Several weeks ago, I put together a presentation on blogging for the administrative team. This came at a good time, because several of you are already beginning to experiment with blogging (and hopefully I'll be able to share these examples in future issues of this update.) As I approached putting the presentation together, I wanted to steer clear of the negative and focus on the positive. (We have heard enough from the media on the negative side.) The question I wanted to try and answer was this: Why should we be blogging with our students?
To start with, blogging is a technology. And technologies, when used well in and out of the education world, change processes. But there is one very important area of education that technologies have had relatively little impact, and that is in the classroom and how we presently teach. If you look at the classroom of yesterday (when you and I were students) and the classroom of today, there is really very little difference. We have attempted to use technology, but not to change our processes in the classroom. We have really added technology on top of what we have always done. Enter blogging.... Because of its nature, blogging is a technology that can help us change processes -- and most importantly the processes of learning and teaching.
What is a blog? It...
- Is a Website.
- Allows an author (or authors) to publish instantly to a worldwide audience.
- Demands interaction, asking readers to think and respond.
- Is frequently filled with links.
- Can include graphics, photos, video and audio.
Now lets look at some blogs. The best way to understand them is to see a few in action -- look around and read them! There are four basic types of blogs -- each link below will take you to a specific example of each type.
So how can blogs change the processes of learning and teaching? They can...
- promote thinking.
- promote reading and authentic writing.
- foster peer review.
- encourage commenting.
- challenge with differing viewpoints.
- shift control.
And they...
- are also truly a constructivist tool for learning - the content that is created is part of the wider body of knowledge that the internet represents. There is a great potential for audience!
- expand the walls of the classroom.
- archive the learning that teachers and students are doing - reflection and metacognitive analysis.
- allow those too shy to speak to share in writing their ideas.
- allow students to develop expertise in a specific subject.
- teach students new literacies; students need to learn the skills required to research, organize and synthesize ideas.
- require reading and writing!
Blogs are a technology that can help us re-engineer processes in the classroom! Regardless of content or level (elementary, middle, or high school), blogging is a new technology worthy of investigation. Give me a call (ext. 1601) if you are interested in pursuing blogging in your classroom!
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