This summer I got a phone call from my friend in DC and she asked me if I blogged. I told her no, and she asked me to go to her blog site and read her blog. It was a pretty funny account of her recent dating adventures. Although admittedly entertaining, I just couldn't seem to find any real reason or desire inside myself to blog. Sure I have my opinions, but so does everyone else and I don't necessarily want to hear them all. To me, blogging seemed like a way to publicly vent your individual ideas or complaints, and I really wasn't interested in being a part of that. I work in an environment of women; I get to hear enough complaining and opinions without going online and searching for it!
Last month I was reintroduced to the world of blogs, this time for educational purposes. In comparison to using the City U blackboard, which never really proved very efficient, blogs suddenly seemed like a great idea. Then this assignment came up and I started to actually research how blogs are being used in education. Apparently, there is a whole world of educators using blogs in the classroom and neither myself nor anyone at my school is part of this group.
Educational blogs seem to be broken down into two groups of users. Those that use blogs for their own use as educators to talk with other educators, organize and promote their research, or as a classroom tool to replace a class website. The other group uses blogs as an educational tool for their students, where the students actually blog and share ideas with their teacher and other students. The two groups are not mutually exclusive. In the latter, the number one thing I read in my research was that unless the teacher is using the blog as a conversation tool, not just a writing assignment, it is no different than a traditional writing journal done with pen and paper.
I see a problem with blogs that is similar to the problem of using technology in the classroom. We shouldn't use technology just to be using it. Unless technology enhances the lesson or the learning, it shouldn't just be thrown in to say that your lessons are technologically enhanced. Many teachers across the globe are using blogs for educational purposes in their classroom and beyond. Blogs are not limited to individual classes or even entire schools, resonating the power of building online communities. Blogs can be used to promote reading and writing, to showcase the work of students or to exchange ideas among students, teachers or school administrators. In sum, blogs exemplify that online content creation is only limited by the creativity of its users.
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2 comments:
Using blogs as a "conversational journal" can be very powerful. This summer I researched journaling as a way to get at what the students were thinking. Providing the students feedback through online conversation can be more conveniant than collecting journals.
I agree that using technology jsut for the sake of using technology is pointless.
I liked what you had to say in the beginning paragraph. I have always heard of blogs and thought of them as being "not for me"
After I saw teachers using blogs instead of a website I am now interested in possibly using a blog to inform parents. I find that so many papers that I send home never actually get there. Maybe if some parents could read the classroom news on the computer it would increase their interest in the class.
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