Why I Removed Comments From My Blog Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - January 18, 2010June 30, 20100 This evening, I decided to do something I've been toying around with since the summer. I finally deleted comments from my blog entirely. Where it all began I began this blog as a hobby back in the spring of 2007, shortly after I began to learn more about the potential that blogs held. Life was much simpler back then. For one thing, I taught 6th grade beginning band only. My obligations outside of school were minimal, and the amount of time I spent in front of the computer was similarly low. Life was much simpler back then. I long for that again. Where it has taken me In the fall of 2007, I moved to the middle school where I
Disgusted with DISQUS Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - January 9, 2010June 30, 20102 I tried the alternative comment system DISQUS for a few months here and have just grown tired of it. Since installing it in October, I have noticed: A decrease in the number of relevant comments on my blog An increase in the number of spammy comments that get approved An increase in the number of complaints about the difficulty of commenting on my blog A substantial increase in the the time it takes for pages on my site to load I turned off DISQUS commenting this morning and while I lost a number of comments that have been posted to my site, I also notice that some of the comments posted on DISQUS actually were preserved. I also
Thank You For A Great Year! Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - December 31, 2009June 30, 20103 Over 10,000 of the visits to SYWTT this year came from nine sources. The top three alone actually sent me over 6,200 visitors. This is incredible, and I need to thank all of you for the help you've provided me. Top referring blogsThese are the blogs that have sent the most visitors my way in 2009. I cannot thank these people enough for taking the time out of their schedule in one way or another and finding something on my site that resonated enough with them to send their readers my way. You people rock! It's Not All Flowers And Sausages TutorFi.com with the post 50 Reasons Why I Enjoy Being A Teacher Guy Kawasaki with the post 20
The Best of SYWTT 2009 Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - December 31, 2009June 30, 20100 Over the past (almost) three years of blogging, I have learned a lot more about myself, teaching, blogging, WordPress, CSS, HTML, and social media than I ever really thought I would. Most of it has been good, or at least fun. Some of it hasn't been all that great, but I keep on keeping on. As we close out each year, I like to take a sort of retrospective on the past year and look at some of the most popular articles from the year. I've traditionally broken this retrospective into three individual posts (2007 Loneliest/Busiest/Overlooked, 2008 Loneliest/Busiest/Overlooked), but this year I'll do things a little differently and pack everything into one huge year-end blowout. The busiest articles of 20092009 really
15 Free Online Education Resources for Teachers Blogging & Technology by Karen Schweitzer - December 23, 2009June 30, 20100 Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. More guest posts by Karen for SYWTT are available here. Teachers who are interested in furthering their education can find many free education resources online. There are colleges, universities, and education associations that offer free courses as well as informational sites that provide details on earning advanced degrees, certificates, and continuing education credits. Here are 15 free online education resources to explore in your spare time. Thinkfinity - Thinkfinity provides free interactive webinars, online courses, and instructional videos for teachers and afterschool practitioners. Graduate credit is available for some of the courses. Teachers Network - The Teachers Network offers a wide range of how-to's for teachers. Covered topics include finding a teaching position, professional
20 Free Tech Tools for Learning and Communicating Blogging & Technology by Karen Schweitzer - November 14, 2009June 30, 20105 Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online school for OnlineSchool.net. Nearly everyone is familiar with Moodle, the learning management system that allows teachers to communicate and share learning resources online. But Moodle isn't the only free platform that can accomplish these tasks. There are many other free tech tools and sites that offer similar capabilities. Here are 20 tools worth exploring. Engrade - Over 150,000 teachers use Engrade's suite of tools to manage their classrooms online. The tools allow teachers to post assignments, grades, and attendance books on the web. Engrade can also be used to connect and privately communicate with administrators, parents, and students. 21Classes - 21Classes
85+ Cool Sites I Found In October Via Twitter Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - November 8, 2009June 30, 20102 I have been getting more and more into sharing information via Twitter recently. With 1,300 RSS subscribers, and only 850 Twitter followers, I know that not all of my readers are getting all of the links that I share. I thought it might be fun to share with you some of the links that I came across last month and shared on Twitter. If you aren't following me on Twitter yet, you should start: @sywtt Also, if you're on Google Wave and would like to add me, feel free! My address is soyouwanttoteach.com@googlewave.com 5 great resources to find out about Google Wave 5 Reasons Google Wave Is Not Ready 5 Step Change Strategy Five Technology Lessons Every Teacher Can
Latest Carnival of Education Posted Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - November 3, 2009June 30, 20100 I have been asked to pass along a request. Unfortunately, I had a pep rally this morning and a football game this evening. I'm hosting the next EduCarnival at my blog (http://imadreamerteacher.blogspot.com/), and there aren't a ton of submissions. Since you have a widely read blog, I was wondering if you could post a short thing about how people could still submit today? It's too late to do it through the form, but they could email me links directly at imadreamerteacher@gmail.com. EDIT: It's now too late to submit...but check out the EduCarnival V2 Issue 11 anyway.
