Technology Play 1

Explain how you arrived at your definition. What blog sites did you play with? What features did they have in common? How do blogs differ from other technologies (i.e. glogs, vlogs, or perhaps discussion boards or a typical web pages)?


Blogs are creative outlets, businesses, journals, and place to meet others and network. I researched WordPress and Blogger. WordPress offers creative control on literally every aspect of the blog. For a first time blogger, I found it intimidating due to my lack of knowing what I want from a blog. In the last couple of weeks I have explored Blogger in Learning with Technology. Blogger is connected to Google so I found it easy to use. WordPress and Blogger are similar because they both offer templates and variety of plans to accommodate all blogging needs. After comparing the two sites side by side I found WordPress to be favored by many people. At this time I am using my blog to house my Master’s Program Data. So at this time I have made the decision to go with Blogger. I am hoping to be able to use this one blog for my entire Master’s Program so I am able to reflect on my education. Blogs are different than other technologies because they require you to have your own voice. Through your writing you are potentially showing millions of people who you are but they may not always interpret your personality the same way. However, with video blogs I think it is easier to show your personality.

Moving beyond identifying features, reflect on the affordances of those features for learning. Think about yourself as a learner in this course, creating this blog post (the first of several more to come in the next few weeks). What do the features of a blog afford or allow you to do as learner? And how do these affordances differ from other technologies?

As a learner blogs allow you to reflect on your learning because all of your course work is housed in one place. When posting to discussion boards, you eventually lose access to University Programs. Losing access to that learning is avoided when using a blog.

Based on your analysis of blogs from the perspective of a learner, reflect on how you might use blogs to support learning in the subject you teach, describing student work that you might design using blogs. Use the TPACK Model to identify each aspect of the work:  

Content--What content or learning objectives or content standards could you address? What is the desired level of thinking in the objectives/standards according to the categories detailed in Blooms Revised Taxonomy of educational objectives?

Teaching Kindergarten I would use a blog to house games for various subject areas. The blog would basically be a curated list of games and activities students would be able to play during centers.

Pedagogy--What pedagogical stance (or which learning theories or theorists) does this work support? In other words, whose “shoulders” did you stand on? Is the approach based on your own experiences as a learner (i.e. you’d use the technology to teach in ways that you’ve been taught)? Or can you identify a theory or approach to teaching and learning that you’ve encountered in your classes, your interaction with other teachers, your professional development (in-services, conferences, workshops, etc)?

Blogging supports the constructivist theory because the possibilities for blogging are endless. Due to these limitless possibilities bloggers can do a variety of things.

o   Technology--What affordances did you identify for the technology selected? Justify the match of your pedagogical stance/strategy with the technology affordances and the content objectives/standards.

I use blogs for networking and ideas on a daily basis. The education blogging community is what inspires me to be a better teacher.

Identify any obstacles to using this tool to support learning. What makes this tool worth using even with these obstacles?

Blogging lends itself more to upper grades where students have a high writing ability. However with an out of the box idea, blogging can be used with younger students. I just haven't quite figured out that idea yet.