Education Is Not a Commodity

A story in our local paper this morning points once again to one of the great fallacies of current policies aimed at public education. In Public education takes bottom-line turn Nirvi Shah reports on the growing attitude among policy makers that education should have a measurable return on investment and that if the consumers of education--most notably parents--don't feel like their getting the results they should from their schools then they should be free to take their business elsewhere.

Despite the fact this this attitude is fundamentally wrong and runs counter to our American traditions it has become an article of faith to education reformers that education should be run as a business just like everything else. You produce, as measured by the standards that the government sets, or you're out of business. Give us the results we want or we'll punish your school by appointing a new governing body, force your teachers to move to some other school, fire your administrators, and even turn your school over to private contractors. Or, we'll give vouchers to your students so they can go to that nice private/religious school down the street. Oh, and while we're at it, let's siphon off money and give it to charter schools that may or may not get better results than you do.

So what's the problem with all of that? Shouldn't parents have a choice? Shouldn't (and here let me just get the dirty little secret right out there in the open so we can shine a light on the utter hypocrisy of these people) shouldn't those poor little black babies have some other options? Gosh, their schools are failing them. Let's not lock them into horrid conditions propagated by a failed system that leaves them mired in poverty. Meanwhile, we'll be fighting hard against the very things that might help those parents lift themselves from poverty, such as a working wage and affordable health care. But gosh, think about those poor black babies and their awful schools. Wouldn't it be better to free them?

But here's the thing. Government functions should not be seen as profit centers or services that have even a specific measurable result. Do we measure the amount of commerce that flows across our interstate highway system and see if we're getting a proper return on that investment every year? Do we look at the military and decide that since no wars were fought this particular year, or no Americans were killed overseas (don't we wish), that the military isn't really earning its keep. Or Medicare or Social Security? Hey, my Mom's getting a check and gets to stay in her home as a result, but are you getting anything out of it? Shouldn't you get a specific return on your investment?

The crux of the issue is this. Societies such as ours are built when people band together to achieve a common good. We agree to pay taxes to support those goals and empower our representatives to spend the money in such a way that we all benefit. I rarely drive the interstate highway, or go to the western suburbs, but my tax dollars help pay for road projects that help people who do. And the list goes on and on. And right at the top of the list for the last hundred years or so has been public education. It has been the cornerstone of our ability to operate in a peaceful society. The great leveling ground of America has always been the opportunity that education provides for every child to improve themselves. Not a guarantee, not even a promise that the child won't be left behind, but an opportunity for children to better themselves through a good education.

Opportunities carry with them obligations. Education is not a gift, even though I've heard my students say "I'm going to get my education" as if they were waiting for the education gods to descend from the heavens and bestow it on them one day. Ironically, it was often said by those students who weren't willing to put the work in that getting an education requires. Not to mention the work required by their parents as well. Yes, getting a free publicly supported education requires work on the part of parents, and not simply the work of choosing which alternate you'd like to choose from when the school "fails" you. It means starting early with a child, reading to them, seeing that their physical and emotional needs are met, that they learn manners for goodness sake, that they show the school and the teachers the respect they deserve, and that they put in the work required to get that education.

Is that work by the parents measurable? Can we devise a test to see if a child is ready for school and that their parents have instilled in them the proper values so they can be successful? Can public schools turn parents away who have done nothing to prepare their children for the work of getting an education? Public schools can not, but private schools and charter schools certainly can and do reject students who simply don't meet the metrics required for a successful schooling experience.

As you can probably tell, this talk of applying business thinking to public education raises the hackles on the back of my neck. Fundamentally public education is a responsibility that we all have to nurture, but the recent trend is to label public schools as failures and find ways to work around our responsibilities as a society. To quote that great thinker, George W. Bush, education is hard work. We're doing nothing for our society when we decide to shirk our responsibilities by forcing phony high-sounding principles on the public in the guise of reform and equal opportunity. Or worse, making the faulty argument that education should be measured using the same methods that we use to sell tires or cupcakes or gardening supplies.

