My last entry this week in this series (Blogging for engagement in the classroom parts 1, 2, 3, 4) may seem obvious and a bit of a cop-out, but it is important to remember that all of the people in the classroom can benefit from using blogs. Instructors ought to use blogs for themselves, too, not just for learning activities for their student, since personal/professional development can also lead to increased student engagement in your classrooms.

Start your own blog, if you are an instructor. As you grow and find your own blog voice and comfort zone, you will start to see other possibilities that could exist in your classroom or school, if you want them to.

Through blogs we can find out about how others may be using digital tools or pedagogy in their classrooms. We can connect with other instructors who share similar interests or goals, even if no one else in our department/school/district/country shares them. The use of blogs for educators opens a grand new world of possibilities that many of us might never have considered otherwise. We can collaborate with others in the next county, or provide some consulting for someone in a distant land.

When I prowl thru your blogs (David Carter-Tod, Duncan Smeed, Sam DeVore, David Davies, Pat Delaney, Sebastian Fiedler, Will Richardson, Joe Luft, garret vreeland, John VanDyk, Peter Ford, Jim McGee, Phil Wolff, Alwin Hawkins, Ernie the Attorney, Jacob Reider, and a host of other folks that I just have shortchanged by not mentioning you -- this Academy Award speech stuff is hard) it is always wth a sense of excitement. I am consistantly amazed, enthralled, enthused, terrified and challenged. Some share their geek powers, tools, or insight, others share their students' growth, while others may share their own thoughts before rolling them out into the classroom.

Thank you all for your sharing, and I hope we can continue to build on our growing momentum. Have a grand weekend, if yours hasn't already started.

8:16:44 PM  [] blah blah blah'd on this    

Hippocrates is supposed to have used that phrase, not in his Hippocratic oath, rather in Epidemics, Bk. I, Sect. XI. "One translation reads: 'Declare the past, diagnose the present, foretell the future; practice these acts. As to diseases, make a habit of two things -- to help, or at least to do no harm.'"

I wonder why instructors (teachers, faculty, tutors, ...) don't have something like the Hippocratic oath, too? Although the damage we might do is usually not life-threatening, certainly it can be life-affecting.

My posting yesterday, which used Will's idea as a jumping was intended to be a warning about awareness of the morality of what we do ("at least do no harm") when we use technology in the classroom, rather than merely trying to shave down Will's idea. Judging from Will's posting today, it would appear I wasn't as clear as I might have been -- then again given my need for a good editor to always repair my writing and clear up ambiguities, I may have been operating near my peak, too ;-) -- since Will wrote today:

I may not have been clear in what my brain was thinking. (I do that a lot...get lost in the inspiration.) I'm not sure that "teacher-instigated, required conflict" is quite what I was aiming at.

Will, I honestly don't think for a moment that your actual intent was where I twisted your words to make my own point (Uh, was that a free-for-all or a distinguished house tour I pulled there?). What I was trying to point out was if we instructors aren't very precise and careful in where we do aim our classroom intentions, sometimes there may be unanticipated collateral damage. Knowing what may be around where you are aiming can help avoid unintentional damage. Kahn's seminar article made this resonate in me, far beyond the other resources about facilitating discussions I have read in the past few years. I was excited by the seminar article (now realizing how a great deal of poor communication and hurt feelings can be reinforced via poor class discussion facilitation), and wanted to share the resource with others. I apologize that I used your post as jumping off point, without explaining my own intentions more clearly.

More, I'm thinking that students need to be shown the merits of not just accepting as truth the first thing they find. If part of the process was for collaborators to find other points of view, present them all to the group, and then collectively come to some conclusions as to what the "truth" may actually be, it would show them the benefits of looking at more than one side of the issue. Weblogs would be a great way to watch that process happen.

I could not fail to disagree with you less, Will. My blog kool-aid today was cherry flavored, had just the right amount of ice for July, and tasted great. How was yours? :-)

7:35:31 PM  [] blah blah blah'd on this