Thing #5: School 2.0

School 2.0 is a revolution which is changing the way that teachers teach, students learn, and people interact. Most people think that school stays within the school building, but this is untrue especially with school 2.0. With new programs and technology being available to our students online for little to no cost, school can and should go everywhere with them. They can learn about anatomy and physiology on their iPads from the Kahn Academy app on their moms iPhone in the car on the way to Florida, or they can learn about grammar usage and mechanics from the kitchen table on the iPads at home while dinner is being prepared. The possibilities for education are endless with Web 2.0. It is nearly impossible to know about all the technology that is currently available, let alone guess what could come about in the future.

However, it is only human nature to speculate about the future and what each new technology could do to and for our students. Apps for the iPads that are becoming more and more prevalent in classrooms such as Crocodoc, Google Art Project, Kidblog, Quia, and many others are allowing our students to take their education to a whole new level that was never possible before. WIth endless possibilities for these apps, there are no limits on where education can go! School 2.0 is taking school out of the box!

Thing #4: Why Commenting is Important

Blogs are a way to share ideas, communicate thoughts, express feelings, and simply connect with others. When blogging, the writer is often looking for community responses of discussion on innovative ideas, opinion on one's thoughts, empathy with one's feelings, and conversation. If these things weren't being sought out, they wouldn't have been posted online for the public to see. When you read a blog that unveils something of interest to you, you could simply call a friend and tell them about it/share it to your Facebook timeline OR you could comment on it and let the blogger know what you found interesting and discuss it with someone who you are guaranteed has the same interest as you.

I found it interesting that one of the articles mentioned that "Right on" or "I completely agree" was simply not enough to comment on a blog. While it is encouraging for the author, it does not contribute to that particular bloggers community. Encouragement within comments is important, even when you have a difference of opinions, but it is not the main content of a good comment. I also found the "lurking" terminology interesting. I had not considered that when a blogger logs in and has 20 pageviews but no comments that they may begin to feel discouraged or spiral downhill thinking that their writing wasn't worth anyone's time because they did not comment. In addition to the effect it has on the blogger, lurking can prevent one from retaining the material which was just read. If the reader doesn't take time to analyze it and comment on it their chance of remembering it is much smaller.

Within our class I chose to comment  on Megan Singleton, Ashley Beazley, Jessica Brown, Jeffrey Doyle, and James Harris' blogs. I chose these because they all had posts which intrigued me to want to know more about a certain topic or had similar feelings to what I experienced when writing my blog about that particular topic.

Outside of our class I follow a blog called I Can Cook That!, because I love to cook. I originally found a link to it on the cooking light website where she was described as a "Beginner chef". I thought her dishes would be fairly simple but give me a wide variety of things to try at home. I frequently have friends over for Mysterious Monday where I try a new recipe with them, Taco Tuesday where we indulge in a variety of Southwestern and Mexican dishes, and Whatever Wednesday where we will find a way to make something out of whatever is in the cabinets.We have found many dishes from her blog that we truly love over the past month. I also frequently check the site travelblogs.com to read about other peoples travels and dream of places I would like to go someday. Occasionally, I find a post about places I've been like the Leaning Tower and The Blue Lagoon and thoroughly enjoy reading about other peoples experiences at these same places.

Thing #3: Register your blog

Blogs can be useful for many purposes, both in one's personal and professional life. As a personal blog, I enjoy reading those that are about DIY projects at home, especially those that help make the most out of your space. On a professional note though, there are tons of crafts, activities, and lessons that teachers have found successful and share on their blogs to give other teachers the opportunity to use it with their own students.

In the teacher education program, I am currently using blogs for the 23 things assignment. In the future, I foresee using my blog to share with other teacher candidates (also perhaps professors, if they were interested) my clinical experiences as I find them incredibly fulfilling.

I had a teacher in highschool who had us blog about a particular poet throughout the semester and reflect upon several of their poems. It was a writing/critiquing exercise which taught me to love writing as well as reading poetry. I would perhaps use it in this fashion with elementary students to have them tell about their favorite chapter books, author, or even just as a place to practice creative writing.