My Beauty Best Teacher

The Zimbabwe pundit writes about the impact of African Bloggers "...The African blogosphere is a heterogeneous amalgam of blogs not only by Africans and people on the continent as much as it is comprised of blogs that write about the continent. There are many people around the world that write about Africa. This miracle of cyberspace—that it allows for cheap communication unfettered by geopolitical boundaries—has made it possible for the African odyssey to share center stage alongside the big issues in the west, thanks in part to Africa’s bloggers. The latest news from Africa is available to anyone in the world with access to the internet...The hallmark of African bloggers is authenticity. African bloggers are retelling the African story from their authentic perspective with an avid passion for their countries and continent to boot. It is impossible to read the posts on any of the blogs in the African blogosphere and come away without a sense of the writer’s deep connection to the country and continent...According to George Ayittey, the author of Africa Unchained, only eight of Africa’s 54 countries have a free press. Filling the news gap has become a main role the African Blogosphere is playing. After decades of repression during which shot callers in Africa’s often corrupt governments dominated the news, Africa’s bloggers are turning the spotlight on the continent’s real newsmakers; ordinary Africans. At best, these bloggers most likely filling the news gap outside of their repressive countries because of low internet proliferation in many African countries. Very few people, many of them in urban areas, have access to the internet in much of Africa. Consequently, most of bloggers polled for this article reported that the bulk of their readership came from outside of their countries, in the US and Western Europe. However, there are already some exceptions to this in Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Africa. Most bloggers don’t write exclusively to fill the news gap. In fact, the group of African bloggers I polled overwhelmingly responded that they blog out of their motivation to share their own stories and life experiences..."
Via Committee to Protect Bloggers

From the Huntington Post, via Gatewaypundit, we get a glimpse into exactly how the President of the United States spends his time running the executive branch of our nation:

President Barack Obama has gone on a veritable media blitz as the election has approached, speaking to reporters in off-record settings, doing sit-down interviews with traditional (National Journal) and alternative (Rolling Stone) publications, and appearing on radio programs with varying audiences (Al Sharpton and Michael Smerconish’s shows just this week). The reach extends deep into the entrails of the new media world as well. On Wednesday, the president conducted what appears to be the first ever in-person sit-down with political bloggers, hosting a group of five in the White House.

A lot of blogs are focusing on the fact that the bloggers that the President of the United States met with happen to be some of the most liberal bloggers on the net and advocate views ranging from fascism to communism, but that's not really what I want to point out- I want to point out that while our economy continues to suffer, while the war continues against terrorism, while poverty continues to grow, and while Iran goes about building a nuclear bomb to wipe out Israel, our President has decided that the best way to spend his time, talents, and energy is taking a break from making appearances on TV shows and playing golf to instead do interviews, radio programs, and hold meetings with pajama bloggers.

Did you vote for this clown? Did anyone you know vote for him? Are you serious about even thinking about possibly voting for him again?

Over the last several days conservative bloggers and journalists reacted swiftly and decisively in condemning, subduing, and fighting liberal bloggers and journalists were spreading a false narrative about the shootings in Arizona, and now that that is done (excepting the few liberal bloggers and media members who are just determined to use dead people as props in their little political games), our nation can move on to mourning the fallen and celebrating the lives of those who were killed. In that spirit, I'm going to celebrate with this post Congresswoman's Gabrielle Giffords commitment to democracy.

By all accounts, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was a strong supporter of democracy in our nation and believed that it was important for members of the House of Representatives to regularly meet with constituents and hold many town hall meetings. Sadly, it was her strong belief in being accessible that may have played a factor in her being shot, but to be honest, we all run the risk every day that some sicko is going to randomly walk in and start shooting. Although it is reasonable to have a discussion on increasing protection for high-profile people like Congressmen and Congresswomen, we have to be careful that they continue to be accessible and close to the people of our great nation, or else the 'peope's house' will be insulated from the public and that'll be a bad thing for our nation. Congresswoman Giffords said so, and I agree with her strongly on that.

One great feature of our nation is that our elected leaders are so accessible to most voters- many members of Congress (mine excepted) hold town halls, 'meet your Congresswoman' days, bring in local business leaders for roundtable discussions, and work on other ways to find out what sort of laws, regulations, and policies that their district favors. Members of the House know that the only way they can legitimacy get elected (providing they don't run an expensive smear campaign funded by out of state interest groups like my Congressman Gary Peters did) is by the support and guidance and authority of the people they represent. Giffords did this, regularly meeting with people in her district, holding town halls and other events, and it is for this reason that she was able to win several terms of office in a swing district that was targeted by both the right and left.

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is a great example of a Representative who does the hard work necessary in their district to talk to voters and connect with them, and although I disagree with many of her votes in Congress, I pray for her and wish her a speedy recovery so that she can continue her fine work in Congress and she can once more engage in the spirited debate on the nature of government in America that makes our democracy so vibrant and great.

Yesterday The Mackinac Center hosted a panel discussion with John Fund, Frank Beckmann, Kathy Hoekstra, Ken Braun and Henry Payne on the topic of The Alternatives: “How New Media are Transforming the Political Landscape”.  You can watch it yourself by going to the Mackinac Center website, and I encourage you to do so, because each of their prepared remarks were very insightful as to how blogs, talk radio, and Fox are changing the way that the media affects the political system. I'm not going to repeat their remarks, but I would like to elaborate on and comment on some of the things that they said during their discussion.

