The Development of My Blog

               I found the creation of my blog site to be interesting and fun overall with very few issues.  I actually created my blog site last year in October for a themed lesson plan revolving around Halloween and bats.  I loved the ability to develop my themed lesson plan and share the different activities with others.  I found the idea of sharing the lessons with others a great way to continue to develop the lesson plan while getting some much valued feedback from those who viewed my blog.

               I found the creation and development of my blog to be very easy from creating an account to the blog.  Since I have a Google account, I simply needed to go to my google account, select blogger, and create my new account.  Once I had my account created, I simply needed to select create a new blog.  I selected a name for my blog, an address, and then a theme or template for the blog.  Then, I started my blog!

               After starting my first entry, I decided on a title for that entry and then started typing.  I think I found it hard to see the blog entry looking plain and boring since I knew I had selected a theme.  However, when I used the preview button, I could see what the overall blog would look like after I publised the entry.  In addition, with the tools available under the Blogger website, can be used to add links, images, and even special characters.  

               If I was honest, I really did not have any challenges as I created my blog.  I found Blogger to be very user-friendly, fun, and simply.  I feel anyone could use Blogger from Goggle without any trouble and with little help from anyone.

Blogs and Wikis as Instructional Technology

               Over the last week, I have been exploring blogs and wikis as instructional technologies as a tool for students within the classroom.  I was not thrilled about the idea of using wikis in the classroom due to all the issues and dangers of using them as reference or resource during projects and assignments.  As for blogs, the information provided can be more opinion than fact at times.  

               However, after taking time to research the two different technologies, I can see the value of using both of them in the classroom to help students with research and as reference material.  For example, "Wikis support collaborative learning because Wikis can enable groups of students to work together to solve a problem, complete a project etc.  Using Wikis effectively may help your students reach Bloom's higher order skills, e.g., creating, evaluation etc" (Forest, n.d.).  Blogs allow users to engage in sharing knowledge, a change to reflect on the knowledge shared, and a change to debate both sides of a topic.    

               While I think both could be of great value to the educational process, I plan to research both technologies further.  I need to not only evaluate the pros, but the cons of both technologies and the value they bring to the education process both for the students and in the classroom.  In addition, I need to find ways to help the students around the issues and dangers they can face in using either technology while preparing them to deal with any other issues they can face.