Thing #19

Blogging communities are becoming more and more popular. I think that there are some great opportunities for professional collaboration in these communities. I also think that many of these groups tend to become more social than professional. If that is the intention, then its great but often these communities market themselves as professional communities.

I explored the teacher pop and gather communities. Teacher Pop links teachers and professionals in the education world. It allows users to post comments, photos videos and other media. After creating an account, the user must wait for approval from the site administrator before he/she can access much of the tools available. I found the community fun and professional once I was approved. Gather is a site that I actually liked better than Teacher Pop. It had more content and I did not have to wait for approval before I could enjoy its tools. This site is more geared for news and pop-culture.

I am a member of numerous on-line communities such as trumpet herald and the International Trumpet Guild. These communities offer wonderful collaboration opportunities as well as providing vital information and resources for professional trumpet players and musicians.

I think that I will use both Teacher Pop and Gather as resources as a teacher. Both contain members that are able to contribute educated opinions and comments to questions that I ask. Through this process, I hope to find assistance with school-related questions that are sure to pop up in the future.