As I tell my students, the media plays several important roles in the political process in our country, and one of the most important roles that it plays is to be the gatekeeper of the news. This means that there is news, information, analysis, and events occurring, but it is The Media that controls what is allowed through the gate into people's homes. In the past, traditional media controlled that gate and as such could pick and choose what it wanted people to hear, and frequently traditional media would pick and choose based not on the importance of the news event or the quality of analysis, but rather on the bias and prejudices of the gatekeeper. The new media, such as blogs, Fox, and talk radio, have broken down those gates and widened them, so now the public has considerably greater access to the news in our nation, and that means will be more able to stay in touch with events, read different points of view or analysis, and get direct access to the sources that the old traditional media used to have a monopoly on.

Frank Beckmann pointed out the impact that the changing of the gatekeeper role will have on our nation when he talked about how today, because of the new media and the ease of access to it, political power is now returning back to the people and allowing the citizens of our nation incredible access to information. This access to information and analysis has been a contributing factor in the Tea Party movement, where citizens are accessing and reading proposed legislation and discussing it and analyzing it and then attempting to communicate their opinions about that legislation to their Congressman. In the past that information and analysis was controlled and biased and not fully accessible and Congressman could pass a bill without reading it and never be called out by a citizen, but that was the past, and the new media is changing that landscape.

Another interesting tidbit that I heard from John Fund was about the important role and power that citizen journalists are playing in today's political system. In the past, you had to spend long years going through liberal Ivy League schools and learning both the trade and the slant before you could become a journalist, but with the advance of flip-phones, blogs, youtube, and the internet, anyone can be a journalist. Even a public school teacher like me has the potential to break important stories and bring the news to do you, reporting on events (like this one) that the traditional media ignores or doesn't know about. The power of information has flowed to us, the citizens, and it is up to us to seize it.

My blog is the new media, and I believe that it is within my power to change the political landscape for the better. All I need is readers, and that is where you come in. If you haven't already linked to my blog from yours, please do so. If you haven't made my blog one of your favorites or bookmarks, please do so. You don't have to read my blog every day (mom, I'm talking to you), but you should read it at least once a week, otherwise you are ceding back to the old media the gatekeeper and watchdog and information resource roles that the new media like me have struggled so hard to grasp. Let's change our habits and change the direction of our nation by changing the ways that we access the news and information and analysis of the world- let's all jump on the new media bandwagon.

John Fund is the author of Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy and How the Obama Administration Threatens to Undermine Our Elections.

UPDATE: By the way, congratulations to fellow bloggers theblogprof and Michigan Taxes Too Much, both of whom were mentioned by name for the contributions they have made in changing the political landscape recently. We've got quite a powerful little group of bloggers here in Michigan, and we're lucky to have them!

UPDATE II: Thank you Grand Rants for your linking to this story! My only compliant is that you characterized me as " the great unwashed, those bloggers in their jammies who continue to kick against the pricks", and I do wash every now and then and the jammies have a flap in the back.

UPDATE III: Thank you to Liberty Junky for linking to this story too! This is a great site- if you haven't checked it out already, please do so.

UPDATE III: Thank you to Political Realities for linking to this story! Continue to do a great job in finding the news, publishing the news, framing the news, and opening wide the gates of the news!

Under Article II, section 2, clause 2 of the Constitution, the President has the power to fill any vacancies that may happen during when Senate is in recess. Over the past 100 years, a legal and official Senate recess has been interpreted by scores of Attorneys Generals and the Department of Justice (DOJ) from both Republican and Democratic Party's as the Senate being out of town and not conducting any business at all for at least 10–25 days of duration. No one, not even crazy right or left wing professors or lawyers, has ever before even suggested anything of six to seven days might be enough to count as a recess (source).

Right now the Senate is not in a recess. Every three days it opens up a brief session for a half hour or so and then adjourns for three days before it then has another brief 'pro forma' session. This means that officially, technically, and according to the rules and procedures of the United States Senate, it is still in session. This tactic was invented and used first by the Democrats to block President Bush recess appointments, and it was successful, because legally the President can not make appointments while the Senate is in session.

And so it was quite a surprise to me today that President Barack Obama (one-term Democrat), made several recess appointments, illegally and against the laws of our nation. Check out the many stories on this issue on memeorandum found here or here.

President Obama argued that under his and Democrats leadership America has fallen into such a crisis that he no longer has to follow the laws of our nation. He can simply deem that the Senate is effectively in a recess, and thus appoint whomever he wants to whatever he wants, even without Senate confirmation.

Many bloggers and professors and lawyers have jumped to his defense, arguing that the Senate is indeed in a recess, but that's contrary to what the White House memo says- it does not say 'the Senate is in a recess and the President is making several appointments'- nope, the memo says "Senate has effectively been in recess"- in other words, not technically, not officially, not legally, but "effectively", and so Obama was going to technically, officially, and legally make appointments that would be effective immediately.

Many other bloggers and professors are arguing that the President had the right to break the law here because the Senate wasn't advising and consenting and was simply blocking the one appointment of Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but their arguments were again made into useless junk by the President later making further 'recess' appointments to the NLRB, and some of these appointments had been opposed because the Senate opposed the people involved and did not want to give their assent.

Look, there is no defense for breaking the laws of our nation. None. The ends do not justify the means. I don't care if its a conservative, Tea Party Republican, or a socialist, communist Democrat- the President only has the power to make appointments when the Senate is officially in a recess of longer than 10 days. Period. Anything other than that is breaking the law, and is unconstitutional, and deserving of impeachment.

