Social networking has already become a part of my personal life in some respect. I went to school at the start of the Facebook phenomenon, and have to admit that I use it quite regularly to communicate with both friends and relatives. Since taking my last class, I have used my Google Reader to aggregate many of my personal sites-my guilty celebrity gossip sites, as well as the more reputable news sources.
For some reason, however, I have not made the complete leap to create a social network in my professional life. In previous courses I have aggregated wonderful bloggers and other sites that are quite applicable to my work. Despite the fact that I do not read them quite as often as I would like, I do find myself checking every so often to see what is new in the world of Web 2.0.
As you can probably see from the other posts on this blog, I have used this blog before for a course. I haven't just read other's social networks, but have made an attempt to participate in the conversation. As you can also probably tell, I didn't really use this blog outside of those courses. I do see and understand the wonderful reasons to blog in the classroom-both with students and as a tool for parent and community communication. I sat down and started thinking about why I haven't done more to extend my blog. After reading Vicki Davis's blog post on the 8 reasons why teachers don't blog, I saw a lot of myself.
I can see some of her 2nd reason, humility, in myself. I find myself asking "Who is actually going to read or care about my blog?"" Her third reason, paranoia, also hits home. If I were to use a blog, I would be very scared to post any honest opinions for fear of retribution. However, I think that the biggest reason that I don't blog is the same as #5-Feeling Overwhelmed. Just reading other blogs takes forever. How am I ever going keep up a blog? As I continue down the road of Web 2.0, I hope that I am able to overcome these misgivings and jump in!
Monday, November 9, 2009
Blog #1-Creating my own Social Network
Posted by scurry at 4:07 PM
Labels: Blogging, INSYS 497, Social Networking
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5 comments:
Stephanie,
You have to get past the fact that other people are going to read it and think of it as a tool for reflection. Reflection is a powerful way to learn and develop yourself professionally. It's also a way to share what you're doing in your classroom; a good way to initiate change in how technology is used in your school/district!
HI Stephanie,
I understand you comments! I too wonder who is going to read this? Who will care? However, that is not my biggest concern. My biggest concern is the rights i have a teacher- or lack of rights- to post exactly how I feel and what I think.
PSEA is very against what I will call "free blogging". They suggest many restrictions and considerations which may take the authentic feel out of my posts.
Let me say, I am not a tow-the-line kind of person. I disagree with much of the talk that teachers need to be ultra-censored in their private lives. HOWEVER< what causes me hesitation is recent court cases and outcomes. There have been several cases where teachers' freedom of speech was challenged. For example, a post on Facebook from a teacher complaining about her class. Basic everyday run-of-the-mill venting. The teacher is reprimanded and asked to remove the post. To me, that is CRAZY.
Here is the link to PSEA's position on teachers & blogging:
http://www.psea.org/general.aspx?ID=1302&MID=486
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