How Did I Get Into Blogging?

Posted by arvind s grover Thu, 06 Apr 2006 04:01:00 GMT

I saw Will’s lecture RSS: The New Killer App for Educators at the 2004 NYSAIS Conference for IT Managers, and he just killed. I saw all the potential he was talking about and more. He got me totally hooked to Bloglines, a free web-based RSS reader. Right away I started a blog, and right away it crashed and burned. I learned how hard it was to write for public consumption, and how essential a purpose was. Jeff Utrecht talked about this today in his post, myspace and xanga not so cool. He argues that kids are leaving myspace and xanga because they couldn’t keep up with the blogs. The pressure to write, without a purpose, left them unmotivated. The returned to the land of instant messenger. I understand this, because I have been there.

The Washington Post wrote an article about blogging in Will’s school (now former school) in New Jersey. The piece was slightly light on substance, so if you can, go and hear Will speak in person, or read his book. His calendar is on the right side of his website, and he is all over the place. Will has been so successful blogging and his so into it (he is a self-proclaimed “blogevangelist”), that he quit his job to blog full time.

Alex Ragone over at Learning Blog tipped me on to both of the articles listed above, so while you’re at it, grab Alex’s RSS feed.

Will’s original lecture was about RSS. I am an RSS believer, and at my school, we are trying to do all sorts of things with RSS from community calendars, to teacher blogs, to online student newspapers, to podcasts, to homework assignments and more. I will be writing the how-to’s here soon, so stay posted. And I don’t just mean the technical how-to’s, I mean the pedagogical ones…the good stuff.

update: Washington Post did another article about teachers with blogs called Blackboard Blogging

Technorati Tags: Alex Ragone, blog, conference, education, future, Internet, Jeff Utrecht, MySpace, news, RSS, schools, students, teachers, teaching, technology, U.S.A., Washington Post, web, web2.0, Will Richardson, Xanga

Comments

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Hiroshi said about 1 hour later:

I just wanted to say hi. I accidentally found your blog through a search on our school’s website. (You left a comment on some workshop that I didn’t even know it happened back in January.) I teach Japanese and started to try to use blogging in teaching a foreign language last semester. Writing to a real audience instead of just the instructor seems to work for most students so far.
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arvind said 1 day later:

Hiroshi, thanks for the comment. What school are you at? I am not sure where I left the comment. I have left a lot of comments on the web at this point.

I think blogs for foreign language are great. Immersion in a native blog is a perfect way to engage students in communicating with native-speaking populations.

Also be sure to try Odeo (http://odeo.com) where they let you record audio for free and share it out. Let the students create a Japanese podcast where you and others can leave audio comments in Japanese. What a great way to practive speaking and listening. We are doing this with French students in my school.

Thanks for reading.
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amy said 2 days later:

Great post Arvind! Will also jumpstarted my blog engine at the same conference. He’s a true Global Pioneer…to coin A. November’s line.

Best, Amy
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Alex Ragone said 5 days later:

Hey Arvind,

Thanks for the reference… Will’s book is great—- I’m 10 pages in and can’t put it down.

It took me a while to get the hang of blogging as well, and actually don’t think I’m very good at it, but practice makes perfect, no? As you said, its therapeutic to write sometimes.

Have a good one!

- Alex
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arvind s grover said 5 days later:

Alex, practice definitely helps. I have found myself better at editing my posts (at least in my own head) as I have continued to blog.

I set up a blog for my head of upper school and my advice for him was less words more often go much further than more words less often. Posting letters to families is nice, but posting short bits of information about what is going on this week is much better.