The world of blogging is very new and overwhelming to me. Although I am technologically savvy, so to speak, I feel out of my league here. I can say that in just the past week I am much more educated in the area of blogging. I believe it opens a lot of doors in the profession of education. It allows many to come together in situations that would be impossible without the blogging arena. I have taken a class that used something very similar to blogging and realize that students and teachers are able to communicate with the whole group as well as the individual almost simultaneously. Students are able to attend class from any number of locations and still remain part of the communicative group.
I see pros and cons for teachers below the collegiate level, however. College professors have the ability to run a course entirely on the web where ALL of the grading, teaching and communication is conducted there. As primary and secondary teachers we still have the responsibilities of lesson planning and classroom teaching a full class load along with the possible maintenance of a website and all of the paperwork and politics of the regular day. I can see where a teacher could get in over their head as far as the volume of blogging and how they use it in accordance with their current responsibilities.
There are so many different ideas and different ways that blogging would be benefitial to students but teachers would be shortchanging themselves and their students if they were to place all of their ideas into effect at one time. I could see getting caught up where you would be checking during other class times or taking away from planning time in order to keep up or you would be putting in so much extra time that you may get burnt out. I think the challenge would be taking this blogging idea and only plugging in small pieces at a time in order to maintain time management.
I would personally use blogging for Art/Artist critiques of web gallery sites, discussions on concepts and arguments in the art arena, peer critiques of student work, homework assistance, etc. I believe students would not only benefit from the interaction but also become more motivated, more involved and feel more a cohesive group as they walked into the classroom each day. They would be able to be in contact with each other outside the classroom and still be engaged in the learning that took place in the room at a previous time.
7.05.2008
My First Post
So, I am testing this blogging thing out for the first time. Not sure if I am getting it all but hopefully I can get the hang of it before September. I am hoping to get a photo in here soon but not quite sure how that works right now. Here is a quote for inspiration, enjoy:
"A fool-proof method for sculpting an elephant: first, get a huge block of marble; then you chip away everything that doesn't look like an elephant."
~Author Unknown
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