Thing #3

Thing #3: Educational Blogging

Internet in the Pocket

Wow, this gave me a lot to think about. In the pst ear, I have really began to love having the "Internet in my pocket" that one of the blogs talked about, but it made me realize how challenging it must be to teach these days when our students also have such easy access. I have been away from the campus for five years now. When I was last there, we dealt with the struggles of students having cell phones going off in class. That was the extent of the woes of technology in our schools. How far we have come in just five year.

In the blog Spies Like Us, there is a lot of great discussion and examples about the challenges that technology can bring into the school building. With all of the opportunities for students to be without supervision, especially at the secondary level where every student will have a cell phone in the pocket, there is great cause for concern. This blog discussed the importance of addressing the ethical aspects of 2.0 access. I think this is both timely and relevant and we need to be proactive, especially at the secondary levels.

Interactive Learning

The thing that I appreciate most about blogs is the interactivity and collaboration that it promotes. I really enjoyed the student blogs from this exercise.

I teach a class for TAMU-Commerce and all of our students have blogs that they use to post their assignments and comment about their learning. This has been a great tool for me to monitor their learning and to have instant access to their assignments. As well, students in the classroom can visit their classmates' blogs and make comments. If I still taught English in the high school classroom, every one of my students would have a blog, too. I think this is a great tool for teachers to use and can't understand why every teacher wouldn't make use of it.