I've received a number of requests for help with 'Drupal Basics' in the last couple of weeks. Here's something to get you started, hope it helps.

$("jesse.cravens").now

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I'm definitely into the hybrid thing lately. Hybrid instruction not only in the sense of implementation: online and face to face learning through moodle (http://moodle.org) and short class lectures/discussions, but also philosophically in a sense of allowing students to have some type of control over the curriculum, and direction of their own study. Every moodle assignment I offer, is open to interpretation and creativity. This is why I believe that rubrics can potentially take the fun out of learning. They limit learners to the parameters made by the teacher. Especially when we are teaching technoloies that are more native to the learner than the educator.

This article takes a neutral approach to - what I will call the Sudbury model, but really applies to many other free, democratic school models. I agree with both sides of the argument, and I have settled on balance and moderation of both freedom and standardization. This combined with a balance between face to face and elearning and I think we might make some real progress in my classroom.
Free Radicals

In the country's most alternative classrooms, there's no such thing as a report card.

Sudbury schools are only one variety of so-called free, or democratic, schools, which eschew most conventions of traditional education in favor of a much more radical program. At most free schools, literally every decision, from those about staff hiring and firing to determinations concerning rules, facilities, and budget issues, is made by the entire school community in a one-person, one-vote process. There are no tests, no report cards, no requirements, and no classes -- and no curriculum, other than what students set for themselves.

It is a philosophy that may strike the uninitiated as far-fetched, if not irresponsible, but it seems to be working.......

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Congratulations to my students for their great work on iBoerne.com. Our submission for Student Showcase
has been accepted for the 2007 TCEA Convention !

iBoerne.com: an Interactive Online Game for Programming Students | jessecravens.com

EdTech Connect Webinar Series| DiscoverySchool.com

EdTechConnect is a free webinar series to help teachers integrate media and technology into the classroom. Discovery Education connects you with the experts who will answer your questions and bring you new insights. All you need is a telephone and a computer connected to the Internet and a cadre of experts will virtually join you at your desk. EdTechConnect webinars have featured Alan November, Kathy Schrock, Hall Davidson, Steve Dembo and most recently, Joe Brennan.

Mark your calendars now! Coming soon to EdTechConnect, David Warlick on November 15th and Will Richardson on December 13th.

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20 Ideas: Introduction at teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk

Doug Belshaw is creating a great resource for eductors.Take a minute to explore this archive.

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iBoerne.com is a mashup of Google maps and Drupal using the drupal gmap module to create virtual competition between teams of students. The teams are: Yellow, Red, Green, Blue. The rules of the game were created to encourage the six member teams to discuss concepts such as project management, virtual teams, workflow, efficiency, and collaboration tools.

He reflected deeply, until this feeling completely overwhelmed him and he reached a point where he recognized causes; for to recognize causes, it seemed to him, is to think, and through thought alone feelings become knowledge and are not lost, but become real and begin to mature.

- Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

One thing my mother always told me was, "You don't have a whole lot to say, but you sure have a lot to write about." These days, I communicate through talk much more effectively than I did when I was younger. Although, I still would prefer to have the time to think about what I say through a process like writing before I speak and stand the chance of being misunderstood.

I'm sure I'm not alone. Effective communication is numero uno in importance for the success of any relationship, we all know this, yet it is so difficult to find the time to do it well. I watch people struggle with this in everything I do and have done in the past. Communication is a multi-faceted interchange of ideas, feelings, beliefs. Energies are being exchanged, insecurities are covering thoughts, changing thoughts, and half truths are even spoken in the name of self-interest. It takes a very analytical individual to decipher individual intentions, yet we all have to be real. Stop and take a look around at what we have become:

Marriages: Even the most sacred of words, the wedding vow, has become insincere hogwash in 50% of cases.

The Death of the Salesman and All Marketers are Liars: Consumer purchasing decisions are becoming more and more based on the buying experiences of close friends and family.

Politics: well...exactly my point.

Let's face it...insincerity has become a 21st Century American cultural norm, and surely all this insincerity has taken its toll on effective communication. Personally, I'm weary of it.

Take the whole job interview process for example. As of lately, I have been acknowledging the whole idea of insincerity during the onset of the interview. In part, to evaluate the interviewer. If the interviewer acts as though they have no understanding of what I am referring to, I know from the beginning an unhealthy relationship may be in the making.

Maybe these dynamic, short-termed mindscapes are a reflection of environmental adaptations. In today's world, everything changes so fast...and we as individuals need to change to keep up. So maybe rampid insincerity is a reflection of this larger trend.

Nevertheless, I feel it is important to reflect deeply, to check oneself, and evaluate one's own intentions. As Hesse stated, we need to 'recognize the causes' of our thoughts and actions. We need to think deeper about the ramifications of our words. Words are very powerful, and in today's world one simple statement can have a long lasting effect on another's impression of your integrity, honesty, etc. This is especially important in the workplace.

In conclusion...Writing, or a public style of writing such as blogging, helps us stay accountable for our thoughts. If we are brave enough to put these thoughts in writing for everyone to read, perhaps we are making a commitment to be more accountable to the ideas we are expressing. Maybe not. Either way, at least we are making a public commitment to think before we speak.

