Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts Chapters 1-3

After reading these very interesting Chapters, I came away with new learning and new ideas for my future classroom. With technology becoming so abundant in our society, I think it is so important that it is incorporated in the classroom. One of the ideas that I really enjoyed was how I could use a personal blog as a teacher and keep track of successes and failures. I think this would be beneficial for me to see where I have come as an educator, and things that worked well and those things that didn't. Maybe my experiences could help other teachers as well. I also learned that if special technological tools are being brought into the classroom that they need to be tested by the teacher in great depth before the students get to use them! You want to make sure there are as little complications as possible!

One of the items discussed was how students could create a blog for class, much like this one. I think it is a cool way for students to work on their typing skills and to get some internet experience. It was also discussed how blogs can be used as an online filing cabinet, leaving out the possibility of losing paper copies of important papers. I think it would be so cool to have the students use blogs as their daily reflective journals too. Another neat idea was to have a collaborative space that all of the classmates can write on together. They can share their ideas and essentially learn from each other! I also know that I want to use a blog or a wiki to have an updated schedule of what goes on during the day in my class. Not only for the students, but for thier parents as well.

This book contains some useful informaion on how to use blogging in the classroom. There are instructions on how to set up the blogs, and the importance of how students need to start with small steps when they are introduced to this new concept. It also stresses the importance of using internet safety with students. I think when blogging is used right in the classroom, it can really add to the class and make it very exciting for the students!