7 Days To A Better Edublog - Final Blog Post and Reflections

Note: I'm participating in a mini-course on writing a better Edublog.  7 Days To A Better Edublog offered by Stephanie Standifer who blogs at The Change Agency.


Well, it has been an interesting week.  It started in Austin, TX where I was participating in a 4-day Summer Science Institute where we weren't given internet access by The University of Texas for our laptops.  Fortunately, there was a computer lab set up and for two of the four days, my sessions were in the computer lab!  I swear, I really did pay attention to the presenter, well most of the time with a little time for keeping up with the mini-course!


The week has ended in San Antonio, TX where I am spending a few days before heading down to Brownsville, TX for a family wedding.  


I want to make sure to the thank Stephanie Sandifer for offering this mini-course.  I feel that all of the participants have taken something away which will hopefully encourage them to continue their own blogging adventure.

So what have I learned?

• Well, I've learned that I can write a half way coherent blog post with some time constraints.  
• That I do enjoy reading and commenting on other Edublogger's blog posts.
• That I do enjoy publishing an interesting post.
• That I think I can contribute, at least in part to the Edublogosphere with some meaningful posts on interesting issues.

What would I do different next time?

• I think that next time, I would try not to schedule a virtual mini-course at the same time that I'm attending a physical 4-day conference!  There were, especially at the outset, where I felt I didn't have the opportunity to spend as much time as I would have liked to.
• I would try to stick to a schedule where I could devote at least a 2 hour block of time to read, comment and write my blog post for the day.
• Take an hour each morning to read the previous days blog entries by each of the participants.  Although I tried during the course of this mini-course to read and comment on most everyone's blog, there are some that I know that I missed.

The Challenge?

So, I wanted to ad one more block to my reflections post and challenge myself with everyone else to keep up what they have started.

While reading Stephanie's post, Setting Up A Blog Schedule, she made a good point about a "Weekly Links Post".  That's a really good idea.  Not only can you keep blogging this way, but I'm always trying to remember where I put a link to a good resource or web application that I ran across.  This would be a good place.

Stephanie also suggests a "Current Events Post".  This would probably be the easiest post for most Edubloggers to write.  There are so many good resources out there that we find out about this would be a great place to write about them.  I know that I get most of my good ideas from Twitter Tweets from my PLN.  I think that it is not out of the realm of possibility of scheduling and completing a Current Events Post on a weekly basis.

Spreading The Word!

This is an area where I am very passionate about.  How do we encourage educators new to the Edublogoshpere to develop their interest and more importantly, develop their own dynamic PLN?  I've wondered, especially during the course of this mini-course, just exactly where my place in Edublogosphere actually is?

I think one of the best things that I can do is several fold:

• Continue to write (blog) about developing your own PLN.
• Continuously sharing resources for Newbies.
• Seek out opportunities to Spread The Word and show Newbies how valuable and worthwhile a PLN can be.