Here's to the inconsistent blogger!

I love to blog. There's something immensely satisfying about getting your thoughts and opinions out there to the 5 people that occasionally read it big wide world.

This blog was my first. I started it way back in 2008 when things were very different, both for me and for technology in schools. In the intervening six years I've been through my own personal crisis and two job changes. For a while, I was working for the local government (technically I'm still employed by them), and always felt a little hesitant about posting. Now, I'm working for a University, and I thought if nothing else, it might be worth resurrecting my blog for my students (hello students!).

I've just been to a big education technology conference (more about this in the next post), which has provided me with some motivation to keep going. I am on the right path here, and I hope that I can bring some of you along for the ride.

What's blog got to do, got to do with it?

Blogging. For those of us who are - shall we say - unfamiliar, there's a whole world of it out there. There are currently around 100 million blogs out there (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21013), with another 100 million now abandoned into the ether (including, I'm sure at least one that I started a couple of years ago!).
So obviously we're not going to go out there and read all of them, but it is possible to find a blog (or two) that have something to do with our interests.
And that's where teaching comes in. There are lots of educational themed blogs out there, but we can go a little further. Teachers are starting to use them with their students, with lots of opportunities available for online collaboration and discussion.

Check out these examples:
http://marykreul.teacherhosting.com/blog/
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337

Mr. Sumner's page is pretty cool:
http://mrsumner.edublogs.org/

This one's Australian:
http://mrpbps.learnerblogs.org/


Food for thought.