Yes, there is need for reform in American education. We are not producing graduates that are equipped for the global workforce. We are failing too many students who want to succeed but are hampered by poor teaching and lack of proper facilities and opportunities. We have a long way to go in reaching out to and motivating all of our students and providing them with engaging and relevant instruction. And there is value in testing and standards and holding schools accountable.

Just don't tell me that schools should be treated like factories where the one that produces the greatest number of widgets at the lowest cost is what's best for us as a nation. Schools are not factories and students are not widgets. Neither is education a commodity.

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Cracking the 200K Page View Barrier

Woo. My hit counter tells me that there have been 202,000 and some odd page views at the blog here. I know it's not as accurate as tracking individual sessions, but it's still kind of hard to believe. Seems only yesterday that I was in buddy Beth's office debuting the blog for the first outsider and seeing the counter roll to 18 after her visit.

There's nothing worse for a writer than not being read, so it's a good ego boost for me to see those numbers climbing.

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Tracking the Macromedia Schwag Baton

After posting the challenge to inventory your Macromedia schwag there have been a few postings here and there about individual's own collection of Macromedia goodies. As a public service I thought I'd start listing the various blog entries and comments that take up the challenge:

Jim Babbage is the first to pick up the baton at Community MX. Hey Jim, it's about quality, not quantity, so don't sweat it. Besides, we know what your taste in clothes is like.

John Dowdell fails to take the baton, but provides encouragement for others to do so. Now why would this become something to obsess over JD? Never mind though, getting into his blog helps spread the word and should get things rolling. Thanks.

Stephanie Sullivan picks up the baton with an impressive listing and a curious story of someone making off with her shirt at last year's Max conference. I'm assuming she wasn't actually wearing it at the time, but based on the rumors that I've heard coming from that show....well, you do wonder. Adam Bell posts in the comments how the Macromedia hot sauce that was given away got included and posts his list as well. Hey, a JD bobblehead doll would be a good addition Adam.

Linda Rathgeber has some nice things to say about not only the goodies she's received, but also the impact that being part of the Macromedia community has had on her career and circle of friends. Dang Linda, you're gonna get me all choked up over here.

Update: Murray Summers claims to have "a million" copies of Dreamweaver MX in his posting at Linda's comments. He must get a free copy every time he warns people away from using the pop-up menus that ship with Dreamweaver and Fireworks. That seems about right.

Robert Hoekman has added his list, with the wholly appropriate opening that the baton was passed to him by "great friend and pain in the @$$" Stephanie Sullivan. (You know we say these things out of love right Stef?) Man, wish I had one of those goToandPlay shirts myself.

Eric Dolecki was itching badly to get his list posted, so bending the usually iron-clad rules of baton tossing, I sent him an e-mail invite to post away. Some good stuff that I've never heard of here. Central postcards? Cool! Maybe those cards can be used for one of those "Have you seen this application?" public service announcements.

Scott Barnes reports at his MossyBlog that he's managed to collect a fair amount of goodies, including some posters that I wish I had. Scott also states that without Macromedia products his career might have taken a very different direction.

Peter Elst has picked up the baton from Eric, and like many others reports that his Timbuk messenger bag is his favorite schwag. Peter breaks from the rules just a bit by adding a "Wish I Had..." category which is a nice idea. Anyone have one of those John Dowdell bobble head dolls that Adam mentioned?

Guy Watson compiles an impressive and thorough list of goodies over at his FlashGuru blog. Gosh Guy, why all the mystery? What can you possibly have that you can't tell us about? Hmmm?

Abdul Qabiz has picked up the baton today (8/2) and reports a veritable cornucopia of goodies. Abdul is the first Macromedia employee that I've seen post his list. (Now come on Christian, Scott, and you other slackers. What's the deal?) Nice list Abdul, and interesting that he got most of his goodies before going to work for MM.

Matt Voerman brings claims to be "the first entrant from the last "official olympic" host country". Whatever that means. Sadly, he no longer seems to be in possession of the CG frisbee he once owned ...."we launched that one of the 35th floor of our Sydney apartment at the last MXDU". A fitting end.

That's what I'm seeing at the moment. I'll do my best to keep this list posted as new folks are suckered in, but no promises on how accurate it will be. If I've missed some please help a brother out by posting the URL in comments. Thanks!

