Assignment 1: Blog

I truly enjoyed working on my first blog "Higher Order Thinking Skills in ECE". It was challenging, but rewarding to develop content and formulate posts which were aimed at sharing ideas, resources, and providing inspiration for fellow researchers and practitioners of early childhood education, while advocating the adopting of practices and perspectives for early learning which would favorable influence the developmental outcomes of higher order thinking skills.



What I learned

I was very impressed with the sheer amount of content and number of add-ons which could be produced, and very quickly began adding features, such as videos, pictures, polls, tweeter feeds, and any other tool that I could discover. Although the convenience of these tools and the integration which they provide were many (i.e. the ability to add data from other sources, such as tweets or social bookmarks), I discovered that sometimes "less is more" and it is important that your blog is readable, easy to navigate, and allows for more important information to be the most visible. Another lesson learned from blogging is that the "if you build it, they will come" motto certainly doesn't apply to blogs. Unless you already have a base of interested readers, are active to promote your blog, or have it linked from established locations, you can wait forever without any new visitors or readers. Thus, while I had pragmatic reasons for establishing my particular blog, in addition to the meeting of class requirements, much more work will be required to establish a reader base and a group of individuals willing to post, comment, and contribute.

How important blogging is to my field

It is my opinion that blogging will be an important forum for communication and collaboration among professionals, particularly those who are separated by time and space. The ease with which blogs can be created, managed, and posted to is certainly an advantage for busy teachers who may not have much time to spare after a busy and stressful day. As a means for expression, the blog is certain another tool conducive to use in some classrooms, particularly for writing assignments or other content-based instruction. For preschoolers, however, the use of blogs to communicate, must require greater amounts of teacher and parent assistance and may be less suitable. Nevertheless, while emphasizing professional development and the sharing of ideas and knowledge, I forsee a bright future for this type of blog among interested ECE professionals.

Future learning goals

As I have mentioned, fostering interaction and collaboration among early childhood professionals, scholars, and parents is a mission which is close to my heart. By simplifying the process, allowing for content to be made available online, and by attracting international commentators, I believe that a community of learners and community of educators is a feasible and appropriate goal. The use of blogging, to a certain degree, may also be plausible as a learning tool, although, as mentioned, with much more scaffolding, support, and supervision required than with older learners. Plans to incorporate blogging in future work and study include:

- continue to add content to and promote a blog for encouraging early childhood educator interaction and collaboration
- use of blogging to keep in contact with connections made to other scholars and professionals (i.e. from conferences, guest visits, or chance meetings)
- promotion of best-practice, useful tips for educators, and promulgation of new techniques or strategies for fostering creativity in early learning