Friday, October 2, 2009

Journal: Blogs in the Classroom

"Blogging Right Along" written by: Jared Maders and Ben Smith

This article was a good read, and clarified something I was unsure about in regards to using a blog in the classroom. The authors of this article were science teachers and described how they used them in thier classes. The article mentioned how they used the blogs as a daily or weekly journal for their students to keep records of classroom events. They mentioned that they try to incorporate pictures of the lessons in the blogs because it is great for students who are visual learners. The article also spoke about how an individual blog can be created by a whole class, using blog-groups, who are assigned at different times to update the blog. By having a single blog for a class, it is a great way for absent students and or parents to gain access to what the class is doing. Blogs can also serve to be beneficial for the teachers as well because it is an excellect timeline of their class which can come in handy for cummulative reviews. Another things, I liked from this article was when the authors mentioned that there was an "anonymous grammar police" who revised the students work. I will definatly use that, if I ever use blogs in my future classes.

After reading this article, I was a little more clear an the different ways I could use blogs in the classroom. One of the last thing the article mentions is that, "the advantage of the blog is its public nature", this brought up my biggest concern in the use of blogs - making it open to the public. One problem I forsee with the use of blogs is the fact that the students work is open to the public, and I wonder if that ever brings up issues with the parents, or public. I still don't know if I would like the idea of the general public having access into the classroom and or students work. Overall though, this article had some great ideas for the use of blogs in aclassroom.

3 comments:

  1. I agree, this is a wonderful idea to have in the classroom. I particularly like the idea of updating the blogs as a group. Individual blogs are great, but incorporating team work and collaboration are very important! I also like how this gives students who were absent a chance to stay on top of things and still be connected to the classroom!

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  2. I too agree that this would be an excellent tool to incorporate into the classroom. I feel it would be most beneficial for the students who are absent and also a great opportunity for the parents to stay in the loop. Majority of the time when students are asked what they did or learned in class they respond with "Nothing". This would give the parents an opportunity to visually see what they did during class without having to go through the trouble of asking their kids. I think blogs overall are very beneficial and because they are educational, I don't see a reason for parents to be concerned!

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  3. it is a great way for parents to have another way to find out what there kids are doing. i'm not sure if in the district that i am in is the only one that has a web cite that they parents and kids can log into and check grades and home work. but i guess if the school does not have a web cite than blogging is a great opportunity for a teacher to build there own home page. it is easy and manageable.

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