I gave a talk to about 20 teachers in the Columbia area today. I always am so excited to do these sorts of things. I really like helping others get started blogging and it’s exciting to see their eyes light up when they start getting ideas of how they might use blogging with their students.

In addition to working with some great teachers today (see some of their links below), I also had to deal with some extremely resistant users. I had a couple people stand in the back of the room with their coats on because they had to leave early. It was really disconcerting to try and begin my talk and have to look out and see arms folded and frowns on their faces. And, it was a small room. They were less than 6 feet from me. It was as if they were angry with me and I hadn’t even said a word yet. Then, I also had a few people–teachers–who refused to even try! Plus, there were some who left really negative comments on other, more optimistic, teachers’ blogs. I wonder what they do with students in their classrooms who refuse to try?? Or who drag other students down with a negative attitude? This part of the afternoon reminded me of some things that Alex Reid has blogged about:

The challenge of information literacy? the faculty

I continue to be concerned that the real stumbling block on the path to this goal does not have to do with students but rather with faculty.

Yeah. That was certainly proven for me today.

Then, AR had another post on the: economies of student attention

So there’s a different type of question here. It’s not “how do I encourage the disengaged student to become engaged?” but “how do I design a course to improve the disengaged user experience?” Perhaps these are the same question, that is, perhaps improving the user experience tends to increase engagment. But I’m thinking about making it easier for the student who wants to learn on his/her own terms through my course without engaging in the terms of the course as I define them.

So my reason for posting about my experience today is to try and find out how I can do a better job next time of improving the ‘disengaged user experience.’

One idea that just occurred to me is to give each person who doesn’t want to create a blog themselves, the URL of a teacher who is experienced at blogging and has done a great deal of it, say Anne or Will’s URL, and ask them to read their most recent posts and make a list in Word or Notepad (or even handwritten!) of ways that these teachers/educators are using blogs, and then to ask them to report back at the end of the session. (BTW, Anne and Will are posting about the K-12 Online Conference–make time to check it out!) Actually, it would be great if I could return and spend a couple hours with them doing nothing but reading other teachers’ blogs. And, then, spend the last hour blogging about it.

Do you have other ideas or suggestions? The comments are open…

Also, if you get a chance, there were a few people who saw possibilities and might appreciate comments:

Mrs. Vallar’s Blog where Pat asks about using blogs as research tools, as sources, and also about generating research questions
Mad Hatter who has a great list of ways teachers can use blogs
Donya’s Blog – who is looking for other literature ideas on Saving Shiloh? Or Loser? Or other 5th grade level books, as well as comprehension questions, vocabulary ideas or constructive response ideas.
Ms. Erickson – who asks about blogging with 7th and 8th graders. What blogs tools do you use with students who are under 18?