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Classroom Blogging: Teaching with Technology

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Article One: The Prose (and a Few Cons, Too) of Blogging

by R. Ramaswami

Article Two: Five Don'ts of Classroom Blogging

by J. Sturgeon

Article Three: Using Blogs in the Classroom: A New Approach to Teaching Social Studies with the Internet.

by C. Risinger

The Pros and a few Cons of Blogging

ProsCons

Blogging could improve students' writing skills by making them write more frequently and comment on one another's work. (Ramaswami, 2008)

Students who blogged felt better about writing overall, and about writing research papers in particular. (Ramaswami, 2008)

The blog was besieged by spam,

Comments were cut off and students were unable to leave comments and feedback for their classmates.

The Pros and a few Cons of Blogging

ProsCons

"Too often in blogging, attention to pedagogy and the process of writing are ignored," he says. "Blogs should be part of a program that is focused on building a writing community of students, teachers, and other educators."

Blogs….might seem daunting to some teachers

there must be better communication between teachers and IT administrators

"The people who are so smart making machines work and the people who are so smart making education work don't always speak the same language”

(Ramaswami, 2008)

Personal Reflection – Article 1"Blogging for the sake of blogging is fine, but what is the value added?“

------Principal Chris Lehmann, Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia

The above quote caught my eye because I have always detested doing “busy work” …. Homework for the sake of saying it was assigned rather than actually serving a learning purpose. In my field of major … history ….. I didn’t like learning just events and dates and then years later, learning the exciting story behind that event. Had I learned the story at the beginning the value would have been added to my education years earlier and may have enticed my curiosity much sooner and fed my desire for learning.

Teaching and learning, just for the sake of saying “Ok …. Did it. Checked off. Next!” is a waste of the teacher’s and the student’s time if the student perceives or gains no value from it.

Five Don’ts of Blogging

1. Don’t Just Dive In Set guidelines and objectives.

2. Don’t confuse blogging with social networking This is not a chit chat session, it’s to help classmates get thru the homework assignment.

3. Don’t leap at the freebies Spam and random advertising could be a classroom problem.

J. Sturgeon, 2008

4. Don’t Force a Sequential Style Students should be encouraged to freely write rather than be forced to a One, Two, Three style.

5. Don’t Leave the Blogging Just to the Students Teachers should also blog, complimenting good performance students and giving classroom feedback. Students get excited to find their name listed!

Five Don’ts of Blogging

(J. Sturgeon, 2008)

Personal Reflection – Article 2“Blogging is more about exploration, discovery, creation, and the idea that students can do things that are immediately gratifying."

---Brock Dubbels, Washburn High School, Minneapolis

This quote ties in to the previous article in that it also implores adding value then and there, so the student understands the reason and the value not only of the blogging process but of the project, be it a history project, an essay or a research paper. It’s not about filling a required number of blog pages or words …. It’s about learning some things along the journey!

Using Blogs in the Classroom

“Blogs have only been around for about ten years….Though the adoption of blogs

by educators was

a bit slow, class-

room teachers …

are now catching on and setting up their own blogs.” (Risinger, 2006)

Blogs can connect teachers from various schools and school

buildings in the

same district, plus

connect teachers

from across the country to discuss various teaching methods and topics.

“A classroom blog provides a way for students to view homework assignments, discuss important issues, ask questions and receive feedback from other students, and could provide parents with an opportunity to see what's going on in the classroom and even contribute their ideas and knowledge. “

(Risinger, 2006)

Using Blogs in the Classroom

Article 3 – Personal Reflection“…and could provide parents with an opportunity to see what's going on in the classroom and even contribute their ideas and knowledge. “

With so many ‘multi-tasking’ parents, interactive blogging would be a great tool for communication, in both directions. Working parents could converse with the teacher while at work or late at night. Projects asking for parental volunteers can be broadcasted via the blog and responses, posted as a public comment, would alert all parents if enough volunteers stepped up or if one or two were still needed.

CONCLUSION…..

It could be too easy to assign students, “

Do a blog” and just assume they will write it, they will write it well and they will learn something in the process.

Guidelines and expectations should be set and teachers should also participate to (1) set the example and (2) encourage reading and writing participation by the class.

Blogging can be a great interactive tool to encourage teacher-parent communication.

ReferencesRamaswami, R. (2008). The Prose (and a Few Cons,

Too) of Blogging. (Cover story). T H E Journal, 35(11), 21-25. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Sturgeon, J. (2008). Five Don'ts of Classroom Blogging. T H E Journal, 35(2), 26-30. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Risinger, C. (2006). Using Blogs in the Classroom: A New Approach to Teaching Social Studies with the Internet. Social Education, 70(3), 130-132. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.