http://elgg.educationbridges.net/paulallison/weblog/293.html

I was impressed tonight with how valuable "meet ups" can be. We had our first Tech Thursday of the year tonight, and I really enjoyed being in the room with Ken, Lorraine, Madeline, Richard, Sandy, Seth, Susan -- and Dave, via Skype. Yes it wasn't all face-to-face. We introduced the Youth Voices, Personal Learning Space and EducationBridges elggs to folks, and it was interesting to watch folks find a corner for themselves in the EducationBridges elgg.

Now we have to figure out how to make groups and communiities and how these work. 

http://elgg.educationbridges.net/paulallison/files/16/22/FirstDaySep06.mp3

Reflections on starting a new semester.

http://elgg.educationbridges.net/paulallison/weblog/403.html

http://paulrallison.livejournal.com/1303.html

6th, 7th, and 8th Graders at East Side Community High School. A few "snapshots" from my classroom on September 22, 2006. The students are working to post to their blog in an elgg, "PersonalLearningSpace.com" Here's the routine that I introduced to them. The hope is that this will become routine as soon as possible. 1. In Writely, freewrite for 10 minutes about anything from your life, not school.
2. Focused Sentence -- one sentence that restates the entire freewrite, but in an precise way that could be argued with.
3. More freewriting, this time beginning with the focused sentence.
4. Copy and paste into Microsoft Word to check spelling and grammar. Also edit and revise.
5. Paste back to Writely and copy again. Add five tags.
6. Copy from Writely to your Blog. Be sure to have a good title, 5 keywords or tags. Make it "public."

http://elgg.educationbridges.net/paulallison/weblog/509.html

http://paulrallison.livejournal.com/1829.html

I asked students to make two lists, one a list of questions about "self," the other a list of questions about the "world." Then they were to come up with a tag or keyword for each of these 20 questions. These keywords were then spell-checked before they were added to each of the student's profiles in an elgg. They were to put their keywords in the "Interests" box. If anybody matches their interests, this causes that word to become hyperlinked to that other user. Finally students started to write a post answering one of their questions.