Good news

Looks like I’ll be required to make more blog posts this semester for my one graduate class.

So, for all my fans out there, you get your wish. There will be a weekly blog (or vlog) post on Fridays this semester.

As always, any feedback, suggestions and thoughts are appreciated in the comments.

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What’s this #pitt_enged stuff?

If you’re following me on Twitter, you’ve probably noticed a hashtag I’ve been using lately. The #pitt_enged tag is a result of one of my classes, where us English education MATs and PYs are supposed to chronicle our thoughts, feelings, dilemmas, ideas, problems and everything else into a daily tweet. For the first time ever, it actually makes Twitter feel like a mini-blog to me. I like the idea of a daily mini-reflection online, which gives me an idea about the need for teachers to embrace social networking and take control of their presence online…

In the meantime, I’m going to a weekly reflection on Fridays on here, most likely building off what I post on Twitter.

And I’ll leave you with this video about Twitter in the classroom one of my instructor’s shared with us: Twitter in the Classroom

Teaching and social media: risk or reward?

There was an op-ed piece in the New York Times on Friday that discussed the issues teachers face in the world of Facebook, Twitter and blogging. Basically everything I was taught was necessary while a journalism major can now come back to haunt me. Or will it?

We’ve all heard stories about people across the job plane that got fired because of a post made on a social media site. But does the public scrutinize teachers more heavily? And should they? After all, they interact directly with children everyday for 8-9 months.

The first step

I received a letter from the University off Pittsburgh last week. And that’s good news because I got into the School of Education. Come June next year I’ll have my M.AT.

The next step? Find more educational blogs and Twitter users. I’m really interested in the advantages of new and social media in education. So, if any of my few readers here have suggestions, I’d appreciate it.

Sunday reads

Busy last week and then Pittsburgh ended up with like two feet of snow. Pretty crazy. I’ll be posting an update on this post and have another Serra Media blog post this week, so be on the lookout for that.

• Personalized news and why the iPad is no savior (Steve Outing)
• A paywall nobody will notice – because it comes bundled with your satellite TV (Peter Preston, The Guardian)
• The NYT’s Metering Plan Doesn’t Go Far Enough—Here’s The Rest Of The Solution (Ben Elowitz, paidcontent.org)
• Google News to Publishers: Let’s Make Love Not War (Mark Glaser, PBS/MediaShift)
• 3 Ways journalism classes are making education more interactive (10,000 words)
• The Rise of Tablets, and Why You Should Care (Christina Warren, Mashable)

Sunday reads

• With Apple Tablet, Print Media Hope for a Payday (Brad Stone and Stephanie Clifford, The New York Times)
• Debate over paywalls needs a new metaphor; none of these are walls (Brian Cubbison, Syracuse.com)
• Now Trending: Local Trends

(Twitter blog)
Foursquare, Metro Partnership Shows How Media Can Benefit from Geolocation Apps (Leah Betancourt, Poynter)

• Why Twitter Wants to Know Where You Are

(Jennifer Van Grove, Mashable)

Sunday reads

• All the News That’s Fit to Download: How significant is The New York Times’s decision to charge for its Web content? Very, says Steven Brill. (Steven Brill, Newsweek)
• Documentary on the end of The Rocky Mountain News (Video)
• Dialing in a Plan: The Times Installs a Meter on Its Future (David Carr, New York Times)
• Journalism’s relationship with social media has matured (Gina Chen, Save the Media)
• Facebook for Public Relations (Jeremy Porter, Journalistics)
• NUJ’s making journalism pay online: five points (Conrad Quilty-Harper, OJB)