BLOGS? ... BLOGS!

Hi, my name is Laura Faber and it is quite a miracle that you are hearing from me through this channel of communication. If you had asked me what a BLOG was a week ago, I wouldn’t have been able to come close to guessing it’s actual purpose. Anyway, a little about me: I was born and raised by my parents in the small rural community of Vauxhall, along with my two younger brothers. Growing up I shared a very close relationship with my family and to this day my family remains an integral part of the decisions I make. It is through the encouragement of my mom that I find myself in PS1 and thus typing in this BLOG. It is through my dad’s encouragement to get my masters that I find myself doubting an Education degree. A career as a teacher is not a question; the question is whether I want to focus on the academic part (university) or the teaching part of it. Perhaps a blog will help work out some of these questions.

Being a technologically challenged individual, I was very skeptical of my ability to use such an "advanced" technological tool. Just this summer, my employer was celebrating because I was e-mailing and answering the phone without considerable prompting and prodding. My skepticism of technology stems from a feeling that technology takes away from the personable component of human interaction. Things such as non-verbal cues (facial expression, body language and tone) are lost through teaching with a technology like a blog. I feel that non-verbal cues serve both to strengthen meaning of a statement and quality of a relationship.
Non-verbal cues can also be used to assist in assessing a student’s true understanding of a set material. Something a blog could not display.

Another reason I am apprehensive about technology is the ease of information. It is easy to fall into the trap of revealing too much about oneself even with the proper instruction.

While I am skeptical that it would work for me, I will attempt to use blogs as an occasional teaching tool. At this time I could see myself using it as a syllabus or as a way of getting students to discuss their feelings on a question or article. Technology seems to excite students and perhaps this excitement could transfer over to excitement for the material. While I don’t understand how it could help a relationship, I am interested in further exploring this as such an avenue. I am also a fan of the ease of use factor and accessibility of it. So, while I don’t know how well it will work for me, I am willing to try it.