Blogging...What's that?!

Hello! I guess I will start by introducing myself. My name is Ashley Platt and I must say that I am new to this whole blogging concept. I was born and raised here in Lethbridge, Alberta and can't wait until I graduate so that I can explore this fascinating world. I love the thought of travelling and being able to experience new cultures. What else can I say...the most important things in my life is my family, my dog, sports, and my soon-to-be career. I have always been extremely active and love to play volleyball, fastball, ringette, and golf. Volleyball, is my all time favourite sport and I have played competitively for a number of years. I have always envisioned myself becoming a teacher and now that I am in the Faculty of Education my dream will soon become reality.

When I found out that our assignment was to create our own blog I figured that I was hooped. First of all, I had no clue what a blog was and I thought to myself "how in the world is this a useful classroom teaching tool"? My second thought was "how am I going to do this on my own" since I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to technology. But to my surprise, it was very easy to get started. After many hours of researching what a blog is ,I now realize how important it is to integrate this aspect of technology into our classrooms since it is being utilized so frequently in our society. Blogging has many functions and is one way to incorporate and encourage the use of technology within the classroom. It serves as a communication tool for teachers, students, and parents that is quick, easy, and effective. It is a simple way for teachers to organize and maintain student work which makes it easy to keep track of student writing progress throughout the school year. Students may also find blogging as a valuable learning tool. It's a great opportunity for fellow peers to read and respond to student's work which is an effective way to improve student's reading and writing.

So far, I have only focused on the positive aspects of blogging. Even though there are many great ways of integrating blogging into the teaching profession I believe there are also some concerns that people (teachers, students, and parents) must be aware of. First of all, parents must give permission in order for their students to participate in blogging. Without this permission blogging should not be allowed within the classroom. Teacher/student/parent relationships may be negatively affected because it eliminates the personal interactions between them. Personal blogs may be accessed by anyone searching the worldwide web, it is not restricted to the teacher, parents, and peers. Students must be careful to not include any personal information about themselves or anyone else. They must also take into consideration the content of their blog to ensure that they are not abusing the use of blogging by bullying peers. Taking these concerns into consideration, I believe, that blogging can be an effective teaching tool if it is used properly. The appropriate steps must be taken to ensure student safety and to ensure teacher/student/parent relationships continue to build.