Week 2 - Reflection

I enjoy using a blog and reading blogs.  This past summer I got into the “blog world” and started reading several different blogs.  I got so into it I created my own personal blog.  I use it to share craft ideas, recipes, and other random things I find interesting.  I was excited to see that blogging was going to be one of our projects in this course because I would like to learn new ways in which I can use a blog in my classroom.  The RSS Reader is very convenient because you can go to one spot and read everything.  Before I discovered the RSS Reader I would have five to ten windows open with different blogs trying to keep updated with all of the new posts.  Now all I have to do is open one window and everything I need is right there. 

Another educational technology I would like to use in my classroom would be a blog.  I think it would be a great tool for students to share their work with other students and for them to find resources they can use in the classroom.   These resources would give them opportunities to find more information on a given subject or to interact with information in other ways.  I feel this would fall under the demonstration portion of the cone because students have to demonstrate their knowledge of the subject in order to communicate it on the blog.  The weakness of using a blog in the classroom would be that some students may have a hard time communicating their knowledge through words even if they fully understand the subject.     

RSS feeds would be more similar to the top and middle parts of the cone. It would apply to both for different reasons. It would fall toward the middle because it can deliver iconic experiences, such as serialized content like television or motion pictures. It can also deliver recordings, radio and still pictures similar to more traditional means such as newspapers. It could also apply to the symbolic section of the cone because it can be used to communicate visual symbols and verbal symbols to a wider audience.

An imaginative use of both a blog and RSS feeds could be to let teachers share information and lesson ideas quickly. While teachers may be teaching the same material across the country, they are rarely in touch with each other. They know the other teachers at their school teaching the material, but that is usually the only group they know with the material, so they only have a few points of view about it. Books and lesson plans can be distributed to assume some level of standardization, this is still fairly impersonal. The ability of a blog post to share information from one person to many is something that could never have been done with traditional means of communication. The teacher with the ideas could easily compose a blog post to share the idea, and the other teachers, who are subscribed to the blog through an RSS reader, will be able to see that tip, as well as any other tip from additional teaching blogs that they may have subscribed to. This answers the problem of teachers being able to connect with each other and exchange plans at a fast-paced rate, without the need for an intermediate body such as a publisher.