WebedtecH

Here’s some excellent insights into the benefits of student blogging.  Perhaps the issue isn’t that there’s benefit from the mechanics but rather the term "blogging" has been attached to too many negatives over the years.

• EduBlog Insights » Blog Archive » Rationale for educational blogging

  • There are many skills and concepts that need to be addressed to effectively help teachers learn to use blogs throughout their curriculum to foster these new literacies. It is not just a matter of transferring classroom writing into digital spaces. Teachers need to address writing for a public audience, how to cite and link and why, how to use the comment tool in pedagogical ways, how to read web materials more efficiently as well as explore other ways to consider pedagogical uses of blogs. Blogging requires us to teach students to critically engage media. Students need instruction on how to become efficient navigators in these digital spaces where they will be obtaining a majority of their information.
  • Blogging engages students in conversation and learning.

Presentations: Give Synced Presentations Online with Zoho Show

Personally I like the idea of an online shared presentation solution with low overhead and an easy start up. This seems to be a great idea for multi-location staff development or even after hours training if it’s combined with something like Skype for audio broadcast with the slides.