When an educator thinks about setting up blogs for classroom use, versus using one only as a sounding board for fellow educators, one can feel somewhat fearful when the idea is first presented. The author addresses each of these: too much work, asserting that blogs are just a passing fad that have no place in the classroom, and the safety issues. Depending on how you plan to implement them, and how many students you teach throughout the day, blogging can add considerable more work to your load. I’m sure that turns off a lot of teachers, most of whom already feel overwhelmed. Setup takes time. One has to be motivated by the possibilities blogs can provide before they’re going to put in that extra effort. The other issue is incorporating it into your classroom schedule. What’s nice about that is that students can blog after school on their own time. To consider blogging a fad is to simply dismiss the future of global communication. Blogs are here to stay; you as an educator must acknowledge this and at least be up to date on your education in this area. The safety factor can be readily addressed, as the author says, through careful setup. Blogs can be set up to allow only those with relevance to enter and respond. The teacher is ultimately responsible for the safety of his or her students.
5 Responses to “My response to: To Blog or Not to Blog…”Leave a Reply |
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March 17th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Great start Peter. You have some thought provoking ideas about blogging in schools. Imagine students having their own way to communicate, like paper and pen, dangerous stuff. Technology changes in the past often took generations, now it is happening in a few years. Educators don’t have a choice, make the changes or become obsolete.
March 18th, 2008 at 9:28 am
I wonder if teachers who use blogs routinely find ways to replace “older” teaching methods with blogs so that the blogs do not become an additional burden. Here’s an example. Instead of brainstorming an idea in class where the outgoing students respond and the quiet ones or the resistant ones sit quietly, how about assigning a selection to read then blog on. Each student could read the blogs for ideas then write a short essay about what s/he thinks about the reading. The teacher would have to read the posts, but that could be done while the students were writing the essay.
March 18th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
I share many of the thoughts you express here. I think the comment about how students can and will blog after school points toward a huge area of potential. What happens on the blog during after school hours can really expand on what happened in class and could also lay the groundwork for the next day’s class. Especially given limitations due to computer access in school, it almost seems to me that web 2.0, including blogs, are a way to expand the school day rather than totally modify what happend in the school day.
March 23rd, 2008 at 4:24 am
I concur, Janice… we all know those quiet types who become invisible in class, afraid to express their opinions because they feel they may be ridiculed or dismissed. Blogs provide for them a comfortable, safe avenue for expression. I’m all for that.
March 23rd, 2008 at 4:28 am
Konkoly,
I agree that blogging is an almost subtle way of expanding the school day. I believe it to be a form of homework, but without the stigma usually associated with the word. Let’s face it, kids these days love being online, and blogging provides for them a format to express themselves in a communal manner, which is something we educators are always trying to foster in our kids. It’s the perfect format once it’s set up properly and managed well.