Blogs have finally hit center stage in the Internet world and the education world. Nowadays, talking with any college student they have almost always participated in blogging for some class in some form. I have had countless classes from history, political science, and my education classes that have all required a blog or web posts of some kind about every week or so many a semester.
I really enjoy this type of writing much better than a formal, large paper competed at the end of the year. Personally, I am not as worried about grammar and writing to please my professor when writing a blog, which made me wonder why not? When writing a blog and posting it for everyone to see through the web, it's odd how that does not intimidate many people to edit more of their thoughts and opinion, like writing a college paper for a professor does. I have found that I can write about a certain topic for a brief amount and post it for everyone to see without reading it over, drafting before writing, or going back and editing like I would for a paper. It's funny how all these editing procedures should be part of your blog writing, and I admit I do read it over a lot of times before posting, but I am not as worried about things as I would be a paper. After, reading other blogs and talking with friends, I have found that it is not just me who feels this way about blogs. Many people I talked to enjoyed writing blogs for about the same reasons as myself, that there is less stress involved which makes them easier to write.
In regards to keeping this blog for my technology class, I am glad we did it. It providing me with a seg-way into how I want to hold myself accountable to blogging my future classroom to keep all parties involved up to date. Also, looking back on your blogs is a fun way to see how you have changed. Also, how your perspectives have changed on certain issues. In this way blogging is a type of journal, if you will. Many people use the web and blogs as an almost personal diary, which to me is too public but many enjoy it. It's a net way of organizing and keeping your thoughts together to look back on and see what is different and what is new.
In the future, I think that I will use blogging in my classroom. Especially if I am teaching a government class. I think that seniors in high school are old enough to know how to use the Internet safely, and if not this would be a great way to teach them. For a government class, students could blog about current events through the week. This is just one example, but there are many of how to implement blogging in any class.
Therefore, I think blogging is a good tool to get students writing and see their true opinions about certain topics instead of asking for essays, the "old-fashioned" way....
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Why pay for Ning??
This week the social network, Ning, announced that it's service are to no longer be free for any users, including for educational purposes. This brief headline came up on a news pages I was browsing and it caught my eye. It's clear after reading the article that Ning, because it is a business is changing its ways to charge for their services t all users. However, there is much opposition to this new change from the educational users of the Ning sites.
Since Ning has been created educators all over the world have used this social network to create various Ning sites which has led to countless ning sites dedicated to different specialities such as Web 2.0 tools or pertaining to different disciplines. Also, many teachers have used Ning with their classes. By making their own ning site only the teacher and their students are the users and creates a safe place in the Internet world for educational purposes.
Now with Ning throwing a cost attached to it many of these educators are wanting to pull out from this network, but are scared of which other network to turn to. With Ning, everything was a safe environmentof free sharing of ideas and educators were finally able to connect with many people in their disciplines to gain ideas for the their class instead the only other teacher in the building. Its scary for many users that have a lot of information uploaded on Ning to choose a new entwork and move aveyrthing over to the new site. Ning also present users with an easy and hassle-free layout, so even teachers that were not technically inclined could use Ning to learn new technology skills and new ideas for their class. These are all fears of users when they are contemplating the switch to a new network. Also, Ning was able to simulate mini professional conferences that before teachers were only able to attend once a year, and now with Ning educators could gain a plethora of new information by only sitting at their computer at anytime. If many key users that consturcted these sites left Ning, many resources could be lost.
I think it is sad that Ning has decided to make educators pay. Everyday teachers are striving to give back to their students and learn the new best practices to staty fresh, on a shoestring school budget. Thus, now having to pay for the services, no matter how small the amount makes Ning almost tainted to many. Currently, with almost every school cutting back it is highly likely that mroe money be given to pay for teachers to enroll in networks online. Therefore, hopefully something will change and possibly Ning will call back this idea of making educators pay. The article I read can be found at this here.
Since Ning has been created educators all over the world have used this social network to create various Ning sites which has led to countless ning sites dedicated to different specialities such as Web 2.0 tools or pertaining to different disciplines. Also, many teachers have used Ning with their classes. By making their own ning site only the teacher and their students are the users and creates a safe place in the Internet world for educational purposes.
