Thing 4

The sites I went to were:

1.Second Graders Write About Our Missing Duck: This was so cute! I loved the fact that the writing was done by kids, without adult correction.

2.PowerPoint Reform: a first chapter-I love bullets!!! This was good for me to look at just to think outside the Power point box a little. While it was not entertaining it has good information that I would share with older students.

3.Patrick's Update: 5th Grade- I have to give this kid credit for having the strength to publish what he did. I started reading the comments and I hope the kid took the time and read the comments to his blog and gained some confidence. I also liked being able to read the other student blogs.  I would like an update on Patrick!

4. Weblogg-ed (Will Richardson): Why Can't We Do This?-I thought this was interesting since I heard that Austin was considering something like this. I couldn't get the Colbert Report piece to play that was in someone's comments and I bet it was good.

5. Students 2.0: Teaching Brevity-This blog made me nervous about what I am writing. While I enjoyed the article and the teacher's comments my favorite part was Linda's comments about laboring over her writing and hitting submit and then t is out in cyberspace. Ugh-what an awful feeling....

The way the writing is dose depends upon the person doing the writing. Also when it comes to blogging you should be writing to elicit a response. If you are putting things out into cyberspace but not wanting people to comment why put it out, why not just keep it your desk at home? When you think about Patrick's comments about his fear of failing the comments people made are so important to the story. As far as the skill of reading goes when it comes to blogs I am not sure how different it is. You still need to keep the audience and purpose in mind. Since people may not know the other people commenting the "honesty" as to what is being written may need to be taken more into consideration.

I think blogging could definitely facilitate learning. Bloggers are able to ask questions, share ideas, and get help. Different viewpoints can be posted, and while they may not be correct all the time, it can enable the reader to do some critical thinking.