I think everyone involved in pre-service and in-service teacher education should spend some time each week both learning in the edublogosphere and edifying those who are blogging– especially students, but teachers too. I actually found Ontario Blogs from a comment you made I think– but I am not sure, the connections possible via web 2.0 technologies are very dynamic and not easy to recollect in full unless I write them down at the time. I agree it is a much more comfortable idea to have a closed commenting community as you get going with blogs: I am glad your publishing is open though! I think getting students motivated to write can be half the battle in many cases. You might also consider checking out think.com and the free, closed school digital networking community you can setup with them. I am hoping to do a skypecast soon about this, I have played with the tool a bit and it looks GREAT for getting kids safely using these web 2.0 tools and learning alongside their teachers.

Best wishes for continued success helping students become better writers and communicators!

Thanks so much for your encouragement!

I’ve been subscribed to your blog for several months and have shared some inspiration and information from you with the teachers involved in Ontario Blogs, never suspecting you’d someday mention _us_. What a thrill.

I can see why you’d prefer giving the ‘general public’ the chance to comment, but for the time being this seems like a good way to introduce students to the possibilities of blogging while maintaining the full support of (sometimes nervous) parents and members of the administration.

Thanks again for the “put up” — and for your continued efforts on behalf of the edublogging community.

Paula Boon,
Ontario Blogs coordinator (along with Diane Hammond)