Birds of a Feather...

Blog together?

Thanks to the brilliant technology of Google Alerts (which automatically sifts the web for any new content that matches your search terms and sends you a compilation of that material), I've now discovered two more adult literacy technology bloggers to read and share! They are Duren Thompson and Bill McNutt of the Center for Literacy Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Yay! I knew there had to be more birds in this flock out there somewhere.

Check out their blog "Skills for the 21st Century" for interesting insights into teaching adults technology literacy skills, technology and education trends, and - oooohhhh - data!

Creative Commons Photo "Elegant Tern Flock" by Mike Baird shared on Flickr.

ESL + Tech = Fun!

My colleagues over at the MLC Learning Center - Arlington Hills are demonstrating that even beginning English learners can benefit from the use of technology in their classes.

The teachers are using an English-learning music video from YouTube to teach students the "Washing Machine Song". Using music to teach language is a tried-and-true method for improving pronunciation, rhythm, vocabulary, etc., but using the animated video adds to the teaching potential by appealing to the visual learning style and adding humor!

After (or as part of?) the lesson, the students and teachers also collaborate to blog about their class - which is how I knew about it so I could share it with you.

Ah, I love working in an organization with so many fabulous, creative teachers and motivated students ready to engage and learn English.

Considering "Blog Guilt"

In a meeting this afternoon about my organization's "Technology Vision" I argued that it was important that technology/electronic communications be integrated into work plans and be recognized as "real work". I mentioned that I don't post to my blog very often partly because I feel like it takes me away from what I'm "supposed" to be doing. A colleague responded "Yeah, we don't want to encourage Blog Guilt."

What exactly is "Blog Guilt" and do I have it? Does "Blog Guilt" show up in all those meaningless blog posts that people make about why they aren't blogging? Is it when I don't blog because I don't know if blogging falls under the grant that I work under? Am I misappropriating tax dollars if I'm blogging on work time--and is worrying about that question a sign of Blog Guilt?

I think this is a question for teachers, too--though maybe more broadly as "web guilt". Teachers often aren't given time for work outside the classroom, so spending prep time reading a blog (or accessing other online media, even for work-related purposes) may engender guilt. How do we move to a work culture that embraces the use of web tools as a meaningful work activity? And how do we make sure that what we're doing online is a meaningful work activity?

If you think you've been struck by Blog Guilt, leave me a comment! And I hope you haven't gotten a case of it from reading this blog post!

25 Ways to Blog?

Are there really that many different ways to blog? I was unconvinced until I viewed an excellent slide show on http://www.slideshare.net/ called "The 25 Basic Styles of Blogging... and When to Use Each One." Suddenly, my own blogging efforts seem, well... kind of lacking in inspiration. I've got an idea but I'm not sure if I can pull it off: to blog once in each of the 25 styles between now and September 1st. That's 25 posts in about 6 weeks (about 4-5 posts a week). Right now I'm not blogging anywhere near that much. It seems like a good challenge to set for myself, though, so I'm going to give it a shot.

For those of you interested in learning more about different ways to use your blog, take a peek at the slide show!

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