Richardson Chapters Two and Three

After reading chapters 2 and 3 of Richardson, on the Pedagogy and Practice of Blogs as well as practical ways for getting started, you will likely have reactions worth sharing. What kinds of experiences have you/your colleagues had with blogs? What worked? What did not? If you don't have personal experience with them, what are some ways you could see a use of blogs in your classroom, or, any grade level/subject area of interest? What might be worth for others to try out?

Blogs are a practical way to share your experiences with others.  I have used blogs in my own learning and have truly enjoyed using them as a reflection of my own learning.  For example, in CEP 883 we worked the majority of the time in teams of four people.  The blogs were the place where our own voice could be heard separate from the group work.  These were more of a personal reflection and at the end of the semester we were able to read back over them and see the evolution of our own thought process.

I also used twitter in CEP 850.  We shared resources with each other through this micro-blog process.  Communicating with each other in a mini-blog at first was intimidating.  I was concerned about how I could adequately express myself in way which I was limited to 140 characters.  However, what it did was force me to eliminate the ‘fluff’ and get right to my point.  In the end, it was better because all of us in the course were leading busy lives. Therefore, when we were required to read and respond to each other, it was quick to read and quick to respond.  You could read everyone in the class’s thoughts and respond to everyone in a short time.  

My one concern with blogs is that I feel they still have a stigma of being a non-formal way of sharing information.  However, I know many professors at Michigan State University who use their blogs as an educational resource.  Although I have no issue with using a blog as a ‘virtual diary’, I think that blogs are quickly becoming more than that.  At the very least, they can be used to find resources as many use their blogs as way to share information to allow you to research the topic more. 

I think using blogs in the classroom are ideal for me.  In teaching English I have used blogs to take place of the traditional character wheel.  Students are assigned characters and have to respond to each other as if they are the character.  This can also be done with twitter.  I think for a science class a blog would be ideal for detailing the daily log of data and information you are collecting for experiments.  The possibilities for blogs are endless.  I really wish I would have kept a blog site for each course I was in while completing the MAED program.  I think the capstone site is a way to kind of mimic this, but had I started that with my first course, it would be amazing to link to it in the capstone project.