The Five Don’ts of Blogging provides insight into the world of teaching students how to use blogs effectively. Of the five tips (don’t just dive in, don’t jump at the freebies, don’t confuse blogging with social networking, don’t force a sequential style and don’t leave the blogging to the students), I connected with three of them. First, if you’re not adequately prepared to teach your students how to blog for educational value then they are going to miss the point entirely. They may begin to use blogging as a social networking device, leaving comments for their friends that have nothing to do with an educational topic. It’s really important to provide students with great samples of blogs and discuss the rules and r
egulations of having a blog. Students need to realize that it’s a big responsibility and not just a game. Second, I had never thought of not ordering a blog sequentially. It just makes sense to me to keep things in order by date. However, the article mentioned organizing the blog by topic. It actually makes more sense to do that. This way, students are able to find what they are looking for without scrolling through countless entries from months past. Finally, I agree that the teacher should also have a blog right along with the students. It’s a great jumping off point for students. Teachers can post interesting videos, links or topics that they think will help their students along. Also, it’s a place where teachers can post class news, sing praises or leave reminders.Don't know where to start? Blogmiester is a great tool for classroom blogs.
Want an example? This professor of educational technolgy at SDSU provides a great blog.
Questions:
1. How could I use blogging in my own classroom?
Since I want to teach upper-elementary grades, I think blogging could be an extremely useful tool. I think I would like to use blogging as a form of journal writing where students answer a prompt each day. It will not only improve their writing, but also introduce them to a variety of multimedia tools. They can learn to include links, photos, video or other rich digital media that they produce. It will also allow them to comment of their peers work and hold them accountable for their own work since others may be viewing it.
2. What protests may there be to student blogs?
Some parents and educators may be afraid of blogging opening the Internet up to their students too much. There is a lot of things on the Internet that parents should be afraid of for their children, but blogging isn’t one of them. If the teacher uses and appropriate site then blogging is safe and easy for all age levels. Another fear may be letting students comment freely on the blogs, they may use inappropriate language or say hurtful things. I agree that when people use the computer they may say things they wouldn’t say in person, but as long as the students realize that the blogs are an assignment that is graded on effort and seriousness of their blogs and comments, things should get too out of control. In the article, one of the teachers revokes all Internet privileges if students use the blogs inappropriately. I would probably employ a similar strategy.
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