A blog by Mr. Michaluk

Over the past few weeks I have been experimenting with blogs.  I have had the opportunity to read about blogging, view many blogs and create my own.  Also, I have learned about subscribing to blogs through an RSS feed.  During this time I have been reflecting on advantages of blogging in education.  To me, a huge advantage of blogging is connecting.  Blogs provide a forum, other than the classroom, for learners to get together and share ideas.  In a sense, a blog extends the classroom.  Even though the classroom is closed for the night, the blog remains open for ideas, thoughts, and sharing at any time of day.  Along with the time being extended, the size of the classroom becomes larger.  Blogging provides the opportunity to invite many more people into your class discussions from anywhere in the world.  The grade 1/2 teacher in my school has been blogging with her class and been able to connect with families, students in another country, and a class at the U of R!  Their blog can be viewed at http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337.  Being connected through blogs is a wonderful advantage.

 Another advantage is the motivation factor a blog may provide.  After talking with my students about blogs, many were interested to see what blogs were all about.  After diving in to our class blog, they were eager and willing ot share their thoughts or ideas through our blog.  They were also excited to see that some of their comments had been published!  Our blog provided the opportunity for students to share their ideas even if they were apprenhensive to speak up in class.   

A third advantage to using a blog in education is for the professional development of educators.  Blogs provide a forum to share, reflect, and debate ideas on education.  I recently found an interesting blog developed by an in-school administrator that deals with a variety of topics.  The URL for the blog is http://kwhobbes.edublogs.org/.  My interest peaked as I discovered that the writer grew up in my hometown.  In fact, I remember taking the bus to school with this writer!  Another blog that I “sampled” was created and maintained by a curriculum consultant within our school division.  He has been blogging for a couple of years and has brought a number of other educators from our division into the “blog loop”.  His blog can be viewed at http://ideasandthoughts.org/.  Many of his posts deal with technology in education.

 These are three of the many wonderful opportunities blogging can provide for people in the educational setting.  In the future I hope to remain connected and take advantage of the power of blogging!

Steve M.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 18th, 2007 at 3:14 pm Filed under U of R and. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.