Review: Sue Waters Webinar

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I was really sorry to have missed the live session of Sue's webinar on "The Art of Blogging: How to connect, interact & build rapport with students" but really appreciated having access to the archive. For me it has been the most engaging session I've reviewed so far - as I watched I kept wishing that I had been there to engage in the conversation and ask questions.

Here's why it worked for me:

1. Interactive Discussion vs. Presentation: Sue modeled good web conferencing practice. She asked questions, had attendees respond to a question by writing on the whiteboard, got us to think about our own personal experiences [to help us think about how best to get our students engaging in blogs], and encouraged us to think critically about different tools.
2. Engaged in Some Good Focussed Distraction: The discussion went on an interesting detour that included topics/tools related to online teaching - e.g. how our MOOC facilitators are creating the newsletter using mailchimp, how to make good use of flipboard, pinterest - but then came back around to the main topic of blogging. 
3. Practical Focus: Sue talked about how things work, and pointed to examples, to help us understand how we might use these tools in our own practice. 
4. Excellent Resources: Some great resources and exemplars where shared throughout the discussion - see list below

This was the first presenter, that I really felt has taken the time to look at what we've been doing in the MOOC and, because of this, she was able to comment and engage discussion on how we have been experiencing the different tools that are being used in the MOOC - newsletter, flipboard, twitter, G+, blog/community wall, individual blogs.

Other themes with visuals in the session:

How Blogs are Used: Thought blogs are used for a variety of purposes, and are popular in the classroom, they are also a powerful tool for making global connections and engaging in personal reflection. 

Sue described the Blogging Stages: tears, anger, awe - that time when things click and you start to get it. I think I may be in the awe stage myself. After a few years of dabbling, I feel like I'm starting to finally see the point of why blogging can be a great tool [and enjoying it too!].

What Have I Struggled With in Blogging and Why? I wrote down: Purpose - is the blog for me,
my students, others? Time - never enough; and Awkwardness - about what I'm writing, the quality of my writing, etc.  I appreciated Sue's response that our blogs should just reflect things we are interested in, and be a means for processing our own personal learning.

I haven't used blogs enough with my students to note whether or not I've see the audience effect in my courses, but I think there is something to this.

As for the impact of blogs on learning, I do believe that if properly implemented they can have a positive effect. Sue gave some good tips: starting small, providing good guidelines for students, and thinking up front about structure. I liked the example of using a single blog and having students use specific tags - which then get fed to another 'group' page on the blog - vs. trying to manage multiple individual student blogs. Still trying to get my head around the mechanics of how that would work. 

How Would I Use Blogging in the Future? Aside from trying to keep my own blog, I am still pretty new at integrating this tool in my teaching. I did recently have moderate success using a blog for a course: http://edu505f12.blogspot.com/  Though I liked using the pages, and the idea of a collaborative journal, I felt that the discussions were not as rich. In future I need to think about how to make the discussions more authentic and relevant to the students.

Webinar Session Resource Links
The State of Educational Blogging: http://theedublogger.com/2013/08/08/the-state-of-educational-blogging-2013/

Sue Waters Blog http://suewaters.com/

Eric example remixing: http://erictremblay.blogspot.com/2013/09/week-1-teaching-online-is-critical.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+E-learningAcupuncture+%28e-Learning+Acupuncture%29

Sue's Flipboard: https://flipboard.com/section/education%2C-technology-%26-blogging-tips-bOGSm4
Flipboard guide to subscribing, curating & sharing: http://theedublogger.com/2013/06/12/flipboard/

Pinterest Boards on Tech Tools: http://www.pinterest.com/edublogs/boards/

Brent's Course blog: http://blogs.leeward.hawaii.edu/ed279/

Edublogs in Action http://menudemo.edublogs.org/
- includes an example of good Blog Guideline Page: http://menudemo.edublogs.org/blog-guidelines/

English Teacher Blog- example of clear structure: http://engten.edublogs.org/

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