When using a blog in the classroom, teachers need to educate students. Students need to be taught how to use a blog and what purpose the blog serves. It does not matter if the blog is used to post student work or ask a question; blog rules need to be put in place.
An important rule, or reminder, as stated by W. Richardson in his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts (2010), a blog is not a journal. A blog is to be used to engage thinking and learning. Students need to know the blog is for school work, not what they did over the weekend.
Another important aspect of blogging is internet safety; keeping students safe. Teachers must take the time with their students, no matter the age, to explain how to be safe online. Rules and regulations of the internet need to be taught. I believe that while a teacher is explaining blogs and internet rules, it would be good to talk about social networking. A colleague of mine has a poster in her room that says, “If you can’t say it in person, don’t post it on Facebook.” Teaching about blogs, social networking, and the internet could open up a great lesson for students of all ages.
How to use blogs in the classroom?
We are in the communication age (Laureate Education, 2008) and blogging is a great way to use the resources we have. Blogging can also allow students to show a more creative way of learning. It is more fun than pencil and paper question and answer.
I posted last week a link to 64 Ways to use a Blog in your Classroom. There are many ways to use a blog. I found some great ideas on the Google Document. I encourage people to check out the link. I added it at the bottom under resources.
After reading my resources from this week (for the class Understanding the Impact of Technology on Education, Work, and Society (EDUC - 6710I - 4)) and my own research, I have picked two ways to use blogs in my classroom. They are listed below.
In my Special Education class I found that my 5th and 6th graders have computers and internet at home. They are also computer savy. These students could get online and contribute to a blog.
I would add information to a blog about the daily reading. I would summarize the reading or add an excerpt from the daily reading. I would then ask students a question about the reading. Students would have to respond to the question. It would take many examples and in class time to insure that the students understood what they were supposed to do. Students could not “copy” other students’ work. They would have to come up with their own response. For this reason, I would have the comments not show up. I would have to approve the comments. The next day in class we would go over the blog, all comments showing.
This blog post would enhance the reading lesson because it is making students think more about their reading. When students go home they will be reinforced from the day’s work by revisiting the lesson. Students will also have family support from parents/guardians helping them with the internet. It will give students an opportunity to work with family and explain what they did that day. In my school many teachers, myself included, have a hard time meeting the technology standards. Using a blog will help reach some of the technology standards.
Each blog would be shown as a reference for the next lesson. Students and parents could refer back to the previous blogs for help.
What thoughts do you have on this lesson? How could I make it better? What problems do you see? Did I not think something through? I would really like to try this lesson in my class. I do need to do as W. Richardson said and be selfish with the technologies (2010). I need to work with the blogging first and have a good understanding before I expect my class to do it.
I also think my school would make me have some kind of permission from parents and administration in order to have a class blog. This would be due to internet safety.
My next lesson would be blogging with my 1st and 2nd graders. This lesson would be harder to accomplish and I would have to have staff support in order to make it happen. I would like to have my students blog back and forth with another class. I was thinking a high school class. Every year HS teachers email wanting to work with the younger students. They could work with the 1st and 2nd graders and not leave the classroom. My students would start a blog and ask a daily question. The question would need to be related to a topic of the day. I was thinking math and calendar.
Elementary school students would be sharing with a larger community. They would be sharing with the high school. This may not seem like a larger community; however, to a small class the high school seems so far away. Our school K-12 has 488 students and our town has 3200. It is important to help students think globally, it is a start with having elementary students blogging with high school students.
When blogging back and forth it would be hard to make sure that we are not journaling, but rather asking questions and encouraging learning. I know this lesson is very vague and there are a lot of holes. I encourage ideas and constructive criticism to make this lesson work and be more feasible.
Both blogging lessons make learning more fun. Students are not only being reinforced from the day’s lesson, they are also enjoying themselves!
References:
64 Ways and counting to use blogs in the classroom. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AclS3lrlFkCIZGhuMnZjdjVfNzQ5ZnpiczlxYzM&hl=en_GB&authkey=CN7tirgG
Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2008). The third wave [DVD]. Understanding the Impact of Technology on Eduation, Work, and Society. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
I like the idea of using a blog to reinforce something they read in class. Some children are too shy to contribute to a verbal discussion, but they would be willing to contribute to a discussion on the computer using a blog.
