Learning to Live

As a new blog user, the first thing I wanted to know was “Why should I use a blog site?”, and like all techno junkies I jumped onto my trusty Google search engine and asked the question. The answers that came back had little to do with educational pedagogy and more to do with marketing. Luckily I was not put off by the apparent lack of educational support for blogging, and I refined my Google search to include “Educational reasons for using a blog” and discovered some excellent evidence in support of educational blogging at a blog site no less. The site suggested some reasons for both instructors and students:
Options for instructors using blogs:

• Content-related blog as professional practice
• Networking and personal knowledge sharing
• Instructional tips for students
• Course announcements and readings
• Annotated links
• Knowledge management

Options for students using blogs in your courses include:

• Reflective or writing journals
• Knowledge management
• Assignment submission and review
• Dialogue for groupwork
• E-portfolios
• Share course-related resources

Having been convinced I ventured to Edublogs to find a place to share my thoughts and ideas and here I discoved on the front page 10 reasons for Blogging in Education:

1. Post materials and resources
2. Host online discussions
3. Create a class publication
4. Replace your newsletter
5. Get your students blogging
6. Share your lesson plans
7. Integrate multimedia of all descriptions
8. Organise, organise, organise
9. Get feedback
10. Create a fully functional website

Needless to say with all this support for educational blogging I have decided to give it a try so here goes….

I hope that someone has a look at what I am up to otherwise I’ll have to reassess the the value of this blogging activity.