a fellow traveler

mshoff, thank you, thank you, thank you. All very interesting reading of course - and so much I can relate to.

Here is a young, hip (my kind of hip anyway), committed, intelligent, teacher-researcher-academic strutting her stuff. Professional learning, technology, blogs, teacher education, dialogue, reflection, critical action, writing - it's all there.

I guess I get excited when someone thinks and talks and asks questions similar to me. Blogging is a marvellous tool in this sense.

I've read the entire back catalogue and have picked out some juicy issues - ones that I struggle with and enjoy too.

My main focus is really reflection and technology - can the emerging technology of blogs (yes, I know they're old hat for the majority of the computer world but they're still relatively new to education) impact reflection in any significant and/or positive way? Could something as simple (relative term) as a technological improvement over pen and paper increase the quantity, if not the quality, of pre-service teacher reflection?

This is interesting since blogging has potential as a personal reflection tool, but more importantly (at least I think) as a collaborative reflection tool. Literacy and technology studies (i.e. anything to do with language and technology) has some interesting ground to cover in terms of the ways that communications and learning and reflection are MEDIATED by technologies and our uses of them. How is it different, or better, or harder, or whatever because we are using this different medium and way of ordering and representing experience?

I know that Monash (or at least English method - Brenton and Graham) are toying with the idea of using blogs in the course - and I'm sure that there is potential for a study here - similar perhaps to mshoff's. In terms of highschool use - this is one that I'm closer to presently and attempted (however tentatively) with blogaboutblogs. I believe it can 'increase the quantity, if not the quality' of reflection and writing, but that this is obviously not a given - that, as mshoff mentions elsewhere, there are many factors that influence someones interest and engagement in the refective process.

I think I'll break this into two posts ...

Ah, but it was heartening to see Eliot's Four Quartets getting some blogtime, and Little Gidding! I just reread this the other day too! See funeral post ...

But, I must say I can't understand whole Sting thing!