aureliom's Blog: Educational Change

I'm trying to get the education activists, readers of my blog, who are new to social media to connect with those who have been my mentors and teachers about all these fabulous but confusing tools.
See my most recent blog:
http://parentleadershipined.blogspot.com/2008/10/google-not-just-for-your-abuelita-great.html
I mention Bryan Person and Bryan Solis as key mentors.

I just posted a piece in blogspot. http://parentleadershipined.blogspot.com/2008/10/which-social-media-waves-to-surf.html
This theme's becoming redundant in my writing, but partially it is an attempt to attract the attention of those who have already solved the puzzle. I asked one person I had worked with briefly how Linked In could be used for community development and social action purposes. She has yet to respond. A year ago I had asked one of my social media mentors how to create an online community and network for educational social change and I got a vague answer.
I know it's not just one tool, nor is there a predicatable result from creating an online network, but it is clear that if a critical mass that will result in a much greater impact on social issues is to be sought, there have to be specific counsels on the use of particular tools that might produce those results.
What do I use, inwhat combination with what other tools, to get what kind of a result.
Or are these questions many are asking?
(And what's this TrackBack URL: right below this box? So many things, so puzzling to this old man.

My organization's annual Texas attrition study is out. It's been over 20 years that we've been tracking this information and there is much greater acceptance of the data and consciousness of the challenge.
But as is true with any recurring information that is consistantly negative, the challenge is to energize ourselves. What action can/must we take to change this?
The data are cause for action because our social and economic future can be affected. The attrition rates are not printed in indelible ink on non-perishable materials. The numbers are human beings, our children, and with and for them we can envision a future of possibilities. But we must take action. See the reference below.
Texas Schools will Lose Many More Generations of Students
http://www.idra.org/Press_Room/News_Releases_-_Recent/At_Current_Pace/s

http://parentleadershipined.blogspot.com/2008/10/caveat-blogger-putting-on-naive-face.html
Beware of seeming too simple or posing questions that could be answered with obvious replies. I think I've wasted some social media communication time by not being careful enough in constructing the questions/requests.

Or maybe it's just that the readers I want to reach and could be quite useful in guiding/mentoring me are still not reading my blogs.

I have taken time to answer questions in several of the Linked In groups I've joined and I don't think my responses have been well received, unless there is no meaning to be taken by no further response.
I do notice that other responses are usually connected to a service or product the responder is selling.
But then that is the nature of LInked In...it's about getting jobs, finding professionals and services to hire etc.

Some mentors are good: pithy, on target and quite useful. with patience for those of us new to this social media world
B.Person, B.Solis etc.

I still have to get my questions right.

My comment to Jennifer Fox's http://blog.strengthsmovement.com/?p=139
We must create the public will to support the resources $$$ our children merit, deserve and need. I’m glad for you and the rest out there with the vision, the charisma and the writing chops to keep the vision focused on children’s assets. The taxpayer relief movement focuses on physical property assets as if those are the ultimately most important and tangible…and most in need of defense from ‘bad govmint’.
California used to have a fairly good educational system until Prop. 13 and the ‘taxpayer relief’ brand of common (as in lowest common denominator) sense took hold and now that educational system is pretty much going down the toilet.
Money and resources for public education make a huge difference for our economic future. (I’m personally more interested in justice, compassion and the furtherance of the democratic dream, but I don’t think that sells these days.)
The harsh truth for the long haul: you can’t have a secure economic future without equity and excellence in public education.
More than the Department of Defense budget, more than the bailout of our private sector big-betting gamblers that are sinking the economies of the whole world, we must, as a nation, decide that our children are our future.
We must act and vote accordingly.

Just hit some blogs that I'm barely understanding but I think they are in an academic dialogue that connects very directly to my concerns about education, learning and poor people.
I'm going to have to re-ingest, chew slowly, hope my mental acid reflux doesn't kick in, and come back and report my findings.
I did post some comments but they might seem off topic or naive to that rarified academic conversation.
We'll see, out here in the sticks of south Texas.
These are the sites I'm talking about:
http://the-ed-rush.blogspot.com/2008/11/helping-george.html
http://lisahistory.wordpress.com/
http://lisahistory.wordpress.com/2008/11/13/paper-3-resistance-reassessment-retooling/
And I still don't know what "TrackBack URL" frigging means.

DId it! Blogged on the sucker. Connectivism. Constructivism. Academic Conversation.
http://parentleadershipined.blogspot.com/2008/11/wild-warped-web-george-prof-parents.html
I'm getting alliterative: the previos was with Bs, now it's with Ws. Wild Warped Web. too precious. But those titles seem to hook more readers, so I"ll keep doing it.
As an educator I really am a dedicated constructivist and I like what those folks are calling connectivism.
I know that the bloggers I quote will at least see what I'm saying, once.