That won't happen though- bit by bit, crisis by crisis, American citizens are learning to tolerate law breaking. Ignoring established bankruptcy laws to 'save the automobile industry' was okay. Pressuring immigration officials to ignore fraudulently filled out forms and security threats in order to increase the number of immigrants in America is okay. Passing a law ordering people to buy a product or face fines is okay. And making recess appointments while the Senate is officially/legally/technically in session and not in recess is okay. Bit by bit, little tyranny by big, we are learning to accept that one man is greater than the system and can destroy it if he thinks by doing so he can save us.

This incident once more reminds me of a post I wrote last year called America is a Republic- It Shouldn't Matter if Most Want to Tax Millionaires More. In it, I wrote:

Our nation is approaching a key election in 2012, much as Rome faced a key turning point in its history when Lucius Sergius Catilina attempted to overthrow the Roman Republic by playing to the lures of democracy and populism. Catiline rallied the poor to his banner by arguing for debt relief for the poor people of Rome, and many supported him because there are always more people who are poor than there are people who are truly wealthy. Because of the destructive policies of the government, which had collapsed the housing market and had taxed and regulated the small farms and small businesses to the brink of destruction, there were many people out of work who listened to the siren song of 'support me, I'll claim majority rule, and take from those who have wealth and give to those who do not.' Thankfully, Rome had an ardent defender of the Republic in a man like Cicero, and the conspiracy was foiled, but I believe that it had come close enough to succeeding to inspire men like Julius Caesar and Pompey to try again soon after, and they were successful in harassing the forces of democracy to institute a dictatorship over the masses.

Obama is following in the footsteps of Catiline, and bit by bit breaking the laws and traditions and precedents of our Republic. He might be stopped, but the damage he is doing is surely going to inspire a Caesar to put an imperial dictatorship on my children and grandchildren.

UPDATE: Let's make this issue even clearer. On Tuesday, January 3rd, the Senate was in session. You can view their schedule here, and see from it that they were called to order at 11:01 AM. They engaged in legislative and executive business. They adjourned over an hour later after completing the session's business. Several hours later, Barack Obama appointed several people to several different positions, arguing that the Senate was 'effectively in a recess' and that he therefore had the authority to make recess appointments.

Liberal bloggers and news pundits and radio hosts are arguing that since the Senate was in a recess for 3 days it was okay- but in reality, the Senate had adjourned for only several hours, and there is no way, no way at all, that an adjournment of several hours can be considered a 'recess'.

The only argument is that the Senate session held on Tuesday for over an hour that accomplished several items of note wasn't a real session, and that argument is utterly laughable beyond question.

The Senate was not in a recess, and thus the recess appointments were unconstitutional and illegal. President Barack Obama acted in a criminal and illegal fashion yesterday, and the only real question I have is whether he did it on accident (believing that the Senate was in fact in a recess) or on purpose (knowing they were not and not caring and breaking the law).

Thank you Powerlineblog for bringing this point to me attention.

UPDATE II: Several days after his power grab, President Barack Obama went further, telling a group of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau bureaucrats that "Now that Richard [Cordray] is your director, you can finally exercise the full power that this agency has been given to protect consumers under the law." The only problem with this statement is that the legislation that created the CFPB includes a section that says many of the bureau’s new powers are to be held by the secretary of the Treasury “until the Director of the Bureau is confirmed by the Senate.” Cordray was not confirmed by the Senate- he was appointed to the position while the Senate was in session in violation to the Constitution.

So how does President Obama's pronouncement square with the law? I have two theories- one, that President Obama is ignorant of the law and incompetent in his understanding of it; or two, that President Obama is competent and knowledgeable and just doesn't care one bit about the law and what's legal.

Source- The Daily Caller, via Doug Ross.

No joke. You have some time off.  I'm asking you to:

• Take one blog post during the season to call awareness to human trafficking
  
• Make least one tweet or Facebook status update a day to stop human sex slavery and trafficking.  (Schedule them with hootsuite, tweetdeck to the hashtag #endslavery) Share facts, figures, ask for donations.
  
• Make a small donation to the anti-human trafficking organization of your choice and tell everyone which organization you donated to in your post. (I am donating to Street Grace, an organization in Atlanta but you investigate and choose the cause of your choice. Please do this before you write your post, I did. The amount is not necessary. Just do it.)

• 12 million people in the world are held in slavery other sites like dosomething.org say this number is closer to 27 million. One is too many.
• The cost of the average slave is $90.
• 80% of trafficking involves sexual exploitation and 19% is labor exploitation
• Half of trafficking victims are under 18.
• the Trafficking in persons report 2011 over 2 million children are held in the child sex trade as slaves

What you can't do:

• You can't go back in time and stand up against Hitler killing the Jews in Nazi Germany.
• You cannot go back in time and stand against slavery during the US Civil War.
• You cannot go back in time and right the wrongs of the segregation.

Those causes were for another place and people living in another time.

You can take up THIS cause as your gift to the world this season.

Don't blame God if you're not willing to give, tweet, or bring awareness to this problem. I believe we are His Hands and feet but whatever you believe, if you aren't willing to do anything don't sit there in shock and awe bemoaning the sorry state of the world. You don't think it is in America, think again, read this week's article in the LA Times, Once an Egyptian Girl Held in Slavery, Now an American Citizen.
If the world is in a sorry state it is because we sit back and don't do something about it. We can't do everything but we can do something. I know that we all have our causes. I work for a nonprofit (our school) and run one (the Flat Classroom Conference and Digiteen) but I'd like you to take this season to end slavery.

