Knowing

"Always know all that you say, but don't always say all that you know."

I don't know the author of this quotation, but I'm grateful to the friend who shared it with me. For those of us who tend to talk or write to find out what we're thinking, this is a difficult ideal, but it beats trying to un-ring a bell.

Some similar thoughts?

• Discretion is fine but it has so many limitations. ;)
• "Great writing. Hell I'd settle for good writing, but to warm up mediocre is OK."
• "I don't care what you write. Just get those fingers moving. Pianists play scales don't they." (But not on their recordings, not at their concerts.)

Which reminds me of this column from my long-time friend Jerry Johnston.

So how about this great spring weather? I had the pleasure of an outdoor lunch today. There's nothing quite like good food, spring weather and a quiet conversation.

Three Quotes on Communication

Nothing is so simple that it cannot be misunderstood.
-Jr. Teague

Good, the more communicated, more abundant grows.
-John Milton

Communication is not only the essence of being human, but also a vital property of life.
-John A. Piece

Winter Memories as Spring Approaches

Finally climbed up on the roof and got down my Christmas lights. I took Monday off and thoroughly enjoyed being out in the sunshine and getting one-on-one with my gables again.

Of course part of what makes this Spring-like weather so alluring is the memory of winter. Here's what I wrote in my hard-copy journal a few months ago. (November 2, 2003)

There is wonder all about us. I'm grateful for this little planet of ours, for continents and oceans, seasons and sunshine, darkness and light. For this time of year, for fall leaves and this first snow. We've needed a storm.

What a wonder it is to see the sky darken, the wind blow, and something we've needed so much start to descend. Just a few flakes at first. Almost as if the sky had forgotten how to snow. Then bigger flakes falling faster and beginning to accumulate. Then almost blizzard-like. A frenzy of snow no longer falling, but blowing in from all directions. No longer orderly, but like a child scribbling with white crayon turning the black construction paper gray, then lighter gray, the almost entirely white.

And how this shroud changes everything. Colors are muted, then masked. Sharp edges soften. Drivers who may not want to acknowledge a change are gently--and sometimes not so gently--reminded that the laws of physics still apply. Nothing has changed. Everything has changed.

Utah Educators Express Enthusiasm for Educational Blogging

Thanks to the active participation of a full lab of Utah educators, the web has several new educational bloggers this morning. Our hands-on session, Blogging to Connect, Create and Collaborate was well received by those came to the workshop as part of the annual meeting of the Utah Coalition for Educational Technology at Cottonwood High School in Salt Lake.

Although the Utah Education Network offers several blog-like content creation tools like My.UEN, Virtual Tours, Activities, Lesson Plans and Rubrics, we opted to use Blogger in the workshop to enable participants to have a bona fide blog creation experience. Although it wasn't a race, it only took about ten minutes for the first blog to be published. Prior to the lab I test-created a Blogger blog. It took less than five minutes from logging on to creation and posting of a new blog.

Welcome to UCET!

I'm blogging from the vendors area. The second lunch session is about to start. I'd rate this morning's keynote with Bernie Dodge **** (four of five stars).

 

 

Blogging to Connect, Create
and Collaborate

The following references are available online at:

http://my.uen.org/18059

What is a Weblog?

A weblog (aka Blog) is a live online journal that can be easily and instantly updated. A Blog can be a frequently posted list of interesting web sites, or a personal diary of events and thoughts, or a combination of the two (among many other things.) The newborn publishing world of weblogs seems to be having a significant impact on digital culture, communication, education, and publication.

 

The best proof of impact at the moment is the proliferation of Election and Political Blogs that have sprung up around presidential candidates, parties, and news agencies. Bloggers are constantly defining and debating the definition of a weblog, as well as presenting their reasons for keeping a blog. 

 

--Pattie Belle Hastings, Assistant Professor in the Computer Science and Interactive Digital Design Department at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT.

http://mywebspace.quinnipiac.edu/PHastings/what.html

 

 

RESEARCH

 

Pew Research - Internet & American Life Project 

44% of Internet users have created content for the online world through building or posting to Web sites, creating blogs, and sharing files.

http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/reports.asp?Report=113&Section=ReportLevel1&Field=Level1ID&ID=484

 

EDUCATION BLOGS 

 

Weblogg-ed.com 

Best blog on education blogging I've seen. Maintained by Will Richardson, Supervisor of Instructional Technology at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington, NJ.

http://www.weblogg-ed.com/

 

The Gifted Thing
A Utah summer with Dave Wiley and the USU team 

http://www.reusability.org/blogs/jay/archives/000235.html

 

EdBlogger Praxis 

Examples of educator blogs sorted by pre-k and kinder, primary, EFL/ESL, cross grade, high school, school library, school administrator, etc.

http://educational.blogs.com/edbloggerpraxis/

 

EDUCATION BLOGS (continued)

 

Teachnology : Teaching Blogs 

http://www.teachnology.org/teachingblogs

 

Seb's Open Research 

http://radio.weblogs.com/0110772/

Clipping: Pointers and thoughts on the evolution of knowledge sharing and scholarly communication 

 

Delano High School 

High School Home page built in a blog format, cited among Will Richardson's best practices links.

http://www.delanohighschool.org

Clipping: "school of over 2700 students, located in the City of Delano, Kern County, State of California" 

 

UTAH BLOGS

 

Windley's Enterprise Computing Weblog 

http://www.windley.com/index.html

Clipping: Organizations Usually Get the IT They Deserve 

 

Jim's Pond - Exploring the Universe of Ideas 

Personal/professional blog of Jim Stewart, UEN Director of Technical Services

http://radio.weblogs.com/0117808/

 

THE Network Security Blog - Geek Troy Jessup 

http://www.ndnn.org/blog/

 

Pete Kruckenberg's Perfect World 

Pete is senior network engineer at the Utah Education Network.

http://pete.kruckenberg.com/blog/

 

Dan's Cancer Weblog 

http://www.mustard.com/myeloma.html

Clipping: I'm not exaggerating when I say that my experience with this disease has brought joy to my life that I never anticipated in the form of new friends, closer relationships to family, new appreciation for the kindness of strangers...

