How might I use a blog with students? How might they respond to the blog assignment? I could create a class newsletter which would include pictures about what is going on in the class. By doing this I would think the students would have more ownership of the coursework. They might be more apt to add input to topics that were discussed in class. I could post assignments and dates of which they are due. Then there would be no excuses for missed deadlines or assignments. I could post links to articles and then have the students respond on the blog. As stated above I feel the students would show more ownership of the coursework. I feel the students would like the change of pace using a blog for school work. They have completed paper and pencil work for so long it may be a welcome addition for them. One concern I could foresee is the content posted would have to be intriguing to keep the students interested.
What concerns do you have about educational blogging? Obviously the first concern I would have is that this might violate the electronic usage policy of the school. The second concern and even more worrisome would be privacy. There is always concerns when personal information is posted online. So to take care of that privacy settings would have to be set to give certain individuals the ability to post and or comment on each student's blog.
I like your idea about posting relevant articles and having students discuss them. You also raise an important point about knowing and following your school's acceptable use policy for electronic communications. Teachers should be aware of their school's policy and be helping students understand and follow it.
ReplyDeleteYou might be interested in some of the education blog sites (Blogspot, owned by Google, is more commercial.) Edublogs.org helps teachers have more secure blogs. Another one that is popular with classroom teachers is Kidblog.org at http://kidblog.org/home.php This one is very easy to setup (you may have to create multiple accounts to accommodate all of your classes).
Another very popular site to crop up lately is Edmodo.com It started smaller as a sort of "twitter" for education but has really grown to allow classes to interact in discussions, teachers can post assignments and quizzes, there's so much more. It may be a little elementary for high school students although many use it. The more college-bound alternative is to have Moodle course. We do have a server in Lenawee and Monroe counties that provide an online course management system to local teachers. Perhaps your county also uses Moodle or Blackboard or a similar LMS.
As you go through the course do keep an open mind that there are many more tools to come and in the end no one can use them all. You'll want to choose one or two that you can use effectively in your content area/grade level to impact teaching and learning, and file the rest away for future possible use when a need arises. While I'm writing this, there are new tools cropping up on the horizon and it never slows down!
Blogs are just one of the tools we can use to communicate and to help our students become critical thinkers, writers, and users in producing permanent content on the web. You're off to a good start in thinking about student safety and teaching students to be responsible users of the Internet.
Thank you for visiting my blog. I do have an open mind about the technology out there. It is here to stay so we need to embrace it. Educate ourselves so we can share this experience with our students, co-workers, spouses, and children.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you in that having students use blogs might help them accept more ownership of their work. It is often difficult to accomplish this when at many times students have no intention of completing normal assignments; perhaps this might be a way to interest them to interact with the concepts at hand.
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