A Great Week at Knowschools
I have just spent an amazing week at Knowschools taking an on-line class on blogging and blogging with students. It was engaging, informative, supportive and, as usual with Knowschools, I came away with a great deal more knowledge than I came in with.
What I liked most from the session were the readings on blogging and the forums on issues around blogging that came up. The resources provided in this class were practical and useful. Some of my favorites are:
http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2005/08/29/learning-about-blogging-and-how-to-blog/
http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbReader.asp?ArticleId=18945
http://lorelle.wordpress.com/books/blogging-tips/
http://knowledgetree.flexiblelearning.net.au/edition04/pdf/Blogging_to_Learn.pdf
These readings enhanced my knowledge of my own blogging, especially reinforcing the idea that the reason I blog is for critical reflection and any comments provide concrete feedback.
What I gained from the class is much needed information, mostly positive, but some negative, about using blogs with students. I have yet to embark on that endeavor although I certain have plans to! The forums were both eye-opening (I hate surprises when I am involved in something new) and encouraging.
I came away from the class with a much stronger sense of the educational value of blogging with students and the need to use blogs to teach students the skills needed for on-line social relationships. This just happens to be an important issue to me. I also discovered the strong sense of community that blogging creates which surprised me. I picked up a few skills regarding working within Edublogs. I believe I finally have the issue of screen shots solved! Many thanks!
So now what? Well, I have approached a colleague about creating a joint blog. I am both excited and absolutely terrified to begin this journey with the students, but working with someone else who is more tech savvy than me and an administrator who is currently supportive this should make this an interesting adventure! As well I’m becoming curious about Twitter. I know very little about it, except that maybe it involves a cell phone? My hatred of cell phones is well known so I’m not sure about me and this Twitter thing!
November 15th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Hi Cindy,
I’ve been participating in the KnowWeeks course too and agree that it has been a great learning experience. Many of the other participants are doing really projects blogging with their students.
Regarding Twitter, you don’t have to use a cell phone (I’m a twitterer and *never* used my cell). It can be a bit baffling at first, but once your ‘followers’ and the people you follow start to grow it can be very powerful. Lots of ‘just in time’ learning! Sue Waters has some good posts on how to use Twitter. This one on building your PLN using Twitter and this one on quick start tips for new Twitters. When you are ready to give it a go it helps if someone who already has an established network can send out a ‘tweet’ asking others to follow you. I don’t have a huge network, but I’d be glad to do that for you
I’m clthompson on Twitter. Hope to see you there!
November 15th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Hmm, I see that the Sue Waters’ posts I tried to hyperlink don’t show up very clearly (or maybe it’s because I’ve already visited the links?). Here they are again: Building your PLN with Twitter http://aquaculturepda.edublogs.org/2008/10/07/twitter-and-building-your-personal-learning-network/
and Quick Start Guide to New Twitters <a href=”http://aquaculturepda.edublogs.org/2008/09/14/my-quick-start-tips-for-new-twitters/
November 15th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Thanks for the links, Claire. I guess I cannot proclaim myself a techno geek without being a Twitter geek too! I shall give it my best “tweetin’ on Twitter”
November 16th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Cindy, wow a joint blog. Please keep me posted. You’re doing such great work with this.
I’ve just gotten into Twitter now. I had an account from way back but never really used it. I’m going to give it a month. Check out my blog post about it and give it a try along with me. If you sign up, definitely add me in as well. Claire’s been helpful to me with getting going with it. I’ve even just changed browsers to get the most out of it all.
November 16th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
I will check it out later this week and if I join I will definitely add you Betty! Yeah, I hope the joint blog works out. We will discuss more this week. If not, I might set up a library blog where the kids can post about books and comment on them. Also thinking of a wiki as they are very compatible to libraries as well. So many options, not enough time!