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WhatThis article covers various formats of educational blogging, including individual student blogs, classroom blogs, collaborative blogs and staff development blogs. It was written for language arts teachers covering kindergarten to 8th grade. The author is Catherine Poling, an assistant principal from Maryland who spent eight years as an elementary school teacher.
So What
This article is significant for the way it lays out the differences between the types of blogs. I learned that students benefit in different ways from the different types of blogs. Individual student blogs would not be suitable for younger students but would help older students develop their reflective writing skills. Classroom blogs can increase the motivation of younger students and enhance class discussions. I would have liked to see more details on what sort of assignments could be given in individual blogs, though I understand that the author's area of expertise is elementary education and not as suited to that medium.
Now What
I think that blogging is a great way for students to develop their writing skills and interact outside of the classroom. Certain writing assignments can be completed via blogging, enabling teachers to read and grade them online and allowing other students to comment on the post. If I am able to teach high school history, assigning students to blog on assigned topics (either individually or as a group) and reply to other students who are also blogging on the topic would be part of my educational arsenal. I can apply the details of this article to that.
Source:
Poling, C. (2005). Blog on. Learning & Leading With Technology, 32(6), 12-15. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Store/Product?ID=1560
I read the same article and it was interesting to see what you thought of it. I loved to see how the students were interacting with other students, even ones who were older than them, about assignments they talked about in class. I think it is a great idea to have students have a blog and talk about issues and help each other out if they don't know how to do something.
ReplyDeleteI read this article as well. I agree with you that it would have been nice to see what type of assignments students are given that include blogging. I think that it will be a good idea for you to use blogging when you teach high school. I think high school students would really like blogging assignments. I want to teach elementary school, and depending on what grade level I end up teaching I would like to use blogging for assignments too. If I teach a really young grade level I think blogging might be too difficult of a concept for them to grasp.
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting to me because i never thought that different blogs can be beneficial to different students. The idea really makes sense and can be a very powerful teaching tool. It seems that a classroom blog is a good way to get the whole class involved. This is something i feel that i could use as a future teacher.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that you thought of the ways blogs can be used. Such as, how it can improve writing skills. Obviously blogging uses a form of writing, but being beneficial to student's writing skills was not my first thought. This would be a great way for teachers to cover two topics and "kill two birds with one stone" as they say. Great blog!
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with you that it is away to enhance skills outside the classroom. Blogging can be good as a social network; I am not talking about face book, but an actual social network. As the students progress in skill and time blogs can be very useful. But they can also be dangerous if students don’t know how to use them. They can only be used as a scholarly source if well documented. But other than that I say students should know how to use them and use them often out side the classroom.
ReplyDeleteHi Dylan! Thank you for writing a fantastic summary of the article that you read! To be completely honest, prior the start of this class I had heard of the word blog and thought I kind of new what a blog was, but I really didn’t have much of an idea. I thought a blog was similar to a Facebook status posting, but on someone’s own personal website (which I suppose, is essentially what it is). I had no idea that there are so many different types of blogs and therefore, so many different uses for them as well. I agree with you completely, I think it would have been neat if some examples of different types of assignments using blogs would have been shared. I realize that a blog is different than a discussion board, but do you personally think that one would be more beneficial than the other for use by a class?
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