I'm going to be moderating a panel on blogging at the Utah Education Network's annual technical summit. I'm unfortunately opposite a session on Mac OS X which I think will garner significant attention. I plan to open with some information on what blogs are and use examples like the Weblogs at Harvard Law and Kern County Superintendent of Schools since UEN provides service to both higher and public education. Today, I notice that David Carraher has posted an article on using weblogs in education that I'll have to read for ideas. I'll probably also draw on my experience last fall using weblogs to help manage my class. Here's the abstract:
Among the problems cited by educators in teaching critical thinking skills to students are the lack of access to primary sources of information, the inability of students to experiment with thoughts and concepts before committing to them (on a test for example), and the difficulty students have getting multiple, valid outside reviews of what they are thinking. Weblogs are a solution to these problems. Weblogs allow teachers to guide informal classroom activity and to see student's work before its time for the test or final paper. Students gain a vehicle for creatively experimenting with thoughts and concepts and easily accessing, cataloging and storing outside information related to their interests. This panel will introduce the concept of weblogs, or blogs as they are commonly called, discuss what makes them different from other websites, and talk about how they can be used to enhance classroom education. The panel will consist of weblog experts from around Utah and be moderated by Phil Windley who operates a popular technology blog at www.windley.com and has first hand experience using blogs in an educational setting.