ReplyDeleteM. Taylor-
ReplyDeleteI did not think about it being beneficial to the shy students. You are so right! It would be a great way for students to express themselves and show that they understand the topic.
Thank you for the comment and idea!
I really enjoyed reading your blog and how you focused on the importance of teaching the students the purpose of a blog and the many safety rules they have to follow. I also think it was a great idea to have your students give their own responses to the reading questions. I agree that this would force the students to develop their own answer instead of using answers from another student. What a great idea you had to keep the comments private until the next day in class when you could go over them together. That is a great way to bring more discussion into your classroom. I teach in an inclusion school where students that have IEPs are in my classroom. Since this is a special education class, how would you differentiate for those students that might need accommodations? One suggestion I had would be to give those students’ organizers or sentence starters in a word document, which would help guide them to write their blog. Student could also use the writing programs such as Co-Writer or Word –Q to help formulate their ideas. As long as they had a way to use their accommodations I think your idea of the blog would be very beneficial!
ReplyDeleteRoberc08-
ReplyDeleteThank you for your compliments.
Accommodations:
Good question. My answer will seem vague. I would accommodate per student and per IEP. Each student may have a different accommodation. I do like that you posed the question. I am so used to differentiating my instruction that I did not think too much about how I would do it with these lessons. But you are SO CORRECT! I would have too!!!
Sentences starters or some kind of graphic organizer is a great idea for all students. I could show them how to use them and how they would be used for each discussion/post/comment. Students could use examples from pervious posts/comments to help them with the next one.
I think another idea that would be helpful for students would be to have a word doc. outline or template for the students. They could then use spell check and grammar check. They also could have ideas on how the blog should look. The template would have to be thought out by me and I would have to practice using it in class.
Thank you for making me think deeper about my lesson!
I enjoyed both of your ideas and think they are good ones. I am going to focus on your idea about connecting high school students with your first and second graders. This would provide a great opportunity for your students to be mentored by high school students. I was wondering if you were going to have your students create their own blogs and then make comments on the blogs of the high school students, much like we are for this class? Students could discuss favorite books, movies, and music. They could learn about each other. They might eventually be able to connect via Skype and talk to each other. Another idea might be for students to meet with high school students for buddy reading and then they could communicate back and forth about their book. Collaborating with the secondary teacher would probably help you determine how best her students might be able to work with your students. Very fun!
ReplyDeleteLauri-
DeleteGreat question. I think I would start the blog(s), at least set up the internet part. After a lot of in class work I feel the students could decorate the blog and make it their own.
I like the idea of having students being mentored by the HS students. I think this lesson could go in many directions. I would have to work with the HS student and see what goals he/she has in mind for his/her students.
I love the idea of Skyping. That would be a treat for the students. After blogging, and skyping, they could meet each other. I might have them meet first and like you said read books together.
This lesson will take a lot of planning to make sure that all standards and goals are met. It could easily get carried away becuase there are so many directions this could go.
Thank you for your imput. I enjoy your feedback.
You might consider contacting a teacher at the secondary level. Some ideas might be to contact the teacher of a Service Learning class, Language Arts, a Child Development class, or even a teacher of struggling readers at the high school level. The benefits would be reciprocal. I think you are onto an idea that will prove rewarding to both parties. Good luck.
DeleteI enjoyed reading your ideas.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the need to suppress comments or postings so encourage students to think for themselves in their own initial postings, rather than focus on what their classmates have said.
I like your idea about getting the high school students involved in a blog with your students. While this would benefit your own students, I see great potential for this benefitting the high school students as well. They would surely learn a lot through the experience and from learning to adapt their ideas and language for such a younger audience. So often, the audience for student work is the teacher or their same-age peers. As a result, students don't always have practice in adjusting their message for other audiences.
Lisa-
ReplyDeleteYes, students, on both ends HS and Elem. will have to adjust their writing. This could be a benefit for the HS students. As Lauri said, I could contact some HS teachers and hopefully one of them would like the idea and we could work together to help both grade levels.