Ed Tech Ideas

As educators, we are constantly coming up with new ideas to integrate into our classrooms that will ultimately result in increased student learning, and hopefully, enhanced enjoyment and engagement. Here in the Intermediate school, students and teachers from various classes have been blogging for the past 2+ years. It has been a learning experience for everyone involved and so much has been gained from the journey.

Student Blogs

For our student bloggers, the reasons for blogging are numerous. Blogs are a place to showcase school work and projects they have completed. Students blog to improve their writing and share their written pieces with a larger audience. They use blogs as a form of online communication and collaboration, where they can read and leave comments on each other’s blogs. Blogging is also a way to develop their digital footprints in a very positive way.

Ed Tech Ideas

My professional blog is a place where I highlight useful web tools for students, teachers, and parents which I use in the computer lab.  I discover the resources from professional journals and blogs that come daily to my RSS reader, as well as shared from members of my personal learning community.  I began the blog two years as a way to reflect on learning experiences that were happening in my classroom, as well as a way to organize and share the many educational resources and tools that I have found essential to student learning in the 21st century.

Lifelong Learning

One thing that I noticed when I first began blogging is that I was immediately more reflective about the projects and activities I was doing in the classroom. Even though at the beginning, I had only 1 person who subscribed and read any postings I would make, knowing that there was 1 person reading made a major difference. Over time, the readership grew, but I’ve found that the amount of subscribers makes little difference. It’s the idea that your voice is out there and it has a home. For students and adults alike, blogging is a way for continuous written improvements, a place for deeper reflection and a way to communicate, collaborate and share ideas, which will prepare them for a life of unending learning and growth.