P.S. I don't post from my day job, so there will be stretches of time when no updates are added. Those comments work all the time though.

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The Macromedia Schwag Baton

With all the news of mergers and acquisitions going around, one constant seems to be how much all our Macromedia gear may be worth on eBay some day. I thought it might be fun to take an inventory on what everyone else has out there. Admittedly I have a fair amount from attending conferences, my time as a member of Team Macromedia, working with the Macromedia Education Leaders group, and other stuff that I'm not allowed to talk about, but I'm sure there are plenty of other folks who proudly wear the "M" log, and will miss it when (and if) it goes away.

To that end let's pass the baton.

Total Macromedia Shwag in your possession:

10 t-shirts (My brother once asked me if I owned any shirts that didn't have the Macromedia logo on them.)
2 ball caps
1 backpack
1 lap blanket
1 CD car visor holder
1 CD case
2 Flash drives
1 fleece jacket
4 polo style shirts
1 long sleeve Team Macromedia shirt
Various and sundry pens, notebooks, and doodads

Oldest Macromedia shwag in your possession:

A white t-shirt with the two-color MM logo circa version 4 of Dreamweaver/Fireworks/Flash. It's been relegated to the lawn mowing t-shirt pile, but I haven't brought myself to part with it yet.

Last Macromedia shwag you received:

Macromedia ball cap

Most Unusual Shwag:

The lap blanket is pretty unique. I think it goes to big shots who visit the MM mothership for sales meetings. At least that's how I got mine. :-)

Shwag you wear/use most often:

The Macromedia backpack. I use it everyday carrying stuff back and forth to work and for whatever laptop I'm using at the moment.

5 Favorite Macromedia schwag items:

Fleece jacket. I don't get to wear it that often, but it sure is comfy when things cool down.

The original "no hassle" (in html) Contribute shirt. I have four of those, and they're in constant rotation.

The backpack of course. It's just the right size to hold the common things I carry around--iPod, magazines, Tums, Advil, notebook and other odds and ends I don't want to be without.

Team Macromedia long-sleeve cotton shirt. Great fishing shirt. Really. Nice and cool.

Ball caps. Keeps that patch of bareness on the back of my head covered in the sun and looks cool to boot.

5 people I'm passing the baton to:

Oh let's see. Might as well stick to the Community MX gang to start with. How about:

Stephanie Sullivan

Tom Green

Jim Babbage

Tom Muck

and one ringer:

John Dowdell

There you go folks. I doubt that this will get the traction that the musical baton got a little while ago, but it might be fun.

Cross posted at my CMXtraneous blog.

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Dealing with Post Vacation Lack of Stress Syndrome (PVLoSS)

Hey.

I've been on vacation. A week in the Keys with boating in the morning, afternoons in the air conditioning with good books, and evenings out at nice restaurants with good friends.

And now, well, I'm finding it hard to get worked up enough about anything to write an entry here at the blog.

I'm sure between work, the news, politics, life in general, and you know...all that other stuff...I'll get all hot and bothered about something before too long and have to write it up. And then boy, my fingers are just going to fly over this keyboard.

Just not yet.

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Vacation Time

Off for a week in the Keys. 'Nuff said.

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Why the Adobe Macromedia Merger is Bad for the Web

A little while has passed now since the announcement that Adobe, the world's second largest software company, seeks to acquire Macromedia, the world's largest web design software firm. In the time that has passed there has been much speculation as to the rationale for Adobe making such a move, centering around its wish to remain competitive in emerging markets where Flash-based content delivered to multiple devices becomes the norm. Most agree that the Flash Player and its ubiquitous presence on the Web and its ability to scale to other devices in the future is the primary reason for Adobe making this move. While Macromedia's dominance of the web design and development market through its Dreamweaver, Flash, and other programs is certainly important, it is the ability to deliver content that has received the most attention.

This is fundamentally the wrong way to see the merger, as it ignores the single primary motivation behind the $3.5 billion acquisition--shareholder value. Adobe wants Macromedia not for the tools it produces, but because the company officers see the merger as an essential step towards maintaining and expanding corporate value for their stockholders. Despite the official corporate statements about better workflow and tighter integration in web production, the merger is not about how developers use the tools, but how the combined company will continue to thrive economically and grow its value. Is that a bad thing? Is it wrong?

