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About Me: I work in two areas: renewable and sustainable energy and e-education. I consult, internationally on these areas. Currently working in Guatemala on clean water projects, solar thermal and PV

by training I am an environmental scientist and by profession I am considered a futurist or strategic planner.

At 12:22pm on October 23, 2007, tom abeles said…: hi scott

I would check out global school net http://www.gsn.org/ They have networks of kids around the world who communicate on specific topics, have projects on critical areas and are an interesting and safe place which was started by a teacher using apple II's many years ago.

In KY, I would suggest contacting the folks at Kentucky Virtual Schools, http://www.kyvs.org/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp

and see what they might also suggest

Both offer a potential compromise between a heavily managed in/out blog space and give a focus to the activities which should help get the students global exposure with sufficient security to meet the administration concerns.

Let me know what you think of these options. There are still others out "there" which avoid the concerns with My Space anf Face Book and similar sites.

At 5:55pm on October 22, 2007, Scott Walker said…: The goal is this. Students will express their ideas to a world-wide audience-thus open to anyone to view and comment. I feel the comments are valuable to provide a way for students attain feedback from sources beyond the school walls. I want my kids(in rural KY) to reach higher and not settle for the community standard-I think any teacher would want that.

All of this would be funneled online by me using the edublogs platform. (I use wordpress myself and am comfortable with it) Nothing would touch the www until I approved it whether it be comments or posts.

I haven't seen too many examples yet of this being done, though they exist. I think this is part of the excitement for me and my kids, to be on the front end of the wave.

At 5:06pm on October 22, 2007, tom abeles said…: hi scott

I did send you an email. But I thought it might be helpful to others if you might elaborate a little more about where you hope to take this effort should your students be allowed to "blog". Do you have a project or direction? Is this open ended and open to the larger world or is this contained within your class or the school? Have you thought about a platfrom? where have you looked for examples and what do you find that you like?
tom
tabeles@gmail.com

At 1:44pm on October 22, 2007, Scott Walker said…: Tom,
I am on the hunt for someone from kentucky that might be able to help. I teach here in central Ky and am currently trying to get my administration to allow my kids to blog as a part of my classroom. All I have received in return from my requests is a big firm NO. They seem to think that it is illegal and would cause lawsuits. If you can help, I would greatly appreciate it! you can email me directly at mrwalker@teachertechblog.com