Teaching with Technology

Over the past few weeks I have become more and more absorbed in the world of web 2.0 or as some call it the ‘edublogosphere.’   The benefits of blogging were, if truth be told, unclear at the beginning of the process, however as I have continued I have become more and more convinced as to its benefits.   As the term ‘read / write web’ is also being throw aroubd alot at the moment I thought that I would try explain (partially to myself) reasons why I’m blogging in terms of reading blogs and writing blogs.

READING BLOGS:

1. Like most teachers I’m quite nosey / curious, reading blogs lets you know what is going on in your particular area of interest.   That could be the latest developments in using technology in the classroom, or finding out what Hannah Montanna’s up to today.   There are blogs to suit all types of interests.
2. Reading blogs makes you aware of things that you wouldn’t just stumble across on the Internet, both good and bad.   The web is so large and ever expanding that there’s no way you could keep up with it without a wide network of similarly minded people.  
3. Using an RSS reader is exciting and interesting, you never quite know what is going to drop into your reader.   The posts that you subscribe to can be as varied and diverse as you like, it also saves you having to go round individual blogs, you can just go to the posts that you want to comment on.
4. If you choose carefully the blog that you subscribe to reading blogs has to be one of the best professional development tools there is.   I can honestly say that I’ve learnt more in the past few months than I have in years of going on courses.
5. You feel like you’re connected to something rather special and that you’ve got your finger on the pulse of things.   Sharing good practice really makes you feel good.  It also brings to mind the age old teaching sayings about no true original thought and it being pointless to reinvent the wheel.

BUT: It can be very time consuming.   You have to either limit the number of feeds that you have in your reader or put in the time to check what’s going on on a daily basis.   At the weekend I had to go through over 300 new items.   You can’t delete any for fear of missing out on something.   Be careful about how many feeds you sign up for – you may get much more than you wished for / can cope with.

WRITING BLOGS:

1.  Writing blogs is a great reflective tool.  Once you get over the initial strangeness of recording you thoughts and throwing them out there, it really does help you get your own ideas sorted out in your head.   At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter if people are actually reading your blog or not!
2. It’s good to share.   To get a comment on your blog that is positive is a great feeling, even if that person is half way around the world and you’ll never meet them.   The fact that someone is listening to what you have to say is a great ego boost.
3. It’s a great way of recording your ideas.   So often in teaching you’re rushing around from one thing to the next that you forget all the great things that you do in the classroom.  The discipline of writing a blog makes you realise just how good a teacher you are, even though you don’t realise it.
4. Watching little red dots grow on a Clustermap is a strangely exciting and addictive thing.   There can’t be a blogger out there who doesn’t feel a rush of pride when their dots change size.  

BUT:   It’s worryingly addictive (If you didn’t understand that point four then there’s still hope for you.)   It does take time and effort which needs to be managed so as not to become all encompassing.

All things considered though my blogging experience so far has been entirely positive and it’s something that I have introduced into my classroom this week.

To be continued …

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 7:56 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.