Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Week 2-Uses for Blogs
I can see blogs used in a variety of different ways in the near feature in many schools. I think that if teachers, students, and parents get use to the new way of communicating, blogs will replace a lot of things in schools. I can see blogs being used to foster teacher/parent communication. Blogs could also be used to replace monthly/weekly newsletters that are normally sent home. Blogs provide students, parents, and teachers with a unique way of communicating with each other with somewhat instant responses. Blogs can be used as a homework helpline, where students could post a question and peers or teachers can respond. Much like how our D2L is set up. Currently in most cases when homework is sent home, teachers depend on the students. By opening the doors of communication with students, they may be more apt to standing on their own two feet and taking responsibility for their own work, but asking questions to others. This of course would limit the dependence on parents, that so many kids are attached to. Blogging in the academic setting can be used for students to express their ideas. I believe that blogs provide some motivation for students who normally struggle with writing. Suddenly when those students can type, a whole new world opens up for them. Blogs also encourage everyone to participate, because sometimes students feel more comfortable expressing themselves through writing, than having to speak up in class. I believe that blogs are especially good for high level thinkers. It allows them to dig deeper into their thoughts and express themselves, while also having to see things through others eyes and be able to respond in a responsible manner. In our school students in the gifted and talented program (WCATY) are currently using blogs as they are linked with other students around southeastern Wisconsin. They communicate about the book they are reading. Blogs can be used with almost any subject matter. What I like most about blogs is that they give students a VOICE!
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Lots of possible uses here. I saw one school where the teacher assigned one student per day to post the homework assignment for that day on the blog. I read about another class where one student each day took notes and posted them at the end of the class (must have been done on a laptop during class). The teacher could correct the notes as necessary and other students could look at them when doing homework and add comments. While these are largely logistical issues, they are a way to get started.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of high level thinking is an important one. Do we provide students with prompts for their postings or do we allow them to post what they want and then add comments. How much commenting should the instructor do? How do we teach students to post constructive comments? How could we help students develop the "rules" for posting? There are lots of skills here that teachers need to address.
The concept of Voice is one that many teachers are beginning to address as education begins to focus on students as creators and not just consumers. We can't "teach" anything to students that they don't want to learn. It is really up to them to integrate knowledge from new experiences into their existing knowledge, so their Voice allows us to see their understanding and for others to question it. All this helps a student's own understanding grow.
Amen to your comment of blogs giving students a voice! I think blogs will help eliminate the shy student in class. Blogs are so great help students become bigger risk takers.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of a homework help line through a blog, thats an idea I didn't think of. If a teacher is easy to access then maybe more students would do their homework. I see a lot of students not doing their homework and when I ask them why they say because they didn't get it, a blog would almost eliminate that response because even though there are 20 places for them to get help many number 21 would do the trick. Great idea!
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