I have struggled with blogging long enough. Creating consistent, meaningful content can be a great challenge. For me it isn't the actual content. I have plenty of ideas, plenty of inspiration. For me, it is the absence of a quick, organized delivery. In an effort to streamline my delivery process, I have created an 11-step guide to aid in getting my ideas from my head and onto my blog.

For those that do create content often on their website, consider this an opportunity for improvement, or to participate in a conversation. For me, I hope this guide will result in the continued evolution of the effectiveness and efficiency of my own writing. I’d like to share:

Steps 1-5 : Get into the mindset for writing the post.
Steps 6-11: Guide the Writing Process

1. Know your audience! Duh! But… we often forget, or get caught up in the ego driven importance of our great ideas; We forget to consider whether or not our audience cares.

An interesting byproduct of the blogging phenomenon is the many different flavors of blogs. Search your sector and discover how others are using blogging technologies, but in your evaluation of your colleagues and competitors blogs, don’t lose your desire to innovate and be different:

If you are a realtor, search for effective real estate blogging:

If you're running for political office, take a look at Howard Dean’s http://www.blogforamerica.com/ - whether you agree with his political stance or not, there is a lot to be learned from his progressive use of blogging in the campaigning process.

If you are a doctor – check out: Joseph Mercola, medical director of a 50-employee practice in Schaumburg, IL: http://www.mercola.com/blog

If you’re an educator search edublogging and take look at David Warlick.

If you are a musician or artist, more often than not the quirkier the better...just be yourself. People love authenticity...more on that later.

2. Think bell curve. Shoot for the largest sector of your potential readers. There will always be those that don’t get it, or have heard everything you have to say before. Don't concern yourself with the outer fringes of the bell curve.

3. Organize and Dedicate the time to do it right. Find or create a guide such as this one that suits your individual writing style. Or begin here, and adapt this guide to meet your needs. Make the commitment to follow your guide, and develop a unique, personal style.

4. Think Title Summary. Make your title a summary of the content in the blogpost. This will not only catch the attention of readers and help search engines find your content, but also increase your chances of readers sticking around. In other words, your readers will know what they are getting into ahead of time.

5. Quality and Authenticity: Don’t get caught up in making your posts perfect. There is a fine line between attention to quality and obsession over perfection. I once heard Robert Earl Keen Jr. say something along the lines of…. “just kick out albums – don’t put too much thought into it or the collection of songs will never be finished.” …and to take it even further…an unrefined style can enhance your attractiveness. Many people have grown weary and untrusting of refined, corporate-style messages and products. They are searching frantically for authenticity. To continue this music industry example – think Jackson Browne vs. Milly Vanilly.

6. Short but Sweet: Make your post as long as it needs to be. Be short and to the point, but make your content rich. How do you make a blogpost content rich?

-Aggregate content
-Create lists
-Create hyperlinks to other bloggers that add something extra to your content.

For example: Here is other content related this topic:

Top 7 tips to write an effective business blog
10 Tips for Becoming a Great Corporate Blogger
6 Time Management Tips for Bloggers

This could be another bullet, but I felt it important to say.....Never, ever be afraid to give another blogger credit, or point someone to someone else's blog (including your competitors). It's about sharing information, not hoarding it or attempting to be the center of the blogosphere. That mentality is so 20th Century.

This type of content creation makes your readers lives easier and saves them time. If you do that often enough, they will come back for more. I know I do.

7. Provoke Thought: Provide thought provoking content: Make your readers think. You won’t reach them all. (Take this post for instance, there will be people that have heard it all before.)

8. Educate: Use common everyday language, but don’t talk down to your readers. Create learning opportunities. So if you are going to use a word like hyperpedagogy, give your readers a hyperlink. In doing so, you make your readers smarter. Everyone likes to get smarter.

9. Use Beauty, Creativity, and Humor: Borrow from poetry, prose, and other more elegant forms of writing. Separate yourself by making it interestingly interesting: use metaphors, use anecdotes, use alliteration. For example I am writing a piece on the virtual marketplace entitled 'Stopping to Smell the Synthetic Roses'.

By doing so, we transform an industrial medium such as black and white text in a browser to a medium that reminds our readers of time when words were written with a pen. We fill the weblog with life; We provide doses of humanity that our readers can relate to, and that many yearn for.

This idea of creativity and humor is genre, industry, topic specific. A blog that relates to Xtreme Sports and Ska/Punk/Rap Fusion might want to incorporate a heavy dose of lyrical creativity, yet shy from away from the romantic, transcendental humanity hoopla. Again, just know your audience.

**also keep in mind …the title of the previously mentioned blog post might be titled along the lines of ‘An Argument for Exploring the Virtual Marketplace: Stopping to Smell the Synthetic Roses.’ Don't forget your friendly search engines, take your title and optimize it.

10. Provide More than Value: Provide more than value for your reader; Ambitiously aspire to provide more than is expected in every post. Under-Promise and Over-Deliver.

11. Create a conversation. Think Cluetrain. Always end with a statement encouraging feedback such as this….

If anyone has anything to add – I’d love to hear from you