A Weblog, or "Blog," is a website that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer. Blogging sites suitable for the classroom include: Blogger, Edublogs, KidBlog, and WordPress.
Technology and Literacy?
"Blogging is about sharing. You can share opinions, thoughts, ideas, concepts, resources, links, activities, lessons, etc. The first step in creating a blog is determining the focus of your blog. What are you going to discuss? What are you going to share? ... Blogging provides an area for you to reflect. The great thing about sharing your reflections is it provides an opportunity for you to communicate with others about your personal reflections. In education, discussion alone can breed some of the best outcomes for you as a teacher. The great thing about Blogging is that it offers up a way to find other people who share your interest because they will read and comment on your blog. ... What is also great about a blog is that you don't necessarily have to share. It can be a private electronic journal..." (Zimmer, 2010).
Why should students blog in the classroom? Blogging provides students with an authentic audience, whether it's their teacher, classmates, family, relatives, another class/school, etc. Blogging engages and motivates students to write by providing an alternative to traditional classroom writing. Blogging helps students work on spelling and typing. Blogging allows for instant feedback through the comments function, which can further motivate students to write more and better. Blogging offers a venue for students to explore their own creativity. Blogging enables teachers to educate students on ethics, netiquette, digital citizenship, internet safety, copyright and academic property, cooperation and collaboration, writing processes, and much more.
By innovating my classroom with blogging, I would begin by introducing students to a "Online Expectations, Guidelines, and Rubric" document, which would be tailored to the curriculum. I would not only have students sign the document, but I would require them to take the document home to their parents along with a letter to the parents explaining what their child(ren) would be participating in and learning in the classroom. I would also clearly present how the technology works and why it is being used, specifically focusing on its benefits to the students.
Once the class has begun blogging, I would validate blogging within the classroom, highlighting blog posts which were done well. I would allow comments on blogs to count as classroom participation. I would give random, non-evaluative feedback on blogs to allows students to not only see that - yes - the teacher is reading the blog posts, but also see that the teacher cares about and is interested in what they (i.e. students) say and think. Lastly, I would model blogging by participating in the blogging assignments.
I believe blogging is extremely beneficial in the classroom. Blogging helps students develop a multitude of skills, kindle an interest in learning, and become engaged and motivated in their class.
References
Zimmer, M. (2010, May 23). Tools for the 21st century teacher. issuu, Retrieved from http://issuu.com/mzimmer557/docs/tools_for_the_21st_century_teacher
We've talked so much about blogging in the classroom and the benefits that come with it. Before our class, I thought blogging would be a good idea for the classroom, and I had only seen it done in a few places. NOW I think it's almost like a requirement for the classroom. I think classrooms should definately have blogging. It's not only a way to motivate the students like you said, but you also talked about the skills they are building up. It's a never-ending list, based on what you use it for: Typing, reading, writing, vocabulary, computer basics, blogging etiquette etc. I can't wait to actually implement this in my classroom! So exciting. I also love the fact that we are doing it as students right now for our class. I see how it works from a students persepective.
ReplyDeleteI was just looking closer at that wordle, did you make it? I like it a lot. I also wanted to add that if you use word press, like my friend does there are a ton of cool features that the blogger can use to promote their blog. They can see what people are searching on google that bring up their blog address, they can see who views the blog, you can see the top blogs viewed of the day, and a ton of other things. People can subscribe to just like any other blog.
ReplyDeleteI also think that blogging is a good way to use in teachers' teaching. I remembered that I have a friend who was also asked to use blog when she was learning English in Canada. I can see her improvement in English and blogging really helped her improve her writing skill. What's more, she had to read her classmates' blogs and it helped improve her reading skill. Therefore, I also agree to integrate blogging into teaching.
ReplyDeleteWhat I like about your blog post is you have thought not only about how you are going to have your students blog, but you have thought about how to organize it as well. You have thought about the "parent" aspect and that is important. I think access is going to be key because students need time to type etc., but if that access is there the possibilities are endless.
ReplyDeleteGood idea about clearly establishing expectations on the blog site, and giving students accountability for what they write. Your idea about showing the class "highlights" of student blogs reminds me of some creative writing classes I've taken at ISU, and I know personally that praise in general is an excellent motivator for writing, and a legitimate way to help raise self-esteem. Great post!
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