Thing 2 - Introduction

Task: Use your new Google account to create a Blogger blog to showcase the items from this module.  Name your blog "23 THINGS" and add your name to the title (like 23 THINGS JOHN SMITH). Write your first blog post about your attitude toward blogging.  Be honest!

 Some rights reserved by Kristina B

Previously, I thought about blogging as a personal journal that people could use to put their inner most thoughts and feelings online, and my thought was - WHY would someone DO THAT?

BUT, I started a graduate program last fall working towards my Master's of Education, and every class so far has had keeping a blog as its main form of communication (its an online program). As a result, my feelings of blogging has changed drastically. I can now see the benefit of blogging in the classroom, and I have found myself enjoying the act of it. Read my class blog here.

I am a written expressive, so this gives me an opportunity to express my thoughts in writing (and be able to edit myself before others receive the communication!). I'm also a visual person, so I can include photos and video's to get my thoughts across. And (BONUS) this format allows more leeway for sentence fragments and other less formalities.

Here's some reasons why students should blog.

Thing #3 - Tweet

Task: Create a Twitter account and follow @WVTIS.  Find 3 educational or technology leaders to "follow".  Post an original tweet that includes the hashtag #WVTIS. Put a screenshot of your tweet in your blog.  Do a search for any topic using a #.  (Like #superbowl or #grammyawards)  Write about it in your blog.

I have had a twitter account for a couple years but haven't really used it. Recently I've realized there is a  thriving educational community on Twitter. I'm excited about getting more comfortable using Twitter.

So here's my first blog post to #WVTIS:

(pretty lame... yep).

Bodie mentioned in our group that she goes to Twitter to search for up to the date info about whatever she needs to research. I am always looking for resources related to Media Literacies because its an interest of mine (and also a large part of my graduate study program). So, I searched for #MediaLiteracy and found a ton of resources.  I'm really impressed with the usefulness of twitter in this way. Its great to get resources from such a diverse group of people interested in this issue. Differs from Google in the sense that that will (usually) give me a list of websites from one blogger or source at a time... This is much more interactive. NICE!

I can see myself using Twitter for this purpose. Great tip!