Session 2

So I have made it to Session 2/Module 2  which is a good start!
Using Blogger and setting up our own blog space......
Working through the setting up of our own blog space was a useful activity and I can see how it could be a really handy tool in the classroom.  Most importantly it can provide a secure environment (based upon who has access to the blog) to promote and provide feedback to students , especially seniors who may be working on individual or even group based projects (as discussed by Jade).  The concept of a blog space gives students the opportunity to voice their interests/problems and concerns and while this can also be done in person the use of the blog and general concepts of cyberspace can provide the student to possibly say or respond in a manner that they may not feel able to in a classroom setting (especially in front of peers).  Of course the public nature of posting such material needs to be reinforced to the student
An area of concern I have would  be regarding the  nature of setting up the blog spaces for a full class of students. Primarily because there would be large numbers  trying to create their blog at the one time from the same URL (as we experienced) which put Google into defence mode thus requiring us to provide additional verification to allow us permission to create the blog spaces. This is a difficult situation to try and administer as a general classroom teacher. One way to eliminate this problem would be to spend time prior to the lesson ensuring that each student had their account and blog site set up, this could possibly be done in small group’s using  laptops/class computers over a period of time before the desired lesson time.
As with all IT related issues it would be important for teachers to regularly use and keep themselves up to date with the process of creating blogs to help troubleshooting when working with the students.
There are huge benefits to the portability of this type of work eliminating the need for either students or teachers having to carry large folios especially for Technology and Creative Arts subjects. This currently can only work for class/school based activities due to the page requirements that are presented for HSC Major Projects.