For several years I've been following Study Circles http://www.everyday-democracy.org/en/Index.aspx a very interesting process because it is congruent with my & my orgs view of family participation in public education. http://www.idra.org/Podcasts/Resources/Effective_Parent_Outreach/
http://www.idra.org/IDRA_Newsletter/June_-_July_2008_Parent_and_Community_Engagement/Authentic_Consultation/
The idea of 'deliberative democracy' is in the spotlight with the Obama network expecting input and dialogue, which is more possible with all the available social media tools.
What can't be replaced is authentic conversation. I recall Bryan Person's questioning of community existing simply or primarily through online networks & I agree totally. Bryan's blog quoted " Defining community. Tim said his Disaboom community "empowers people to be who they are and connect with people like them;" it provides a place for members to build "genuine and meaningful relationships."
Tiffany noted that her members can meet and communicate can meet with people they know -- or don't know. "
To consider large numbers of Facebook or LinkedIn contacts as a real community is illusory and naive.
But if you do have a strong, on the ground process such as Everyday Democracy, then you can accelerate, augment and extend the power of that real community through blogs, and all the fabulous social media tools that exist.
http://parentleadershipined.blogspot.com/2008/12/ncpie-artists-formerly-known-as-study.html

Welcome to the home of the Edublogs Awards - the annual event where the best
education blogs of the year are decided by, well, you! Voting is now open for
the 2008 awards
http://edublogawards.com/

Visit site to vote and also to check out blogs to subscribe to if you are interested in education

No Computerless Learning Blues, the new NCLB song for bridging the digital divide.
From my other blog: Just heard the NPR report on the success of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) in the boondocks of Peru. Laptop Deal Links Rural Peru To Opportunity, Risk ... OLPC has been controversial ever since first proposed by Nicholas Negroponte, the computer science professor who started the One Laptop Per Child Foundation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Negroponte defines it "an education project; it's not a laptop project." Launched in 2005, the nonprofit OLPC aims to equip poor schoolchildren in developing countries with durable, inexpensive, networked laptops. The comments on the NPR story website attest to the problems with the project. Ranging from problems with batteries that require electrical rather than solar power to revive, to the objection made by officials of some 3rd world countries: Cheap, toylike laptops are digital crumbs that reinforce the traditional, racist view of western industrialized nations. True, OLPC hasn't accelerated and caught-on with the speed and acceptance originally envisioned, but it is already showing impact. It's also becoming an opportunity for charitable contribution. Amazon has a video clip ad Learn About OLPC's XO Laptop in a buy-one-give-one campaign.
Links in the blog http://parentleadershipined.blogspot.com/

I really hope that under the new administration, we get closer in this country to at least one laptop per family, with children having equal time online with adults. Our current economic crisis might need an upgrade of 'a chicken in every pot'. How about 'An internet-connected laptop in every home'. It's not a silver bullet to solve the many complex problems in educational equity but it is a greatly enabling condition. I raise my mouse and toast I'LL BLOG TO THAT. I'LL BLOG TO THAT.

I was sent a stop spamming note, so I posted a particularly pouty & self-serving entry, http://parentleadershipined.blogspot.com/ and quit that particular group. I even noted how glad I was to have a burning issue to write about. I expected it would trigger responses from the social media world -- good, bad or indifferent. Well, nothing. nada.
It's really hard to predict what will cause readers to respond to a posting. I'm curious about what readers think, and there have been readers...google analytics tells me so.
For the last 30 days there was only one posting that brought over 50 in one day. The regular visitor's see-saw is from a low of 5 to a high of 12. I'm told that for a new blogger focusing on a somewhat narrow topic that's not bad.
I'll just keep thinking of ways to attract readers with an affinity to my themes/topics and also ways to attract readers, period.

Posted yesterday on my other blog. Wish-list to Obama for Public Education -- Parents-Students-Teachers & Technology in Public Education. I've already gotten some responses, which is nice. I knew that by posting my list I was asking for a deluge of other's priorities. The almost universal criticism of No Child Left Behind in no way unifies the suggestions for improvement or starting-from-scratch re-design. We who consider ourselves on the progressive side of educational transformation have not reached consensus easily before and I see no reason why it'll be easy this time. Each group of stakeholders offer their NCLB criticisms of the current law and there are currently a substantial set of proclamations, joint statements and recommendations.
I decided to put my requests out there because, a) I want to suggest some very specific programs, projects & roles that my experience has shown to have direct impact on school transformation and student achievement. b) If NCLB is modified rather than a completely new act developed, these ideas can easily modified existing sections of the law. and c) I wanted to illustrate to my readers the direction taken in our community work, our parent leadership in education experiences, and the inter-generational experiences that illustrate student leadership and community use of technology to assess the strength of their schools.
But the guantlet is thrown, and I expect (hope) to get some spirited rejoinders.
I didn't open by wishing everyone a happy new year. So, I hope that all who read this will have a year of peace & gtranquility, congruence between vision/goals and actions and finally, that everone have the resources to have sufficient healthy food and a decent home.