I suppose there is a bit of niavete in our development as educators. First of all, I assumed that a blog was simply a collection of thoughts written out for the world to see. I think this trouble comes from the word itself. Every connection that I have with the word blog leads me to someone page in which all they have is just that, their thoughts written on the screen for the world to see. If we change the word to something else the spectrum opens.
Instead of blogs lets use the word portals. "Portal" brings to mind an opening. In the case of an educaotr this opening can lead to colaboration, information sharing, accountability and a host of other education friendly terms. I have used such a portal for the last five years. It is a spot that I can post work, share the links of websites that are educational and exciting (yes, they do exist), and simply share why we are studying a certain topic. I have had tremendous success with this. Parents enjoy the collection of work that is available, students complain about the collection of work available (I know that deep down they like this access), and I like the ability to tell my students to check the site to get their missing work.
Traditional blogs might be useful to gather student responses to a variety of concepts. In my Honors Psychology class I typically have students conduct research about the topic at hand. This usually entails them going into the student body and interviewing unsuspecting victims about that topic. My students will then return to class armed with the results to tabulate their findings. These findings can then be added to the blog site and published for the world to see. (Great activity, it allows practice in communication skills, research, collaboration, and technical writing skills.)
Essentially blogs can be useful. I'm as shocked as you are! We need to be careful not to let our own connotations get in the way of quality teaching.
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4 comments:
By portal do you mean a personal page from your schools website? Our parents enjoy this leisure as well… if they know how to use it. Some of our parents need to get with the program. Their kids are out smarting them. What drives me crazy is we take the time to post all the resources their child needs and then the parents coming running in at the last minute to try to save the inevitable. But did they take the time to follow it the entire quarter. Nope! Sorry, getting off track, just venting a tad.
I can understand your confusing on the whole blogging thing. In order for it to be successful I think the objective of the lesson would have to be very structured. I bet a lot of monitoring has to be in play as well. Happy blogging
Hello,
I enjoy your criticism of the vernacular meaning of blogging. Portals do bring to mind an opening, and as you said these portals could be used for very benificial collaborations. Do these portals open up for students and teachers to interact, or is it purely for educators to interact with each other? I think both would bring a host of issues in which modern educators would have to examine before they can become mainstream in our profession. I also think that a fundamental lack of technology in many districts (especially in Ohio where I teach) also brings a separate set of problems. So how do we overcome these barriers so that we can use blogging safely in our classrooms?
So as I understand it, your "blog" is a personal page where you post student work, important information, tips & interesting websites, etc? The way I was thinking of blog was an opportunity for students to post responses to topics which seems hard to manage in a safe and non-let's get me fired, sort of way. Right now, my school district provides a page where I can post announcements, homework assignments, course documents available to download, pictures, and so on. Is that what your site is like? Donna
Essentially what this portal is a location that students, parents, and teacher(s) can do a host of activties. If you are familiar with QuikR you will know what I use. It provides a location for tradional blogging secured under password, calendar applications, a spot for links to assignments (along with archive capabilities). I use it to provide my students with enrichment activities and communication with parents and students. To answer adibftw the access to computers is a big problem in my district (also in Ohio, I wonder if this is a coincidence or a product of our funding method). To circumvent this issue I do schedule some time in the computer lab in order to give every student the ability to utilize the site. I generally do not have assignments that are for credit on the site.
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