Overwhelmed...

Well, I am still very excited about the possibilities that blogging can have for my own personal development and for my students. However, searching through the endless blogs (mainly of them pointless) I realize that there is a whole world out there that I never knew existed. It's a bit overwhelming and scary to know that children have their lives posted on the internet for anyone to see. And I knew about myspace and that stuff, but I didn't realize how personal it all got.
Now I not only see how useful blogs can be for professionals, but how important it is for kids to be taught about the ramifications of technology in addition to the benefits. And while safeguarding children against the dangers of the internet (oooo....scary....) should mainly be the responsibility of the parents, it should also be taken up by teachers as well. If parents don't take the time to learn what their kids are doing by learning the technology, then teachers could step in. And allowing parents to learn blogging through a teacher-initiated website could be a great resource in helping parents learn exactly what blogging is and what their children are doing exactly....
On a more positive note, I decided to give new life to a website that I ran through Penn State. The site is no longer active because I'm no longer a student, but I'm going to start transferring the information to a blog (which is much easier than a website.) I'll post the site if I get it up in time...

My first blog

I, like many others in the class, am personally experiencing the blogging phenomenon for the first time ever. I'm excited to finally join the rest of the world and begin to understand this new technology. I think it's so important that we, as either current or future teachers, stay up to date on the technology that our students are using. How can we expect to relate to them if they seem to be talking another language? Hopefully I can use blogging to reach out to my students on a medium that they are comfortable with instead of only in the more rigid constraints of the classroom. They may feel more willing to discuss ideas or questions in a more casual setting- not to mention it's a setting that they spend countless hours on in their spare time anyways...
However, technology changes so rapidly and kids change their ideas on what they like seemingly from day to day. So, does anyone have any ideas on how teachers can stay more up to date on what their students are doing this week, technology wise, socially, etc?