Will you help #endslavery and take a small part of your time this Christmas season to not only wish for peace on earth but do something about it?

Time is short. Let's use what we have to leave this world a better place.

I am an abolitionist - are you?

Merry Christmas #endslavery


****
A Note:  If anyone wastes their time this season being unkind to another blogger when we could help the world, I'm sorry for that person. We have things to do to make the world a better place. I hope bloggers from all walks will take up this season to #endslavery. We teach more with our actions than we ever could with our words.

Over the last several years, I have been fighting my own brand of war against those people who are the enemies of freedom and liberty. My style of fighting is to write about freedom and liberty; to discuss and expand on the ideas found in our founding documents; and attempt to apply to modern day policies the principles of protection of life, support of liberty, and protection of property. And those who oppose me have also been fighting me.

But unlike my style of warfare, the thugs who oppose me rely on intimidation, threats, attempts to damage my property, and efforts to silence me. And I am just the sort of target that these thugs like- although elected officials and big-time bloggers are good targets too, they are able to fight back and could become martyrs to the cause, but me and those who support the elected officials and bigger bloggers and private citizens who are attacked are one removed from the dispute and smaller so make much better targets for the thugs and cowards out there who disagree with our views and policy positions.

Although there is no way to compare what I have faced to the attacks on Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, and others, being a secondary target does not mean that I haven't been attacked too.

In recent years, the worst attacks that I have suffered have come after I have supported and defended those who were attacked by liberal thugs. My defense of the Koch brothers from the President Barack Obama's orchestrated attacks on them caused left-wing fascists to respond by attempting to shut down my blog. The vile creeps even went so far to write a letter to the employer of one of my loyal readers- they thought they were targeting me- as they attempted to respond to differences in views by causing the loss of employment and income. They didn't like the fact that I defended private citizens from slanderous attacks by the President of our nation, and responded to it by engaging in slanderous and personal attacks on me.

Another round of attacks came on me after I defended the tea party on several blogs and forums, responding with reasoning and calls for a more adult discussion to those who called those who supported tea party views and ideas various names. Those who disagreed with my views- those on the left who call themselves progressives or liberals but in reality are simply fascists- responded by filling up the comment sections of all of my posts with their various rants and foul language, and because I didn't want my blog to be a forum for their hate I was forced to disable the comment section on my blog.

One of the most clever attacks on me came after I defended in blogs and in forums and on social media Rocky Raczkowski, who was tea-party favorite and GOP nominee in 2010 for Michigan's 9th District. Someone emailed me pretending to agree with my comments and asked questions about the advertisers on my blog, and the next day my advertisers dropped me and confiscated my money due to what they said was fraud. I'm not going to say exactly what happened (I don't want to give the thugs ammunition), but the result was a loss of income for me and the loss of a good sum of money (Google never responded to my inquiries or pleas for reconsideration).

These attacks on me are not isolated to just me. Over at Legal Insurrection, Will has a story up that rings very close to my own experiences, called Welcome to total political war:

...I’m not talking about the attempt to get advertisers to stop advertising on Rush Limbaugh’s show, or Fox News, although that would be bad enough. I’m talking about the second-tier of the warfare, the attempt to intimidate those removed by one or more degrees of separation from the dispute, and to use them as tools against the target.

We have seen it a number of times in the past couple of years.

When King & Spalding agreed to represent the U.S. House of Representative after Obama changed positions and announced that the Justice Department no longer would defend DOMA in court, there were not only protests against King & Spalding, but threats to picket and protest clients of the firm who had nothing to do with the dispute. The threat that clients of the firm who were completely unconnected to the dispute would be harrasseed was enough to cause the firm to withdraw the representation.

Similarly, when the new Rhode Island Attorney General announced that he would cooperate with the federal goverment in the enforcement of federal immigration laws, protesters not only invaded the lobby of his offices, they picketed his house and confronted neighbors about the issue. Dragging his neighbors into a dispute which had nothing to do with them did not cause the RI AG to back down, although not for lack of trying.

Which brings me to the present dispute with Rush Limbaugh, and radio show host Kim Komando, who has a very well-known computer talk show. What did or does Komando have to do with the dispute? Nothing, except that one or more of the advertisers targeted by the anti-Limbaugh groups also advertises on Komando’s show. Komando received a flood of e-mails demanding that she drop the advertisers....

...What is happening goes beyond Obama’s call for people to argue with their neighbors and get in their faces. It goes far beyond Bill Clinton’s politics of personal destruction directed at accusers, and beyond name-calling by right wing pundits.

This total war, in which no one is allowed to be non-political and neighbors and clients become mere pressure points, is a dangerous development.

This is indeed total war, and that realization has only slowly dawned on me over the years that I have been writing on this blog. It is scary, but not surprising- most of humanity today lives in a state of fear and oppression from tyrants, and for most of human history humanity has lived in fear and oppression from tyrants.

It is in the worst nature of people to attempt to oppress others and use them as slaves- use their labor and intelligence and skills and drive to provide them with things they did not earn- food, clothing, shelter, medicine, drugs, influence, power, money, loans, etc. The worst nature of people is to react to arguments and reasoning with intimidation, threats, and personal attacks. And the worst nature of people is to take that which they did not earn, suppress and lessen the freedom and liberty of others, and if possible choke the very life out of those who oppose them.

It's a total war and it's getting worse as our opponents grow more bold and get closer to winning the war. I can only hope that in 2012, you and your friends and family recognize that we're at war and take the proper steps, because the last time the American people pretended that they weren't at war, we saw the error of that thinking on September 11.

