Thoughts on Blogging?
Today, Karl introduced Blogging to you. Maybe some of you know how to blog and others don't. How do you feel about using blogging as a means of journaling? Compare it to last semester and journaling every week. Are you comfortable? Any questions?
posted by melissa m.o. @ 2:05 PM
7 Comments:
I am doing blogs with my American Lit students and am excited about the possibilites. Instead of group blogs, though, I am doing individual blogs. I keep track with an aggregator called bloglines. This lets me know each time any of my students makes a new post to their blog. Ideally, I will also get all of the students subscribing to 5-6 other students blogs. They are responsible to add comments to the posts of their peers.
The prospect of using this blog instead of reflective journals sounds like a great idea to me. While it is true that many of our reflective journals are personal, I think this blog can serve a similar purpose as the journals, but will not replace our lines of communication with Melissa, Ray and each other. We can still walk to each others' offices and talk if we need to discuss something of a personal, or possibly controversial nature.
I am looking at this blog as a way to quickly and easily communicate ideas, struggles, successes, etc. amongst the induction group, and I think it will work wonderfully for that purpose.
Great comments by everyone. Lots to think about when it comes to technology and blogging. It is overwhelming for me at times. Feel free to try this out as a group and just see how you feel in a few months. Also, if you do have something personal to share, by all means, don't blog it. Send it to us or come and talk to us! Thanks for all of the great input.
I am beginning a blogging project in my Biology class so I am excited to see how it goes. I know that many students are using blogs in other classes and when I talk with them about blogging their attitude is usually positive. I am always looking for another way to engage students and get them to really think, I'm sure all of you are too. So, I am ready to blog with my students and I am willing to blog with all of you!
Great Comments! Several thoughts.
1. The time issue is certainly one you need to deal with. Again, I think the key is how can use blogs (or any technology for that matter) to either replace something you are already doing - because you think it will work better; or to add on to whatever you are currently doing because you think it enhances your students' educations. The teachers who are blogging with their classes at AHS so far have mainly taken the second approach at this point, but are starting to use the first as well. Of course the same argument about time can be made about grading writing assignments - do you still do those, Sally? All the research says that the more writing we get kids to do, the better - and blogging certainly gets them to do more writing.
2. The idea of personal versus public information is a very important one as well. I agree that there are certain privacy issues and certain topics that you would not want to blog about. But for everything else - and I would argue that the vast majority of what you are thinking about and discussing would fall into this category - I think public is better than private. It's this whole idea of transparency - just like blogging for students can be so powerful because they are writing for a larger (and often more authentic) audience, blogging for teachers is the same way. Except for the obvious issues that need to remain private, I think we need to adjust to being "open and honest" in a public setting. If we're not willing to discuss important issues among ourselves and our students in a public setting, how can we ask them to do the same? It's incredibly powerful to have these conversations in a public setting - and to invite others into the conversation.
3. Regarding Melissa's mention of "students who lack person to person skills due to the increase use of technology", you should be aware that research shows the exact opposite. Heavy users of technology - especially younger users - have better social skills than those who do not. Of course there are exceptions, but the research shows that the technology actually increases their social skills and encourages them to be more social. In fact, many of the "coolest" new technologies on the web are social technologies - including blogs, social bookmarking services (like del.icio.us), social photosharing sites (like Flickr), etc.
4. There are lots of good math blogs out there - and I believe both James and Barbara will be blogging with students this semester. Ideas for math blogs include discussions of concepts and techniques, links to math resources related to current lessons, and scribe posts - where each day a different student has to summarize that day's lesson on the blog (student as teacher is very powerful).
5. Finally, a thought about Michael's comment about not wanting to use blogs for journaling. Once again, I agree that there is a difference between personal journaling and professional journaling. I think what we are asking you to consider is professional journaling through the use of a blog. It is a powerful method for shared professional development. It does indeed ask more of you - but in a way that benefits all of you and - most importantly - your students. I encourage all of you to step up to that challenge.
I agree--I like this switch! I do feel, however, a little more pressured when writing for "myself" as opposed of writing for others to view. It's intimidating to know that what I write today could be seen by people across the world hundreds of years from now.
Thinking about that makes me wonder how my students will feel about blogging. I use journaling in class as a way to divulge personal thoughts and problems and I think the permanence and accessability of this arena would discourage that personal nature. Because of that, I tend to agree with Michael. I most certainly plan to add blogging to my curriculum, but by no means will I use it to replace a good thing!
Using blogging in the classroom has its perks and major downfalls.
We must teach our students the safety issues surrounding the use of the internet. They can be traced back to the schools that they attened and who they are and where they live.
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