What I Learned About Blogging.....

Although this class was short and quite open, I learned a lot more than I anticipated. For starters, as most have already mentioned, I learned that starting a blog is extremely easy and painless! I also learned that although it seems quite chaotic and frustrating, managing blogs is very doable especially with RSS feeds and readers. It is a great way to keep organized and up-dated! Until this course, I never thought about promoting a blog either. I was opened to many interesting strategies to do just that. There are so many things you can do that aren't difficult at all! The little things are perfect for my use especially since I do not intend on sharing my blog with a lot of people.

As my earlier post mentioned, I plan on using blogs for student activities as way for them to reflect and for me to assess. However, I am sure as time goes on and I gain more experience, I could use blogging for other things such as a means of communicating with parents via discussion posts, posting assignments and other information students need to know, personal reflections on different lesson plans or activities that other educators can take from, and even more collaborative work for students. I am sure that I will encourage students to use their blogs for brainstorming ideas and collaborating with others on educational topics. I also can see blogging as a means for students to build an online portfolio for themselves.....using their blogs they can post and save all their best works that they intend to keep to show or refer to later on in their schooling. Most importantly, I am going to use blogs as a way to teach students proper netiquette! Being safe online is extremely important and something most kids don't really think about. I hope my lessons using blogs help them become responsible online users.

All in all, I truly appreciated this course. In such a short amount of time I was able to learn a lot as well as become familiar with many resources and references about blogging that I otherwise never would have come across. I truly had a blast and I am really interested to see how I really end up using blogs in the classroom, that is if I end up doing so! Wishing everyone else the best of luck in their blogging future! :)

Intelligence

These questions came about in another class and I was just wondering what everyone else's thoughts were......

What is your definition of intelligence?
What deems someone intelligent?
How would you measure someone's level of intelligence?

I had a really tough time answering these questions!

Some Interesting Videos.....

Here are some videos I had to watch for other classes....I think you will enjoy them! :)

                                                             Changing Education Paradigms

                                                           Alfie Kohn vs. Dwight Schrute

                                                The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

My Blog Focus.....

Over the weekend I thought a lot about educational blogging and all the things that come along with it such as managing and promoting a blog site. There are all types of different blogs, it is crazy! Your audience choice and intentions are so critical! I really do not want to depend on technology so I think that I am going to do something really basic with blogs in my future classroom.

I have concluded for my purposes, I am going to use blogging as a means of assessment. I think it will give me greater insight on what my students truly understand and have learned as a result of my teaching and activities. I have a feeling that the students will be more open when reflecting via blogs. I am hoping they will not feel any pressure when writing. I think I am going to present the blogs as a mandatory assignment but really use them to help me assess each student. I am pretty sure that if I present the blogs as an assessment the students are only going to try and write what they think I want to hear. That is the total opposite of what I want. I would really like to see what my students think of what is going on in the classroom. I also think most people are more comfortable expressing themselves using technology. I could gain some really great insight on who my students are as people as well which can be very useful in helping me meet their needs!

As a result, I do not have to do too much blog promoting because it is simply for my students. However, I plan on sharing the address with my students' parents as well as the principal of my school just so they can stop by and see what is going on in my classroom if they are interested. As for managing, I am going to use  Google Reader and subscribe to the RSS feeds. Each class I have will have their own folder so it is easier to keep track of everyone. Nothing too complicated. I'm looking to blogging as a means of something different to do that I think my students and I will enjoy! :)

Marketing Plan....

As I read over other peoples' blogs and check out different links and videos, I am slowly putting together my blog marketing plan! It feels great! :)

There are so many different approaches to promoting a blog. It truly depends on the audience the blogger is trying to target! As many others have already done, I have decided to aim my blog towards a more educational crowd. This would include students, parents, administrators and of course other educators. With this in mind, I plan on including my blog address on my class syllabus as well as with my signature for my school e-mail and you can't forget business cards! I also intend on leaving my blog address when commenting on other educational blogs.

Since I plan on focusing my blog closely on my classroom and meeting the needs of my students, I do not think it is necessary that I deal with advertising and all that. I am not trying to go global or become famous because of my blog therefore, I am not going to go to extreme measures to promote it. Also, I have a feeling I am going to be quite busy with the everyday tasks of teaching!

Marketing Blogs

Here are some videos and links that can help understand the importance of promoting your blog as well as strategies to do so.

17 Tips For Promoting Your Blog Without Being Spammy

Tips For Promoting Your Blog

Tips for Promoting New Blogs

Hopefully these videos can help!

Here's a few videos that helped me....hopefully they can help you too! :) One is on blogging and the other one is on RSS feeds! Although the blogging one isn't educationally specific, it gives a good heads up on other uses for blogs!

Blogging as Social Networking?

Someone mentioned blogs being used as a means of social networking. Personally, I have never seen blogging as a popular form of social networking. I have always seen it as more of a way to share thoughts and ideas with other people. Facebook on the other hand is much easier for people to communicate compared to blogs. It is set up the way it is to make interacting with others online so simple. In order to prevent blogging from becoming a social activity, I am going to lay down my expectations of students when using blogs if I decide to use them in the classroom. I will not mind if students are commenting one another back and forth if what they are talking about is relevant to the blog. I will not accept students leaving comments asking one another what they are doing on the weekend! That is abusing the use of blogs for education purposes. I honestly think enforcing rules created when using online tools is crucial......students must be monitored very careful because I am sure they are going try to find ways to try and use the blogs the way they would like. Always teach online safety and netiquette!!

