Back again

I've been away for a while and have decided to renew my interest in blogging in order to share ideas, useful sites and anything else that comes to mind that may be useful.  I begin the planning stage of my Doctoral thesis this year, and I would like to attempt to produce regular blogs in the hopes that it will encourage me to organise my thinking and plan my research, time and work effectively. 

I am interested in the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in student learning, be it at primary, secondary or tertiary level.  My research will likely explore ways to teach pre-service teachers how to use and integrate ICTs into their classroom practice in a manner that is conducive to inquiry, creativity, personal and group harmony and the development of a life long love of learning.  I want to do this by gaining insights from all areas of education, the students, the pre-service teachers, the mentoring teachers, principals, lecturers, tutors, parents, the whole shabang! 

Whether this will actually be possible within the scope of my research is another matter entirely.  I figure it is best to aim big and whittle my ideas down to a finely honed piece of research, rather than maintaining boring or limited ambitions.  I have found in recent years that things don't always happen as you might anticipate, so it is best to have a go and see what happens.

I would like to also share a different website each time I blog in order to actually contribute to the wider educational community.  My website for today is:

http://www.writingfun.com/writingfun2010.html

This is a website I used to use regularly in my teaching, and now tell all my students about in lectures and workshops / tutes etc.  It is a fantastic site for anyone who wants to teach writing.  Heaps of exemplars, all with linguistic structures and features. 

Have a good week.