Technology in the Classroom: A Professional Blogfolio

“Who actually cares what I have to say?”  To be completely honest, this is what my initial reaction was when I heard the class requirements for ECMP 355.  Creating and maintaining a blog was something completely foreign to me! Regardless, it was my responsibility to create this page, play with the settings, and explore my writing style.

As the weeks passed I became more and more comfortable blogging and reading the blogs of others in the class.  I’m not sure what my expectations were as I was reading, but I was impressed with what people were sharing and writing in their blogs.  I found, like many people in this class, that I agreed with some and disagreed with others.  If I felt strongly about something I would express my opinion by adding a comment at the bottom of the page.  I especially enjoyed seeing the photo stories and videos that everyone had created and I often thanked people for sharing them with us.

Coming to the end of this course I would no longer cringe at the thought of having to express myself through blogging on the internet.  I felt moments of passion come through as I was excited to blog about cyber bullying and how it relates to Rick Lavoie’s “poker chip” analogy.  Also, when Barack Obama became the democratic nominee I couldn’t wait to write a quick post!

Just as I became excited about reading others’ work, I believe students could feel the same way.  I believe that students, regardless of their age, can benefit from blogging in the classroom.  Before this course I had heard about some brave teachers who were using this tool, but I was unfamiliar with how engaged the students could become.  The neat thing about blogging in school is, it can fit almost anywhere in our Saskatchewan Evergreen Curriculum!  Students can interact with other students from around the world and learn about different cultures.  They can create pod casts about a novel study to share with their classmates and give words of encouragement online.  Teachers could post their daily math assignments online and students could answer the questions and explain their reasoning through simple blog posts.  I plan to use blogging in my future classrooms because the possibilities are endless!   

Being the digital immigrant that I am, I feel I have grown immensely throughout this course.  I am more confident in my abilities and I believe I will be able to take many things that I have learned and apply them in my internship this fall.  Thank you, Alec, for being patient when we were having difficulties, giving us the opportunity to experience new forms of technology, and pushing us beyond our comfort levels!    

This entry was posted on June 18, 2008 at 8:23 am and is filed under Uncategorized. Tagged: ECMP 355, reflection. 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.