Blogging is a great way for student-teacher, teacher-teacher, and student-student communication. There are several different kinds of blogs and we will start with individual blogs. Individual blogs have been around for some time now and has allowed people to use the Internet as a journal, a way to respond to other individuals, and a way to post resources from the new fad diets and top secret recipes to where to find a great handyman in your neighborhood. An online diary allows people to produce daily reflections and allows them to make them available to anyone who is interested. In a classroom environment, blogging would turn a normal assignment into a collaborative learning task and has been proven to make students excited to learn and excited to participate in the class activities. There is something quite therapeutic about unloading thoughts online in a journal format that others can comment on if they wish to do so. Instead of feeling shy about standing up in front of class and stumbling on works and getting red in the face, students are now able to blog. Another plus is the ability to look at the work of your peers and getting a better understanding of what the teacher wants and expects of you.
Classroom Blogging is being used in many classrooms today and helps build communication and collaboration among students. In schools where com putters are limited, students can use computer labs to blog or sign up for classroom computer time. Some students have access to computers at home and can blog for homework assignments. Teachers were finding that students were going above and beyond the assignments and were helping their other peers out with attack strategies and techniques that helped then conquer their assignments. Students were learning from each other while connecting to one and other online. “As students communicate in the blog, they question and challenge each other’s thinking, leading to deeper and more meaningful interaction than previously afforded during individual journaling.”
A Collaborative Blog is one in which students from one class work with students from another class, either within the same building or from another school. This allows for students to mentor other students and learn from each other. What a cool concept! It’s like a pen pal but the gratification comes much quicker and you do not need to wait weeks to hear back from your pen pal. “The motivation of the students, based on their excitement and enthusiasm levels, seemed to grow even more when a new group of children was brought into the blogging experience.”
In a workplace setting where professionals are isolated from each other for the majority of the day, effective use of a blog is one method of bringing educators together, this is called Staff Development Blogging. As I learned in Education 350, becoming an excellent educator means taking great ideas from all over the education world and using them in your own class setting. Staff Development Blogging is a great way for teachers to share stories of both success and failure and hope that other teachers will either learn from their own mistakes or benefit from their experiences.
I think blogging has the ability to revolutionize homework assignments, classroom participation, and even teacher to teacher interaction. It is so neat to read through these types of articles and see the positive response that students and even teachers are having to this new style of sharing, challenging, and discussing information. The farther and farther I get into this class I begin to realize that I am not even sure I know the extent that technology plays in the lives of generations younger than myself. It is so great to see that this is a part of their daily life. However, I think as educators we have only began to scratch the surface of integrating technology into the classroom to encourage student learning and involvement.I look forward to seeing these types of forums grow in our education system.
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