melaniemcbride.net

Every day I read the tweets of fellow educators it’s clear that the battle for technology adoption is still going strong. It’s also clear that endless panics – moral and otherwise – are a part of the problem. Just today, wired educator and author Will Richardson described the challenge of teaching critical (technological) literacies without [...]

For months, I’ve been trying to connect my wired educator network with ideas from critical pedagogy while looking to traditional academics (specialising in critical pedagogy, social justice and anti-oppression education) to share the key questions that might inform a meaningful assessment of web2.0 tools in relation to social justice, equity and diversity.
Here are a few [...]

“Every gram – sorry, byte – of personal information these feckless data-packrats collect on us should be as carefully accounted for as our weapons-grade radioisotopes, because once the seals have cracked, there is no going back.” – Cory Doctorow
Every day, all around the world, people are sharing enormous amounts of personal information and data via [...]

Beyond Blocking: Embracing the Social Web
View more presentations from Melanie Mcbride.

The slides above were prepared for a talk I gave with the Canadian Association of Communicators in Education, which represents Canadian information officers from school boards and principals associations.
Designed for non-techies, my presentation provides an introductory overview of web2.0 social media tools and [...]

NOTE: The following post was originally published in my Twitter blog “Beyond 140.” Find more of my Twitter-specific posts there.
“Dunbar’s number is a theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. These are relationships in which an individual knows who each person is, and how each person [...]

I just returned from another thrilling adventure in innovation at Magazines Canada’s Web Weekend series in Vancouver.
My talk: “The Sharing Revolution, ” outlines key trends, tools and barriers to adoption with social and participatory media approaches. I shared the bill on Sunday with fellow content producer and former Tyee marketing manager Lisa Manfield, who [...]

Over the past few years I’ve observed, with great interest, my students’ varying opinions about their identity and behaviour online. And because I teach professional, post-graduate industry courses, I have different expectations of maturity from 20-something university graduates than I would for at-risk teens.  A person in their mid to late twenties, seeking a career [...]

These days, it’s not uncommon to find your students (or colleagues) Facebooking through your presentation – no matter how interesting or important your presentation may be.