 

Rich's UEN Blog 

http://rfin.blogspot.com/

 

 

BLOG-LIKE SITES

 

UEN - The Governor's Monthly News Conference - Transcripts & Streaming Video 

Watch the latest news conference or read the transcript. Archived transcripts starting in June 1999.

http://www.uen.org/News/news_group.cgi?category_id=15

 

UEN - Calendar of Events

What's ahead for Utah educators, students and parents. Also includes archives of past events.

http://www.uen.org/News/news_group.cgi?category_id=3

 

UEN - News Articles

What's new for educators, students and parents at the Utah Education Network, KULC and KUED.

http://www.uen.org/News/news_group.cgi?category_id=2

 

 

BLOG-LIKE SITES (continued)

 

SLC Public Library : Events 

http://www.slcpl.lib.ut.us/master_events.jsp?parent_id=9&page_id=21

 

Google News
Search and browse 4,500 news sources updated continuously.

http://news.google.com/

 

 

FREE BLOG PROVIDERS

 

Blogger.com 

The provider that fueled the blogging revolution. Free and premium (pay) versions.

http://www.blogger.com/

 

Diaryland.com

Aimed at a younger crowd. Easy sign up procedure. No banner or pop up ads.

http://www.diaryland.com/

 

LiveJournal.com

Webby award-winning site used by 400,000+ worldwide.

http://www.livejournal.com/

 

Xanga.com

Rated 3 in Free Blog Providers on Mar 4, 2004 at 03:33:52 GMT. (0 views)

Available in free and premium (pay) versions.

http://www.xanga.com/

 

 

OTHER BLOG SERVICES / SOFTWARE

 

movabletype.org

Rated 3 in Other Blog Services / Software on Mar 4, 2004 at 18:39:30 GMT. (0 views)

Donation supported. $20 - $45 buys the software license. Commercial accounts: $150.

http://www.movabletype.org/donate.shtml

 

TypePad

Online service from MoveableType. Monthly pricing at $4.95, $8.95 and $14.95.

http://www.typepad.com/site/features/

 

Radio UserLand

After free 30-day trial period, Radio costs $39.95 per year with 40 megabytes of storage.

http://radio.userland.com/

 

EBN - Educational Bloggers Network 

Paid Service marketed to educators. The first year rate is $19.95. After the first year, the educational rate is $39.95 per year.

http://www.ebn.weblogger.com/newsItems/departments/policiesAndPolitics

 

 

 

FREE CONTENT CREATION TOOLS

 

UEN - my.uen 

Educator-created customized web page to share information and resources with students, parents, and the learning community.

http://my.uen.org/myuen/MyUen

 

FREE CONTENT CREATION TOOLS (continued)

 

UEN - Virtual Tours 

Educator-created virtual tours organized by Utah core curriculum. Registered UEN educators can quickly create their own content using this tool.

http://www.uen.org/tours/

 

UEN - Activities 

Educator-created activites organized by Utah core curriculum. Registered UEN educators can quickly create their own content using this tool.

http://www.uen.org/activities/

 

UEN - Rubric Tool Home 

Browse exiting rubrics, adapt or create your own, online tutorial included.

http://www.uen.org/rubric/

 

UEN - Lesson Plan Tool 

Browse existing lesson plans, adapt or create your own, online tutorial included

http://www.uen.org/lessonplan/

 

UEN - Basic HTML Tags Tutorial 

One page reference for Formatting Text with basic HTML tags.

http://www.uen.org/tutorial/html/my.uen/htmltags.html

 

SURWEB - State of Utah Resources Web 

Educator-created multimedia presentations using a huge library of images, sounds & movies provided by SURWEB or other digital sources.

http://www.surweb.org/

 

MyEdesk Reference Desk 

Create, manage, and distribute portfolios, lesson plans, presentations, study guides, and more.

http://myedesk.org/refdesk.aspx

Clipping: Use several proven search engines to find reliable resources to add to the content of collections. Search for and find teacher, student, administrator, and power users to share content and collections. Create, format, and edit documents using the powerful Virtual Notepad. Bookmark your favorite websites and upload files to your personal storage space from anywhere on the web.

 

POLITICS

 

Utah Policy Political Weblog

http://www.utahpolicy.com/pages/talkingpoints.htm

Clipping: what's up in Utah politics, media, public affairs

  

Bush

http://www.georgewbush.com/blog/

 

Dean

http://www.blogforamerica.com/

 

Kerry 

http://blog.johnkerry.com/

 

 

JOURNALISM

 

OJR article: Blogging as a Form of Journalism

Online Journalism Review - USC Annenberg

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/workplace/1017958873.php

Clipping: Weblogging will drive a powerful new form of amateur journalism as millions of Net users — young people especially — take on the role of columnist, reporter, analyst and publisher while fashioning their own personal broadcasting networks.