What do I think of blogging? What is it? Well, I am not exactly sure what blogging is completely, but I do know it is a conversation starter. It is a spark. I enjoy reading people's blogs because it motivates me to think about things that I may not have thought about before in a new and exciting way. Or, it may even educate me on things I have never thought about before. It is a tool that can be used by anyone with a computer and a few moments to set one up. A blog is great for educators, because it can share ideas and thoughts.
As a blogger, I can communicate feelings, frustrations, happy times, confusion, plain old crazy thoughts on something, and there just might be someone out there in "cyber-world" that might relate to what I was saying or feeling. It can be used in schools for students to communicate thoughts and encourage literacy. Some studies have shown that literacy in schools has improved through blogging. Here is another blog that was interesting about using them in the school setting.
I guess I think of a blog as a huge white board that is a place to communicate with others for support. I would like to think that people care out there in never never land. (g2g.. be right back! son has baseball batting cages!) I am back!
I think blogging would be a lot of fun in the classroom with my students. I do use it now through Moodle and it is called a Forum. I give the kids a topic like .. should cell phones be allowed in school? And they must write complete sentences explaining their position. Then they are required to go back and comment on three other people's posts. It is fun, although teaching proper blogging etiquette is difficult. They want to talk about what is for lunch that day or who likes who! I am having difficulty finding much on line by the way of blogging etiquette that I can share with the kids and that is trustworthy.. any ideas?
I guess the other thought I have is that it is difficult to keep up with all of the blogs out there and keep up with my own blog. I think it is something you have to train yourself to do, but it can be really rewarding. It is like a personal journal that can be looked at later on and can be reflected upon. It shows growth and experience.
I do think a blog has to have a purpose. I think if it was all over the place in thought, people may not read it.. They may become irritated and not want to communicate with the blogger. Just my thoughts.. who knows!
My favorite blogs I have encountered so far while using the google RSS are:
http://nlcommunities.com/communities/alannovember/default.aspx
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/
http://www.techlearning.com/blog/
http://www.utechtips.com/
http://weblogg-ed.com/
http://successfulteaching.blogspot.com/
http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/blogger.html
http://www.halcyon.com/arborhts/mahlness/2008/03/tomorrow-tomorrow.html
1 comment:
I would say the difference between blogs and the forums in which you are using is that forums are a "walled garden" meaning they are not open to the world. Blogging on the other hand usually is (doesn't have to be...but that's another blog post. ;) )
Teaching online etiquette is difficult but I believe it is a skill we NEED to be teaching our students. The reason why it is so difficult is because we're behind. Our students have already formed habits about communication online. Have found that it's OK to talk about lunch, the "stupid kid" or whatever it is online and they can get away with it. We are late in teaching these skills and therefore have an up hill battle in breaking students of these habits which can easily lead to cyber-bullying.
We need to teach students that everything and anything they write online is creating their digital profile. We must teach them the difference between a comment and a compliment when responding to others and help them to understand that the web is a different place, a cool place, but different then the playground or the neighborhood.
It would be so much easier if we could keep kids off of computers, cell phones, gaming consoles, until we had them in school and could teach them how to behave in this new connected world...but that's not going to happen. By the time we are ready to teach students how to behave online, they have already formed their behaviors and now we're trying to change them. It's tough...and one I think many of us are trying to figure out.
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