The Starting Line: blogs and wikis

After reading chapters 3 and 4 in Richardson I thought about how it is easy for teachers to think of how to scaffold learning for their students but for some reason it seems like we forget that step when it comes to our own learning. We can't just expect to know how to do this the right way the first time and instead need to scaffold our learning, or in this case our blogging and start to the Read/Write Web. Richardson suggested that if blogs are new to you start by exploring other blogs to see the potential uses, formatting and the commonalities between blog posts. Richardson states, "As you get more settled into the rhythm of posting, begin to write more in depth about your reading, drawing on your own personal experiences and reflections. In this way, you'll come to understand the true mental work that is blogging."

I think the "mental work" that Richardson is referring to is the crafty voice that many blog authors have, along with the connections bloggers include in their posts: pictures, links or videos. However, I see the mental work differently. In creating my posts I rethink everything sentence I write because I know that anyone could read it. I think this "mental work" will be similar for my students because they will be more cautious about their writing and responses since they know their peers or even parents can read their work. Hmmm, what is that I smell? Ownership? Accountability? Motivation? Engagement?

If you want to take that first step and just start exploring the who/what/when/where/why of blogging, signing up through Google Blogger is really easy (take it from me who is a newbie to this). Those of you interested in blogging with your class a couple of good start up options I'd suggest looking into: Edublogs.org or 21classes.com. Both of these options allow the teacher to monitor posts and set access. Edublogs has over 300,000 education blogs!

And on the idea of wikis, what do you think: Wikipedia or Whackypedia?

I was always under the impression that it was more of a "whackypedia" but in reading some of the facts and research included in Chapter 4 of Richardson I am beginning to think otherwise