As I think about how I would use blogs in my classroom, the issue arises regarding how to implement the blogs in my classroom. As I read through the material, I began to develop a better understanding regarding the possibilities of how to use blogging effectively with my students. I had heard from other teachers that blogging is a very effective tool to access the teacher’s tool box, but that it can be very overwhelming if a teacher is not prepared for the new responsibilities regarding monitoring the classroom blog.
Personally, I would like to conduct a pilot program with a select group of my students regarding the introduction of blogging for journals, literature circles, and comments or thoughts regarding the Springboard classroom activity before I would introduce into to all of my classes. Due to the fact that I find that many students lack the time in class to have a real class discussion or some are not open to speaking a loud in class, I believe that blogging will open up a new set of possibilities regarding in depth and analytical conversations regarding the discussion topics. I believe that students will be able to begin to synthesize the information as they return to the blogs to view comments and questions, which in turn will take the information to a deeper understanding for the students. As a teacher, I notice that students in the classroom are not always willing to share or provide in depth conversation regarding the topic in front of their peers. But as students begin to write for me, I have witnessed over time in their writing a new level of depth regarding various beliefs and thoughts regarding a multitude of topics. I feel that blogging will open up that door for students to be able to communicate with out the feeling embarrassed or unintelligent. It gives the student an opportunity to think through their ideas before they present those ideas to their peers.
The classroom blogging system that I intend to use is on Google. I like the various tools that are available for teachers to monitor the blogging of students. As a way to thoroughly monitor the information that is being posted from each student, I will have to check through each post before it is submitted to be published to the class. Before I would even have the students begin to blog, I would definitely provide instructions and modeling appropriate blogging behavior before I would allow them to blog on their own. It is important that students recognize what blogging is intended to be used within the classroom. It is not meant to be a social tool for hanging out or seeing a friend’s latest post on their daily lives. It is a tool that is meant to help students to delve deeper into their understanding of the course material, whether it is a poem, short story, novel or movie excerpt. I look forward to my future endeavor of bringing blogging to my classroom as a way to establish a new set of academic bloggers to the read/write web.
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Many of the problems with the use of Weblogs in the classroom will be prevented because of the thought you have given this project. Starting with a small, select group of students will allow you to work together to improve using blogs as a learning tool.
ReplyDeleteWould you allow the student to “publish” his/her “draft” after you have approved it? Or would you be the only one allowed to “publish” the document?
How would you handle the problem of a student not having access to the Internet? What would you do if the student had Internet but the Internet went down the night before a posting was due?
Dawn, I'm glad you were able to set up your blog and have thought of some ways to use it. I'm also in the middle school setting and some of the problems I see arising are students using my blog more as a social hangout.
ReplyDeleteUsing a small select group of students sounds like a terrific idea to get started. However, I'm a little impatient. I was thinking I would allow my students just to visit the site and not yet post comments. I suppose that means I'll be using it as my toolbox. I've set one up for my classes, one not associated with Walden. I've posted notes and worksheets where my students can go to see what they've missed. (You know how awesome they are at losing homework!) I figure this would give them little to no excuse.
I read that "mrslsthoughts" suggested that student access to the internet could be a problem. I know that my school allows students into the computer lab after school so that might be an option. Also, our public library offers internet access for free. If students complain about not having access, I'd push them in that direction.