5650 - Blogs and RSS Feeds

This post contains my thoughts about an article in Volume 50, Number 4 of TechTrends. The article is a summary of work done by Richard West, Geoff Wright, Bruce Gabbitas, and Charles Graham.

First of all I have to say go BYU! I am impressed with BYU's Math Education program, of which I am a graduate, and reading this article gave me a sense of what other things are happening at BYU. Although I was at BYU during the study dates, I was not in one of these classes.

And now back to the article...

The first paragraph of the article caught my attention, particularly the quote by Darling-Hammond and McLaughlin...

"Teachers learn by doing, reading and reflecting (just as students do); by collaborating with other teachers; by looking closely at students and their work; and by sharing what they see."

This made me wonder, what if teachers could spend less time grading and more time watching themselves teach? I don't think much is gained from grading student work. There is much to gain from analyzing student work, though. If grading, attendance, etc. were outsourced to others, or to technology, teachers would be able to spend more time learning how to teach.

Now to blogging and RSS feeds...

The authors mentioned the limitations of the tools they were using, and the frustrations felt by the users as they were not able to do the things they wanted to do. It would be interesting to learn more about the history of each of the blogging options out there. Does a blogging application exist that is designed specifically for classroom use? Does a blogging application exist that is designed specifically for mathematics instruction? Does a blogging application exist that is designed around the latest research in education and technology, and so caters to the best practices and the most widely available open source software?

I am often frustrated at the difficulties I encounter as I try to use a hodge-podge of technologies and tools to do the various things I need to do. Maybe I will have to create something better.