Playing It Safe

When my family and I get off the plane in a new country that we've never visited before, we often stick out like sore thumbs.  It makes sense since we're not so sure of how things work.  Not only that, we often look different than those around us. As a result, people approach us with offers of help and suggestions on what to do.  The problem is we just don't know who to trust.  That's why whenever I travel to a new place, I always keep safety in the back of my mind.

It's the same for the internet.  We've now extended our learning into cyberspace with our blog work, which has some great benefits, but it's also worth spending time thinking about how to keep safe and protect ourselves from the unexpected.

We've already done some important work on this with our POST filters.  We learned to "think before you post" by defining the following with everything we put online:

• P--Purpose
• O--Offer new insight
• S--Skillful writing
• T--The Core Values

When researching other ways to be safe online, I came across this video and list of tips from commonsense media.

Rules of the Road for Kids

1. Guard your privacy. What people know about you is up to you.

2. Protect your reputation. Self-reflect before you self-reveal. What’s funny or edgy today could cost you tomorrow.

3. Nothing is private online. Anything you say or do can be copied, pasted, and sent to gazillions of people without your permission.

4. Assume everyone is watching. There’s a huge, vast audience out there. If someone is your friend’s friend, they can see everything.

5. Apply the Golden Rule. If you don’t want it done to you, don’t do it to someone else.

6. Watch the clock.  Don't spend too much time looking at screens.

7. Choose wisely. Not all content is appropriate. You know what we mean.

8. Don't hide. Using anonymity to cloak your actions doesn’t turn you into a trustworthy, responsible human being.

9. Think about what you see. Just because it’s online doesn’t make it true.

10. Be smart, be safe. Not everyone is who they say they are. But you know that.

I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to protect your reputation and be safe online.  It's why we ask you not to publish your last name.  It's why we don't want you publish photos that misrepresent you or those close to you.  It's also why I'm asking you to make an avatar.  

Any guesses on who this might be?

I'm not talking about the movie.  I'm talking about a graphic representation of yourself.  To protect our own image, we can create avatars to be our online picture.  We can add it as our blogger profile picture, and it will show up when we leave comments on other peoples' blogs.  Let's try it out.  Here are some simple avatar makers that are fun to use.  See if you can capture your image and maybe even something you like to do with an object or piece of clothing.  Once you have one you like, take a screen shot of it and upload it to your blogger profile.

http://www.reasonablyclever.com/mini-mizers/mini-mizer-2-0/
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2006/10/mii.swf
http://clayyourself.com/
http://www.buildyourwildself.com/
http://www.manga.com/content/avatar-face-maker

Photo Credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/10324217@N08/3217044145/">maria.benitezmontero</a> via <a href="http://compfight.com">Compfight</a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/help/general/#147">cc</a>

Easy as Pie

Would you believe there are currently over 172 million blogs? Even more astounding,  more than one million new posts are added to the internet each day. What staggering statistics!  

With so many bloggers adding so many posts, it can't be that hard to come up with possible post topics.  Before we look at what bloggers are writing about, it's important to understand why they write blog posts. Listen, it's not that hard. In fact, some might say, "It's as easy as PIE!"  

You see, when it comes right down to it, there are three basic purposes why bloggers write blogs:

• Persuade
• Inform
• Explore

Take a look at the following blog posts and try to determine why the blogger wrote that post.

ISTA Festival (SAS i)
Mockingbird (Dog-Eared)
Person of the Year (TFK)
Bringing SpongeBob to Life (TFK)
Bad Grade (Pellucidity)
It’s All in a Name (Mr. Riley’s Reflecting Pool)
Help Earth (ClimateKids)
Dogo News

Finally, when it comes time for you to write your blog posts, think of PIE and determine your purpose for writing before you begin writing.  You might be surprised at how much it helps.

Image from:

• http://bestclipartblog.com/

It's All in a Name

There's no doubt about it, names are an important fact of life.  People spend a lot of time picking out just the right name whether it's a new product, a title for a piece of writing, or even a pet.  It makes sense since names can have symbolic meaning and emotional connections.  Not only that, names can be an opportunity to be creative and come up with a one-of-a-kind.

So, let me take this opportunity to introduce to you my one and only blog title, Mr. Riley's Reflecting Pool!

Now before you roll your eyes, let me explain.  Back when I was your age, I went to Washington DC with my family to visit the national treasures of our country, the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, the Smithsonian Museum and more.  Throughout all our visits and excursions, there was one image that lasted in my mind. When I stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, I looked back toward the Washington Monument and marveled at the mirror image of it in the Reflecting Pool.

This image also acts as a symbol for what I hope my blog to be.  Just like a Reflecting Pool, I hope to take ideas that I'm thinking about and use my posts to reflect on them in meaningful ways.  I also hope that my reflections not only represent my own thinking, but cause my readers to stop and think about them as well.  

Sure there were other considerations for my title.  The thing is, I'm a sucker for alliteration when it comes to titles.  When I first thought of the double R possibility with Riley and Reflecting, I knew I was onto something.  Then when I remembered my experience at the Reflecting Pool in Washington, I thought, that's it!

So what do you think?  Does my title work?  How about a title for your blog?  What image or object might represent an idea that you think perfectly matches the purpose of your blog?

Images from:

• Some rights reserved by Ed Yourdon

The Wonderful World of Blogging

Believe it or not, we're living during an amazing moment in history.  Sure, there have been inventions like the printing press and the telephone that have revolutionized the way we communicate, but in the last few years, the exchange of ideas has exploded at an alarming rate.  New genres are being formed as we speak, and they are already making an impact on how we learn and communicate.  What's causing this big explosion?  Technology.

Enter the blog.  When I was your age, the word "blog" wasn't even invented yet, let alone Facebook, Twitter, and the internet itself.  Like those other innovations of the 21st century, the blog empowers us as we express our opinions and communicate with each other.  Maybe you're like I was until recently though, and you don't really get how a blog works.  Check out this video:

With blogs, we can share ideas and grow our community beyond the walls of our classroom.  We can include images and videos to enhance our ideas in ways that words alone cannot.  We can connect with others in the world and hopefully make an impact on them.  And finally, we'll be able to track and link our own thinking as we do it.

Of course many of you already know this.  I was amazed at your responses to the blog survey you completed.  Over half of you (24 to be exact) have written for a blog already, so maybe I'm already preaching to the choir.

You're not the only students trying this genre out in hopes of seeing results.  Recently, a teacher from ISB told me all about his students' blogging experience.  One of his students, Brian Leong, wrote a post about his experience with Operation Smile, a charity organization that provides free surgeries for children with facial deformities.

Along with his post, he created a video to show what he experienced.  Well, his video went viral.  It even got back to the folks at Operation Smile.  They loved it, and not only did they contact Brian to tell him how much it meant to them, they also asked him to be a keynote speaker at their conference.

So you never know where the ideas on your blog may lead you.  One thing's for sure, they'll connect you with people and places like never before.  So what do you say?  How about we give it a try and see where it takes us?


Images from:  http://www.daily-dose-of-art.com/2012/05/helping-hands-series-3-operation-smile.html