Please feel free to add anything or share any thoughts you have!! :)

Using Blogs in the Classroom

Personally, I think blogging is a great way to gain more insight on student thinking. If used as an online journal, I think it could really help students express themselves. By doing so, teachers can further their understanding on each individual which will hopefully help them meet more students' individual needs. I also think it is a great way to assess the students because you can see how their ways of thinking have changed over the course of a unit and in general they can tell you what they learned in ways a test cannot. 

As mentioned in some articles, it is a great way for students to collaborate as well. Just like we have been reading and commenting each other's blogs, the students can do the same. They can share and expand their ideas by communicating with one another via blogging. It is also a great way for students to brain storm ideas and not lose them! Keeping them online is awesome because they can access their information from anywhere with an Internet connection! This ties in with using blogs as an online portfolio....I think it is a great idea. Students can easily upload images or share documents and other types of projects online. This will allow students to share their work all over the world as well as have an easy time locating all their works. 

However, I think the most important reason to use blogs in the classroom is to get students writing! I another class I just read an article on how writing positively influences reading. You can check out the article here: 

http://carnegie.org/fileadmin/Media/Publications/WritingToRead_01.pdf

 By doing so, I honestly feel that the students will become more engaged in their work and will grow a stronger connection to it as well. I am positive they will develop a greater understanding about whatever it is they are writing about :)

As far as managing the blogs goes, I think it is going to be pretty time consuming since there will be so many. However, I do believe it is manageable. You can read blogs on the go if you have a laptop and don't have to worry about losing them like you do with paper! Also, RSS subscriptions are the perfect solution to helping manage blogs because rather then checking each students' blog everyday, you can easily see who has updated or added to their blogs and who hasn't. This helps a lot as far as participation goes too. In a sense, it makes the teacher's job quite a bit simpler! :) 

Article Review: Blogs in Education

I read through a few articles. These articles explained what a blog was all about. They also shared some ideas on how and why blogging should be used in education. Some ideas mentioned include:

• Blogging provides students with many opportunities to read and write
• Great for collaboration
• Encourages critical and analytical thinking
• Good for brainstorming and expressing creativity
• Greater exposure to more valid information
• Helps students reflect on learning experiences
• Can be used as a digital portfolio for student work

I think that these are all very good reasons to incorporate blogging in education. The articles also mentioned that blogging is quite easy to do and can be accessed and updated from anywhere with an Internet connection! :) I honestly feel that the students will be more willing to take part in blogging because they have the freedom to work whenever and wherever they want to. Also, blogs are very easy for teachers to follow and keep track of their students' thoughts and progress. I think blogs can help excite and engage students in learning because they are familiar with the technology and concept being used. It is a great way to assess the students and I think it will to provide a more accurate representation of what the students know. 

Some things that really need to be thought about however are the intentions of the students' use of blogging. One of the articles mentioned that it is very important to remind students that blogging is not for social networking. It  is a great way for the students to communicate but should be only used for educational purposes. It is also extremely important to give the students guidelines to follow. They need to be taught the importance of online etiquette so that they do not develop bad habits that can get them into negative situations! I think it is very important to give the students an outline of what they are going to be using the blogs for and expectations they need to follow. It is also a good idea to share those things with parents. That way, the parents can also see what their children are up to in school. It's a win, win situation! 

Here are the articles I read:

Duffy, Peter and Bruns, Axel (2006) The Use of Blogs, Wikis and RSS in Education: A Conversation of Possibilities. In Proceedings Online Learning and Teaching Conference 2006, pages pp. 31-38, Brisbane.

Title: Five Don'ts of Classroom Blogging. Authors: Sturgeon, Julie Source: T H E Journal; Feb2008, Vol. 35 Issue 2, p2

http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/educationupclose.phtml/47  

Am I Missing Something?

Are we meeting this Saturday? Everyone seems to be saying that and I have no idea on what is going on! I work saturdays from 8am - 3pm and I need to get my shift covered if we are meeting!! Thanks for the help!

Introduction

Aloha everyone! My name is Tori Kagawa. I come from a small town called Waimea on the island of Kauai. For those of you who don't know where that is, it is in the state of Hawaii! I am currently in my last term of the MSED Info. Tech program. Unlike most others in this program, I do not have a full time teaching job. My dream teaching job however would be in a kindergarten classroom. I plan on moving back to Hawaii after I complete my masters degree to pursue my teaching career. I come from a family full of educators! My mom, dad, and grandma all taught 30+ years! It is truly my passion! :) I love sports, the beach, and my family means the world to me. In all honesty, I am not a huge fan of sitting in front of a computer screen all day, I'd much rather be outdoors. However, I am all about learning! The more I can learn the better!

As far as blogs go, I am really excited for this course. I have heard about and read many blogs throughout the years but never actually took the time use them myself. I can only imagine what I am going to be able to do with blogging after this class. Even though I am interested in working with younger children, I am sure that there are blogging activities that can be appropriate to use. I truly think it is going to be a great way to learn what my students think and how they feel which will help me best meet their needs.