Welcome to the new year.  I hope everyone had a fantastic break and is looking forward to a great January.

So much for the pleasantries...

Now that you have had some experience with the 2Learn.ca Academy Group Forum and Group Blog, please share your thoughts on how you might use these tools in your classroom, personally, or for professional development.

Do you have other experiences in using blogs, wikis and forums.  If so, please share them:)

Also, please comment on how the postings of others can help your understandings of using these tools.

Thanks,

Doug

One means of using blogs to support professional development has been through the use of a moodle.  More specifically, the Technology Department with my division has been involved in delivering PD to Administrators on a monthly basis.  At the end of each session (or as a take away homework assignment) we ask them to blog their thoughts/reflections or an answer to a question that has been posed.  At the same time, this allows other admin to see different viewpoints, successes, challenges, etc. if they have been posted.  As a result, the social networking that has being yielded is invaluable in getting the ball rolling for creating a climate of positive change.

In the past email has been our only way of communicating through the internet.  Forwarding information has been a valuable tool to reach those who would be most benifited by the information.  Our region has email groups set up so that any information can easily reach the necessary teachers.  I look forward to using a blog as a way of sharing information, as I've seen how useful it can be since our Academy #1 blogs were started.  I've already used some of the sites and appreciate the review of different sites.  Now to share these experiences at our next staff meeting will I hope start something new here.

If you are using Moodle you can definitely work with the blog functionality it contains.  It is fantastic to hear that some communities of professional practice have evolved to the point where people are sharing their reflections with the group.

After people realize how useful blogs can be to present information, they may end up using a wiki to co-create content to be shared with everyone.  Has anyone else tried that yet?  If you have, how has it worked for you?