Weblogs for Learning 2004

The latest WWW Tools for Education takes and in depth look at Weblogs in the classroom and collects a huge number of links, some of which haven’t popped up on my radar. Definitely a great starting point for anyone looking to get an overview of the trends in this arena.

When we looked at Edublogs in 2002, blogging technology was sufficiently advanced for common use, and general uptake was enthusiastic as people discovered this new, easy and inexpensive means of Web-based self-expression. However, many of these early adopters soon discovered that Weblogging, like any journal-keeping activity, can become a time-consuming chore - a good idea at the time, but soon outranked by other priorities; many bloggers said what they had to say, then moved on, abandoning their Weblogs to the cul-de-sacs of Cyberspace. On the other hand, while perceptions of the churn rate for blogs may vary , the figures seem to indicate an overall steady increase in the number of viable blogs of all sorts. In educational implementations in particular, adoption has been explosive as educators continue to seize upon the genre to support learning in many different ways.

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Face-to-Face

Nothing beats face-to-face! It was great presenting with these 4 weblogging guys whom I never would have met, let alone presented with, were it not for the power of weblogging. I think we had a dynamic group of attendees. Many already had weblogs and everyone brought a lot to the table. Lots of good discussion, ideas, and suggestions were offered. Will gave an overview of his weblog work, I followed with my weblog projects, Tom honed right in on the importance of reading and writing to the whole process and explained RSS and other technical aspects, and Steve got everyone up and going on their very own weblog. Of course, none of this would have happened without the guiding hand of Tim Lauer. He amazes me. He has really put together quite a setup with weblogs at his school. I love the fact that the first 15 minutes of their faculty meetings are devoted to teachers posting about their classrooms. I think the participants learned a lot. I did, too! Face-to-face is terrific!

Are We “Bridging Differences” Finally?

Based on a comment I left on a post over at Weblogg-ed.

I’ve been following “Bridging Differences” for quite awhile and so have seen how these two women who at first seemed far apart in their theories and experiences in education have been coming more and more to common ground - kind of shows the value of talking … hashing things out, diplomacy … um but I digress. We’ve heard/seen the same when the Stagers’ and the Richardsons’ (and others) who at times seem to be at odds over things get together to “have at it” in person seem to come away realizing they are not so far apart really.

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