Blogs and Aggregators

I have been using a blog for the past 2 months now and I have learnt a lot about how this technology can be used both inside and outside of the classroom. If you are unaware what a blog is, you are reading one right now! A blog is an online journal where people can share their thoughts, ideas, experiences and write about any topic of interest (WordNet, 2009).

As we are now in the 21st Century and technology is all around us, we need to incorporate it into our daily teaching practices. These are some ideas where Blogs and Aggregators can be used:
-Students can keep a Blog when they are on their holiday. Students in the class can read all about what they are doing on their holiday and get to share the experience
-Record Keeper, where students can share their ideas on a particular topic. The mentor teacher can post a blog about a topic they are learning in class with assign tasks for the students to complete. The students can post comments about the topic and how they found completing the tasks
- Sharing ideas with other learning managers both nationally and internationally. This is where teaching strategies, lesson ideas and reflections can be shared. This is the Community of practice theory being displayed. The learning managers will be sharing information and problems which have occurred during the process (Wenger, 2004).
To help follow these Blogs the use of an Aggregator will notify you when a new post has been published. Google Reader is a great tool which can be used as an Aggregator.

These are some example I found were blogs can be used in the classroom:
- Setting tasks for students: http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/
- Blogging about your holiday overseas to share with the students: http://my-ecoach.com/blogs.php?blog=1451

- Natalie

Reference List
Wenger, E. (2004). Communities of practice: a brief introduction. Retrieved August 18, 2009, from http://www.ewenger.com/theory/

WordNet. (2009). WordNet Search. Retrieved August 18, 2009, from http://wordnet.princeton.edu/