Christine Rodriguez

ECI 511: BLOGS

Description:

Weblogs also known as blogs, are used to post information on just about anything you can imagine via the Internet.  Blogs can be used for educational, political, and or social platforms, just to a name a few.  Anyone can post a blog and just about anyone can respond to it.  Blogs are simply an easy way to publish your ideas.

Findings:

After reading the article by Richardson on read and write files, I was a bit more informed on the concept of blogging.  In our new age of the information super highway I had heard about the concept but had never actually engaged in blogging.  I was surprised to find that blogs were not just forms of nonsense written on the new crave webpage called myspace, but that many companies and political organization use blogs to disseminate and discuss information, topics, and issues.  What has really contributed to the craze of blogs is that fact that they are rather simple and easy to create and use. For the most part creating a blog is just as simple as signing up for an email account and typing text into a box and clicking ?post?.  As the article mentions, in order to preserve some safety and security there are websites that you can subscribe to and join that will maintain your blog usage and make sure that order is being maintained. 

Reflection:

Richardson made a point about using blogs to ?draw out critical thinking and reading skills? in our students.  Beyond that I believe that using blogs can foster a creative environment where students can exchange ideas.  I have opted to utilize blogs in my classroom in the ways listed above.  I plan on creating a blog on classroom culture and climate and also creating a blog where students can exchange ideas on specific project and activities.  Often times it is the case in my classroom that my students lose their creative juices and cannot find a way to complete an assignment other than the pencil/paper fashion that they are used to.  My hopes with the classroom climate/culture blog would be to offer a platform for students to be vocal about their likes and dislikes in the classroom.  Often times as teachers we get so focused in creating a classroom that becomes ?teacher-land? that we forget there are students who have to live in the same land that we have created, and as a result they deserve to have input on how the land is operated.  Some students are more vocal than others and I hope to bring out the ideas and comments from my less vocal students.

 My hopes with the exchange of ideas blog would be, that I can blog a few ideas on how to complete a project and that my students can add to the blog listing ways to make the ideas even better. I have found that when in a collaborative environment students are much more likely to develop ideas, than when they are alone and asked to work independently. I must selfishly say I also like the fact that the students can collaborate and maintain themselves quiet on a computer! As a teacher you get the best of both worlds!

Posted at 10:40PM Nov 27, 2006 by RODRIGUEZ, CHRISTINE in General  |  Comments[0]