Journal #1½

As I was going back through the syllabus to ensure I did my blog journal correctly, I noticed I did not, and forgot to answer the posed questions. So, please see this journal as a continuation of Journal #1. :o)

So far, the course has been going well. I do have to admit the scholarly writing assignment snuck up on me and I was not as prepared for it as I had planned to. I also have to admit I felt overwhelmed when I noticed not only was the paper due Monday, but also a couple of other assignments. I felt that with such an important assignment as a paper it should be the only thing due on that day and the other assignments due another day. But, I understand I had 3 weeks to work on the paper and other assignments, which really is more than enough time to have everything completed.

I am having some frustrations that my team members have not been communicating with me as much as I would like them to, one in particular. But, I am trying my hardest to get us all to meet at a specified time to begin the team work assignments.

Some of my accomplishments that I am proud of are staying on task with the assigned reading. In high school and in my undergraduate courses I had a bad habit of not completely my assigned reading. But, after becoming as teacher and experiencing the frustrations of students not reading, I vowed to always complete my assigned reading in this course...and I have!! (so far...) ;o)

Being an online learner has proved to have its difficulties; however, with all the wonderful things going on in my life right now, it has helped TREMENDOUSLY having flexibility in completing my assignments and not having a scheduled class time I am required to attend.
I plan to continue working hard and I am determined not to fall behind.

Journal #1

As a first time blogger, I have tried to make myself more
familiar with the practice of "blogging" in the classroom. Looking
through different class blogs I have realized there lots of pros and cons of
having classroom blogs. Below is a list of pros and cons for incorporating
blogs into the classroom:



Pros

• Very easy for teachers to create and update


• Accessible at home or library


• It's something new and different for students, therefore it's a good motivator for students


• Provides opportunities for students to read and write more


• Blogs provide opportunities for discussion and collaboration


• Teachers are able to inform students of class requirements


• Teachers can post homework assignments


• Teachers can post hand-outs


• Teachers can post school notices


• Blogs create digital student portfolios where assignments can be automatically archived


• Blogs are incentives for students to write better because more people will be reading their works.


• Teachers can create lessons that students can answer questions at their own leisure and navigate through different hyperlinks; constructing knowledge as they good.

Cons

• Not all students have a computer at home to access blogs from


• Teachers need to make sure that they adhere to their school districts guidelines about student work being publically published.


• Teachers need to make sure and enforce school technology agreements about appropriate and safe online etiquette.


• Students may post hurtful criticism about other students' work.


• Teachers need to take additional time out of their instruction to teach students how to create and use blogs.

As you can see, I have come to find out there are more pros
than cons for having classroom blogs. However, the cons have very high
penalties if not followed properly within each school and school district.



Overall, I think using blogs in the classroom is a revolutionary idea. I think
it works great for college students (whom most likely will have a personal
computer), but unfortunately, not many high schools are lucky enough to have
unlimited computer access in the classroom. Most schools have computers labs
that teachers are forced to share with other faculty members, causing
"blogging" to be a little more difficult.

Creating a Blog

Well, this is my very first time ever creating a blog. I am currently taking a class at Northern Arizona University that requires me to create a web log journal of my experiences in this class. So far my experience as has been pleasant, but I have to admit trying to find a free "educational blog" turned out to be a little difficult. I thought I found one at ebn.com; however, it was a confusing site to navigate through and I wasn't sure what I was doing (even after exploring the site for over half an hour). So, I ended up finding blogger.com and it was MUCH easier. Here's to hoping everything goes well this semester! Cheers!