UPDATE: Thank you for linking to this post Conservatives on Fire and Fuzzy Logic!

• 1st Annual “Art Ed Blog of the Year” Contest « The Art of Education

  Another "contest" but one for art teacher bloggers. The great thing that happens is that this sort of thing helps subject area teachers find each other. If you're an art teacher, you may want to peruse this blog for links.

  tags: education art teaching lessonplans

• Do You Make These 10 Mistakes When You Blog? | Michael Hyatt

  A great post about the common mistakes of bloggers. I will use these with my students.

  tags: education teaching lessons blogging

• Twenty Dyslexia Friendly Writing Tips - Resources - TES

  20 Dyslexia friendly writing tips. (Yes, I've spent the evening browsing the ideas on the Tes website.)

  tags: education teaching lessonplans engchat

• What Periodic element Are you?

  This Facebook-style quiz gives students an element that is like their personality. Might be fun to finish up class one day in science.

  tags: education teaching lessonplan Facebook

• Explore the Seafloor Physics Teacher's Pack - Resources - TES

  This study pack has videos, handouts, and lesson plans that accompany a lesson about mapping the sea floor.

  tags: education science teaching lessonplans

• Holocaust Resources

  In the UK, Holocaust Memorial Day is the 27th of January. This is something that we should all discuss and cover in an age appropriate way. Actually, I have permission and show Hotel Rwanda to my class. I want the students to understand and know what happens in the world and that all it takes for bad things to happen is for good people to do nothing.

  tags: education holocaust teaching socialstudies history_teacher

• Holocaust worksheets - Resources - TES

  Dyslexic friendly resources for teaching about the Holocaust.Notes and handouts.

  tags: education teaching history history_teacher

• KS3 History - McCarthy Trials - Resources - TES

  Talk about the McCarthy trials using archived film from the 1950's. 

  tags: history teaching history_teacher

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• Nonprofit Mission Poetry Contest: Win $10,000 | Beth’s Blog

  Earn money for you nonprofit by writing a poem or stanza.

  tags: education learning nonprofit

• Fads and Fanboys: The Top 10 Tricks Bloggers Use to Drive Traffic ~ Stephen's Web

  I was shaking my head "no no no" until the last paragraph. True to his typical writing, Stephen writes in a way to challenge the paradigm in a smartly written piece meant to challenge bloggers.

  tags: education blogging

• Why I Protest | Edutopia

  My friend Eric Brunsell, a U of Wisconsin professor who has participated in Flat Classroom projects in the past, writes this poignant inside glimpse into what is happening in Education in Washington State.

  tags: education teaching politics

• Computer Science Teachers Association - CSTA CS & IT Annual Conference

  July 11-13, 2011
  Columbia University Faculty House
  64 Morningside Drive
  New York, NY 10027

  tags: education computerscience_teacher computer_science

• 4 iPhone Apps for Learning a Foreign Language — Life Scoop

  Some iphone apps for language learning. I think it is important to know how to download and use a translator even if you cannot speak the language - such as the mandarin pro app I used in China last week.

  tags: education language_teacher

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

"...Blogs get people excited. Or else they disturb and worry them. Some people distrust them. Others see them as the vanguard of a new information revolution. Because they allow and encourage ordinary people to speak up, they’re tremendous tools of freedom of expression.Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure. Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest.Reporters Without Borders has produced this handbook to help them, with handy tips and technical advice on how to to remain anonymous and to get round censorship, by choosing the most suitable method for each situation..."

Lost: The Ability to Share

Some rights reserved by Ashley R. Good

For 20.5 hours according to Blogger, posting was down.

There is an important deadline this Sunday for a prestigious award that you didn't get Friday morning when more of you would have read it.

Lost: Two Days of Posts
So far two days of posts have been lost. Wednesday and Thursday are gone.

A post on the best time management apps for the iPad. (Corkulus, 2Do, and NextThing) A post on being an original, and one other post.

Lost: The Backup of the Posts
Backupify has backed up  Google Docs, Gmail, etc. but perhaps in celebration of Friday the 13th it DIDN'T backup Blogger as it says it did (probably b/c my blog was down when it tried.) So much for redundancy.

Guess this is why many savvy bloggers use Windows Live Writer and perhaps I should go back there for composing posts to have an extra backup on PC.


Lost: Links Broken
Retweets now link to nothing. I have places to get these posts back but if blogger restores, will I have problems?

Lost: Conversations
Several posts have been actively shared and discussed in the last few weeks:

• Facebook Friending for Schools 101, 
• 7 Golden Rules of Twitter,  
• 20 Questions that Will Make You a Better Person.
• The Classroom QR Code Implementation Guide,  
• 15 Fantastic Ways to Use Flipboard etc. 

Those links stopped in their tracks when this blog was down.

From 50+ retweets a day down to nothing. STANDSTILL.

Some rights reserved by Josef Dunne

FOUND: The High Standards of Retweeting in the Educational Space
Many people wonder if others retweet without reading.

You don't have to wonder about the readers of this blog! The shocking decline of retweets actually shows that most of readers here DO READ and then retweet. (The Cool Cat Teacher blog has very well educated readers, after all! ;-)) 

That is comforting and encouraging and says a powerful message to those trying to send JUNK through the educational space. We check our links. Oh yes!

Not Lost: The Comments

www.disqus.com

 The comments some of you made here during those two days ARE NOT gone ( Disqus is the commenting system here) except for those orphaned by the dissappearance of their parent posts. Disqus is a better system anyway than the native blogger commenting system in Blogger.

