BP9_2009103_Web 2.0_blogs

If you look around my bookshelves in my home, you will find many spiral and hardback books compressed with handwritten feelings and ponderings; reflections and memories. Every time I move I find more of these such books... and I usually will open one or two- flip through the pages to reminisce, then it goes back on the shelf to collect more dust. A less personal level of my written thoughts can be found in boxes squeezed between textbooks; also never shared. This month, however, I have embarked on a new journey in my exploration in technology... yes, I have become a blogger.. and, even more 'risky,' follower of other Bloggers! And I like it!

Now that I have been working with this blog for a few weeks, and in the midst of constant research and study of Web 2.0 tools, I have great support and appreciation for the use of blogs in education... even that of the K12 public school learning environment!

The following video was created and produced by Sophomores in a public high school. It is very clear that their educational learning experience is positively transformed through blogging. May this be a persuasive tool for the adoption of blogging in classroom instruction.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfJETK3am1M

Top 10 Reasons to Use a Blog in the Classroom (with my personal notes inserted):
1. Literacy (Give students a reason to want to read. It is often a struggle to get youth to sit and read a book for even 15 minutes... but they might sit and read blogs for hours.)
2. Engaged Audience (Blogs are typically about things that actually matter for and relate to real life situations; therefore, the student is more apt to apply what they read and stay focused.)
3. Interactive (Blogs facilitate discussion with peers and professors without having to raise your hand, wait on someone to stop talking, or be cut off by the bell ending the period. Instead a student can respond as they think of it. Blogs also require the skills of comprehension, analyzing, and composition... all that are very vital standards in classroom learning.)
4. Addresses multiple intelligences/ learning types (We all know that students learn differently, but this does not mean that they can not all learn the same things. One may be more receptive to a video, while the other may understand printed text better. Blogs allow for all types of media, intelligences, and knowledge levels to be addressed.)
5. Promotes ESL participation (Not only do ESL students need to carry on conversation, they need to also be able to communicate their conversation through text. The later being the more difficult venture for ESL students. Blogs can do both. Furthermore, ESL students (like foreign language learners) can communicate abroad with no cost or travel.)
6. Electronic Agenda (The biggest problem I see in my current 6th grade classroom is a messy backpack/ notebook/ locker. Having a dashboard type of to do list makes for an organized community. I do suggest teaching students a great deal about tags and searching in advance.)
7. Distance Learning (In my particular area, the flu has caused innumerable student absences; which has proven to be a detriment to keeping students caught up. Blogs also remove the walls of the classroom to facilitate learning beyond. Students can comment from anywhere internet is available and bring the classroom to themselves.)
8. Learner Communities (This point is huge! The possiblities for a blog to be a learning community are endless in exponent and in number. A couple of possibilities suggested by Michael Wesch, would be for the teacher to post a topic question and have all students comment to the blog to answer it. Another would be for the teacher to provide the key words (possibly vocabulary) to know and then for the students to post their research... thus creating a comprehensive study guide. Instead of the teacher being the sole communicator of knowledge, the students actually begin to teach, inspire, and even analyze each other's learning. Students will pay more attention to their peer's comments any day over their teacher's! (2008))
9. Technology in the Classroom (It can not be said enough for how important it is for schools and educators to implement technology into their classroom.
10. Environmentally Conscious (no paper, no textbooks)

"[When blogging,] students are more careful about their writing." (Barry Wicksman, 2007 in an interview with CNN found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRyh4UeP-IY)

I agree with Wicksman to an extent, but would pose the great need for students to be educated on and responsible for netiquette well before any posting begins. Blogs that are read open for critique do carry more accountability. Students, regardless of age, are more conscious of their grammatical mistakes when they know that others will be reading it. It is also true, however, that youth have a hard time separating and understanding audiences. Often in formal papers that I receive, students have written in text language and slang. It is important for students to learn to write appropriately to various audiences. (Which could make for a wonder prelude unit.)

My one fear about bringing blogging into K12 education, was the security of the students. Therefore, I searched and researched for Web 2.0 tools that included secure blogs. There were many, however the one I feel most comfortable to adopt is Edublogs Campus. They understand the need for privacy and a secured network as they address in the following statement:

Administrators of Edublogs Campus can control access levels to every single blog, and decide if they want individual bloggers to be able to change their settings or not. For example, the vast majority of blogs can be private, but several can be kept open for parents, visitors or prospective students. (Edublogs Campus, http://edublogs.org/campus/features/)

Edublogs also make grading a cinch! You no longer have to worry with the stress of giving all group members the same grade when only a few of them completed the work. With this program, student activity can be assessed, charted, and even printed with ease!

I am planning ahead for the time when I will be able to fully implement blogs into my classroom. The ideas for lessons are swarming my brain even as I type this. I only wish my K12 educational institution would have had so much potential!


References

CNN World Reports. (2007, May 16). Blogging in education. [YouTube Video].Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRyh4UeP-IY

Edublogs Campus. (2009) Features. Retrieved from http://edublogs.org/campus/features/

Media Production Group, IST. (2008, July 10). A portal to media literacy [YouTube Video]. [With Michael Wesch]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4yApagnr0s

George. (Producer). (2008, January 31). Top 10 reasons to us a blog in the classroom. [YouTube Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfJETK3am1M