Blogging is something that I have already and will continue to use in my professional and educational life. Obviously blogging is an important part of my Master's Program as it acts as an online journal for me as I progress throught the program. I have also used blogging professionally to communicate with students and to share ideas about technology usage with other members of the staff at my school.
I have experimented with blogging in my classes and absolutely love it. Students have taken ownership in their blogs and it has had great value as a learning and assessment tool. Some students struggled initially to understand what and how much to post but the more they did it, the better they were. Some students really shined when it came to providing feedback to other blogs. It is something I hope to use more as technology hopefully becomes more available and accessible in the school.
On personal note I do not tend to blog very often about personal matters. I value my privacy and try not to divulge too much personal information, thoughts, or feelings. I have many friends who choose to blog about personal matters and it may be something I consider when the day comes for me to have a family but for the time being I use it primarily as a professional tool.
I'm looking forward to this class as I hope to truly find ways to use Web 2.0 tools more effectively. After reading some of the articles I would like to find some more effective ways to implement blogging and would like to learn more about RSS as it seems like it could be a major time saver for me.
I agree that the RSS could be a total time saver especially if you set it up right for activities for the classroom. You could have new ideas or articles sent to you and you simply have to put them to use. I get creative craft ideas sent to me as I am not really all that creative with 2nd grade crafts. I can quick click though them and make some fun projects in spare time with my class!
ReplyDeleteThat's great that you were able to have success with your students blogging. Was there anything in the way you used blogging in the classroom that you think helped them latch onto the idea? My kids were always reticent to blog about difficult subjects because they didn't want to embarrass themselves in front of the class. Did your kids have the same hangup, and did you do something to get past it?
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ReplyDeleteAfter reading the book, I want to learn more about RSS. I never knew what that was, but how it sounds, it seems as if it can save a lot of time. This class seems like its going to teach me a lot about different things we can use and do.
RSS is a fantastic tool and a great way to start putting it to use is by adding a few feeds to Google Reader. Also "Atom" is a feed syntax format similar to RSS and most readers will accept it as well. For example, subscribing to your posts I would use the feed: feed://joshskatrud.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default Now I just need to set this up in Reader for all our blogs and I'll be set!
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