I Love Blogs!

I have always been a bit ahead of the curve when it comes to technology in many respects and I think blogs are a wonderful tool that will play an ever-increasing role in education in years to come.

I first started blogging in 2005 when most of my friends had never even heard of one. I continued for a few years before I finally gave up the blog and let it die. Now Facebook has filled that need to some extent.

I have toyed with the idea on many occasions of using a blog or Facebook or Twitter or something web 2.0ish with my students but have yet to really make the move to do so. (I did try something earlier this year, but more on that later.) The biggest barrier to increased use of these tools is access to computers. It is really a tremendous hassle to get the computers out and get them all working. It is very time consuming.

It is a different story if you want them to do it from home. Probably over 95 percent of our students have the internet, but what do you do about that other 5 percent? Also, it is shocking how many supposedly tech-savvy kids can't seem to find the right web site when it is written down for them!

Maybe it is a case of just needing to work through these problems and keep plugging away. It is bound to get easier.

I did have one assignment this year at the very beginning where I asked them to go to a photo blog that I know (OK, mine) and comment on one of the photos there. I asked them to use the photo to tell me something about themselves as a way of introduction.

I think the assignment met the first two standards set for student use of technology because coming up with a way to use the picture they chose to tell me about themselves involved creativity and it also involved communicating with me and the others who logged on to the site.

It was fairly successful, but I was mostly disappointed with the students who were bound and determined not to complete what I thought would be a fun and engaging way to do something that is usually tedious and boring to them. I plan on trying again.