Not Lost: What is Really Important
Did you die without getting my posts or my blog for two days - I doubt it. Who is that important?

Some rights reserved by Will Clayton

We celebrated my daughter's birthday, went shopping, ran several miles, screened some PHENOMENAL videos for this year's NetGenEd project and got our annuals at school this week. 

Some of you still called me about speaking at your conference next year and that is cool too.

Found: Identity Theft Warning
Not the kind of identity theft that comes from someone stealing your credit card and driver's license number.

The kind that comes from thinking that something IS you.

The Cool Cat Teacher blog is an important part of my life right now, but it ISN'T me.

Should I "lose" this blog today, "lose" all of the friends, "lose" any kind of influence I may have, it would hurt but would I cease to exist? I doubt Boots the cat pictured in the top right hand corner of this blog cares a bit. And you can't lose people who are really your friends if they are still alive.

Is there anything in your life that you're doing right now that if you could not use it or access it that it would cause you to be physically upset? Are you allowing your identity to be stolen by something you do? Beware of Identity Theft, my friends.

FOUND: Identity Reaffirmed
This blog cannot steal my identity. The nature of social media itself might not cause groupthink but it certainly causes group speak. We need people to talk about what needs to be said not what he or she said all the time. Some originality.

Sometimes you would think that some of this technology is going to save the world. It is not. Nothing replaces the hard working, attentive, well educated teacher. Nothing. Why is so little said about what is really important in the classroom?

I am personally reaffirmed to be an original me. Please be an original you.

Found: The Gift of Blogging
When we thought we were losing Mom to cancer several years a go and she pulled through by the grace of God, we told Mom she'd have to put a bow on her head at Christmas and walk in the room and say

Some rights reserved by howcheng

"I'm here. I'm your gift this year."

This week is a reminder to me that this blog along with the readers and retweeters are gifts. Put a bow on your head.


How can a blogger love her readers? When you come up to me at a conference and you've felt the words I felt -- it gives purpose to the time spent alone plugging away at the keyboard.

How can a speaker love her audience? When I see you there, some of you stressed about the grading. Not knowing how you have time to do pd but knowing you need it. Pulled in a million directions. Most of you sitting there with wounded hearts over a student, a situation, a test score. To teach means that you are archery practice for the most careless inexperienced generation alive. You deserve the best because you are the best.

You deserve writing and speaking to help you know that:

• You CAN help schools transform into a 21st century learning model without sacrificing content. 
• You CAN help us reach every child with an amazing, personalized education. 
• You CAN overcome the Achilles heel of our generation (an over-reliance on test scores as an indicator of effective education) and still teach.
• You CAN parent this generation to be successful. 
• You CAN be an amazing administrator who understands teachers. 
• You CAN be in school IT support and understand the teachers in the classroom. 
• We CAN work together to learn about each other's countries and cultures and improve the understanding in our world!

You are a gift, may the good Lord let me be one right back.

FOUND: The Importance of Diverse Platforms
Be it Twitter, Facebook, or Youtube it is focused on the same mission of inspiration, effective technology education, and the nobility of teachers. Two days of downtime on blogger stinks but it isn't the end of the world. There were other places I could share.

Not Lost: The Last Six Years of Links
Some have told me that I'm less of a blogger if I use Blogger.

"Everybody whose anybody is on word press, " I was tweeted.

To use a southern expression: HORSE HOCKEY!

Links are more important than the platform you use. I'm not giving up the links built to this URL over the past six years because of one outage. Whether you use Edublogs, Wordpress, Typepad, Tumblr, Posterous, Blogger, Elgg, or whatever, if you stick to it, know your audience, consistently post, you can be a contributor in your blogging space.

If I were a Seth Godin, I could go where I wanted and the traffic would follow, but I'm not. When I reach 100,000 followers then I could probably move with minimal problems, but not yet. I'd hire someone to handle the headache.

Bloggers who are beginning and move their URL early on are taking a step backwards. Yes, I own coolcatteacher.com and vickidavis.info and tons of other domains. I can configure them in my sleep. If someone thinks I'm not professional because of my URL, so be it, but right now, I feel I should stay here to keep momentum and conversations going.

I want to be a full time teacher in the classroom who encourages and inspires other teachers to be their very best even when they don't feel like it and when the world offers nothing but criticism and right now, I'm not ready to move my blog.

Staying the Course (for Now)
We'll wait and see what Blogger does in the future but meanwhile, I've got grading to do and a graduation movie to make and the final deadline on the Flat Classroom book due in three weeks. Time to sit tight and make it through the next few weeks. Knowing Google, they'll aggressively deal with the problem and implement those new changes we've been hearing about soon enough. (Dynamic views has me excited! See the youtube video  in this post.)



Sometimes it is good to have things you care about crash.
 
Maybe we learn to find what we've had all along and to lose the unimportant. We lose the unimportant and find out what we're really doing with our lives.

Blog well. Be real. Be noble.

The purpose of this blog post is to share with you six reasons I started with Blogger in 2005 and am here six+ years later, a view under the hood of blogger today (and some some upcoming changes that Google annouced at SXSW), and eleven things all of you who blog (especially Blogger) should do NOW. I know that my wordpress friends have access to lots of goodies and certainly that is a good platform, but Blogger is what I use.

Let's start with the ten things bloggers should do today. If some of them don't make sense, keep reading for screenshots and details on how this feature is used.