10 Free Ed-Tech Resources to Implement in the Classroom Blogging & Technology by Karen Schweitzer - October 21, 2009July 3, 20160 This article is by Karen Schweitzer, the About.com Guide to Business School. Since it was published in 2009, 5 of the original 15 sites have gone away. It's now 10 Free Ed-Tech Resources to Implement in the Classroom. Enjoy. Teachers who are looking for technology to implement in their classroom can find many different resources online. From presentation apps to educational microblogs, the Internet has everything teachers need to improve learning experiences and productivity in the classroom. Here are 10 free ed-tech resources worth exploring: Mindomo – Mindomo is a versatile mind mapping tool that makes it easy to create, organize, and share your ideas. It is a great brainstorming tool for the classroom. SlideShare – SlideShare is the world’s largest presentation sharing community. It can be
The Power of Potential: 19 Educational Uses for Google Wave Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - October 15, 2009June 30, 20101 I got my Google Wave invitation the day the first set of invites came out. Today on Twitter, a friend asked me if Google Wave was as amazing as he's heard it is. My response was something along the lines of: The potential of Google Wave is still pretty amazing, but the implementation of it so far is not there. That being said, I have to keep in mind that it is still in alpha testing phases right now, and thought it has been unresponsive at times, it has not yet crashed on me. These two facts are pretty solid for the infrastructure so far! What is the potential? Well, clearly it has some pretty far-reaching possibilities in the use
Google Wave Will Revolutionize Online Classroom Instruction Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - September 30, 2009June 30, 20105 Today is the day. Thousands of new users will be presented with the opportunity to get their hands on Google Wave. What is Google Wave? Google Wave is a brand new technology that positions itself as the way Email would have been made if it were invented today. (Watch the 1:20:12 long video clip) Imagine a combination between Email, IM, Twitter, Facebook, and Skype all bundled into one. Now imagine it being drag-and-drop easy, live-updated, and being constantly improved. Then throw on top of that an eager community of developers seeking ways to make it even easier to use and more powerful. Cool, but what does it look like? I haven't gotten my invitation yet, but am eagerly awaiting
Graduate First – Why I Won’t Add You As My Facebook Friend Yet Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - September 20, 2009June 7, 201214 This weekend, I read Back to School: Tips for Teachers on Facebook on the Facebook blog. In it, the author writes:Some teachers stay away from Facebook altogether, while others -- like some of my friends -- have found creative workarounds such as only accepting friend requests from students who've graduated or those who are over the age of 18. However, it doesn't have to be that difficult. In fact, it is useful and rewarding to connect with your students on Facebook. So, in honor of all the people who are heading back to school this month, here are some tips for using Facebook.The article continues by outlining some things that we as teachers can do to secure the privacy of
9 Free Tools For Better Blogging Blogging & Technology by Karen Schweitzer - September 14, 2009July 5, 20163 In this article, Karen Schweitzer digs into some tools that blogging educators can use. She initially listed 15 in 2009, but 6 of those tools are no longer around. So now, enjoy 9 Free Tools For Better Blogging. Teachers and other education professionals who are interested in starting their own blog or integrating blogging into a classroom can find many online resources to improve their blogging experience. Many of these resources are free and easy to implement on a variety of platforms. Here are 15 no-cost tools to explore today: Edmodo - This free microblogging platform was created for students and teachers who want to be able to blog and share files through a private connection. Edmodo works a lot like Twitter--it allows threaded
20 Ways I Really Use My iPhone To Teach Band Class Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - September 12, 2009October 3, 20104 On the day that the iPhone 3G was released, I rushed out to the local AT&T Store to pick up my very own. I was excited, so I rushed home and wrote 10 Awesome iPhone Apps (Band Director Style) and listed all of the cool things that I was going to download and use in class. Well, a year has passed and things have changed somewhat. So I thought I'd go back and look at the list. I was somewhat surprised to see how it has changed and how some of those apps never panned out to be what I thought they would be. Even so, I am thrilled at the purchase of my iPhone and continue to find it extremely
Social Media Update: Become A Facebook Fan Blogging & Technology by Joel Wagner - September 5, 2009June 30, 20101 I don't use a whole lot of social media outlets, but I know a lot of my readers do. Over the last few months, I have added a few things to make sharing SYWTT articles easier. I've also added some rating type things where you can tell me how bad (or good) an article is. I find that Facebook and Twitter are by far the websites I spend most of my time on when I'm online. In fact, I mostly use Facebook at home and Twitter on my iPhone while I'm out. Up to this point, I have used them mostly for personal things. I have also noticed, however, that my use of Google Reader and other RSS type things