Reflections on blogging

When I first began this project I was almost completely unfamiliar with blogs. I read occasionally from a blog or two but had never responded. Slowly it had been dawning on me that blogs were being cited more and more in the mainstream media. I had no idea though, of the quantity of blogs being published or of their rapidly growing influence.

For the most part, my experience with creating and maintaining a blog was positive. Sometimes I found it difficult to think of anything to post about and at other times I felt so strongly about a topic that I had to think carefully about editing it down. I always looked forward to reading the comments of my classmates. Frequently a comment would give me a good idea for my next blog entry. I never responded directly to one of my classmates responses but I could see how easily an interesting conversation could spring up in this way.

Just as in a diary or a regular column in a periodical, bloggers are able to record their thoughts to look back on later or possibly share with the world. With a blog though, readers are able to respond quickly and the blogger then may quickly respond to the respondent. The blog can serve as a public forum for debate among people who have never seen one another and may be from wide ranging backgrounds. This makes it a great tool for intellectual discussion and inquiry.

Blogs provide a vehicle to get your ideas or news out to the world immediately without any delays or censorship. I first began to hear about blogging on the radio during the hurricane Katrina disaster when blogs were quoted. During hurricane Katrina bloggers were able to present images and accounts of the devastation that were not making it to the mainstream media fast enough. Voices and opinions that might not normally be heard on the mainstream media were able to have their say.

After completing this project, I feel much more comfortable as an advocate for the use of blogs as a valuable information source. I am certain that I will pursue the creation of a blog for my school library, if not for my own personal interests and opinions. I work at a school that serves students in three counties. I like the idea that a blog might create a small library community for interested parents who might otherwise find it very difficult to stop by in person.

simulations

After reading all of the posts in this week's discussion on simulations it has started me wondering how I could use simulations to enhance library skills instruction. It is easy to imagine how I can use the computer to enhance research. Several of our classmates posted some great links. I wonder though, outside of using the computer, how I can make learning about something like Dewey more hands on. I know, technically speaking, practicing using the library is as hands on as it gets. The concept of Dewey though is somewhat overwhelming to the student's at my school, most on a 3rd grade reading level or lower and with corresponding difficulties in math. I'm just wondering if I can somehow use simulations to make it simpler.

Pageflakes versus Netvibes

After looking over both of my personal start page again, I am finding that it very hard to decide between these two. I am leaning toward Pageflakes because the look of the main page is less busy. I also like the fact that it would be easy to share a Pageflakes start page among a committee or small group. This is because of the settings that Pageflakes offers to encourage this sort of thing and also some of the flakes/items that I found on Pageflakes but not on Netvibes such as the message board. I decided to look to articles and blogs that discuss these two start pages. They seem to be just about equal in popularity behind the Google start page and both seem to appeal to people who want to get a lot out of their start pages. One complaint that I read about Netvibes is the lack of tabbing. Netvibes has since added this feature, making it easy to organize your objects when you have a lot. A complaint that I read about Pageflakes is that the RSS reader is too small. Since this complaint, Pageflakes has made it easy to choose the way that you want to read each feed, amongst several options.

cyberbullying

It seems like a lot of people have been in favor of a zero tolerance policy when it come to cyberbullying. I have to agree that very strict policies and punishments should be in place for bullying of any kind. At the same time though, I think that it is very short sighted for schools to think only of monitoring and appropriate punishment as a means to ending bullying. I think that schools need to educate students, staff and parents. They also need to work hard at creating a school culture in which students feel a sense of belonging. Lots of opportunities need to be given for students to discuss bullying/cyberbullying and brainstorm solutions that are then carried out by the administration when possible.

Too Many Choices

I know I promised to compare Netvibes to Pageflakes (and I still will) but I have been thinking a lot about how everyone in this group commented on feeling a little overwhelmed by all of the choices in Netvibes. I think that all of the choices on Netvibes is great! It could just be that I'm kind of a geek but I suspect that the real reason I like Netvibes is because I have had to force myself to dedicate a lot of time to looking at it, since I'm blogging about it.

In this class we have been talking about all sorts of new technology that could potentially make teacher's lives easier. Technology is not much use though if teachers don't have ample training and free time to try it out. It's great for us to promote this technology to teachers but we also have to be outspoken with our administrators about a need for teachers to have this time and training.

Using BuiLDer

After spending a little time playing around with BuiLDer I found it pretty easy to use. In reading other student's posts on webCT a lot of people ran into technical glitches and I did too. For example, sometimes after saving my text the preview showed my text block appearing twice in a row. Overall though, I think that I have come up with a useful lesson fairly quickly. If the glitches were ironed out I know I would use this a lot, if only to save lessons for myself. Sharing and being able to search the lessons of others is nice too. I wish that those of us who are currently working in schools might have the opportunity to share how our lessons went. I don't think I will have time to use my BuiLDer before the semester ends.

Netvibes

This week I have been creating a netvibes page. To try this yourself go to http://www.netvibes.com I had some initial trouble getting started with netvibes. I signed up for an account then found myself prompted to login each time I tried to add a module. Upon logging in I got caught in a deadly loop that kept asking me to login again, never giving me the wanted module. ARGGG! very frustrating. I would not have gone back after this experience were it not for the fact that I needed more to blog about. I'm glad I tried again. Somehow 24 hours made everything right with my login and I have since been able to add lots of neat modules, rss feeds and blogs. It will be hard to compare this startpage to pageflakes which I also like alot. In my next blog entry I will try to get started.

Distance learning and disabilities

In following our reading and discussions about distance education I can't help but think of my youngest brother. He is in highschool and has ADHD. In spite of being very smart he has difficulty following a traditional class in which he has to listen to a lecture or participate in class discussion. After he failed Algebra II my parents signed him up for an online course through a university and he is doing great. He is able to work at his own pace and doesn't have to worry about missing verbally delivered information because he spaced out. I don't think a webinar would work for him though. The webinar seems more of a format suited to distance issues rather than alternative or special education needs.