Sunday, July 6, 2008

Blogs: The good, bad and ugly


What is your personal opinion of blogs and blogging?

Blogs are turning into my new black hole, giving me my daily techie fix. I am sucked in every morning with all the new entries and am held there for far too long. If I do manage to get my daily blogs read, I go in search of more to add to the ever growing list! While the start up seems rather rocky, taking lots of time to find worthwhile blogs and readjusting my iGoogle page to have them show up there, I am glad I'm delving into blogs. Already my delicious bookmarks are overflowing from the new sites I've found there and, while the side trip to create an avatar was time consuming, it was fun. It really does feel like professionally I am keeping far more abreast of cutting edge technologies, something I am feeling much more humble about over the last year. Instead of intending to get around to trying that out, I jump online and download SecondLife, look at Ustream, or get an account on VoiceThread.

So, my opinion as a blog reader would be that they are worth the time invested. I gain valuable knowledge or new perspective on a variety of topics I might not otherwise be aware of. I’m learning and growing because of them.

Now, looking at myself as a blog poster is a different matter, far more personal. I am shy about posting my opinions in such a fixed, semi-permanent way to an unknown audience. Knowing how e-mail can be misinterpreted makes me gun-shy. Not knowing who my audience will be makes writing far more intimidating. Being so new in my Media Specialist role at my school, and not totally trained at that, makes me wary of not coming across too strong, something I fear a blog has the potential portray. I hope that after reading other blog postings for awhile, I’ll get over the self-consciousness and get on with it! Research shows how reflection is vital to growth, and blog demands this. I know I would love this new way to collaborate.
image from Flickr:Creative Commons

Blogs in the media center and/or classroom

Question:
How do you think blogs can be used in the media center and/or the K-12 classroom?

As stated in the article by John Sener, In Search of Student-Generated Content in Online Education , "Student-generated content has also long been an integral part of the educational process. " Three main improvements that online this article proposes are:
  • Increased Student Engagement
  • Improved Learning Effectiveness
  • Create Projects with Lasting Value - for other students, the community at large, or the student themselves

OK, now that I believe we should blog, I need ideas about how to go about it with kids. I ran across a great blog post in Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech by Dean Shareski with suggestions for successful teacher and student blogs. He suggests:

  1. Be a reader - Read other blogs before starting. Read more blogs than you create.

  2. To get people to comment on your blog, comment on theirs!

  3. Make it personal- write about what you know (nice tie in to the storytelling movement in presentations!)

  4. Use Hyperlinks

  5. It's not all text - use graphics (including pod/vodcasts!)

All really good ideas! Since diving into blogs, I've tried to pay attention to what grabs my attention, and these five tips really show up.

So, how can I use a blog with my students/staff? There are so many ideas!

Collaboratation on projects

Publication of student/staff work

Student Book Reviews

Book Talks/Popular Checkouts/New books/Featured books

Staff Development

Concept presentation and discussion

Library News
And more! The more I look around at other library blogs, the more ideas I get. I'm getting more confident and am ready to start my own at my school and get some of my older students blogging, too.

Oh, one other thing, safety concerns are always prevelant when students are publishing to the Web. We require students and families to sign AUP statements for using technology equipment at school. A similar for could be used for Web 2.0 tools, such as blogs. One I found gives a framework from which to start.

image from Flickr:Creative Commons, posted by robinhamman