The American business climate has a long history of innovation followed by acquisition. Looking back you can see how the development of such industries as petroleum (Standard Oil) and automobiles (General Motors) have followed a similar cycle. An industry emerges, risk-takers develop products, small companies thrive, and large companies consume their smaller rivals. As economic power gets concentrated into the hands of fewer and fewer stockholders and their representatives on company boards, innovation and risk-taking stalls and a stasis is reached. While the concentration of wealth has driven our economy in many ways and can be easily measured, the fallout for what might have been possible if an industry was allowed to remain vibrant and competitive is harder to gauge. Why, for instance, has it taken so long for the energy and transportation industries to realize that non-sustainable fossil fuels were a dead end? Why haven't new technologies been developed to reduce our reliance on petroleum? Many would contend that the concentration of power in the hands of a few large corporations has led us to our current state of dependence on oil and the countries that possess it. Maximizing shareholder value meant maintaining the status quo. As a result, the world has been backed into a corner from which we will all struggle to escape in the future.

While the merger between Adobe and Macromedia isn't on this scale, the history of acquisitions and concentration of technologies into just a few hands is instructive. Will the reduction in competition lead to a more robust Web, one where new technologies are encouraged and developed through a myriad of companies striving to make improvements and gain their own market share? Or will innovation stagnate as mega-corporations like the new Adobe, and Microsoft, and Sun do everything in their power to protect their investments in technologies that they have developed? Will the Web thrive in this environment or will the world of Internet commerce and content delivery become a controlled environment, guided by the policies developed in a few corporate boardrooms? Will we all be shackled to the whims of shareholder value that these corporations strive to achieve?

The lack of open debate on this topic is troublesome. While a few business analysts have taken a look at the acquisition from the perspective of profitability for the companies concerned, the web development community has been largely silent. Those of us who are long-time fans of Macromedia and the tools it has developed--and the singular way that the company has embraced the community of designers and developers who use their tools--are unhappy to see our "team" consumed by a rival. There is an admittedly emotional side to the argument that the merger should not go forward. But that should not deter us from raising important questions about the effect the merger will have not only on how we do our work and earn our livings, but how the Web develops in the future and how dangerous it is to concentrate too much power over the Internet into too few hands.

Let's look at just one minor example of how corporate policy dictates your Internet experience. Have you updated your Acrobat Reader lately? How about the Flash Player? Notice something a little odd when you did that? Both updates now offer to install the Yahoo! Toolbar on your computer. In the case of Adobe's Acrobat Reader update you can barely escape the constant nagging to update and, oh by the way, put this toolbar into your browser while you're at it. (To be fair, the Flash Player only makes this offer on new installs, not on simple updates.) And why has Yahoo! decided to enter into this partnership? Because they have something so compelling that they feel the Web will be a better place when everyone has their plug-in running in their browser?
Not hardly. It's all about tracking your browsing habits, collecting information, then selling that data to advertisers. Despite the outcry from consumers (those who even notice anyway) the corporate policy of Adobe and Macromedia has intruded into your Internet experience. Welcome to the future of what the Web may become.

Now let's look into our crystal balls and imagine what the future might bring. The Flash Player, powered by Adobe's investment, becomes even more dominant and extends its reach to your cell phone and PDA and TiVo and other devices that haven't even been thought of yet. Corporate policy dictates that shareholder value can be maximized by tracking everything you do, and in order to use these networked devices you are forced to accept the prying eyes of marketers and advertisers and whoever else offers enough money to see what you're up to. Consumers are at the mercy of the delivery devices that have insinuated themselves into our day-to-day lives. And those devices are controlled by the corporations that produce them.

This may sound like a Chicken Little The Sky is Falling rant or some sort of science fiction fantasy, but the danger is real. American commerce is rife with examples of what happens when power over commodities and services is placed into the hands of an oligarchy. Do we not remember Enron, WorldCom, the Savings and Loan scandals of the 80's, and the other examples of what can happen when shareholder value and greed override the public good? Are we so resigned to the fact that this is a Big Issue that will be decided at levels way over our heads that we feel powerless to do anything about it, and remain silent as a result?

