'Blog Action Day' Calls for Discussion of Poverty

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 10/15/08
##AUTHORSPLIT##<--->

The second annual Blog Action Day takes place today, bringing together 8,000-plus blog, podcast, and videocast sites to post about the same issue on the same day. This year's topic is poverty. The purpose of the effort is, according to organizers, "to create a discussion. We ask bloggers to take a single day out of their schedule and focus it on an important issue. By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue. Out of this discussion naturally flow actions, advice, ideas, plans, and empowerment."

The organizing site includes a list of linked resources to assist participating bloggers.

Social network Classroom 2.0 contributor Anne Mirtschin wrote in a recent posting, "It would be great if all those who blog and whose students blog could post about this and bring attention [on] this global issue to their audiences."

Another participating blogger, La Bricoleuse, who is both a costumer and an educator, writes that she's decided to support Donors Choose, a site that matches donors with underprivileged and underfunded schools. "I'm adopting a few 'pet projects' that I'm going to try to get funded over the course of this academic year--projects that directly relate to what I do, cultivation of an [appreciation] for theatre and its production, particularly costuming," she wrote in a recent post.

Last year's theme for the non-profit event was the environment. It attracted the participation of 20,000 blogs.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • simplified, abstract illustration focusing on the negative side of generative AI misuse, balancing the concepts of cybersecurity and human impact

    Researchers Provide Taxonomy of Gen AI Misuse

    To clarify the potential risks of GenAI and provide "a concrete understanding of how GenAI models are specifically exploited or abused in practice, including the tactics employed to inflict harm," a group of researchers from Google DeepMind, Jigsaw, and Google.org recently published a paper entitled, "Generative AI Misuse: A Taxonomy of Tactics and Insights from Real-World Data."

  • new unified Microsoft Teams app

    New Unified Teams App Brings Together Work, Personal, and EDU Accounts

    Microsoft's unified Teams app, in preview since March, is now available for Windows 11, Windows 10 and macOS users.

  • stylized illustration of a global AI treaty signing, featuring diverse human figures seated around a round table

    First Global Treaty to Regulate AI Signed

    The United States, United Kingdom, European Union, and several other countries have signed "The Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence, Human Rights, Democracy, and the Rule of Law," the world's first legally binding treaty aimed at regulating the use of artificial intelligence (AI).

  • Google Brings Gemini AI to Teens in the Classroom

    Google is making its Gemini large language model available for free for students ages 13 and up in the United States (age minimums vary by country), via Google Workspace for Education accounts.