11 Things Bloggers Should Do Today:

1. Log in to Blogger in Draft - http://draft.blogger.com - this is the ONLY place I log in. It gives you access to the newest features including the ability to mobilize your site. (If you are on another platform, look on their blog to see if there is a way you can access beta features.)
   
   
2. Review your settings. All of them.  (Do this again when the new interface is released.)
   
   
3. Make sure you've made your blog go mobile. (Click on Design and Mobile in blogger.) Every website and blog should be mobile compatible and no, it is not automatic. I've tried Mobify and had a hard time with it so I like the automatic way Blogger does this for me.
   
   
4. Control your own feed. I recommend Feedburner but there are other services out there as well. This means you can "port" your subscribers over if you ever have to. (Make sure you go into your settings and redirect your feed.)
   
   
5. Activate an email subscription service. If you are a school this is essential. This is a feature of Feedburner but right now I use Feedblitz for this which interfaces with Feedburner. Many people still read email and with over half of adults in their email daily, this is coveted screenspace. Just make sure it is EASY to unsubscribe and that you follow the CAN-SPAM Act here in the US.
   
   
6. Backup your blog - Look at how you are backing up. Certainly, your blog is there on the server, but what if someone hacked your account and deleted your blog? Could you get it back without having to call the company? I use Backupify.
   
   
7. Syndicate your Blog to Twitter - Your blog should autopost a tweet when you update. You might forget and many people use Twitter as their RSS reader. I use Twitterfeed.
   
   
8. Syndicate your Blog to Facebook - I use Networked Blogs but you can use any service that sends your Blog online. I highly recommend you make a Facebook Fan page for this service.
   
   
9. Make it easy to send your blog to Facebook, Twitter, Wherever - I use Tweetmeme for the badge on my blog and the blogger widget for the bottom. I'm planning on adding a Facebook "Like " button. Make it easy to share your blog.
   
   
10. Look at Other Blogs and make a List of Features to Try. I get "under the hood" of my blog at least once a year for one to two days. I start by looking at other blogs and making lists of what I like and don't like to decide what I will do. Right now, I have several issues on my own blog: load time of widgets, want to customize background, make easier to share to Facebook, etc. I keep a list in my Paperless app on my itouch so when it is time I'm ready to go.
    
    
11. Be Real. Finally, blog well. Perhaps some of the best thoughts on the transparency and authenticity required to be a good blogger are in Guy Kawasaki's new book, Enchantment. Great read for everyone, especially bloggers.

Why I Started Using and Still Use Blogger
So, why would anyone use blogger? Here are my reasons. Look at your platform to make sure you've considered these issues.

1. Google Search Optimization
   When I started blogging in 2005, I was a noob at blogging but had been doing the search engine optimization thing since I started hand coding websites in 1995. Staying optimized for Google's search engine was a headache but I knew that if I went with Google for blogging that it would be optimized for Google. I've not been proven wrong in that my blog comes up quickly in searches of all kinds and doesn't have issues with the Google bot crawling, etc. that I've experienced with the sites that I've hand coded.
   
2. Ability to Customize using HTML
   For many years I had hand coded my blog into three columns and yes, I wrote it by hand in notepad. It is nice for a blogging platform to "do it for you" (like wordpress) but I didn't HAVE to have that feature. The fact that I can have direct access to my HTML and copy and paste it into wordpad is a benefit.
   
   So, when I see something on Timothy Ferris', Guy Kawasaki's, or even Techcrunch, I can look at their code (Go to View--> source in your webbrowser), figure out how they did it, and then do it on my own blog.
   
   The good news for those who didn't understand a thing I just said is that you don't have to do this anymore to have a sweet site on blogger. You can just go into templates and use their widgets and have almost anything. Feed services like feedburner (now owned by Google) can easily add widgets as well.
3. Ability to Backup
   I use Backupify to back up my Picasa web albums, blogger blog, and my gmail every week. If it is worth having, it is worth backing up. No, this feature isn't FROM blogger but is just one example of how many "plug ins" are available for the platform.
   
   
4. New Features Have Been Coming
   If Bing has taught Google anything it is that competition can come from nowhere and quickly. We've seen super-fast improvements to Google Docs as well as blogger. I no longer have to link all of my about information to www.coolcatteacher.com and statcounter.com has become less vital to tracking my stats. Yes, I sometimes get things later than other people, but that is OK.
   
   The new user interface announced at  SXSW looks cool and you can see it in their video below. (You'll have to watch a bit of a pitch about how great blogger is at the beginning.)
   
   
   
   
5. Cool Tools Interact with Blogger
   
   I love Zemanta (helps quickly add links and photos to posts), Tweetmeme (the cute Twitter button on the top left), Disqus (my comment moderation service), Twitterfeed (feeds my blog into Twitter), and Networked Blogs (feeds my blog into Facebook), Kindle Publishing (to feed my blog onto the Kindle), Diigo (the bookmarking service that feeds my links into my daily news blog post) and several other tools that don't come to me right now. Because blogger is one of the leading services, I have few compatibility issues. Yes, sometimes wordpress people get things before me, but if I can't hack my site, usually I know the service will be coming to me soon.
   
   
6. Moving Your Blog Takes You Backwards.
   Some people like change for the sake of change. When you're dealing with a blog - even if you know how to move your subscribers using a service like Feedburner - you're leaving all that traffic and conversation behind. It is literally like splitting off part of you. I know people like Doug Belshaw who have had to move but still have issues with links to old posts.  If you do it and have your reasons - do it ONCE but if you keep moving, you'll just not make best use of yourself.
   
