Evolution

I've spent the day thinking about introductions and evolution. I've done a few introductions of various kinds for various purposes. I have a generic personal intro to who I am at the beginning of my blogs, but didn't really post an introduction at the beginning of this blog - I just jumped in with my big mouth to get myself going. Jumping in is basically how I learn everything new. I'm a big believer in trial and error and starting again. I've done it many times in my life, in many different ways and it always helps me evolve as a person. After reading Will Richardson's take on blogging in Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms,
I realized I initially was thinking about blogging in the way that I began my blog writing. I began to experiment with blogs because I'd heard the fuss and wanted to see what Blogger was all about. My first blog, Creative Chaos, was essentially a vanity blog or wordy form of Facebook without the good pictures and games. I shared my experiences raising children, and pondered some things, but wrote only sporadically. I really couldn't see the point. Blogging seemed like nothing more than a web-based diary and I'm terribly at keeping diaries.
My next blogs were work related and a chance to gather together images, assignments and links for student research. Essentially, I was using a blog, when I should have been using Trailfire or a wiki. Students didn't really have a chance to interact, other than tell me when links were dead, so I could fix them. Because I was setting these up for other teachers, I wasn't embedding questions or forums to help them ponder their research - something I will definitely be fixing this year before these annual projects roll around again.
When Richardson wrote that a blog becomes an academic exercise when it "links with analysis and synthesis that articulate a deeper understanding or relationship to the content being linked and written with potential audience response in mind", I finally had an Oprah "a-ha" moment. Blogging isn't about journalling (although it may be where one starts), it's about deepening understanding through reflective writing which invites conversation. In a way, the vain part of me wishes this post could be my introduction, but that wouldn't be particularly honest. Like everyone, a starting point may not be pretty in 20/20 hindsight, but it's always exciting to recognize that you've grown beyond where you were. Clearly, there's much more to learn yet, and many more exciting discoveries to be made through collaboration and reflection.

Playing with the basics

It's always amazing to watch how panicky students can get when you take away one of their favourite common tech tools. Over the last couple of days as senior students begin writing assignments, they've discovered that the district has blocked their ability to attach things to Hotmail. You see, we have a new student email program as part of our website. We'd like students to use it to get around all the issues we have with attachments that can't be opened in Linux and vice versa.
I've demonstrated this new email program a few times in the last couple of days and students catch on quickly and are pleased at how simple it is. I've even been able to demonstrate how much more professional it is, than sending an assignment to someone from Captain****head@hotmail. Because it's easy and because they won't have conversion problems anymore, they seem happy. I know it won't discourage them from Hotmail, but it will allow their personal email to be personal and their school assignments and school communications to be a little more professional.