I would hope not. Now is the time to being an open debate about the ramifications of concentrating too much control over our online experience into too few hands.

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Mega-School Districts: How Big is Too Big?

Amendment to Split Large School Districts Considered: A local legislator here in Palm Beach County is considering a constitutional amendment to split the mega-districts in Florida into smaller, leaner, and supposedly, more responsive districts. Unlike so many other places, Florida's school districts are organized at the county level, leading to huge districts that encompass many thousands of students. The district where I work, for instance, has more teachers than most districts have students--12,000 in all. With over 175,000 students spread geographically across an area the size of Rhode Island, we face challenges every day that districts of smaller sizes never have to consider. As one parent notes in the article, attending a school board meeting is a real imposition for parents when it involves a 45 mile roundtrip. Others wonder if our district is as responsive to the needs of individual communities when district management is far removed from the schools they serve.

It's an interesting question and one worthy of debate. Do the economic advantages outweigh the administrative disadvantages? Can our school board truly represent the interests of parents when its 7 members come from so many different communities? Would we be able to offer the same level of services, magnet programs, charter schools, and construction of new schools if we were split into smaller districts? And perhaps most importantly, would suburban schools become the haves and urban schools become the have-nots in a system that divides schools along community and economic lines? It's an interesting topic and one that I've pondered on occasion. We'll see how this plays out over time.

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Spam-oetry for a Sunday Night

Just cleaning out one of my seriously infected e-mail accounts tonight, it seemed wasteful to just toss all those messages without capturing the great subject lines that so many of them contain. So, without any attribution to whoever originally decided to turn their spam into poems I offer my own variation, titled:

"My Virginity Sluggish"

Have count or stigmata,
It spell of receipt,
Of organise my virginity sluggish,
Be leave no verdant.

So listen in payoff takeover,
In work be chose gargle,
No explain in foam,
On lose in intermediate scan.

Go play! Go play! Go play it sideboards grouch,
Have spend is moldy,
And accept he stucco,
To want be chef.

As run no mild willow,
With count at irreplaceable viviparous.
Irreplaceable,
Irreplaceable,
Viviparous.

It need is bitty,
An rain a premium weighty,
With break go building,
Substantial bivariate!
Substantial bivariate.

Substantial bivariate.

In want be peculiarly permanganate,
Of organise my virginity sluggish,
In drink an parmesan,
No hurt or itinerant browbeat.
My virginity sluggish.

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Hurricane Season Sucks

Just for the record, living in South Florida has been a wholly different experience with our recent run of hurricanes. Two last year, and now Dennis blows past us giving us blustery weather and a sigh of relief that it didn't come closer. My prayers are with the folks in the Panhandle and Mobile that are getting hammered as I type this.

Here on the far eastern edge of the storm we've still felt the effects of Dennis as it rolled through the Gulf. Pushing ahead of it hot and moist tropical air like a ship plowing through the atmosphere we've had unbearably hot weather the last few days. To add to our sense of deja vu, last night the power went off around midnight and didn't get restored until 7 this morning. Trust me when I say that it is no fun sweltering through a night without air conditioning. Thankfully the Florida Power and Light guys were up the pole behind my house this morning swapping out parts. Meanwhile, my neighbors were stopping by to implore them to get the freakin' power back before they melted like the Wicked Witch of the West. What else are they going to do? It's too bloody hot to sleep in these conditions.

As a kid, hurricanes were a rare and somewhat exciting event that we all enjoyed. Trees down! Cool! Candle light! Neat! Flashlights and adventure! Wow! Now, I just think hurricane season sucks. I'll just be glad when it's winter again and I can recall why I love living here.

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10 Steps to a Disastrous Technology Training Session

Recently I sat through a day-long training session on a software service. Maybe sat-through doesn't really capture the experience. Endured. Survived. Suffered through much in the same way that you grip the arms of the dentist chair as the Novocain is wearing off and you can start to feel each movement of the drill and every little poke from those surgical instruments. Bad? It was awful.

The thing is, the presenter doing the training really knew the topic. So what went wrong? Just this--at every opportunity he veered into a direction that ensured that people would be sneaking out at the end of the day--calling each other on their cell phones, stepping out to take the calls, then never returning.

