Education Project

The largest similarity I found through Google, Yahoo, and MSN was educational.blogs.com. I also found a website for kathyschrock.net/edtechblogs.html. I think these results came up because both websites were great resources for examples on "Educational Blogs" and could be helpful for anyone who wants to start a blog.

The things I discovered through my search for RSS readers and for aggregators was blogspace.com/rss/reader. This was the main website that I looked at because number one, it said it was free and number two, it had the definition at the very top. I have learned that an "RSS reader" is a great tool that provides all the news updates but in a form for your computer. I actually talked to one of the practicum teachers about this tool and she said it even comes with an icon at the bottom of the screen that pops up with current events.

Through the blogs in the education project, I discovered how blogs are being used in -12 settings. From what I saw when I explored some of the educational blogs, many teachers and schools are taking advantage of blogging to keep the students and parents informed about what is going on in school. One blog posted school news that informed students and parents about upcoming events at school. Another blog posted information about fundraisers and also asked for requests for the fundraisers. Also some of these educational blogs posted the school news letter on their blog site, which is a great way to keep parents and students informed and also save on time and postage instead of sending out a school newsletter in the mail.

I also learned how blogs are impacting K-12 classrooms. Some teachers are making blog posts of classroom notes. These notes are to inform parents about what their children will be learning in upcoming lessons. Also some teachers are using their blog posts to request needed classroom supplies, and other favors from parents. Some teachers even produce a classroom newsletter on their blog site which is yet another way to make sure parents and students are staying informed.

RSS readers/aggregators would be really helpful as I stated above because of the great use it gives for teachers. There are so many websites you could go to for downloading a RSS reader and it would be a very helpful tool for current event lessons. I would probably use it in my classroom if I had to teach English with current events. I could easily download one of the free RSS readers and have current events at the click of a button.

From this assignment I've come to realize that blogs can be useful in a classroom setting. Three ways that I would use blogs in my future classroom are to post a classroom newsletter to keep parents and students informed about what we're doing in the classroom, post classroom news about upcoming events for the students and parents, and to post weekly assignments so parents can stay informed about what homework assignments their children have. All of these are ways in which I think blogs can benefit my future students and their parents because blogging is a great way for us to stay in communication with each other concerning their student's education.

Two pros that I have already talked about were to keep in contact with parents and allowing parents to see what is going on in their children's lives at school. The second pro is the fact that teachers could put up news, upcoming events, etc. and that will also help for teachers with bad memory (like me) remember when we assign something. As for the cons, some students might not have access to computers or internet to check the blogs. The second con , especially for high school students, is probably the fact that we can't sensor what students write. Since there is public access to blogging and RSS readers, there really isn't a way to sensor anything written or read from the internet.