Blogging....

Blogs. They are a wave of the future... or maybe more so, now... until the next wave of evolution from Web 3.0. Blogs create a facility for the infamous to be the famous... the unknown and quiet to be known and often loud... Blogs give those who are not confident in first person, a safe avenue to let their opinions fly out into the world wide web - which is now so overwhelming!!!

I love blogs. I have a personal blog, for my children... I want them to have something to reflect back to... I know I will not be able to remember every little thing they do... I want them to know I cared about their growth and development into the people they are yet to be. But, you must notice, even with this blog, I do not allow them to take over my life. I have heard horror stories of people who are allowing blogs to take over their lives... nervous breakdowns occurring and realistically stopping their realistic life, for their second life. I will not do this. This is why I am not too regular with my contributions.

However, as a Teaching tool blogs are fantastic. It doesn't matter what subject area you are referring to or what your doing.. they could be used in nearly any avenue... crikey, soon we may not use exercise books, just blogs...but I don't now how much I'd like that! As an English teacher, I feel learners don't write enough anymore... they don't express their opinions enough, as especially with our education system - NCEA - they are constantly stressed and trying to meet the course requirements. Blogs give an avenue of an out... as well as a learning opportunity.

All my learners are required to have blogs. I started this year, and my HOF has adopted this policy - we are trying to implement this across the school. It is not always an easy thing to do. Our goal is to get learners writing. Obviously. I am looking forward to looking at each learners evolution over the course of the year, and also it will be interesting to see how different writing styles change on their blog, as we move through different Achievement Standards.

Learners must write on their blogs a minimum of three times a week. This becomes their primary home learning. Learners are given options of what they can write about - motivational ideas on a daily basis...

• Today we watched a web 2.0 safety clip on YouTube today, and they were sent home to write a review of the clip onto their blogs.


• Learners are allowed to create stories, let their minds run free.


• Learners can complete their course work as home learning and simply publish what they have done in class.


• Learners can share Web2.0 information, ideas, books reviews - basically anything (but if they are sharing something like a video clip - they must write a paragraph review).


• Learners can write about their own thoughts and ideas - but in a safe manner

Blogging brings in opportunities to discuss and implement ideas regarding personal safety on line. I am currently working on gathering material to create an on-going unit regarding safety on line with Web2.0. I relate this to any interaction on line, not just school work.. and find YouTube to be one of my best friends! I will be posting more of my ideas regarding this online as this starts to evolve. I strongly believe it is something that educationalists and parents do not always realise the importance of and it can be over-looked at times.