As a public service then, especially for those of you who may be doing training on a technology-related topic, I offer my rules to follow for avoiding the embarrassing situation of talking to an empty room at the end of the day. As someone who has spent thousands of hours in front of people doing computer or software training of some sort over the years I think I'm qualified to list some of the things you should avoid, especially since I've made most of these mistakes myself. Never one to pass up the opportunity to make light of things I'm titling this:

10 Steps to a Disastrous Technology Training Session:

1. Geek it up!: People love to hear all of the technical details of the software/service/system you're doing the training on. Be sure to throw lots of acronyms into the mix and diagram network transactions and complex interactions in an illegible scribble on the white board. People, especially relative novices, love knowing all of the technical details. No, they won't ever apply anything you're talking about, but think how impressed they'll be with what you know.

2. Ignore the agenda!: Agenda, shmegenda. Sure, the people who set up the training probably have topics they want covered and goals for what they want everyone to learn, but those can be ignored. Better to go with a stream of consciousness presentation that flits from one topic to the other. They'll be on the edge of their seats in anticipation of your next move!

3. Take lots of side-trips into irrelevant topics!: Oh yeah. This one is big. People love to hear about things that are unrelated to what they're actually supposed to be learning. Here's my favorite; "Well, you don't actually need to know this, but let's go over it anyway." Hee, hee! People love those little diversions!

4. Ignore the audience's needs!: Oh sure, they said they were newbies and that they just needed to know the basics, but you're much smarter than that. They don't really expect you to dumb-down your presentation to the level of the people in the room do they? Come on man, that is like so boring.

5. Blow off breaks!: Shoot, you can code and play XBox until the wee hours of the morning while consuming pots and pots of coffee or gallons of Mountain Dew. What's wrong with these people? They actually want to get up from the computer every few hours or so. Weird.

6. Make 'em listen!: Hey, you're a fascinating guy/gal, right? Who wouldn't want to hear you rattle and ramble for several hours about your favorite topic? Sure, you could have them do some projects and try the software out on their own, but then you might have to walk around and help them or something. Better to just talk and talk and talk and talk and talk. They'll have plenty of time to try things on their own after you're gone.

7. Talk down to the trainees!: Sometimes you just have to use tough love, you know? Oh yeah, some of them won't like it when you accuse them of doing something wrong, breaking the computer, or not following the 37 steps you detailed exactly as you described them, but they'll thank you for it later on. Really.

8. Take over the trainee's computer!: This goes hand-in-hand with #7. If telling them they're stupid doesn't get through, make them get up and watch you accomplish the task on your first try. Or third or fourth. Whatever. As long as they know you're the dominant one and you have the knowledge and skills they only wish they had. This gives them an important goal to shoot for. To be like you someday.

9. Fumble through the demos!: I just love the glazed look people get in their eyes when you go through a sequence like this: "Oh wait. That didn't work. Let's try this. No? Hmmm. OK, this should work then. No? Dang! OK, oh yeah. Now I remember. First do this, then this and then you have to do this. Did everyone get that last part? Very important! Do you want me to go over that again for you or did everyone see that? Good. Let's go on then."

10. Run long!: If you've followed the steps above the people in your training session won't be in any rush to leave. Might as well keep them around for a while longer to listen some more and play with the cool computer toys you've introduced them to. Shoot, you'll have to force them to leave, so you might as well just keep going even when people start fainting in the back of the room.

There you go. If you follow those 10 steps you can be assured that your training session will be just as bad as the one I sat through. And, if you've got some other tips on how to make a presentation a complete disaster be sure to pass them along in the comments. Gotta go. Have to take this important call on my cell.

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Community MX Releases JumpStart Vienna

Community MX today released the ninth in our series of Dreamweaver extensions that create complete page designs using CSS-P techniques. CMX JumpStart Vienna is free to Community MX subscribers or can be purchased along with the eleven bundled articles that explain the techniques used to develop the design for $39.99. (Disclaimer: I share in the proceeds of the the sale of extensions and subscriptions with the other partners at Community MX.)

