Lucky me! I have used blogger previously which made module 2 a little easier to get through.
I set up a blog for my Year 3 class in 2009. You can view it at http://excellentblogsite.blogspot.com/
The purpose of the blog was to encourage the students to share their views and knowledge on different subjects. I deliberately didn't make the blog's focus too narrow in order to get them used to using a blog in general. I tried to emphasise the importance of taking pride in how they wrote and also opened them up to the usefulness of blogging as a communication tool.
Topics included 'My Favourite Websites', Favourite Sports, Japan (as I was doing a unit on Japan, I set blogging as a homework task) and Holiday News. I also set up two posts where children could keep in touch with 2 students who had gone overseas for an extended period of time.
I spent some time reflecting on the use of blogs and thought their best uses are as a news broadcasting website or diary system. Being able to share information with a variety of people can be beneficial as physical location is no longer a barrier and the type of responses you can elicit are much broader due to the size and backgrounds of the potential audience.
Finally, using a blog for the purpose of this Web 2.0 course is a great way to stay organised and keep a reasonably permanent record of what has been learnt.
