I think that a blog space could be useful in a classroom as long as it was properly managed and used correctly. A blog would allow for student reflection and teacher's comments on work and student performance that would otherwise take up classroom time. It would also allow students to share their ideas and interesting things they find while researching. For example, rather than have a student wandering around the class sharing a website, they could just blog it and move on with their work. The same would apply for a teacher.
The website below links to an abstract of an article titled "The application og blog in modern education" which outlines the uses of blogs in classroom environments/situations.
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=4722807
Hi Renee,
ReplyDeleteYou have some pertinent points. Of all the online tools, teachers find blogs pre-eminently useful!
Your comment "as long as it was properly managed and used correctly" is important. We are learning managers, and managing is a DOING word - this applies equally to online tool management. So if students are reflecting, sharing, commenting (As you identify), how will you manage the process? How will you scaffold in particular the knowledge organisation and thinking processes that we know are so important?
Hi Fass,
ReplyDeleteto monitor the use of blogs, a learning manager will need to actively set out guides for expected behaviour from their students in regards to what is replied and the types of reply comments that are made to posts. Also, all blogs and reply comments will need to be checked by the learning manager and appropriate discipline will need to be administered in accordance with the guides set out before blogging commenced.
Scaffolding is a process. I completed an assessment in my first term at uni that was set out as follows - design, implement and reflect on a process of obtaining useful and reliable inormation in order to write a term paper on a particular subject. The instructions were a little more specific, but the general idea is a good one and I feel should be used in schools. It would teach students to critique their own research methods in order to create an assessment piece that is worthy of a good grade. Setting out guidelines for the reflections would be relatively easy - what worked? what didn't work? why didn't it work? how would you improve it? implement the proposed improvements - did they work? why, why not? ect.
If this type of learning can be taught in younger grades, by the time learners reach their senior years, they will need little guidance from their teachers. Also, I believe this skill to be highly valued by employers. It would allow workers to recognise any errors, work out what caused them and implement correctiong strategies, as well as suggest improvements to the organisation.
Hopefully that answered your questions :)