Starting out

I must say that one thing signing up for a course on Technology in Education makes me do is try out the technology that I haven't bothered to try out before. I don't know anyone, personally, that blogs and haven't felt the need to do so until now. Having finally signed up for my own blog, I have instantly seen how easy it is to do so and suddenly the potential it has in education is starting to sink in to my half atrophied brain. The important thing in incorporating Computer Based Resources into education is to be reasonably competent in the usage thereof . Thereafter one can start working on lesson plans that utilise the resources.

This from Stephen Downes:
http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/EducationalBlogging/40493
It seems clear that although blogging can and does have a significant and worthwhile educational impact, this impact does not come automatically and does not come without risks. As many writers have noted, writing a weblog appears in the first instance to be a form of publishing, but as time goes by, blogging resembles more and more a conversation. And for a conversation to be successful, it must be given a purpose and it must remain, for the most part, unconstrained.
One of the criticisms of blogs, and especially student blogs is that the students write about nothing but trivia. Examples can be seen all over the Internet. And how many students, when facing the blogging screen, feel like "Matt," who writes: "Now each time I warily approach writing a blog entry, or start writing it, or actually write it, I end up thinking ‘what is the point?’—and, after all, what is?" When given their own resources to draw on, bloggers, especially young bloggers, can become frustrated and may eventually report having "committed the ultimate blogging sin of losing interest in myself."
As Richardson says, blogging as a genre of writing may have "great value in terms of developing all sorts of critical thinking skills, writing skills and information literacy among other things. We teach exposition and research and some other types of analytical writing already, I know. Blogging, however, offers students a chance to a) reflect on what they are writing and thinking as they write and think it, b) carry on writing about a topic over a sustained period of time, maybe a lifetime, and c) engage readers and audience in a sustained conversation that then leads to further writing and thinking.

So, it is not all plain sailing. But the practical side of using a small blogging network within a school - to communicate with parents, give homework readings etc has amazing potential. One thought did flash through my mind though - instructions / information given via a third party (the internet) allows the truant scholar to not "receive it" or have an access problem which prevented them doing the work etc

I read a very entertaining article about how one should blog - and now can't find it to re-read. One important rule that I must learn is to tag. I will continue the search.