First Article Reflection

The article Blogging and RSS - The "What's It?" and "How To" of Powerful New Web tools for Educators provided some interesting examples of applications of these Web 2.0 tools in school systems and classrooms. I was particularly intriqued by the Lewis Elementary web site. It often seems difficult to have our school website updated in a timely manner. Using the blog concept for this was intriguing. I did not care for the placement of the links to the side and below all of the blog entries, but the concept and potential uses as an effective communication tool for an entire school were good. I also enjoyed seeing the classroom application for the discussion of The Secret Lives of Bees. I especially liked the blog established for parents who were reading along with their students. Finally as a parent, I would enjoy being able to subscribe to blogs for all of my daughter's teachers. Our school has a page on the web site that enables teachers to post information, but parents must navigate the site and select each teacher individually. Using blogs and RSS this information would be available in one location. This alone would improve communication between teachers and parents. I plan to discuss the possibility of using these tools with our administrators.