Daily Diigo Snips and Comments 03/05/2007

More education. Less schooliness.

Daily Diigo Snips and Comments 03/05/2007

The Dark Side of Web 2.0 and Kids - Practical Theory Annotated

Relevant, again, to the student blogging minefield–and sanely points, again, to the need to confront that this is reality now, it can’t be denied, and so it calls on some wisdom-watering in our students. By Chris Lehmann:

Pandora’s Box is open, and kids are finding these sites and more of them are contributing to them than we’d like. What do we do?

One, this reinforces, to me, the need to teach wisdom. To teach students about these tools and how to use them responsibly. We have no choice but to teach students to own the stories they tell about themselves and to consider thoughtfully and powerfully the way in which they allow their online persona to be created — much like we would talk to them about the way they portray themselves offline. We cannot pretend these things aren’t happening, and we cannot pretend that the curriculum of schools cannot teach kids about all of this. We have to be smart, caring mentors to students as we ask them to deeply consider the way they live their lives, because the stakes, it seems to me, are getting higher.

��The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts�� - New York Times

A good example of real essays by a master–the first page from Kundera’s just-published book of essays. A good exemplar as an antidote to the SAT canned essay prompt and the constipated, voiceless 5 paragraph essay straightjacket students have been squeezed into. Notice the absence of predictable topic sentence placement, the presence of voice, wit, more.

Back to Blogger �� The Wyrm��s Yarns

A WordPress and Blogger user compares privacy features, among other things. Bruce, Chris, relevant, yes?

If you like this post, please spread it: (But don't tag it "education." That will bury it.)