If language be the food of Blogs. . .

Write on! So I wonder how long I can go on with these modified Shakespearean quotes. Guess that'll be my quirky little thing, like the cat lady, only . . . ummm. . . not.
Last night we explored some cool little gadgets in Web 2.0, including Google reader and Google gadgets. I've used the reader to subscribe to all my colleagues' blogs, which is a pretty cool thing. I explained it to my wife about the reader and she was like whatever but I don't care I still like it (student blog writing impersonation). The gadgets are cool for websites and wikis and whatnot, but I don't know if there's any practical educational application to them, other than to enhance design.
I can tell I'm beginning to loosen up in here. Hope my readers can withstand my colloquialisms.
We also spent a chunk of class time working on our advocacy wiki. I started to realize that this is going to be a major undertaking, probably when I realized that I would have to research my topic and that there are heaps of articles out there on student motivation. No problem finding the material--it's sorting through it all that will be a task. Fortunately I have some clever partners who seem to be on top of things.
No ideas yet for the lesson plan. It seems like I could use blogs to replace or as an alternative to weekly journal entries, but is that really a lesson? Here's an idea--perhaps I'll explore the possibility of a Multiple Media narrative where students tell a story through narrative, emails, diary entries, even telephone conversations. The whole thing could be arranged on a blog. But is that a really authentic way to use a blog? Just brainstorming. More in a bit. . .

To Blog or Not to Blog. . .

So this is my new blog. Nice place! I hope to make it a bit more cozy in the next few days. I'll try to add some images and play around with the other features.
Anyhow, I'm writing about my first impression of what we're doing this semester in the George Mason ITS program--Web 2.0, blogs, wikis, and podcasts in education. Well, I asked for it. Like six months ago at the Spotsylvania Techfest I actually approached my professor and asked him when we would be doing this stuff. Now I know.
My mission: to find my own niche here in Web 2.0, and to make it an integral part of my teaching, not just technology for the sake of using technology in the classroom. I think that being an English teacher gives me an advantage here--after all, it's all about effective communication. I'm looking forward to getting started.