So what are we doing again?

Why do we blog as part of this course?  I’m hoping to achieve several things at once:

1. I want you to learn the mechanics of blogging.

To really understand what blogging can do for you as a teacher or learner, you have to get comfortable with the process, and this takes time. Readers of blogs only see the end product – the published post – and I believe it’s not until you engage in blogging yourself over a period of time that you can properly determine what value can be derived from the process itself.

First-hand experience also allows you as a teacher to make more informed choices about when and why you might want to include blogging as a part of the classroom work.

Linking can start new conversations

When you link to another blog post, a comment will appear under their post showing that your blog has linked to their post. They can then follow the link back to your blog and see what you said about what they said.

This can lead to conversations. Conversations can grow your PLN (personal learning network).

Here’s an example: http://oomensm.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/filmism-or-how-a-blog-improved-thinking-about-film/.

This will now appear as a link in Mike’s post.

Session 1.1

Okay, so that was a lot to take in, I realize, and many heads are spinning! Of all the sessions, this was the one where we covered/subscribed to most new tools:

Migrating to Wetpaint

I’m a glutton for punishment, it would seem!

I had the whole course set up in a Ning site, but then realized quite late in the day that Wetpaint is just too awesome, so I’ve migrated the whole thing to Wetpaint. That is, I’ve created the whole site again, with a somewhat different structure right from scratch…

Six days and counting…

The EDC 601 Instructional Technologies course at International School Manila is starting in six days, and I’m quite excited. It’ll be the first time the course is offered at the school, and the first time I teach it. From the list of participants I’ve seen, I get the feeling we’ll be a fairly active and engaged crowd, and in any case, everyone will get as much out of it as they put into it – the course assessment is certainly based very heavily on participation and contribution from each participant.