My+Blog

Collaboration for Learning: Blogs in the Classroom

Description //For this assignment, we had to create a weblog, or ‘blog,’ for use within our Virtual Classroom (I chose to use the recommended [] ). To further that description, a weblog is akin to making personalized ‘newsposts’ in an online environment where people interested in your topic can subscribe to your messages. With the proper permissions, these people can also comment on your postings to converse with you and your other followers. //

//While our blog does not have to perfectly align with the content of the Virtual Classroom, it should align with use and/or applicability to enrich the content/subject that we are teaching through our Virtual Class. //

Process //As I think about blogs, and their applications to my classroom, the first that springs to mind is to have a place for me to share interesting bits and information with students (current and former), parents, and others in my department. It is an organized location to build an education community, as well as a place for me to get the message out about the importance of math in the real world (like the post I made for this class about Mersenne Primes on my blog). //

//I also look at it as a place for those former students to give my current ones an idea of expectations and things to look forward to! //

//I would try to use it as a place to keep work updated for students, but I would be more partial to a forum where I could create a different section for each of my classes, as well as a group one for all my students to participate in. //

Reflection //I really like the idea of the blog. Used effectively, it provides and excellent locale for students, educators, and anyone interested to participate in an educational community. Have a great student that moved away, but still wants to contribute to the classroom? Wonderful! Have him or her on the blog! Likewise, it is a place for students to just share their ideas that revolve around a centralized topic and allows the moderator final say on what posts are and are not allowed. //

//In addition to this, the actual steps to create the blog are intuitive and straight-forward. After the demonstration by Professor Roe in regards to adding tools through HTML-script, I am certain I can tackle adding anything I deem useful to my blog for my followers to use, as well. //

//To me, blogs are in the Top 3 for tools we have used in this course. However, VoiceThread is still number one. //

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