LIS Weblogs Richardson Chapter 2

My first experience with reading a weblog on a daily basis is the coupon site I have posted on my Blog. To be honest, I love reading it everyday. However, before I began reading weblog, I loved to read two 'old-fashioned' weblogs - Dear Abbey and the advice column in Reader's Digest called, Ask Laskas by Jeanne Marie Laskas. I appreciate their candid and upfront answers to all of life's mundane and wild questions. Furthermore, I loved Carrie Bradshaw's advice column on the fictional TV show(which ended its successful six year run in 2006) Sex and the City . All are education, entertaining and honest. To me, these are 'old-fashioned" blogs.

As a teacher, I can easily see how Richardson wants educators to make themselves more aware and capable of creating weblogs for their classrooms. Most children love to be challenged and they are just as fascinated by technology as many of their teachers. Not only could weblogs serve as a powerful learning tool for traditional education approaches, it can also serve constructionist learning styles by encouraging teachers to share tools and experiences in the digital world that many students would not be able to experience in their physical classroom world. By creating an educational weblog, a teacher can open up a dynamic digital portal for learning. Everyone wins! Sure, we need to be prepared for safety issues, but an organized and ambitious teacher can save a lot of time passing out papers, orchestrating transitional activities, preparing packets of work for absent students, etc., by having a portal or weblog that provides student and teacher access and communication before and after a lesson. Teachers can allow for important discussions to take place after a class is over to help students who have questions, to allow more informed students to help answer questions, or to serve as an outlet for those in the class who have a desire to learn more about a certain topic. This may not be for everyone. I am taking my third Online graduate class, and weblogs have been very helpful in my own studies. I hope all districts in New York State have professional development opportunities to teach teachers about weblogs and other emerging technology.