blogging



[|My blog]
Articles & commentary: Articles found on [|edutopia]

Article 1: [|Blogging is History]. This article discusses using a blog for book discussion in the classroom. I like the idea of it, largely because it would really appeal to teenagers. Another reason is that I think it could facilitate a better discussion; students might feel more at ease discussing questions in a blog if they are normally more reserved speaking in large groups. Plus, they can post answers to questions on their own time, within an assigned time frame, so class time can be used for other activities. I am sometimes reticent to hold discussions in class because getting kids to talk actively and meaningfully is so like pulling teeth, and it sometimes seems like wasted time. One reservation I have with this method would be that doing discussion this way seems counterproductive to enhancing students' interpersonal skills. Secondly, I wonder how much time it takes the teacher to facilitate this, if s/he is filtering all of the comments, as the teacher in this article describes.

Article 2: [|Digital Discussion: Taking your class to the internet.] This article gives a brief overview of various ways a blog can be used in the classroom. I am most strongly drawn to the ideas of using the blog as a place where assignments, etc. are posted, using the blog for discussion of a reading/topic from class, and using the blog as an online journal. If I understand correctly, the first two applications would involve my setting up my own blog and students visiting/posting to it; the third option would require me to set up a blog for each of my students and then visit their blogs to check their work. Seems highly time-consuming, but I can still see advantages to it.

Article 3: [|All the World's a Stage: Teaching Through Online Journals.] Exploring the idea of student using blogs as an online journal, I particularly liked this article's point that the blog gives students a real-world audience for their writing. So often, students are writing primarily for their teachers, and no more. On a blog, students would be posting their work for other audiences--and having the benefit of feedback outside the teacher's. What's more, this article's author suggests (and I LOVE this idea) specifically recruiting adults/readers to read student work and post comments to student work. I think this would do two important things: encourage students to take more ownership in their writing and care more about the fact that someone will read it, and get students excited about getting feedback/a reaction. I have thought recently about posting students' work on my blog--sort of like an online "great work" bulletin board. This might give kids the incentive to go the extra mile to do well enough to get posted...

Article 4: [|Phone Blogging: The How-To.] While this "article" doesn't really explore any specific applications for the technology, it maintains that it's possible, with some advance customization of one's blog, to phone in blog entries from one's cell phone. The writer maintains that an individual is able to add comments, video, and photos to his/her blog all with his/her cell phone--for free. I can certainly see where this would appeal to students, (face it, we can't seem to get them to put the darn things away!) This is an application of blogging that makes me--as a teacher in general and an English teacher specifically--fairly nervous. First, the steps to set a blog up to receive mobile posts seem rather complicated, particularly trying to apply them for a number of students. More so, however, I worry about the "quality" of the content posted via cell phone... students, I would think, would be more inclined to use relaxed "slanguage" that wouldn't reinforce the principles of competent communication that I hope to teach in my classes. I can certainly see where this technology would be "cool" if students were posting to their individual blogs reacting to an experience--say a field trip--and could benefit from the immediacy of "just did it." A comment posted with the article states that mobile blogging is also great for interviews, poetry readings, and data gathering...perhaps. I'd like to see it pan out a bit more before I launch into it myself, though.

Article 5: [|Synching Up with the iKid: Connecting to the 21st Century Student.] The author makes a vital point: You have to teach your students where they are. Our students spend the majority of their day saturated in media and technology applications; why do we continue to try to drag them back to our world? A simple switch from keeping a journal on pen and paper to keeping a journal online may motivate even the most reluctant learner to get involved. I am not an advocate of switching over entirely--there's value in pen-to-paper activities, and there's still a significant portion of the "real world" that uses them. But our world is also becoming increasingly technology-driven, so don't I owe it to my students to expose them to those other applications--blogging, wikis, and the like? I think the answer has to be "yes."