My Use of ICT - Part 1: Blogging

A sensible place to start an ICT blog, but still valid as a 6th post I feel. While mentally preparing this entry, I realised just how much ICT there is in my life and so this will become a several part blog entry.

I have never blogged before till this trainee teacher blog, but I am not a complete newby to this world. I follow quite a few blogs here and there and like having the RSS feeds up on my firefox page so I can procrastinate while working to see if any have been added to. Most of the blogs I follow are of people recording about their daily lives, but who are experiencing some out of the ordinary life event which gives a reason for blogging, often medically related or temporary travel experiences. These blogs are usually written to get the latest news across as soon as possible and/or in a conversational tone. I 'blame' this for the casual tone of my blog; I have my chatty diary writing brain in gear as opposed to a work related mentality and hence don't spend as long planning or reviewing what I have written. (Although there must be a fair bit thinking and editing, or else why are these taking me such a long time!!) I feel I should maybe start reading some more 'intellectual big issue' blogs before I begin typing here.

There are a few specific blogs that I would like to mention with a slight link to education. Sarah Outen is a friend I met at my undergraduate university (hers was the first blog I was able to follow of someone I personally knew!). She is a fantastic and crazy person who will be rowing solo across the Indian Ocean next year. She is keeping a blog of her training and preparations for the row and intends to keep the blog updated while she is on the ocean. She has an education section on her site and I do hope to be able to get the class I am teaching to follow along with her journey. Plenty of cross-curricular links available: geography, biology, English, PE.

The second blog I mention is both the record of an individual's health journey and a well thought through resource for strangers to refer to. Baldy's Blog was started by Adrian Sudbury, a reporter for the Huddersfield Examiner, near the start of his journey with leukemia. He recorded the effects of the treatment he received and I particularly remember the detail he gave on his experiences with Graft Vs Host Disease for those who may suffer similarly too. He later started a campaign to make blood, bone marrow, and organ donation education compulsory for sixth formers. I have been very moved by Adrian's determination and this is a cause I feel very passionately about. I am currently thinking of ways I may be able to use my future position as a Primary School teacher to help with this great work. This is possibly the only instance when being a secondary teacher seems appealing to me!

EDIT: well, that was embarrassing (good job I spell-checked as had only put one r in there which would have doubled the embaRRassment!), though only for myself as no one else reads my blog. I just went back to look at this post and found out the Baldy's Blog link took me to the Sarah Outen website. Must investigate if there is a way to check the links before actually publishing.