   I don't move because every link and every subscriber are precious. I've spent six years of my life building up the conversation and sharing things that are very important to me. My family has given up time with me for this blog and I'm not going backwards. This blog is very important to me and my life, not just monetarily, although certainly I've received some excellent speaking offers from my work here. Blogging is important to me because it is what I do and who I am. Onwards and upwards - don't go backwards. In this case, moving would be moving backwards. Not going there.
   
   
7. I don't have to advertise.
   
   Lots of free services are supported with Google ads. I do use Amazon affiliates when appropriate, however, I've made a decision not to sell links nor use Google adsense at the present time. I'd like you to know that I am writing about what I share because it is something I like or believe in. The fact that Google doesn't force me into doing their adsense service is a positive for me. I know the traffic I get means that I'm giving up money, however, I hope that those who read my blog will come see me speak and buy my books when they come available.
   
   I don't hate Google ads, it is just that contextual ads mean that things contrary to the message of a post can easily appear. For example, when I tested it, I had a page on term papers and had ads selling term papers come up. Sure, I can exclude certain types of ads, however, as an educator, I have decided this is the right move for me, who I am, and the message I carry.

No, I'm not 100% Google or 100% Microsoft or 100% Apple or anything. No zealotry here. I am attracted to whatever works the best and the most affordable price. I don't mind spending money if it is necessary, however, Blogger just works.


New Blogger Features "Under the Hood"
For those of you who want to "compare" - let's look at the back end of my blogger blog today, knowing that some of these will change.
 
Blogger Posts and Pages
I can post blogs or "pages."Blogs, like the one shown below are individual blogs. You can add up to 10 standalone "pages" like the one I have on the top bar of my blog including Freebies and About Me.

The current blogger interface. The "in text links" and "context recommendations" are from the Zemanta plug in for Firefox that I use to generate links.

New blogger interface announced by Google.

Blogger Statistics
I've been using statcounter for years and have also recently used some alert services, but the new statistics tracking is a START. The most important thing to me is the backlinks. It is important to me to comment when people link to my blog. This has become a bit more challenging now that my blog is distributed over so many platforms, however, I like how statcounter lets me see just about every place I'm getting traffic to my blog. Then, I can go comment and read what they are writing. You can see that the referring URL's that I'm getting now are limited. I care about even the 1's and 2's and don't get that as much.

Current statistics tracking page for one aspect of stats - links.

Blogger Templates
There are many more templates and the ability to customize the web fonts that you use. Still, for me, there aren't quite enough choices and the ability to customize templates is a feature most named by my wordpress friends. This is an area where I'll need to do some customization work over the summer. I and most of you like to look different and personal to who we are. I like the colors of my blog but have some work to do.

I do, however, like the widgets that we have now which requires less "geekiness" on my part as I can modularly edit HTML instead of getting into the code.

Current back end of my blogger template. You can see the gadgets or "widgets" as some call them.

Mobile Sites

It is vital to "mobilize" your site. This is one reason I have our school news on blogger and then feed it into the website. Deploying via email subscription and mobile sites is important to me. It is easier to let Google handle the work. This is something you have to go into Google draft and activate, however.


Commenting 
I still use disqus for a multitude of reasons, including the ability to moderate through email, however I set up disqus to sync my blogger comments. This way I can go back if and when blogger catches up to the robust features of disqus. It is a pretty simple setup and worth it. For most people, though, blogger comments with improved spam are doable.


I do not believe in "closing" posts as I think that this is a bit of legacy snobbery. Do we think that those who come later to a blog post do not deserve to be heard. I still get great comments on old posts and sometimes older posts just go active for some reason - let the conversation continue! Disqus is great at zapping the spam that hits older posts.
 

Current blogger commenting system which is improved, however, I still use disqus.com.

Disadvantages
Blogger isn't perfect. No blogging service is. My biggest issues right now are:

• Limitations in China - In the last month even when using a VPN, the google blocking situation in China has become almost impossible to get around. My friends are reverting to yahoo mail and shunning google docs for things like Zohowriter. This is why it is important that I syndicate my blog in other places including Kindle. I don't have a complete answer to this as the situation in China and filtering Google has become HUGE.
  
• Glitches - Little glitches like the linking problem that I've been having while posting today can become annoying. What blog doesn't have glitches.
  
• Crash - I did crash halfway through this post, however, I've found that most often it happens in new browsers (I'm using Firefox 4) and with plug ins (Zemanta caused the last one.)
  
• Scheduled Posts -I schedule many of my posts. I have to be careful because at least one time out of three the scheduled post DOESN'T happen. I'm not sure why.
  
• Beauty. OK, Wordpress friends - your blogs are prettier. They just are, but if you can't be found then it is kind of like a flower in a box. (I'm not saying you can't be found but it does take some intentional work on your part.)
• Blogger Bar - You have to remove this manually.
  
  

Image by Terry Freedman via Flickr

Julie with our dear friend Terry Freedman from the UK.

Just up on the ISTE website, my dear friend and Flat Classroom co-founder, Julie Lindsay, is now an ISTE board member. Thank you to everyone who supported her run.

And most of all, thank you to Julie who let herself run again. This was her third run. Most people give up after the first time. This is certainly one thing that characterizes Julie - she never gives up and persists.

How would your life be different if you just did something ONE MORE TIME?

Thank you to the network of Tweeters, bloggers, and teachers. Although this means I'll see less of Julie, I think that she will do great work on the ISTE board.