Teacher Training and Social Media: Using a Multi-Author Blog for Lifelong Learning

The chapter deals with the implementation of a multi-author blog which was launched during the postlauream course Online Tutor, promoted by the University of Macerata (Italy), and which aims to train teachers (both pre-service and in-service teachers at different school levels), to acquire the necessary skills to manage tutoring tasks for online courses. The description of the development of the blog from a course related tool to a lifelong community environment, aims to highlight the possibilities of the social online environment for fostering teachers’ reflections related to an online university training course and to provide an action strategy to create a participatory space for their lifelong learning. The key aspects of the project were the roles played by the blog in conveying and socializing the students’ personal experiences during the online learning process and the awareness that developed of the potential for a community blog to become a constantly-updatable educational space which can be used beyond the boundaries of the specific course it was designed for.