TechQuest Research

My TechQuest research has gone very well. I have enjoyed researching the topics of blogs, professional development and technology education. I used this knowledge as I began to worked with my college writing students and other professionals. I also had fun with new research tools that really helped along the way.

The most important tool I learned to rely on for conducting this research was the delicious bookmarking tool. At first, I didn’t quite understand what I was to do with this tool. I had never tagged things before and didn’t quite understand the need for tags. I am sure this is where many of my students will be in their understanding about the need to Blog. I felt lucky to go through this process because I would be better able to relate to my students when they tried new technology tools like blogs during the implementation piece of this TechQuest. The website to set up a delicious account is below.

Resource: http://delicious.com

One thing I learned about social bookmarking was the need to be consistent with my tags. I found after placing commas in between my tags that they were then attached to the ends of the tags. I didn’t realize this until I went back to look for my research on copyright. I had resources under copyright, and copyright. Obviously, I changed this and checked off another skill gained through problem solving. After discussing this with our professor, I learn an even more efficient way to change my tag labels in a group. I am sure if I had any prior knowledge of a tag, I would have picked up a few of these discoveries from the tutorials.

A few other discoveries I made about social bookmarking were creating tag bundles and adding an “add to bookmarks” tab in my Safari and Firefox browser. These two things really saved time. As I researched further, I spent a lot less time going back and forth to the delicious website. I wished I had followed the directions in the set up better. I will definitely know better next time, as I continue to improve my research skills.

Along with the social bookmarking strategy, I used a blog catalog. This was a website that had many blogs on every topic listed in a catalog format. I did felt like I was shopping for blogs in a catalog. It had a pretty picture of the blog and a link to the author with a link to the blog. Also, on the blogs I found there were links to other blogs. It just went on and on. I never knew how to use these before or that they even existed. I am glad I found this resource. Below you will find an example of a blog catalog.

Resource: http://www.blogcatalog.com/explore/education+blogs/

Example blogs are everywhere when you start to look for them. I included many example blogs in my delicious account. I learned a lot about blogs by looking at other teachers' use of them. Below is a great site I found with many examples.

Resource: http://www.shambles.net/pages/staff/blogteach/

I also enjoyed sites and blogs like the one below that share a teacher’s journey with implementing technology into their classroom. A diary of how it went was interesting to read and gave great insight into troubleshooting issues that might be encountered.

Resource: http://blogs.bedfordstmartins.com/highschoolbits/teaching-with-technology/my-year-of-teaching-technologically/


I had a tendency to look at everything and was at times diverted to other interesting sites. I started looking for something and after a few clicks I was reading whole chapters of books or watching 50 minute documentaries about other educational topics I wasn’t in need of at the moment. I found the new open source materials for online courses also wonderful. I was shocked at the plethora of resources now being offered to anyone who looked.

My TechPlan consists of implementing blogs into my college courses. I will be creating a podcast for this. I was able to find a few examples of podcasts about blogging. They are very good resources for me to learn from. They were interesting and well done. Below, an example of one of these podcasts is included.

Resource: http://bodmas.org/blog/images/blogs_in_education.mp3

Also, while researching I found some power points and documents about ways to incorporate blogs with students. An example is this very simple, but helpful document.

Resource: http://warburton.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/educational_blog_uses.png

This How-to article would also be very useful when implementing blogs into my classroom. I came across many of these types of resources. This one in particular was about integrating, evaluating and managing blogging in the classroom. This article was written by Julie Meloni.

Resource: http://www.profhacker.com/2009/08/13/integrating-evaluating-and-managing-blogging-in-the-classroom/

My plan also consists of offering professional development to other teachers about Web 2.0 tools and how to use them into their classroom. I found some interesting articles about this also. The one below is titled: Realizing New Learning for All Students Through Professional Development

Resource: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/educatrs/profdevl/pd200.htm

I am also thrilled to have found this resource. It is a lesson plan of sorts that I found very useful when educating other teachers about the blog implementation process. It is a learning module titled: Using Blogs in the Classroom. It also has a great rubric for evaluating using blogs in your classroom.

Resource: http://ebistro.org/modules/module1/index.php?module_id=55&mode=view

Another great resource I found were discussion boards about blogs and teacher issues. This one titled Blogussion has great resources. This entry is called How Bloggers can Prepare for the Future of Journalism. It is great for discussing the benefits of blogs in a professional development setting.

Resource: http://www.blogussion.com/marketing/bloggers-adapt-future-journalism/

Also, I found a few other people’s delicious accounts with resources including blogs. I felt funny using stranger’s delicious accounts, however; they do save a lot of time. The point of posting them is clear. People post them for other people to look through the resources tagged on them. It is so interesting to see the different resources and the direction other people take on the same topic. Below, is an example of Mindy McAdam's delicious account. She has written about blogs in a few place I found on the web.

Resource: http://delicious.com/macloo/blogging?page=2

Many other subject Web 2.0 related resources can be also found on my delicious account. I will be including these subject based resources in my website for other educators.

Delicious.com/heathermayernik.com

Feel free to explore any of these resources and use them if they will help. I look forward to reviewing what my team has also found for their TechQuests. I am sure I am in for a treat and a long night of reading and bookmarking. Happy Spring!