Using blogs as a way for teachers to share their ideas and reflections was an addition to the course this term. Blogging is a relatively common activity these days, and it's easier to create a blog with Blogger than to try to create a web page with Tripod or another free site.
Now that people are getting more familiar with blogging, though, we're starting to see the limitations of this site. It's easy to add graphics, video, and links, but not easy to add files. I'll put together instructions on adding files to the course wiki, right-clicking to copy the link address, then adding that link to the blog. It's more complicated than just uploading a file, but there are limits to what you can ask of a free site. (I've linked to the instructions: This will only work for course participants)
Another information bit that I'll put together - maybe as a Tech Tip - is using Delicious (www.delicious.com) or other bookmarking sites to store bookmarks. People are starting to accumulate bookmarks from the course and elsewhere, so some sort of organizing tool would be useful. I had an earlier Tech Tip about saving files, creating bookmark folders, and the like, but it's very helpful to have bookmarks that you can access from anywhere, not just on one computer.
When you think about it, it's amazing how much is available for free. It's easy to complain about what the free tools don't do, but best to keep in mind what they will do - and for free.
--Deborah
Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts
Friday, August 7, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Week 3 of the course
I just finished sending comments to everyone about their work this past week. I'm very impressed with the collegiality that everyone has shown in sharing ideas on Nicenet. There have been some great suggestions for skill-building websites and how to use them.
My only regret is that I didn't make the prompt for discussion quite as clear as it should have been. I was really looking for how teachers would use specific sites in their teaching, whether as a teacher resource, in-class activity, or assignments for students outside of class. I did get learning objectives, though, and they are getting to be more consistently about student behavior, not about teacher goals. That's a positive development.
I was very happy with how well blogging is going for most people. We're only missing three blogs now, and most people with blogs are posting to them regularly. That has worked as well as I hoped. Given the issues with the Internet, especially in Iraq, I was really unsure that the participants in the course would be able to create blogs without too much trouble. But Blogger is quite easy to use, so it seems to have worked. We'll probably use blogs more often in the future, too.
Having the ELT Wiki with all the blogs listed has been very, very helpful. I can go through and view each blog that way. I have set up Google Reader so that I can read posts as they come in, but I still like the overview that I get by going through each blog in turn.
Because Nicenet doesn't allow attachments and I don't see an easy way to add an attachment other than a picture or audio/video here on Blogger, I decided to create another page on our wiki for files called Shared Files (it's only open to wiki members, like the rest of the wiki). I also added a page called Website Resources where people could share their favorite websites. The Website Resources page could turn into a page on the course website later, too.
The discussions for Week 4 are already starting, and they seem more productive from my standpoint than the ones last week. Looks like I may have learned a lesson from last week's prompt and did a better job this week - at least, I hope so.
I am certainly looking forward to the ideas coming this week!
--Deborah
My only regret is that I didn't make the prompt for discussion quite as clear as it should have been. I was really looking for how teachers would use specific sites in their teaching, whether as a teacher resource, in-class activity, or assignments for students outside of class. I did get learning objectives, though, and they are getting to be more consistently about student behavior, not about teacher goals. That's a positive development.
I was very happy with how well blogging is going for most people. We're only missing three blogs now, and most people with blogs are posting to them regularly. That has worked as well as I hoped. Given the issues with the Internet, especially in Iraq, I was really unsure that the participants in the course would be able to create blogs without too much trouble. But Blogger is quite easy to use, so it seems to have worked. We'll probably use blogs more often in the future, too.
Having the ELT Wiki with all the blogs listed has been very, very helpful. I can go through and view each blog that way. I have set up Google Reader so that I can read posts as they come in, but I still like the overview that I get by going through each blog in turn.
Because Nicenet doesn't allow attachments and I don't see an easy way to add an attachment other than a picture or audio/video here on Blogger, I decided to create another page on our wiki for files called Shared Files (it's only open to wiki members, like the rest of the wiki). I also added a page called Website Resources where people could share their favorite websites. The Website Resources page could turn into a page on the course website later, too.
The discussions for Week 4 are already starting, and they seem more productive from my standpoint than the ones last week. Looks like I may have learned a lesson from last week's prompt and did a better job this week - at least, I hope so.
I am certainly looking forward to the ideas coming this week!
--Deborah
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