"ICT has given the, till now mercifully silent, blogger a new sense of the power of his own voice, and you can bet he is not afraid to step out of the shadows, stick a new piece of Sellotape to his glasses and declare his power." (Beadle, 2011) Well, here I am wishing I could be silent but having to blog. It still feels weird to me, even if I do add that bit of Sellotape to my glasses. All protests aside, there is a benefit to blogging or at least reading other people's blogs, in that you have access to a wealth of information from anyone and everyone. Most importantly though you can access information from your peers and you can do this any time and pretty much in any place thanks to mobile technology. Some of my blog posts have been written on my iPhone as I have tried to keep up with my work-load on the go, for example; whilst sat in the doctors waiting room I am no longer wasting time listening to the horrifically bad music playing on the obscure radio station which I am assuming is all that they can tune in to, I can write an essay using Pages, I can work on the internet (eg. blogging), I can read books, listen to podcasts, send and read emails, build a Pinterest board, etc. Laura Doggett, who is director of e-Learning at Westfield Community Technology College, writes about similar things in a blog post entitled Nine Great Reasons Why Teachers Should Use Twitter. She describes Twitter as being like a virtual staffroom which she can enter at any time, day or night, where she can access resources from Global professionals and she uses Twitter to question and improve her practice.
It makes sense that, even though someone like myself may not be a digital native and may sometimes struggle with technology, it has a valid and very useful place in today's teaching environment.
References
Beadle, Phil Bad Education (Carmarthen: Crown House Publishing, 2011) pg.67
http://www.elearninglaura.net/2009/03/29/nine-great-reasons-why-teachers-should-use-twitter/ (date accessed 16/01/15)
It makes sense that, even though someone like myself may not be a digital native and may sometimes struggle with technology, it has a valid and very useful place in today's teaching environment.
References
Beadle, Phil Bad Education (Carmarthen: Crown House Publishing, 2011) pg.67
http://www.elearninglaura.net/2009/03/29/nine-great-reasons-why-teachers-should-use-twitter/ (date accessed 16/01/15)
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