Now with Ning throwing a cost attached to it many of these educators are wanting to pull out from this network, but are scared of which other network to turn to. With Ning, everything was a safe environmentof free sharing of ideas and educators were finally able to connect with many people in their disciplines to gain ideas for the their class instead the only other teacher in the building. Its scary for many users that have a lot of information uploaded on Ning to choose a new entwork and move aveyrthing over to the new site. Ning also present users with an easy and hassle-free layout, so even teachers that were not technically inclined could use Ning to learn new technology skills and new ideas for their class. These are all fears of users when they are contemplating the switch to a new network. Also, Ning was able to simulate mini professional conferences that before teachers were only able to attend once a year, and now with Ning educators could gain a plethora of new information by only sitting at their computer at anytime. If many key users that consturcted these sites left Ning, many resources could be lost.
I think it is sad that Ning has decided to make educators pay. Everyday teachers are striving to give back to their students and learn the new best practices to staty fresh, on a shoestring school budget. Thus, now having to pay for the services, no matter how small the amount makes Ning almost tainted to many. Currently, with almost every school cutting back it is highly likely that mroe money be given to pay for teachers to enroll in networks online. Therefore, hopefully something will change and possibly Ning will call back this idea of making educators pay. The article I read can be found at this here.
Class Websites
For our final in my technology class our assignment was to create a website showcasing our different technology projects that we have completed through the class. Personally, I love this idea instead of a test on how to use the different programs that we have used through the year. Thinking more about creating sites, I think that having a classroom site would be an excellent tool for teachers. My goal for having a classroom site would be to allow greater communication between parents, teachers, and the students.
We have used google Google Sites in creating our first websites which has been a great experience. I have found that uploading and creating different pages is a breeze with this program. At first I was worried it would be hard to figure out, but to my surprise it was not! Also, there are many different applications which I have not even used yet in creating my site that would be useful to a classroom site. I have not tried any other programs in creating sites, but if anyone reading this loves a different website creator let me know!
Please check out my Website and give me some feedback on more ideas. Keep in mind this is the first time Ihave ever made one, so there are still some kinks to work out!
Back to creating classroom sits, I think foremost it is vital to make it easy to read and navigate through for all the users. Also, for the creator, you, because you don't want to have to set away a ton of time every day or week to update your site. Updating is important for a classroom site. My goal is not to just create a site on the first day and never change a thing, instead use the site as a window of conversation and showcase of student work. By uploading pictures (after getting consent) of projects completed by students, such as digital posters, pictures, concept maps, drawings, or podcast.
Another neat way to use your blog would be to have a classroom blog that is updated through the semester or year. It seems like not matter how cool the lesson at school was seven times out of ten the kids when asked what did you learn at school today from parents will say nothing. This way the parents will be more informed about the day-to-day happenings in the classroom and know about what activities and the progress being made by the kids.
On this first site I made, which is a somewhat hybrid of my technology class and what my classroom site would look like, I created an extra credit corner. As of now I only have a couple links, but as the semester goes by I would post more options. I know some people are not fond of the idea of extra credit, however we all have bad days and bomb assignments, therefore I think some extra credit always on hand is more of an action of grace than a freebie.
We have used google Google Sites in creating our first websites which has been a great experience. I have found that uploading and creating different pages is a breeze with this program. At first I was worried it would be hard to figure out, but to my surprise it was not! Also, there are many different applications which I have not even used yet in creating my site that would be useful to a classroom site. I have not tried any other programs in creating sites, but if anyone reading this loves a different website creator let me know!
Please check out my Website and give me some feedback on more ideas. Keep in mind this is the first time Ihave ever made one, so there are still some kinks to work out!
Back to creating classroom sits, I think foremost it is vital to make it easy to read and navigate through for all the users. Also, for the creator, you, because you don't want to have to set away a ton of time every day or week to update your site. Updating is important for a classroom site. My goal is not to just create a site on the first day and never change a thing, instead use the site as a window of conversation and showcase of student work. By uploading pictures (after getting consent) of projects completed by students, such as digital posters, pictures, concept maps, drawings, or podcast.
Another neat way to use your blog would be to have a classroom blog that is updated through the semester or year. It seems like not matter how cool the lesson at school was seven times out of ten the kids when asked what did you learn at school today from parents will say nothing. This way the parents will be more informed about the day-to-day happenings in the classroom and know about what activities and the progress being made by the kids.
On this first site I made, which is a somewhat hybrid of my technology class and what my classroom site would look like, I created an extra credit corner. As of now I only have a couple links, but as the semester goes by I would post more options. I know some people are not fond of the idea of extra credit, however we all have bad days and bomb assignments, therefore I think some extra credit always on hand is more of an action of grace than a freebie.
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