Thing 1: Blogging

About me... I'm in my 4th year as an Instructional Technology Resource Teacher for the Rochester Schools. I work with students and teachers to find ways that technology can fit into the classroom curriculum. I have taught for over 20 years, with most of my time as a classroom teacher. I currently work with 4 elementary schools. Four might sound like a lot, until you hear that I had 8 schools last year. I love helping people. I am participating in Cool Tools because I want to learn more about the tech tools that students and teachers can use to make learning meaningful and memorable. I think technology can make learning more authentic by providing a purpose. Recently I helped two classes have a hangout with Jewell Parker Rhodes, the author of Falling Towers. As the students read the book, many questions came to their minds. With some encouragement, their classroom teacher contacted Ms. Rhodes and she enthusiastically agreed to do a Google Hangout with the class. It was an incredible experience for the students and the teachers. I want to know about what new tech tools are out there so I can connect students and teachers with the world and make their curriculum come alive. During this lesson I have learned that it is not hard to get a blog started. I watched the interview with Ms. Hernandez about the blogfolios and read about getting students started with blogging. I have to admit that I was a little concerned about the blogfolios as I watched the video because most of them are in the public domain. I like the idea that teachers can work with students to make sure their posts are safe. I read the blogs with tips for working with students who are posting. I liked how the students at the school in Florida in the video created guidelines for posting comments to their blogs because that is an authentic way to teach online etiquette. I think I would be more comfortable with kid blogs if they were in a protected domain, one where students and parents can interact with the blog, but it would not be open to the entire internet. I also think a concept like blogfolios requires a deep commitment from the adults supporting the students to ensure that a safe environment is maintained. Teachers would need to be actively reading through the blogs and the comments regularly to ensure students were following the guidelines. I think blogging is a great way to teach children about how to conduct themselves on the web because it is authentic. I do think that teachers would have to be very committed to the work in order to ensure the integrity of the projects.