Communication+&+Collaboration+Through+Blogging

=**//Communication & Collaboration Through Blogging//**=



Blog URL: @http://mrlavelleslaboratory.blogspot.com/

__Project Description__

The Communication & Collaboration Through Bloggging project was designed to give students real-world experience in creating, maintaining, and contributing to blogs. Candidates are expected to create a blog that would tie in with their virtual classroom; furthermore, they are expected to contribute with the EDT 6020 classroom blog. Blogs are a quintessential Web 2.0 technology: they are interactive with the user and interactive between users. More concretely, they allow people with similiar interests to communicate and collaborate with one another to degrees with which they are comfortable. Blogs were around before the advent of Web 2.0, but have demonstrated the ability to embody Web 2.0 principles by adapting to the interactivity level expected of Web 2.0 technologies.

__Process__

Completion of this project first involved determining the way a blog could best be used in my virtual classroom. Since Blackboard has a built-in discussion component, I felt it would be superfluous to establish a blog as the main forum for student-to-student discussion. I opted to establish my blog as a collection of resouces and practice problems that students could complete and discuss throughout the instructional period. As for my contributions to the EDT 6020 classroom blog, the process is straightforward (as it is with contributing as a non-author to any blog): I read each post and commented with any questions, concerns, or insights where and when I deemed appropriate.

__Reflection__

Blogs were not a new technology for me, as I have been maintaining and/or contributing to blogs since shortly after the inception of blogs. As blogs made gains in popularity, the technology that powered blogs changed and blogs became more interactive through the use of comments and multiple authorships. These two features are what make blogs such a great Web 2.0 tool, ripe for inclusion into the classroom. In blogs created by a teacher for use within the classroom, commenting can allow students to interact with each other as well as with the teacher. Such interaction can provide for discussion that is well beyond what can be expected in a traditional classroom. I currently maintain a classroom blog, but feel that it could be used in a more dynamic fashion that it currently is.

__Works Cited__