Blog Junkie

I really like Google. Except for the ads now appearing on my blog!  I know I am not using it to near its potential so I took a Knowschools course on it to increase my Google knowledge.  It was an amazing 5 days of  learning in a well presented on-line course.  Sharon Betts did an amazing job.  (As I visited her site I was sidetracked into her blog on her solar home. For those interested in solar energy see here.)  As usual in these courses I ended up with a degree of information overload, but managed to pull back and figure out what was important for me.

1.  Google calendar - I almost managed to miss my registration for the final semester of TLITE!  Far too close for comfort.  This little tool should be very helpful since my 2 luddite day planners and 1 desk calendar do not seem to be doing the trick!

2.  Google search and custom search - I did not know how to search efficiently at all and I am holding a postion of a Teacher-Librarian.  This was actually the top of my list of reasons to take the course.  Not being proficient at this is not acceptable to me considering my new teaching position.  I learned to use things from quotation marks, to site searches.  This was incredibly valuable and should make searching for educational research papers much more effective than in the past.  I also added a custom search into my Book Bin Blog.  Custom searches limit the search for more exact topics, in the case of The Book Bin, books reviews and soon other great library blog sites.  I thought this search would be very valuable to use with my research groups at school.

3.  Google Docs – I have used this myself only once this past summer as part of a co-operative mini research project on cyberbullying.  It was an interesting experience, and Sharon’s activity gave me an idea for my last action research project – using Google Docs with one of my research classes.  Listening to other course participants discuss their classes using this was exciting.  Co-operative learning is a big part of my classroom teaching and finding a way back to it for prep relief teaching with technology was great.  The students are able to work on a research paper collaboratively and simultaneously, email it to each other, share their ideas/knowledge and really own their own learning.  I thought this was an incredibly powerful learning tool for teaching.  Explore:  http://googledocs.blogspot.com

4.  Google Notebook – I really saw the power in this for myself as I work through another action research project and another research readings summary.  This Google tool allows you to collect notes, browse, clip and organize information online.  A great way to organize my reading notes.  Also a great way to keep track of blogging posts that push me to write a post on.  This tool allows you to create, manage, tag, export, share and bookmark the notebook.  If this appeals to you here are some helpful links:

http://googlenotebookblog.blogspot.com

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=how+to+use+google+notebook&emb=0&aq=f#

http://michelemartin.typepad.com/thebambooprojectblog//2008/04/using-google-no.html

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!