As always, Vienna comes with something a little extra. In the past JumpStart extensions have included such goodies as Flash video players and slide shows, MP3 players, and more. This time around the extra comes in the form of a very cool layout technique called Jello Mold. With this method a new way of creating stretchy page designs has been refined by our own CSS gurus, creating a page that maintains a percentage-based margin on either side of the page. This allows pages to display on even the largest monitors without content stretching too wide or getting too small when the the browser window is reduced.

In my article introducing Vienna (link above) I recap all the goodies contained in the package (Did I mention print and design-time style sheets are included?) as well as show how I took the basic design created by the Vienna extension and created a page design entirely my own using Fireworks and Dreamweaver. While not exactly a blow-by-blow tutorial, the article provides a good overview of the methods I used for examining the JumpStart design and modifying the included PNG file to change images and color properties for my own creation.

If you're new to the world of CSS-based designs there's no better way that I know of to dig in and get a solid grounding in the methods used for creating this kind of page layout. With a fully commented CSS file you'll have the opportunity to see exactly which properties are applied to the page elements and how advanced techniques such as descendent selectors are used for controlling the appearance and position of the objects in the design. Combine the ease of creating a new design with all the information provided in the included articles and you'll find not only an easy method for creating entire site designs, but also a great opportunity for learning how these designs are accomplished and how to modify them for your own purposes.

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Welcome to the Educational Blogging World

The Palm Beach Post ran the story today that Cynthia Kopkowski interviewed me for about a week or so ago--More and more e-savvy educators using blogs--and I expect that a few folks might be popping in here for the first time as a result. Seems only fair to provide a little more information about blogging in education for those of you who've dropped by out of curiosity.

So, blogging is all the rage right? It seems like every time you pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV you hear something about blogs and the way they're affecting the world of information gathering and dissemination. Of course, like many niche interests, blogs are much more important to the people who follow them than they are to the general population. So why be interested at all? Isn't blogging just about somebody grinding their own particular axe, whether it's politics or stamp collecting or dwarf tossing? Or are they on-line journals? A place for someone to publish what's going on in their lives and invite comments from friends and family. Or are they the newest means for companies to get the word out about their products and engage their customers?

The truth is, blogs are all of the above and more. Plenty of people are blogging right now, and the topics of their on-line rants and ruminations run the gamut from the guys taking on the Mainstream Media (All news is liberal! All news is conservative!) to my own daughter who posts to her blog about the things that she and her friends are interested in. 40,000 new blogs are added every day--that's right--40,000--and the growth of blogs and blogging seems to be increasing exponentially. And while many of those blogs will be started with the best intentions, only to be abandoned after a while for lack of interest--left adrift on the internet like an electronic Flying Dutchman--many people will maintain and nurture their blogs and find an audience for what they have to say.

So blogs are here to stay, at least until newer and more advanced methods of communication and collaboration come along, but what does that mean to the world of education? To be blunt about it, our kids are already blogging. According to MSNBC, many kids are blogging without their parents knowledge, and fully half of all blogs are created by teenagers. Imagine, half of the kids in any given classroom are writing and publishing online to their own personal blogs, for better or worse. This explosion of writing and reading is a powerful phenomenon in the world of today's digital kids, where communicating online is the norm. Blogs give them a new tool for seeking our other kids, for examining their interests, and for conducting conversations. Research into the way that teenagers develop has long pointed to their need to identify themselves and discover where they fit in the world. Blogs give them a new method for doing so. Instead of hanging out with buddies at the library or local ice cream shop as many of us did in our day, today's kids hang out online.

The challenge for educators then is to channel all of that teenage creativity into productive means of communication and thinking. Imagine a teacher posting in her Language Arts class blog a question about the latest novel the class has read. Why did Steinbeck only describe his characters actions in Of Mice and Men, for example, rather than tell us what the characters were thinking? In the past a classroom discussion might have ensued if that question were posed by the teacher but the discussion would have ended when the bell rang. In the world of blogs students can think about the questions our teachers pose, do independent research, then post their replies on the teacher's blog whenever they feel prepared to do so. There is no bell ending the conversation. It goes on around the clock and is available to the student and teacher whenever they find the time to participate. Combine that accessibility with the natural (to students) means of conversing that online publishing affords and you can begin to see not only the value of blogs but the powerful way that blogs could potentially change student to teacher interaction.

