"The true potential of blogs in schools comes when students and teachers use them as publishing tools."
I am ready for a change. In this chapter, Richardson reminds the teacher that before we teach students blogs, we must blog. He goes on to discuss how reading and writing through the web changed the ways he reads and consumes information [in addition to how he writes]. My biggest challenge will be maintenance. Life can move quickly and it is one of those things - I've never been a journal person and blogging, to me, has similarities. I have a head start, however. Richardson makes reference to a quote from Barbara Ganley, one who implements weblogs in the classroom and she talks about having confidence in her tools and how this can infect even the most resistant students. I joined Facebook (at first as a resistant "student") when my students started teasing me and calling me old. Even they said, “Mrs. Alesch it’s not only a great way to connect with us, but it is also a great way to stay in touch with your classmates.” And so, they were right. I joined Facebook as a teacher. I put my disclaimer out there that if students connected with me, they needed to be aware of my professional obligations if they should post inappropriate content that I might see. So far, it’s been a great experience and my students and I have used Facebook to enhance our communication. They really seemed to respect the fact that I was willing to open my page for them to see and take tine to visit their pages and comment on their activities and pictures.
Back to blogging. I am excited to try to incorporate blogging into our curriculum to improve critical thinking and analytical writing. These are 21st Century learning goals and a major part of the Iowa Core Curriculum.
Step 1 in becoming a blogger – study other bloggers and their means. Since I’ve had to do this in my coursework, I am already on my way. I’ve looked at some neat Weblogs and I’m already visualizing my own cup of tea. I can see how as Richardson said one’s reading and consuming of information can change. When you visit a Weblog, especially an Edublog, you are welcomed with endless links to resources. It’s like being a child in a candy shop! A couple I’ve already learned from are Will Richardson’s and David Warlick’s Edublogs: http://weblogg-ed.com/; http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/.
Blogging is mental work? Yes, according to Richardson, blogging involves reading, thinking, linking, annotating, etc. This is what makes it different from journaling. While you can grow from journaling, you take leaps and bounds from blogging – that is if you are within definition. I was glad to read that it’s okay to have a little fun too. I know that from a personal experience when I was stumbling back upon Richardson’s Weblogged, I came across a more personal post. He told his readers about an incident of a person with his same name who refers to himself as “Cuddle Bug” on Facebook. Richardson was asked if he also went by Cuddle Bug! It was the first laugh of my day. Getting to know this humorous side encourages me to keep coming back for pleasure as well.
Close to home: here are some ways Newell-Fonda teachers, students, and administrators are using blogs.
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