I think that having National Educational Technology Standards for both students and teachers is a really good idea, promoting 21st century skills in our classrooms. I personally feel that the education that I recieved over the years did not prepare me for many real life and work force situations that I will encounter in the future. I believe that applying 21st century skills and integrating technology in the classroom would help prepare students for this.

At first, I thought that these standards would apply only to some concentrations of Art Education such as Graphic Design. However, after reading all of the NET Standards, I know see that they can be applied and adapted to many other things as well. Just using the internet properly to research an artist or research and brainstorm ideas for an art project is using technology to faciliate and inspire student learning.

Blog 2: Find a teaching blog, review it, and blog about your experience.

1st Blogging Experience

I have had prior experience using blogs for a few years now, both personally and for other previous curriculum classes I had taken here at Montclair. When I was fifteen or so, Xanga, a free weblog community, was very popular among my peers. Most of my friends and I all kept these blogs, writing about our daily lives; school days, things that made our day, things that ruined our day, love lives, lack of love lives, how we spent our weekends, etc. We uploaded digital pictures and would post song lyrics. Before the whole myspace and facebook trends started, this was our online way of keeping in touch with eachother. From time to time, I still enjoy looking back upon my old Xanga site and reading old entries to see the ways in which I've changed and grown and also, the ways in which I have stayed the same.

I think that this personal use of blogging is still important today in creating a teaching blog. Regardless of how we choose to theme our blog, it is always a reflection upon us, as teachers.