Techonology Play-testing Assignment 1

Let me start with my definition of blog, I would define a blog as a personal web space to express my thoughts and feelings.  It is a relatively user friendly way to communicate with others and allow them to communicate back. I came to this definition  by my past experiences with a blog and by reading a few formal definitions as well.  

Blogs, glogs, vologs or discussion boards are all different. Here are the formal definitions of all of these according to Webopedia. 

• blog - Short for Web log, a blog is a Web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author.
• glog - Short for graphics (or graphical) blog, glog is the name used to describe a publicly accessible graphical blog. A person or organization's glog is actually an interactive multimedia image that looks similar to a poster, but readers of a glog are able to interact with the content.
• vlog - (n.) Short for video blog, it is the term used to describe a blog that includes or consists of video clips. Typically updated daily (or with regular frequency) vlogs often reflect the personality or cause of the author. Also called vog.
• A discussion board is a fancy term for a message board where you can leave a message or question and expect a reply or answer from others with similar interests or questions. (my definition)

All of these forums are similar, but still different in their format. I am choosing blogger as my blog of choice.  I chose blogger mainly because I had used it in another class last semester.  I have looked at Webbly and honestly it is way more user friendly.  It is very simple to navigate and it is easy to make changes.  Blogger is a little more difficult, but with a little common sense you can figure it out.  If I was going to have someone write a blog, especially a student I would probably lead them to Webbly.

I think a blog could be used in a class to discuss current events.  The students could set up a blog and each we they could discuss a teacher chose current event.  This would allow for research and critical thinking.  It would also allow the students to give their opinions.  Guild lines would have to be set in place and professionalism discussed, but it could be a fun year long project. I don't know that I have ever seen this done before.  I do believe that this would be a great project for older more mature students, but it could be done between a grade level as well with teacher guidance and support for middle school students.  They could set it up where each class in the school or grade level has a blog and they research the assigned current event and post as a class for the other classes to read and discuss. 

Being that I teach kindergarten I'm not sure that it would be quiet as easy to use a blog, but I think it could be done. We do a research project twice a year.  It might be fun to set up a class blog and each class research an animal and post all the information learned about that animal.  Then the other classes could read what the other classes had to say and possibly do more research and add to the project.  Other wise I think it would be very difficult to use a blog in a k-2 classroom. 

I can see how a blog could be fun in the classroom if used correctly.  I think the idea would have to be talked up to be sold as a fun way to turn in assignments, but I think with the write class it could be successful. 

And that's all I have to say about that!