My Self-Evaluation

As the semester is winding down, so is my PLN.  I’ve made a total of 25 posts, but what about the length, substance, and overall quality of them (some aspects that could go on a future rubric for this assignment)?  My blog differed from a lot of my fellow classmate’s blogs because I tended to stick with short blogs.  I did this for two reasons—the first being that that is simply how long my blogs usually turned out, and secondly, because I know if I were to look at a person’s blog page, I would read the short ones, and possibly just skim over the long ones.  Therefore, keeping in mind that I want more users to read my blogs, I kept them fairly short.

I feel that the substance on my blogs were sufficient.  I blogged about technology, teaching strategies, and other resources; therefore, the substance was of good quality.  I blogged consistency, at least once a week.  I made my blogs understandable to everyone, citing my sources (usually with a link).  I also blogged for a bigger audience.  While the main purpose was to blog with other classmates, I feel that my blog could also appeal to a bigger audience outside of our LLED classroom realm.

I definitely think I did a good job at connecting my PLN resources.  I was one of the first people to link my Twitter account to my blog page, allowing readers to see what’s going on in my personal life.  One of my blogs talks about how I was able to get Google Reader and Netvibes applications on my phone, allowing my to check my fellow bloggers pages in my free time.  Since then, I’ve also added a Word Press application.  I also challenged what we were given and challenged whether or not various sites were “the best.”  I did this in my blog, “Netvibes vs Google Reader.”  I incorporated the EC Ning into my blogs.  Our wikispace group also incorporated EC Ning RSS feeds onto our page.  I did some research on online tools for teachers (thanks to the EC Ning), and then posted about them.  Finally, I, like many of my other classmates, did a good job at including videos (from youtube, teacher tube, etc.), links, pictures, and other resources into my blog.

As far as connecting with other students, I feel I did a mediocre job.  I, myself, have left about ten comments on my classmate’s blogs.  In return, I have had 57 comments on my blogs.  This is the one area I believe I could have improved.  I didn’t realize until later in the semester that we were being graded on how many comments we had.  I will try to improve this within the last few weeks of class.  Other than the specific numbers, I used my classmates’ blogs to come up with ideas for my posts, and in return, I had fellow classmates fertilize ideas from reading my posts.  Like Jessie’s blog about “Entering the Conversation,” I feel I’ve done a decent job of entering various conversations and adding to them.

Keeping all of this in mind, I believe I deserve an A.  I’m going to work on leaving comments for others, but other than that, I feel I did enough work to get an A.  To finish my final blog, here are some suggestions for future classes:

• Tell the students when to blog.  For example, tell them they must post at least once a week, or two times in two weeks
• Give them some guidance in what to blog about: technology, teaching strategies, resources, current events.
• Provide a rubric.  For example, tell them they will be graded on consistency/number of blogs, the substance and quality, length, etc.
• Decide how you will grade the other pieces of the PLN—Linkedin and Classroom 2.0