Comments on: Promoting Blogs: Getting peers to buy into it…

By: Teaching Generation Z » Communicating With The World

Teaching Generation Z » Communicating With The World — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 10:51:46 +0000

[...] Now I can’t afford to be snobby to anyone so I commented on his remix. James, thank you for the comments re: Finding Time To Blog. I have to say I don’t feel like a veteran teacher especially here down under where the average age of a teacher in South Australia is 50 years old. I have been involved in ICT technologies for most of my teaching career and have always looked for the bleeding edge even if I’ve never quite been there …… [...]

By: jamesmatthew

jamesmatthew — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 18:12:41 +0000

Thank you, Graham, for your comments…
I find it great that I can connect with an educator on the other side of the world and share in his knowledge…
I agree with your sentiment that “the longer a teacher has been in ‘the game,’ the more likely cynicism has taken hold”. I have been in this game for less than a year, and already feel as if I am losing my edge… I agree, podcasting, blogs, and tagging seem to be far from the minds of many experienced teachers who are ‘glimpsing’ retirement. Unfortunately, I think they are missing a great opportunity for enrichment in their teaching and learning.
I think the biggest effect blogging has had on me is that it fuels my appetite for learning…I read a lot more now, because I want to have something to say. If this is the only benefit I ever see, then that is great, but I see the potential for so much more.
I am currently experimenting with using blogs in the classroom. It is a slow introduction as I try to wrap my head around them and integrate them into my teaching…the first step I took was porting my class homepage over to a blog format, which has saved me a ton of time and energy (I am not code savvy, so would spend time staring at the screen trying to tweak the code so it would look how I wanted…now, I just post to the blog, and it is done), but I don’t think it is utilizing blog tech. to its’ full extent.
My next step into classroom blogging will be to create a class blog where all students are contributors and are responsible for maintenance and reflecting on the literature we are encountering…
It is a small start, but I think it is a worthy endeavor.
How is your experience with blogs? Are you using them in your classrooms? I would love to hear what is and is not working for you…

By: Graham Wegner

Graham Wegner — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 10:14:11 +0000

James, thank you for the comments re: Finding Time To Blog. I have to say I don’t feel like a veteran teacher especially here down under where the average age of a teacher in South Australia is 50 years old. I have been involved in ICT technologies for most of my teaching career and have always looked for the bleeding edge even if I’ve never quite been there – my current role is that of an ICT coordinator, but somehow I didn’t twig to social software technologies until mid this year. I mean I’ve been aware of blogs for a fair while – it’s just their potential for educators (and students) that caught me by surprise. So your age theory has merit – the longer a teacher has been in “the game”, the more likely cynicism has taken hold and for a lot of teachers who can glimpse the retirement light at the end of the tunnel, blogging and tagging and podcasting aren’t important enough to them in their minds. I’m not sure what the answer is – but now I have a new blog to interact with so, thanks for contributing to my learning!