About the blogginess of it all

I'm very excited to have a blog dedicated to one area of my life--the Teacher-Librarian side. This blog is required for the EDES 501 class on Web 2.0 in schools and libraries. There is nothing I love more than learning hands on skills while I'm learning the theory behind it all--so I'm looking forward to this class.


I chose the Blogger publishing tool because it seemed like the most intuitive site, and the one that I am most familiar with. While I would love to explore other options, I have 3 small children who are still very demanding, and time to surf and experiment is cut to a minimum. Another reason I chose this blog publisher is because it is the one I've seen used most often, and I suppose I am susceptible to familiarity. If I think of myself as an emergent learner in Web 2.0, then blogger is what has been modeled most for me, and therefore what I can easily slip into.


Using the blog as a vehicle for my own learning makes me all the more aware how powerful blogs can be in the classroom. The potential is enormous! I loved Will Richardson's example of his class using the blog to create a study guide for A Recipe for Bees. The writing involved had purpose, and an authentic audience--reminding me that as educators it is not enough to blog for blogging sake. It's what you put into the blog and the assignment that makes it meaningful to our students and ourselves.

In case anyone is reading this blog from outside of our EDES 501 class, I would highly recommend our class text, "Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms" by Will Richardson. It is an engaging text, full of insight for using Web 2.0 tools in our schools.