Ewan has been Finding time to blog. One of several thought provoking posts he produced today. Part of it is a defence of his posting rate (extremely good), explaining blogging as part of his professional development and thinking process.

I think this connects to some thing dear to Ewan’s heart getting blogs working in schools.

A reason there are not more classroom teachers blogging (with or without their classes) is just this, they cannot work in the same way as Ewan.

To blog confidently with a class you need a bit of practise, full time classroom teachers do not have the time to get a blogging habit, unless like me they start with non educational content.

Teacher’s working day just doesn’t have the time to be doing any research, thinking or blogging. Therefore we find it hard to get blogging. I have only once posted here during a working day, a very short joke-post at playtime.

I don’t think the odd inservice day will make someone a blogger, probably the best chance is to encourage student teachers to use it as a tool for reflection (see I wont do it and you can’t make me and Richard Ledingham.

Personally I feel almost constantly behind on reading, thinking and posting and I really try to keep up. Like a lot of worthwhile (IMO) practise in schools, we need more time to do it.

Ewan’s other post today are great reads too, I’ve not time to write anything, but be assured Ewan, you make me think.

Popped over to cpdinict where I was testing wordpress to find the image problem fixed.

Great news for Edu bloggers, no excuse now.

Did a wee Podcast test too which seems to work as well. Something slightly strange going on with the categories, I put the podcast test in the podcast category and it shows up there without links.

Edublogs or the guy behind it James Farmer has also set up learnerblogs.org free blogs for school students.

Teaching Ideas > I.C.T. Ideas

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/ict/podcasting.htm

Great overview of podcasting and why it is good practice:

It gives them a potential audience of thousands for their work.

It’s great for develop literacy skills (writing scripts, setting up interviews etc), allows them to develop and practise their speaking and listening skills, and they also learn some amazing ICT skills.

Podcasts can be interactive, and the audience can be invited to send their comments, giving valuable feedback to the children about their work.

I’ve found that making a podcast is also great for developing teamwork skills. The children always work together really well, as they’re always keen to make a great show.

From Mark Warner who’s class produce The Downs FM

podcast.