My Final Thoughts

Wow! This is my final blog for our Teaching and Learning with New Technologies module.  Overall, I have found my first blogging journey to be extremely beneficial. Here are the main advantages that I have found from blogging:

•  Above all, I have probably done more background reading for each week than I would have done on a normal basis (unless I have an assignment due...) and as a result, understand the themes and tools discussed in class in greater depth.
• An online personal journal has allowed me to present, edit and file my reflections in a more orderly manner than I would a handwritten journal.
• All my blogs contain hypertexting/ videos etc which have resulted in a greater capacity to learn and link new and useful resources. 
• Allowed me to reflect on my personal style of learning and writing.
• I have gotten to know my coursemates better, particularly those who are less vocal in class by reading their blogs and comments each week. I tend to keep my opinions to myself during whole class discussions and blogging has encouraged me to voice my opinions and share them with others. 
• Collaborative learning: reading other blogs has not only helped me check that my understanding of key themes and tools are on track, but also, encouraged more critical thinking and further expanded my knowledge and understanding. 
• Unlike traditional essays which rely heavily on the source of information, blogs encourage personal reflecting and a level of freedom to choose areas of interest that I want to read about. This I found very motivating.

I feel a major drawback of blogging is it is extremely time consuming, especially when other assignment due dates are looming. Moreover, it takes time and patience to read through other blogs,  comments and then think of my own comment to make. For some people, I know blogging is a passion, but for me, I found blogging pretty hard work. Initially, I found it quite a daunting prospect having to write my ideas and share it with others. It took several blogs for me to feel comfortable and establish my own public online voice as I wasn't sure how I should present myself. However, after some practice, doing lots of background reading, reading others blogs, receiving positive feedback and commenting on other blogs, it started feeling less awkward and I stopped worrying about how I would come across. Blogging has pushed me to be more proactive in sharing my ideas with others. When compiling each blog, I preferred doing quite abit of background reading. This involved reading journals, articles and other blogs online, not just those from this course to get a wider picture before I started drawing my own conclusions. I've enjoyed using hyperlinks (they are great!) and embedding resources which I found online. Had it not been for this blogging experience, I would probably never have come across most of the themes and tools we have covered.  I just hope that after this experience I will be able to keep up to date on the latest digital developments. This module has left me excited about integrating all these teaching and learning tools into my own future classrooms as it will be an extremely useful asset that will not only assist my students, but I can share with future collegues.