Blogging is taking many different forms in education. There are many blogs dedicated to discussions around education policy. Many of these blogs are moderated by writers from established newspapers and magazines. These blogs allow the public to argue about current policy decisions in education and attempt to spread the message of new trends in education.
There are many blogs being used by teachers. They may be using them to share their experiences in the classroom and reflect upon their own teaching/learning. Blogs can also be used as a classroom communication device. Sharing updates on current assignments, classroom policies, and providing a dialog space on current happenings in the classroom. These sites allow parents to ask questions, clarify assignments, or provide feedback.
Blogs can also be used to extend the classroom learning environment outside of the traditional building. A teacher can pose questions for students to respond directly to that may have them searching the web for additional resources to comment on. The dialog that can occur between students outside the constraints of the time in class may provide for deeper conversations and learning. Students also have the ability to post and get comments from adults in the working world. This can help students connect their learning to the real world and motivate them to become more effective communicators.
The challenge with classroom blogs that students participate in is the need for additional education on internet safety. Students need to learn not to put information in their blog posts that will identify them outside of the classroom community. To this end students need to use aliases that are identified for the teacher. Teachers can also provide safety by ensuring that comments to blogs have to be approved by the teacher before posting. However, requiring this may over burden the instuctor and slow down the educational process.
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4 comments:
I too worry about the misuse of blogs by students. They could be great tools yet could also become a problem if teachers can not monitor what students post. I too would fear that a student could post something that might attract unwanted attention. so in order to use blogging we, the teachers will have to be diligent in monitoring what our students post.
I've been able to set my comments filter so that I must approve all comments before they post the page. Yes, it is a complete pain. But when I get an email that there has been a new post, I simply click the link and can allow all or some of the comments to post.
Brian,
You had a wealth of information about blogs - thanks!! I like Josh's idea to have the students comments come to him first, so he can filter them. This takes time, yet seems to work for him. I guess it would also depend on the age of the students. You can have some rules put into place that the students must adhere to, or they would not be able to add to the blog. My 7th grade daughter has an English class where they share comments and she absolutely LOVES it!!
Brian, great post. I agree that there are many types or purposes for educational blogs. I too found many blogs discussing educational policy, especially politics with the election coming up. I like the point of extending classroom learning. I see me using a blog for this purpose primarily. My fear of doing a class blog was about the comments being appropriate, but your final point about getting teacher approval reassured me about the security option. Thanks,
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