Blogging

Wow. There is an overwhelming amount of information out there in regards to blogs. I feel that I have only looked at the tip of the iceberg. I could spend hours reading and reviewing all the information on blogs and still feel like I have so much more to read and learn.

I can see myself using blogs in my classroom as a make a tranistion form teaching math to computers. I think to begin with I will start small and probably only use the blog for informational purposes about the classes I am teaching and links to sites that the students can use.

One thought on how I could get the students involved in blogging would be with 6th grade students. As I generate the curriculum for the 6th grade computer class one component that I am looking at is teaching photo editting in iPhoto. I could have the students do some blogging by having them post a photo that they took after editting and do a journal activity on the photo. Students would write about why they selected this photo, where they took the photo, and what the photo is about. I would then require the students to view others blogs and post comments about the photo and the writing. This activity would cover almost all of the NET-S.

As I think about using blogs with students, the greatest challenge to me and other educators is going to be the ethical use of blogs. Unfortuantely, in this day of myspace, our students are exposed to so many unethical and inappropriate uses of technology that they in some ways have become numb to the inappropriateness. The challenge is going to be teaching, discussing and maybe blogging about ethics and technology. The students need to push for the change so that it becomes their cause and as a result more meaningful.