It's an exciting technology and one that our students have already embraced in a big way. In our school district we hope to find ways to tap into blogs and blogging for instructional purposes in the coming year. The future of blogging has already arrived with our kids. Our job is to channel that energy and find methods of providing student access to school-supported blogs while maintaining their privacy and insuring their online safety.

(For an excellent overview of educational blogging see The American School Board Journal's recent story, What's in a Blog?.)

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Another Cool Color Scheming Tool

Another new tool for developing color schemes popped into my browser today. Can't for the life of me remember what I was looking for, but glad I stumbled across this one.

WellStyled Color Generation Tool will generate a number of different color schemes based on the standard Triad, Tetrad, and Contrast methods. In addition you can choose colors that provide variations in different pastel shades. Of particular note is the ability to set the color scheme to show you the way that people with different visual problems might view your design. Nice when (and when is it not?) accessibility for those with color blindness is a concern.

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Happy Independence Day

Lots to reflect upon on this day. Especially in light of our current efforts to bring democracy to Iraq (that is what we're doing, right?), it's good to look back on our own nation's history and think a bit about how we got to where we are today and our own stormy and contentious past.

For an interesting look at the way America has celebrated the 4th in the past, as well as links to more on the Declaration of Independence and the how the document came into being the always fabulous Library of Congress American Memory Project has a great set of images, original source documents, and sound files of patriotic songs available for perusal.

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Live 8 Now Avaiable at the iTunes Store

Just downloaded the London concert from iTunes Music Store with what sound to be some awesome songs by great artists. Proceeds benefit the effort to end poverty in Africa and get members of the G-8 to address these and other problems in African nations.

For those not wishing to use iTunes there are downloads available at the Live 8 Download site. The Long and Winding Road and Sergeant Pepper are currently featured, but I assume others will be along.

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Amercian School Board Journal on Blogging by Educational Leaders

What's in a Blog?: Craig Colgan has done an outstanding job detailing the educational uses of blogs, with particular emphasis on educational leaders who have taken up the mantle of conversing with their constituents rather than just talking to (or at) them. Craig and I had a fairly lengthy e-mail conversation about the topic and it was nice to see a couple of quotes from little old me that made it into the article.

There are some great quotes in the article and some excellent examples of how blogging has opened the lines of communication between schools, parents, and community members. Craig's summary of what blogging fundamentally does may be one of the best recaps of the technology that I've seen to date:

What’s revolutionary about this tool is that it puts give-and-take into Web publishing. Before blogging, the Web was pretty much a one-way street. Some distant, technologically advanced entity would create Web content, and the rest of us would wander from site to site viewing it. We might buy a book at Amazon.com or vote in an online poll, but mostly we consumed content others produced. We did not create it or benefit directly from the Web’s ability to share it quickly.

Blogs have broken that chain. Today, almost anyone with rudimentary computer skills can establish a surprisingly sophisticated space on the Web within minutes. The one-way highway is now two way.

My only beef? No active links in the article! Come on folks. How hard is it to add a link to the text when you've already got the URL published right in the article? So, as a public service here are some of the educational blogs cited in the article:

Clayton Wilcox, superintendent of the 114,000 student Pinellas County district has embraced blogging in a big way, as has his community. Sponsored by the St. Petersburg Times (any Palm Beach County news organizations paying attention here?) his blog, simply titled The Classroom receives hundreds of comments to the questions and conversations starters he posts at the blog. Impressive.

Speaking of community input, the Don't Underestimate Charlotte-Mecklenburg blog was created by parents and community members as a place to discuss school-related issues in their community. In a similar vein, parents in Washington D.C. schools have started a similar blog at Fix Our Schools where they agitate for improvements to the physically deteriorating schools in their district by posting photos of schools that are run down and in need of repair.

As the article aptly summarizes, blogging as a tool for communication still has a long way to go in education leadership circles. Here's hoping that more superintendents, principals, school board members, and others who make decisions about the direction of education open up the dialogue with their communities by devoting the (relatively) little time it takes to create, post, and read their own blogs.

Via Will Richardson

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