Module 2

 I am quite familiar with blogs, although using them as a personal learning journal is something I haven't done before. I'm a little shy about sharing my thoughts with others and during the Web 2.0 course I haven't been blogging as diligently as I had hoped I would. I tend to do the learning components and then catch up with the blog way later. It is interesting as an assessment tool. I love the idea of blogging and if I am going to expect my students to blog, I'm going to have to put myself out there and give it a go.  

I have used blogs before to post images and organise communications around different art projects I have been involved in. I also regularly research people's blogs when I am organising overseas trips, looking for somewhere great to eat in Sydney and to research specific artist's ideas. I have 3 blogs that are floating around in my head yet to eventuate. I will eventually blog about my food excursions, document some of my overseas adventures and create a website for creative children interested in arty stuff.

In Year 4 this year we used edublogs to communicate with a class in Korea for a HSIE project. I think it was one of the best teaching experiences of my career.  The students were all engaged, they were all in control of their own learning, it was student centered and best of all they could work at their own pace. I really enjoyed using the blog more as a social networking tool than a online journal. There were many simultaneous conversations going on at once. It was incredibly interactive and the students had very quick responses to their questions. I am interested in the different ways that students and teachers can use blogs. Many teacher blogs out there are still very teacher centered. By having all of year 4 and also the Korean students communicating on the same blog it did open up the communication channels and made it  a student centered project.