It’s all so amusing, isn’t it? And surprising. I was surprised this morning when our staff voted on the topics where they’d like to see our building’s professional development focus next year, and technology made the list. So often in meetings and conversations online with technology coordinators, I get the feeling that we are forcing these technological tools upon people, but here was a clear example of teachers saying, “Hey, this technology thing is important, and we’d like some help!”

I’m sure I’ll get to be involved, even if it’s no more than brainstorming with colleagues and teaching classes like the one I’m teaching this summer (it’s called, “Web Tools for Teaching” – a great little sharing session where I basically conduct a week-long class telling people what I do all day). One of the things I know will be vital is collecting observations and impressions from students as we finish a year of intense technology use. I’ve asked my juniors in particular for their summary of what blogging has done for them, and I’m finding it difficult to separate from their comments the observations they make regarding my style and the observations regarding the technology. They’ve said things like,

I didn’t feel like I was forced to write this big long essay or report, I could just share my own feelings in the best way I could.

and that comment is partly about the blog and partly about me. I didn’t use blogs too much last year (just a little bit of Blogmeister) and students made similar comments about the assignments I gave them. I don’t want my students to jam up their writing with convoluted structures and forms, and while I don’t know how well that little philosophy goes over in English teacher land, I am convinced that I am right. I want them to convince me of their thinking almost like a narrative, where they lead me through the story of their convictions; that’s how I see professionals doing it, and that’s how I have done it ever since I left high school. That said, my philosophy seems to blend well with the growing genre blogs represent and that might be responsible for my success with the particular technology. But how am I to determine that?

I don’t know that I can, and what it means in many ways for me is that as teachers express an interest in blogging, I will always explain what I do with a major caveat – that they need to understand what blogs are, read them, write them, and develop their own opinion about what works.

Whatever they discover, I do know that we cannot take the old non-audience friendly formats of writing assignments and essays and simply put them on blogs, which are popular because they are audience friendly.

And so we continue this silly adventure. While I don’t think that blogs are the answer for everyone in life, I am convinced they have wonderful academic potential. To that end, maybe I’ll be able to help my colleagues as they inquire about technology, and maybe another teacher or three will dive into this blogging life with me. The fun part, if they are willing to play and explore the genre and medium, will be seeing how they adapt it to their personalities and classrooms. It’s worked for me – will it work for them? I have a hunch it will, but I don’t presume to know exactly how.

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Original image: ‘Please, no blogging in line.‘ by: Chris Messina

Original image: ‘Barefoot Blogger‘  by: Nick Olejniczak